Sins and Grace - MasterVoices

TICKETS

Click a performance date below to buy tickets online.

Monday, March 23, 2026
7:30 PM Tuesday, March 24, 2026
7:30 PM

OTHER WAYS TO BUY:

Call CenterCharge: 212-721-6500.
Visit Alice Tully Hall’s box office in-person, Mon-Sat 10am-6pm and Sun 12pm-6pm. The box office will be closed Dec 22-28 and Jan 1.

PERFORMANCE VENUE:

Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center | 65th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam | New York City

No refunds or exchanges. Artists, prices, fees, and box office hours are subject to change at any time. $11 venue fee will be added to each ticket.

ABOUT

Take a choral journey through divine grace and mortal sin with this pairing of Gabriel Faure’s Requiem in D Minor alongside SEVEN: A Cycle of Sins, a new song cycle commissioned by MasterVoices.

The Fauré Requiem is beloved for its serenity and promise of eternal rest. SEVEN provides a different texture, with contemporary interpretations of the seven deadly sins by seven composers from diverse genres:

This two-night event promises vocal music at its most creative and thrilling.

Conceived & Conducted by Ted Sperling
Justin Austin, baritone
Mikaela Bennett, soprano
The MasterVoices Chorus
Orchestra of St. Luke’s

THE ARTISTS

Ted Sperling (Conductor) During his twelve-year tenure with MasterVoices, Ted Sperling has led nearly 40 programs, often of works that would otherwise not be seen or heard on the New York stage. These include Kurt Weill’s The Firebrand of Florence, Knickerbocker Holiday, The Road of Promise and Lady in the Dark; the Gershwin satires Of Thee I Sing, Let ‘Em Eat Cake, and Strike Up The Band; reconstructions of the operettas Song of Norway and Babes in Toyland; and fresh interpretations of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado and Iolanthe. Opera performances include The Grapes of Wrath and 27 by Ricky Ian Gordon; Orphic Moments by Gluck and Matthew Aucoin; Dido and Aeneas with a new prologue by Michael John LaChiusa; Bizet’s Carmen in a translation by Sheldon Harnick; and Blind Injustice by Scott Davenport Richards and David Cote. The digital production of Adam Guettel’s Myths and Hymns, conceived by Mr. Sperling and made during the height of the COVID pandemic, was nominated for a Drama Desk Award and can be viewed on the PBS channel All Arts. A Tony Award winner for his work on The Light in the Piazza at Lincoln Center Theater, Mr. Sperling has enjoyed a long career on Broadway, starting with the original production of Sunday in the Park with George; he most recently was Music Director and conducted the Broadway production of Floyd Collins. He has directed the premieres of four new musicals off-Broadway, including See What I Wanna See at the Public Theater starring Idina Menzel, and appeared as an actor in the original Broadway cast of Titanic. You can see him in the final episode of Season Two of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” playing TV host Steve Allen. For more information, visit tedsperling.net.

Justin Austin (Baritone) Possessing a “mighty lyric voice” (New York Times) “with a burly, burnished tone capable of striking nuance and color” (Washington Post), Drama Desk Award-nominated baritone Justin Austin was named Rising Star of the Year at the 2024 International Opera Awards and is a recipient of the 2024 Marian Anderson Vocal Award. This season, Justin joins LA Opera for Roméo et Juliette and Così fan tutte (house debut), Opera Theatre of St. Louis for Ricky Ian Gordon’s This House (world premiere), La Jolla Music Society, The Soraya, and Seattle Theatre Group for selections of Terence Blanchard’s Champion and Fire Shut Up In My Bones, Stuttgart Philharmonic and Opera for Peace in Stuttgart, Germany, Cecelia Chorus of New York at Carnegie Hall, New York Festival of Song at Kaufman Music Center, Sag Harbor Song Festival, the Peace Center in Greenville, SC, and Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Justin is an alumnus of the Choir Academy of Harlem, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, Heidelberg Lied Akademie, and Manhattan School of Music (M.M. and B.M.). www.justin-austin.com.

