CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO SALON SANCTUARY CONCERTS, A 501 (C) 3 NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION.
2025 – 2026 Season
Paradise Toss’d: Heavenly Queens, Earthly Crowns, and the Smoldering Embers of Rule
Sunday, November 16th 4:00pm
St. Mark’s Bowery
131 East 10th Street
​
Click Here to Purchase Tickets
Click Here to Read the Program Notes
Heaven and Earth go back-to-back as two Marian Anthems frame a trio of tortured queens. Arias of Stradella’s conflicted Ester, Monteverdi’s dejected Ottavia, and Handel’s scheming Agrippina trace an arc from doubt to misery to bloodthirsty ambition, as two prayers to the Queen of Heaven flip from calm to turbulence on either side.
Opening with a courtly homage and concluding with an impassioned plea, the throne is more prison than prize in this concert devoted to monarchs on the verge.
Jessica Gould, soprano
Gonzalo Ruiz, oboe & baroque guitar
Musicians of the Camerata San Luca
Kahal, Court, and Casbah
Convivencia and its Discontents
Monday, December 1st 7:00pm
Espacio de Culturas @KJCC
Tickets are free, but registration is required
Wine and cheese reception to follow
Click Here to Reserve Tickets
The cultural exchange and scientific discovery of pre-Expulsion Spain make the Convivencia easy fodder for those who would exalt the era as an edifying lesson for our own times. Far more complex and not nearly as comforting, however, is the historical reality of forced conversions, violence, and rigid social stratification which tarnish the unique historical moment of coexistence among the three Abrahamic faiths.
​
​Songs from across Europe that ended up in a king’s ego-trip music collection, lyrics by forgotten troubadours from across the Iberian Peninsula, poetic forms shared across religious divides, and — yes, even a hopeful note sounded by a possible interfaith collaboration that might have helped preserve a musical tradition — all are pearls among the plentiful mud of this period. However, these musical interrelationships were not likely the product of a confraternity of equals. The Convivencia benefitted some more than others, and an airing of its music offers modern audiences the opportunity to grapple with difficult and worthy lessons from the past.
In this concert, Ensemble Lipzodes offers a program that embraces the historical record – a haunting repertoire that speaks of inconvenient truths and bracing recognitions.
​
Ensemble Lipzodes
Christine Moore Vassallo, soprano
Dongmyung Ahn, vielle & rebec
Anna Marsh, recorders, shawm & percussion​​​
Hopkinson Smith, Lute
Seven Passionate Pavans
Music of John Dowland
Sunday, February 22nd 4:00pm
The Abigail Adams Smith Auditorium
417 East 61st Street
Wine and cheese reception to follow
Click Here to Buy Tickets.
In honor of the 400th anniversary of the death of John Dowland, Hopkinson Smith, “supreme poet of the lute” (Gramophone) returns to Salon Sanctuary Concerts with a program dedicated to the composer in the beautiful mirrored hall of the Abigail Adams Smith Auditorium.
​
​
Alessandro Stradella, Ester Liberatrice del Popolo Ebreo
Sunday, March 8th 3:00pm
The Museum at Eldridge Street
12 Eldridge Street
Click Here to Buy Tickets
In celebration of the critically-praised Navona Records release of the first and only complete recording of Ester, Liberatrice Del Popolo Ebreo ("Esther, Liberator of the Jewish People") by Alessandro Stradella (1639–1682), members of the original cast reunite for a special performance of this 1673 masterwork in honor of the Purim holiday.
Exploring themes of courage, self-acceptance, ambition, justice, and power, Stradella’s Ester tells the story of a timid girl, secret Jew, and Persian Queen who summons the bravery to save her people from annihilation. While the oratorio, a large-scale musical narrative, derives its plot from the biblical story of The Book of Esther, modern audiences will surely find resonance and relevance in the journey of a lone woman who triumphs over tyranny.
Originally intended to be performed in a Baroque palace for an aristocratic Catholic audience, this bracingly innovative work was largely lost to time before its recent rediscovery and revival. Join us on Sunday, March 8th at 3pm as Stradella’s Ester resounds again in the Museum at Eldridge Street's magnificently restored 1887 Main Sanctuary.
Ester: Jessica Gould, soprano
Speranza Celeste: Sonia Tedla, soprano
Mardocheo: José Lemos, countertenor
Aman: Gabriele Lombardi, baritone
Assuero: Salvo Vitale, bass
Members of the Camerata Grimani chamber ensemble