The Journey: 25 Years of Tenebrae

The Yale Institute of Sacred Music hosts guest artists Tenebrae and conductor Nigel Short for a concert in Woolsey Hall. Featuring music by Mikhail Glinka, Frank Martin, Sarah Henderson, Joel Thompson, Kerensa Briggs, Franci Poulenc and others.

Free and open to the public.

Contact: Jeff Hazewinkel

The Journey: 25 Years of Tenebrae

"The Journey is the programme we’ve created especially for our 25th anniversary this season. Its message that means a lot to all of us in Tenebrae, and it resonates especially deeply with me. 

As you might expect, each piece that’s been chosen charts a journey of some kind. Some are physical, like adventures through unexplored places; others are spiritual, like the journey from life to death and onto what might lie beyond. Together, they chart an astounding musical path across centuries and continents. 

But The Journey also celebrates Tenebrae’s own journey over the past twenty-five years. There’s music from programmes that have transformed us as an ensemble, like Russian Treasures and Francis Poulenc’s incomparable Figure Humaine. There are pieces that celebrate where we are today, with the soon-to-be-released recording of Frank Martin's amazing Mass for Double Choir and our recent, award-winning album A Prayer for Delieverance (the title piece of which was written by Yale’s very own Joel Thompson). And alongside these, we’ve commissioned brand new pieces specifically for this programme, to mark this special juncture in our history so far: both from composers who have already made awesome contributions to our repertoire, but also from exceptional choral voices with whom we’ve worked for the first time. 

Perhaps most importantly, this is a set of music that takes us as a choir on a transformative musical and emotional journey. Every piece is deeply moving in its own right. And honestly, I find it hard to believe that there’s any group who could move me with this music  quite like Tenebrae. I could not be more proud of how far this ensemble has come, of where we currently are 25 years in, and of the shared journey that lies ahead of us.” 

- Nigel Short, Founder and Artistic Director

About the ensemble:

Described as “phenomenal” (The Times) and “devastatingly beautiful” (Gramophone Magazine), award-winning choir Tenebrae is one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles, renowned for its passion and precision.

Under the direction of  Nigel Short, Tenebrae performs at major festivals and venues across the globe, including the BBC Proms, Wigmore Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Rheingau Musik Festival and Sydney Festival. The choir has earned international acclaim for its interpretations of choral music from the Renaissance through to contemporary masterpieces, and has commissioned new music from composers including Judith Bingham, Joanna Marsh, Owain Park, Josephine Stephenson, Joby Talbot and Roderick Williams.

Tenebrae has enjoyed collaborations with some of the UK’s leading orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music and Britten Sinfonia. The choir also undertakes regular session work, having contributed the vocals for Max Richter’s Voices (2020), Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Notre Dame brûle (2022), and blockbuster sci-fi movie Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) among others. Its extensive recording catalogue comprises a wide range of music on labels including Signum, LSO Live and Warner Classics, and has earned the choir three BBC Music Magazine Choral Awards, a BBC Music Magazine Record of the Year Award, an Edison Classical Award, an Opus Klassik Award, a German Critics’ Award, and a Grammy nomination.

View Tenebrae's website.

Photo of Tenebrae by Sim Cannetty-Clarke