Music Director Kent Tritle

Musica Sacra’s Music Director since 2008, Kent Tritle has championed the chorus’s reputation as an outstanding interpreter of Baroque and Classical masterworks, broadened its reach of repertoire from medieval music to world premieres, and created acclaimed collaborations with other New York cultural landmark organizations.

Highlights of the more than 50 concerts Kent has led include acclaimed performances of choral classics including Messe de Nostre Dame (Machaut), Spem in Alium (Tallis), Bach’s St. John Passion, Strauss’s Deutsche Motette, Rachmaninoff’s Vespers, Pärt’s Te Deum, and 24 performances of Messiah, at venues including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. They have made two recordings of music by contemporary composers: Messages to Myself, including commissions by Daniel Brewbaker and Michael Gilbertson; and Eternal Reflections, recent choral compositions by Robert Paterson. Upcoming recordings include On the Words of Walt Whitman, a new cantata by composer Wayne Oquin. The chorus has also garnered praise for performances with the New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, Orchestra of St Luke’s, and The Juilliard School.

One of America’s leading choral conductors, Kent Tritle is also Director of Cathedral Music and Organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and the Grammy-nominated Music Director of the Oratorio Society of New York. Kent is a member of the graduate faculty of The Juilliard School, serving its Vocal Arts Department. Also an acclaimed organ virtuoso, he is the organist of the New York Philharmonic.

Kent Tritle founded the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space concert series at New York’s Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, and led it to great acclaim from 1989 to 2011. From 1996 to 2004, he was Music Director of New York’s The Dessoff Choirs. As Director of Choral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music from 2008 to 2022, Kent established the school’s first doctoral program in choral conducting.

Kent hosted “The Choral Mix with Kent Tritle,” a weekly program devoted to the vibrant world of choral music, on New York’s WQXR from 2010 to 2014. He was featured in the WIRED video series “Masterminds,” an installment titled, “What Conductors Are Really Doing.”

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