Mikaela Bennett (Soprano) is a celebrated singer and actress praised for her artistic versatility on stage and in concert halls worldwide. A recent recipient of the Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, she has performed with leading orchestras and companies, appearing with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall and starring as Maria in West Side Story at the BBC Proms. Upcoming highlights of the 2025/26 season include her LA Opera debut in the world premiere of Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Hildegard (Richardis von Stade), followed by a return to the Prototype Festival in the same work. She also returns to Bard SummerScape for the world premiere of Courtney Bryan’s Suddenly Last Summer (Catherine), makes her debut at Emerald City Music with the West Coast premiere of a new Molly Joyce song cycle, and joins the Toronto, Grand Rapids, and Edmonton Symphonies for Holiday Pops concerts. She will also debut with the Cincinnati Pops in their New Year’s program, Cabaret Café. In recent seasons, Bennett made her debut at Festival Musica Strasbourg in Ted Hearne’s The Source and appeared with the Orlando Philharmonic (Mahler’s Symphony No. 4), Kalamazoo Symphony (Gershwin selections), Kansas City Symphony (Celebrate at the Station), and Baltimore and Nashville Symphonies in Mary Lou Williams’ Zodiac Suite with the Aaron Diehl Trio. She premiered Michael Tilson Thomas’s Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind with the San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony, and New World Symphony. Bennett has performed widely at Carnegie Hall, including with MasterVoices in The Grapes of Wrath and Israel in Egypt. She has also appeared with The Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and at the Kennedy Center in Bernstein on Broadway. On stage, Bennett made her professional debut as Penelope in The Golden Apple at City Center Encores!, created the role of Norma in Renascence off-broadway, and starred as Maria in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s West Side Story. Other notable roles include the title role in Michael Gordon’s Acquanetta, Esperanza in The House on Mango Street at The Glimmerglass Festival, and appearances at The MUNY, Joe’s Pub, and Feinstein’s/54 Below. Her discography includes a recording of Zodiac Suite with Aaron Diehl and The Knights. She has been a featured soloist at Festival Napa Valley, Caramoor, and with the Oakland and San Diego Symphonies. A native of Ottawa, Canada, Mikaela is a graduate of The Juilliard School.

The Composer/Lyricists of Seven: A Cycle of Sins –

Michael Abels (Lust) is the Pulitzer Prize-winning co-composer of the opera Omar. He is best known for his genre-defying scores for the Jordan Peele films Get Out, Us and Nope. He is a NAACP Image Award winner, and two-time Emmy nominee. Among his other media projects are scores for the Netflix series Sirens and Disney’s Star Wars: The Acolyte. Abels’ concert commissions include the song cycle At War with Ourselves for the Kronos Quartet, The Open Hand for Los Angeles Master Chorale, and Isolation Variation for Hilary Hahn, which was Grammy-nominated. Abels is the Detroit Symphony’s 2025-2026 composer-in-residence.

Will Aronson (Gluttony, music) is a writer and composer for theater, whose work includes Maybe Happy Ending (six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book and Best Score), IL TENORE (Korean Musical Award for Best Score, Cha Beom-Seok Playwriting Award), Pete the Cat (TheatreworksUSA, nine national tours), Mother, Me & The Monsters (Barrington Stage, Boston Globe Critic’s Pick), and Bungee Jump (Korean Musical Award for Best Score), which was cited by the New York Times in 2013 as Korea’s “most popular original musical.” Current projects include Hansel & Gretl & Heidi & Günter and Ghost Bakery. He is the recipient of the Richard Rodgers Award, the ASCAP Frederick Loewe Award, a Fulbright Grant, and four Drama Desk Awards.

Dolan Morgan (Gluttony, lyrics) is a writer and illustrator living in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Dolan is the author of two books, including That’s When the Knives Come Down (A|P, 2014), which Publishers Weekly describes as “stories that are as bizarre as they are brilliant.” Their poetry, fiction, and comics have appeared or are forthcoming in BOMB magazine, The Believer, X-RAY, The Rumpus, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, Selected Shorts, NPR, and elsewhere.

