She Sang in Her Heart · Church of St. Agnes, November 22, 2026

The concert

“Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions to all musicians”

— W. H. Auden, set by Benjamin Britten, who was born on her feast day

The nave of St. Agnes seen from the choir loft, looking toward the altar — Church of St. Agnes from the choir loft

Cantantibus organis, Caecilia in corde suo soli Domino decantabat.

“While the instruments played, Cecilia sang in her heart to the Lord alone.”
Antiphon appointed for the feast of St. Cecilia

Cecilia, a young Roman martyr, has been the patron saint of music for centuries, stemming from a line in the account of her wedding day: while the instruments played, she sang in her heart. Great composers have been inspired by her ever since. On her feast day this year, in a historic church steps from Grand Central in the heart of Manhattan, eight voices bring these compositions alive in this concert of sacred music spanning nine centuries.

Highlights

A page of Hildegard of Bingen’s chants in neumes, from the Riesencodex, about 1180

Rhineland · 1150s

The Middle Ages

Gregorian chant, the Church’s own song, and the soaring chants of Hildegard of Bingen, the visionary abbess and one of the first composers whose name we know. Sung by Christa Dalmazio, who lectures and gives recitals on Hildegard’s life and music.

“The soul is symphonic”Hildegard, defending her nuns’ right to sing, 1178

Rome · London · Moscow

Renaissance to Romantic

Palestrina sets the words of Cecilia’s feast, Purcell and Elgar sing of the sweetness of music, and Rachmaninoff’s Bogoroditse Devo, the Russian Ave Maria, comes from his All-Night Vigil, a work he held especially dear.

“…an hour of the happiest satisfaction”Rachmaninoff, on its premiere

Estonia · Scotland

Our own time

Arvo Pärt, the world’s most performed living composer, with The Deer’s Cry, and Sir James MacMillan’s Cecilia Virgo, a prayer to the saint for two choirs.

“He wants to touch something that he would call the soul, and to a remarkable extent, he is succeeding.”The New York Times Magazine, on Pärt

New York · 2026

Premiere

A new trio by Conner McCain: a love song of Cecilia and her husband Valerian, from her wedding night, when an angel crowns them with roses and lilies. Text written in collaboration with a parishioner of St. Agnes, and dedicated to his wife.

Conner McCain is Professor and Director of Sacred Music at Saint Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers. His music has been sung by VOCES8 and the Choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

The full program

Twelve works across nine centuries: Gregorian chant, Hildegard of Bingen, Palestrina, Purcell, Elgar, Rachmaninoff, Howells, Arvo Pärt, James MacMillan, and a premiere by Conner McCain.

See full program

The performers

Eight voices, soprano to baritone

Director

Eva Sze

Director of Music and Organist at St. Agnes since 2022, and an adjunct professor at New York University. For this concert she has gathered eight of New York’s leading ensemble singers, four from St. Agnes and four guests, who between them sing with Trinity Wall Street, St. Thomas Fifth Avenue, Musica Sacra, Seraphic Fire, Voices of Ascension and the Metropolitan Opera’s Associate Chorus. She chose each for what this music asks of a small ensemble with nowhere to hide: true intonation, a single blended sound, and long experience with chant and polyphony.

Soprano

Lydia Saylor

Early-music, opera and oratorio soloist. Master of Music, Aaron Copland School of Music.

Soprano

Christa Dalmazio

Doctor of Musical Arts, Manhattan School of Music; lectures and recitals on Hildegard of Bingen. Three-time Encouragement Award winner, Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition.

Alto

Michaela Larsen

Staff alto at St. Agnes; Metropolitan Opera Associate Chorus. Doctor of Musical Arts, Stony Brook.

Mezzo-soprano

Helen Hass

Member and soloist of the professional choir at Marble Collegiate Church.

Tenor

Sam Friedman

Staff tenor at St. Agnes. Choral Chameleon and Fifth Avenue Presbyterian.

Tenor

Alexander McCoy

Fifteen years singing professionally in New York; Fifth Avenue Presbyterian and St. Thomas Fifth Avenue.

Baritone

Evan Fontaine

Sings at St. Agnes and with C4, the Choral Composer/Conductor Collective.

Baritone

Blake Wayment

Trinity Wall Street; Seraphic Fire, Musica Sacra and Voices of Ascension; 2026–27 VOCES8 US Scholar.

The venue

A historic church at the heart of Manhattan

The façade of St. Agnes on East 43rd Street — Steps from Grand Central and across from the Chrysler Building. A parish since 1873, St. Agnes was rebuilt after a fire in 1992 in the Roman Baroque style, and dedicated anew in 1998.

Singers in white surplices singing from scores in St. Agnes, an organist at the keyboard — On Sundays and major feast days, the schola sings Gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony and new sacred music at mass, with the Mander organ built for the new church in 1998.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the renowned preacher and broadcaster, preached his Good Friday sermons here to crowds that spilled into the street. The block outside now bears his name.

Tickets

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General admission

$45

A seat at the concert.

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Concert and reception

$95

A seat at the concert and the champagne reception after the concert, with a brief meditation on the meaning of choral music by Zach Watters, executive director of New York City’s School of Sacred Music.

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Patrons

Each level includes the concert and the reception.

Patron

$250

A seat, a limited-edition keepsake of excerpts from the Passio Sanctae Caeciliae in Latin and English, specially translated and printed for this concert, and your name in the printed program.

Reserve

Founding Patron

$1,000

Two seats and all of the above, special mention in the printed program, and our thanks in person at the reception. Recorded among the founding patrons of a new chapter of sacred music at St. Agnes.

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Benefactor

$2,500

Four seats and all of the above.

Reserve

Lead Benefactor

$5,000

Eight seats and all of the above.

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Unable to attend, or giving from a donor-advised fund? Make a gift of any amount.

Patron levels and gifts receive a tax-deductible receipt from the Church of St. Agnes, for its Sacred Music Program.