Table of Contents
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Alexandria Choral Society announced a 2026-27 season of festival programs, its 57th year performing in the city.
Tickets to the four regular-season concerts remain pay-what-you-can, a model the group has kept for several seasons. All seats are general admission, with a suggested price of $30 and an invitation to pay more or less. A season subscription covering those four is $110 and is on sale now; individual tickets are not yet available.
Two other performances on the calendar, the October Pro Coro concert and April's One Voice Alexandria, are collaborations and are not included in the subscription.
"Financial capacity should never be a barrier to experiencing quality choral programming," the organization said in announcing the season.
The season
The calendar starts Oct. 15 at 7:30 p.m., when the chamber ensemble Pro Coro Alexandria performs Dreamweaver with conductor Jeffrey Dokken and the American Contemporary Classical Orchestra at the Miracle Theatre, 535 8th St. SE in Washington. The program centers on Ola Gjeilo's setting of "Draumkvedet," a medieval Norwegian poem about a man who sleeps for thirteen days and wakes to describe what he saw. Tickets are sold through the orchestra.
The season officially opens Oct. 24 at 4 p.m. at the George Washington Masonic Memorial with Tapestry: A Festival of Belonging, a program sung in English, Spanish and Amharic. It features a new work by composer Nebal Maysaud, whose music draws on Western and Middle Eastern traditions, and poetry by Alexandria Poet Laureate Cristi Donoso on the immigrant experience.
On Dec. 12 at 7 p.m., also at the Masonic Memorial, the society joins the Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic under conductor Anna Binneweg for Illuminare: A Festival of Light, pairing Elaine Hagenberg's five-movement Illuminare with Ralph Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on Christmas Carols.
In December, Pro Coro Alexandria takes its Snow Globe series around the city, performing holiday music unannounced at spots from the city center to neighborhood recreation centers. There are no tickets and no set schedule; donations are accepted.
March 6, 2027 at 4 p.m. brings Sláinte: A Festival of Revelry, scheduled for the day of Alexandria's St. Patrick's Day Parade. The program is built around drinking songs and music from the city's sister cities, including Dundee, Scotland; Caen, France; and Helsingborg, Sweden. A venue has not been announced.
On April 24, 2027 at 5 p.m., the society hosts the second biennial One Voice Alexandria, a community choral festival, at the Schlesinger Center on the Northern Virginia Community College campus, 4915 E. Campus Drive. Sponsored by the city, it brings seven ensembles together, each performing on its own before a massed-choir finale: the Choral Society, the Alexandria Singers, the A Cappella Collective, NOVA Alexandria, the Alexandria Children's Chorus, the George Washington Middle School Choir and Alexandria City High School.
The season closes May 15, 2027 at 4 p.m. with Requiem: A Festival of Reflection, centered on Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem, a work written to comfort the living rather than pray for the dead. That venue has not been announced either.
Kathryn Harsha is artistic director. Cheryl Lovinsky is chorus manager and Justin Streletz is collaborative pianist and assistant director.
Program funding comes from donors and in part from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the city's Annual Arts Program. More information is at alexandriachoralsociety.org.
Ryan Belmore is an Alexandria resident and the founder and publisher of The Alexandria Brief. Send tips, feedback, and story ideas to ryan@alexandriabrief.com.