William C. “Bill” Banfield (Sloth, music)’s concert performances and recordings include 14 symphonies, seven operas, nine concerti, chamber, jazz and popular forms. In the past 30 years, Dr. Banfield has produced a body of productive music/arts scholarship activities, compositions, recordings, books, establishing an active teaching and professional service that contributes to contemporary arts leadership. He is Professor Emeritus, Berklee, College of Music, and is currently serving as composer curator for the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. He is also currently appointed as research associate for the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. He served as Pulitzer Prize judge in American music in 2010,2016 and 2021 as well as on the board of directors of ASCAP. In 2023, Dr. Banfield was awarded the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award from President Joseph Biden for his contributions of service in arts and education.

Michael R. Jackson (Sloth, lyrics)’s A Strange Loop won the 2022 Tony Award for Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical. It was also the recipient of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He is the author of White Girl in Danger, produced by the Vineyard Theatre in co-production with Second Stage Theater, and the co-author of Teeth, produced by Playwrights Horizons. Michael is the recipient of an Obie Award, Drama Desk Award, Jonathan Larson Grant, Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Award, Whiting Award, and Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting. Jackson holds a BFA and MFA in playwriting and Musical Theatre Writing from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Jason Robert Brown (Envy) wrote music and lyrics for the musicals Parade, The Last Five Years, The Bridges of Madison County, Songs for a New World, 13, Honeymoon in Vegas, Mr. Saturday Night (lyrics by Amanda Green), and The Connector. His next show, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, written with Taylor Mac, opens on Broadway in 2026. As a singer and pianist, Jason has performed in concert around the world, including his solo debut at Carnegie Hall in 2024, and has released several acclaimed recordings, the most recent of which is Jason Robert Brown and Stephen Sondheim: Live in Concert.

Heather Christian (Wrath) is a Drama Desk and two-time Obie Award–winning composer, librettist, and performer. A 2025 MacArthur “Genius” Fellow and one of Variety’s “10 Storytellers to Watch,” her recent works include Terce: A Practical Breviary, Oratorio for Living Things, Prime: A Practical Breviary, Animal Wisdom (now a feature film), and I Am Sending You the Sacred Face. She’s also the composer and lyricist of the Broadway-bound adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, which premiered in D.C. in June 2025. Screen credits include A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, The Craft: Legacy, and Teenage Euthanasia. Heather has released 11 records and can be seen in concert as Heather Christian & the Arbornauts.

Ted Hearne (Greed) Praised for his “tough edge and wildness of spirit,” and “topical, politically sharp-edged works” (New York Times), composer, singer and bandleader Ted Hearne creates music inspired by the overlay of different viewpoints and their sonic possibilities. His are personal and multi-dimensional works that often explore unconventional interactions of text and music, and are rooted in a sense of inquiry. Recent major works include the recording of his acclaimed project Farming with The Crossing, which was released on Deathbomb Arc this autumn; Over and over vorbei nicht vorbei for Komische Oper Berlin; and the music for Daniel Fish’s production of Sophocles’ Elektra in London’s West End, starring Brie Larson in a translation by Anne Carson.

Gregory Spears (Vanity) Praised for “astonishingly beautiful” music (The New York Times) and a “singular compositional voice” (The New Yorker), Gregory Spears is acclaimed for blending romanticism, minimalism, and early music influences into works celebrated for their melodic richness. His music has been commissioned by leading opera houses, orchestras, and ensembles. 2026 brings the world premieres of Spears’ newest opera, Sleepers Awake (Opera Philadelphia), as well as Secrets (The Frick Collection) and Bartleby (Tucson Desert Song Festival). His best-known opera, Fellow Travelers, marks its tenth anniversary with the launch of a national, multi-year tour. Spears teaches at New York University, and his music is published by Schott Music and Schott PSNY.

Key Art Illustration: Owen Gent

Following MasterVoices’ world premiere, SEVEN: A Cycle of Sins will receive regional premieres by LA Master Chorale, VocalEssence, and other partners across the country and internationally.