Musica Sacra
Kent Tritle | conductor

This 2026 installment of Musica Sacra’s immersive SurRound events – described by New York Classical Review as “what it feels like to be inside a piece of music” – takes place in the gothic nave of the Cathedral, with singers in motion throughout the placement of the audience under Gaia, a massive orb 23 feet in diameter depicting the Earth using NASA imagery, revolving and illuminated from within. A touring artwork by U.K. artist Luke Jerram, Gaia is on display at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine from September 18 to October 9, 2026.

The program features music by Renaissance composers Jean Mouton and Juan Pérez Bocanegra and by modern composers including Meredith Monk, Robert Paterson, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Caroline Shaw, and Christina Whitten Thomas, to words ranging from poems by Rainer Maria Rilke to texts in traditional Quechuan and Navajo.