Please Note: There are two performances per night!
Performance #1
Pre-Show Reception: 6:00PM - 7:00PM
Concert: 7:00PM - 8:00PM
Performance #2
Pre-Show Reception: 7:30PM - 8:30PM
Concert: 8:30PM - 9:30PM
Our annual holiday tradition returns as Ekmeles descends once more into the Crypt to perform David Lang’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Little Match Girl Passion. Taking Hans Christian Andersen’s bleak story of a child freezing on New Year’s Eve and drawing on the form of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Lang creates a work of overwhelming tenderness, force, and profound empathy.
These performances with the legendary vocal ensemble Ekmeles have become a cherished (if slightly dark, in true DoC fashion…) ritual – it's a piece that asks something important of us: to see a life that the world has overlooked, and to recognize how much even a small act of kindness can mean. Heard among the Crypt’s vaulting arches, its voices leave us with sorrow, compassion, and a renewed sense of the preciousness of this beautiful, fragile life that we share together.
Ring in the Holidays, Death of Classical-style – by crying in a Crypt with us to one of the most heart-shatteringly magnificent musical expressions of grace ever put to paper...
What You Can Expect
The pre-show hourlong reception takes place in the magnificent nave of the Church of the Intercession, where you'll enjoy cocktails, wine, beer, and non-alcoholic libations, as well as charcuterie and snacks (all included in ticket price - it's enough food to stave off starvation, but you'll still probably want a bit more of a meal before or after the show). Then we'll take a brief stroll through the cemetery and descend to the Crypt for an hour-long performance – seating for the 49 audience members is general admission, but there are no bad seats given the intimacy of the space!
Come, Daughter
It was Terribly Cold
Dearest Heart
In an Old Apron
Penance and Remorse
Lights Were Shining
Patience, Patience!
Ah! Perhaps
Have Mercy, My God
She Lighted Another Match
From the Sixth House
She Again Rubbed a Match
When It is Time for Me to Go
In the Dawn of Morning
We Sit and Cry
Ekmeles is a vocal ensemble dedicated to the performance of new and rarely-heard works, and gems of the historical avant garde. They have a special focus on microtonal works, and have been praised for their “extraordinary sense of pitch” by the New York Times. They are the recipients of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation’s 2023 Ensemble Prize, the first American group to receive the honor.
Charlotte Mundy, soprano
Elisa Sutherland, mezzo soprano
Tomás Cruz, tenor
Steven Hrycelak, bass
Jeffrey Gavett, conductor