23/24 VAE Season

Trevor Kroeger, conductor
With Queen City Cabaret

Escape the winter chill and the holiday rush at An Intimate Christmas with VAE, a cozy reimagining of our candlelit holiday concert. Conductor Trevor Kroeger will lead VAE singers, instrumentalists, and Queen City Cabaret in a program featuring fresh arrangements of favorite holiday tunes and unexpected choral gems. Join us for this warm and welcoming celebration of the most wonderful time of the year!

Isaac Cates, conductor

Internationally renowned conductor and composer Isaac Cates will lead a diverse program of music highlighting contemporary, choral, gospel and folk music traditions, with each piece telling a story aimed at uplifting and connecting listeners to the music and to each other. Isaac has achieved international fame as an artist, composer, arranger, choral director, and educator, and is excited to share his own lived musical experience with our VAE audiences.

Craig Hella Johnson, conductor

Beloved Grammy-winner Craig Hella Johnson returns to conduct this performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s greatest work, Mass in B minor. Full of mystery and splendor, this oratorio represents the culmination of Bach’s work throughout his life.

Lauren McAllister, conductor

Join members of the VAE for an exploration of the many roads we take to learn about ourselves, each other, and our place in the universe. Selections from Fanny Hensel, Samuel Barber, H. Leslie Adams, and Stephen Paulus combine with poems from Mary Oliver, M. C. Richards, and Bengali Brahmin Rabindranath Tagore to round out the program.

Christin Sears, conductor

Using music selections from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, David Childs, Laura Mvula and more, Sun, Moon & Stars explores stories of the human experience — life, longing, love and loss — through the wonders of our universe and the mystery and beauty that it holds.