2026 - 2027 Season
Many Rivers: An American Choral Portrait
Saturday, October 3, 2026 – 7:00 pm
St. Antoninus Church, 1500 Linneman Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45238
Ensemble Con Fuoco opens its season with a portrait of the American choral voice, drawing together spirituals, folk song, and contemporary settings by Diorio, Runestad, and Caroline Shaw alongside movements of Barnwell’s Bluegrass Mass, with fiddle, banjo, and bass joining the choir.
The program is enriched by a continued partnership with St. Antoninus School: the school’s Choir (Grades 5–8) and Jagaphones (Grades 3–4), under the direction of Zac Mills, bring their own voices to the stage before joining Ensemble Con Fuoco for a shared finale.
A Requiem Across Centuries
Sunday, November 1, 2026 – 3:00 pm
St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, 8101 Beechmont Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45255
Monday, November 2, 2026 – 7:00 pm
St. Martin of Tours, 3720 St. Martins Pl, Cincinnati, OH 45211
Ensemble Con Fuoco marks All Souls with a Requiem across centuries, pairing Tomás Luis de Victoria’s Missa pro defunctis - drawn from his 1605 Officium Defunctorum, the summit of Spanish Renaissance polyphony - with Kerensa Briggs’ Requiem (2022), a contemporary setting for mezzo-soprano, choir, and organ rooted in the same plainchant tradition that shaped Victoria’s writing. Each work turns grief toward consolation in the language of its own age.
The November 1 performance will be presented in concert format at St. Timothy’s, with Michael Unger on organ and mezzo-soprano soloist Lauren McAllister; tickets are required. The November 2 performance is free and open to the public, presented within an All Souls Day Roman Catholic Mass at St. Martin of Tours.
Force of Nature
Sunday, February 28, 2027 – 3:00 pm
St. Catharine of Siena, 2848 Fischer Pl, Cincinnati, OH 45211
Ensemble Con Fuoco turns to the natural world for a joint concert with the singers of Taylor High School (Three Rivers Local Schools, Cleves, OH), featuring works by soundscape pioneer R. Murray Schafer alongside nature-themed repertoire including works by Melissa Dunphy, Kyle Pederson, and Tellu Turkka.
Conducted by Artistic Associate Krista Cornish Scott, the program brings professional and student voices together in a shared attention to landscape and sound, joined by the Taylor High School choir under the direction of Joe Rivers.
Passio
Date & Time TBA
Mount St. Joseph University, 5701 Delhi Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45233
Ensemble Con Fuoco joins a sacred music conference at Mount St. Joseph University, culminating in a full performance of Arvo Pärt’s Passio (1982), the Estonian composer’s spare, luminous setting of the Passion according to St. John and a landmark of his tintinnabuli style.
Scored for solo bass (Jesus), solo tenor (Pilate), a vocal quartet serving as Evangelist, chorus, organ, violin, oboe, cello, and bassoon, Passio strips the Passion narrative to its barest essentials — a single, unhurried arc from betrayal to burial. First performed in Munich in 1982, it remains one of the defining works of Pärt’s tintinnabuli technique and the centerpiece of the conference’s culminating program.
Free & Open to the Public
Carmina Burana
Friday, April 23, 2027 – 7:00 pm
Mount St. Joseph University, 5701 Delhi Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45233
Ensemble Con Fuoco closes its season with Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, the monumental setting of medieval poems on fortune, love, and revelry, joining forces with the University Singers and Chamber Choir of Mount St. Joseph University for a season finale of full choral and orchestral force.
Drawn from a 13th-century manuscript discovered at the Benediktbeuern Abbey, the poems move between the mercurial wheel of Fortune, the rush of spring, tavern revelry, and love, framed by the thunderous ‘O Fortuna’ that opens and closes the work. The performance unites Ensemble Con Fuoco with MSJ’s University Singers and Chamber Choir for a joint season finale of full choral force. Tickets are required for this performance.
Free & Open to the Public