The City Choir of Washington, led by Artistic Director Erin Freeman, has announced its 2026–27 season, which begins a two-year celebration of its twenty years of music-making in the Washington area and beyond. Their upcoming performances, at concert venues throughout the Washington region, include the following:
“A Living Foundation: Shafer, O’Regan and Mozart” – On Sunday November 8 at 5 pm at National Presbyterian Church (4101 Nebraska Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20016), the City Choir will present Mozart’s magnificent Solemn Vespers (K. 339), with full orchestra and soloists from the Wolf Trap Opera Studio. The concert will also feature a new work by City Choir Artistic Director Emeritus Robert Shafer, and the East Coast premiere of Tarik O’Regan’s Critical Mass, built around his Agnus Dei that was performed at the coronation of King Charles III. The concert will be followed by a free reception, with composers Shafer and O’Regan in attendance.
“A Legacy of Light: A Franco-American Journey from Boulanger to Runestad” – On Sunday January 24 at 5 pm at the Church of the Epiphany (1317 G St. NW, Washington, DC 20005), the chorus will trace French-American musical influences from the legendary pedagogue Nadia Boulanger to the vanguard of modern American song – from Claude Debussy, Gabriel Faure and Lili Boulanger to Samuel Barber, Jake Runestad and Melissa Dunphy.
“A Voyage of the Soul: Music of Beethoven and Vaughan Williams” – On Sunday April 4 at 5 pm at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (8270 Alumni Dr., College Park, MD 20742), the City Choir will present two great masterpieces, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony, featuring the Washington National Opera Orchestra and vocal soloists from the UMD Faculty.
“Queen for the Night: From Whitacre to Mercury” – On Sunday May 23 at 2 pm at the Strathmore Music Center Concert Hall (, the chorus will present an atmospheric selection of “music of the night” for chorus and solo cello, with works by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Eric Whitacre, and others, and after intermission, will collaborate with the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra to perform Tolga Kashif’s magnificent Queen Symphony – a sweeping orchestral tribute to Freddie Mercury and Queen.
“Echoes from the Wall: Honor, Remembrance, and Unity” – On Saturday May 29 at 5 pm at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall (4Albert Tiberio’s evocative The Wall – a stirring tribute to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial for narrator, soloists, and orchestra – alongside moving American classics by Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and more.
Tickets for the first two concerts are now on sale. For more information visit www.citychoir.org.
