Image courtesy of organizers.
2026-2027 Season Cover Image Square - 1
The Alexandria Choral Society has announced its 2026-2027 season.
The Alexandria Choral Society has announced a 2026-27 season built around a single organizing idea: the festival. Six concerts, each billed as a festival celebrating one topic — belonging, light, revelry, unity, reflection — will mark the group's 57th year of singing in Alexandria.
“Join ACS as we sing together through shared languages, cultures, and generations,” the organization said in announcing the season, which leans hard into collaboration. Four of the six programs bring in an outside orchestra, a partner ensemble or, in one case, most of the city's other choirs.
A Norwegian dream, then a homecoming
The season effectively opens twice. First, on Oct. 15 at 7:30 p.m., Pro Coro Alexandria — ACS's chamber ensemble — joins the American Contemporary Classical Orchestra under conductor Jeffrey Dokken for "Dreamweaver," at the Miracle Theatre, 535 8th St. SE in Washington.
The program centers on Ola Gjeilo's 20-minute work of the same name, scored for choir, piano and strings and drawn from “Draumkvedet,” a medieval Norwegian ballad often compared to Dante. Its hero, Olav Åsteson, falls asleep on Christmas Eve, sleeps for 13 days and wakes to describe a journey through the afterlife that is by turns terrifying and redeeming. The English text is by Charles Anthony Silvestri.
The evening carries a second event: the American premiere of a new string work by David Winkler, ACCO's composer in residence. Tickets, sold by the orchestra rather than by ACS, start at $15, with general admission listed at $37 and student and military seats at $20, at americanccorchestra.com/tickets.
Nine days later, on Oct. 24, ACS officially opens its own season with "Tapestry: A Festival of Belonging," a program sung in English, Spanish and Amharic. It will feature a new work by composer Nebal Maysaud, whose music bridges Western and Middle Eastern traditions and draws on a Lebanese heritage and the study of Arabic maqam. Maysaud is no stranger to Alexandria: an early recipient of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra's Kim Allen Kluge Award for Young Composers, Maysaud has had work performed by the ASO. The concert will begin at 4 p.m., taking place at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial.
The program also features poetry by Cristi Donoso, Alexandria's poet laureate. Donoso, an Ecuadorian American poet born in Quito, began a three-year term in April 2025 and has said her work in the role will focus on the city's immigrant experience — the same ground the Tapestry program sets out to cover.
Light in December, a glass raised in March
On Saturday, Dec. 12, at 7 p.m. at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, the chorus teams with conductor Anna Binneweg and the Alexandria-based Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic for "Illuminare: A Festival of Light." The program pairs Elaine Hagenberg's “Illuminare” — a five-movement work for chorus and orchestra drawing on sacred Latin, Greek and English texts, which moves from beauty disrupted by darkness toward the return of light — with Ralph Vaughan Williams' “Fantasia on Christmas Carols,” a setting of traditional English carols for chorus, baritone and orchestra.
The new year brings the season's least solemn entry. "Sláinte: A Festival of Revelry," set for March 6, 2027, is a program of drinking and merrymaking songs timed to land on the day of Alexandria's St. Patrick's Day Parade. The repertoire tips its hat to Alexandria's sister cities — Dundee, Scotland; Caen, France; and Helsingborg, Sweden, among others — with what ACS promises will be songs of mischief and good company. Location TBD.
The city sings, then reflects
On April 24, 2027, at 5 p.m., at the Schlesinger Center NVCC Alexandria Campus, ACS hosts the second "One Voice Alexandria: A Festival of Unity," the biennial gathering it launched in 2025. The evening brings together the Alexandria Choral Society, the Alexandria Singers, the Alexandria A Cappella Collective, NOVA Alexandria, the Alexandria Children's Chorus, the George Washington Middle School Choir and Alexandria City High School. Each performs on its own before joining for a massed-choir finale. The festival is sponsored by the City of Alexandria.
The season closes May 15, 2027, with "Requiem: A Festival of Reflection," centered on Brahms' “Ein deutsches Requiem.” ACS notes what sets the piece apart: rather than praying for the dead, Brahms wrote to comfort the living. He told the work's Bremen conductor he would happily have dropped “German” from the title and called it simply “of Mankind.” Location TBD.
Tickets
ACS keeps its pay-what-you-can pricing, with a suggested price of $30 per concert. Season tickets are $110 and cover the four main ACS performances — Tapestry, Illuminare, Sláinte and Requiem. Dreamweaver is ticketed separately by the orchestra and is not included. Details are at alexandriachoralsociety.org/performances.
The 2026-27 season at a glance
- Oct. 15, 7:30 p.m. — Dreamweaver (Pro Coro Alexandria), Miracle Theatre, 535 8th St. SE, Washington
- Oct. 24 — Tapestry: A Festival of Belonging
- Dec. 12 — Illuminare: A Festival of Light
- March 6, 2027 — Sláinte: A Festival of Revelry
- April 24, 2027 — One Voice Alexandria: A Festival of Unity
- May 15, 2027 — Requiem: A Festival of Reflection
The Alexandria Choral Society is a nonprofit whose stated mission is to enhance the cultural life of Alexandria through vocal music programs. Kathryn Harsha is artistic director; Justin Streletz is collaborative pianist and assistant director; Cheryl Lovinsky is chorus manager. Program funding comes from donors, the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the City of Alexandria through its Annual Arts Program.
