THEOTOKOS
St. Mary’s on Grand St.
Theotokos performs at St. Mary’s
Theotokos is the living embodiment of a baroque church ensemble. Founded in 2020, the ensemble is in residence at St. Mary’s Church on the lower east side of New York City. Every week a new cantata is composed by director Doug Balliett and performed by the ensemble, based on and tightly linked with the liturgical readings assigned to that date. In addition, theologically relevant baroque and pre-baroque music is performed in situ during the Mass, from Josquin to Telemann, early American church music, and into Romantic masters.
Theotokos has given concerts of sacred vocal music around New York City, including performances of Telemann’s Harmonischer Dottesdienst cantatas, Charpentier’s Leçons de Tenebre by candlelight, and the sacred madrigals of Marenzio. Driven by a special interest in early Christian music, Theotokos also runs a Gregorian Chant club, open to all, which regularly meets to chant the Latin Mass and the Divine Office.
The passion, historical curiosity, and imagination of the Theotokos project has attracted visiting guests of extraordinary stature and variety, including Davoné Tines, Karim Sulayman, Jonathan Woody, Nola Richardson, Jessica Niles, Majel Connery, Matt Aucoin, Jean Rondeau, Thomas Dunford, Myriam Rignol, and William Christie, as well as many of NYC’s top choral soloists. In 2021 Theotokos began a fruitful collaboration with the Juilliard School Historical Performance program, in which interested students are given the opportunity to perform, compose music, and experience the baroque sacred music tradition from within.
St. Mary’s is a Roman Catholic Church on the lower east side of Manhattan. Theotokos was founded in October, 2020, when Fr. Andrew O’Connor invited Doug Balliett to compose and program weekly music for the 12 PM Sunday mass.
Recent (non-mass) performances:
March 28, 2024: GEMS Midtown Concert: Marenzio’s Sacred Works
December 31, 2023: Gawain and the Green Knight
December 7, 2023: 5 Boroughs Music Festival: Advent cantatas from Telemann and Balliett
May 25, 2023: Psalms and Saints (with The Chivalrous Crickets)
February 7, 2023: Charpentier’s Leçons de Tenebrae
December 31, 2022: Gawain and the Green Knight
December 29, 2022: Midtown concerts: Cantatas from the Harmonischer Gottesdienst
Theotokos performs at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Theotokos after mass with choristers and guest artist William Christie
St. Mary’s Church on Grant St.