MasterVoices presents Sins and Grace, including the world premiere of Seven: A Cycle of Sins

Illustration created by Owen Gent

MasterVoices (Ted Sperling, Artistic Director) performs a program titled Sins and Grace, including the world premiere of the song cycle SEVEN: A Cycle of Sins, based on the seven deadly sins, on March 23 and 24, 2026, at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Conceived by Mr. Sperling and commissioned by MasterVoices as a companion piece to Gabriel Fauré’s beloved Requiem in D Minor, the cycle mirrors the Requiem’s seven angelic movements, using the same orchestral and vocal forces, including soprano, baritone, chorus, orchestra, and organ. The new work was also inspired in part by Alice Tully Hall’s pipe organ, for which the composers were commissioned to write.

Joining the MasterVoices Chorus and Orchestra of St. Luke’s for these performances are soprano Mikaela Bennett, featured in the recent MasterVoices revival of Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath and who will have a leading role in Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Hildegard in New York’s Prototype Festival this January; and International Opera Awards 2024 Rising Star of the Year baritone Justin Austin (“a mighty lyric voice,” The New York Times), starring this March in Treemonisha at Washington National Opera.

SEVEN: A Cycle of Sins features a diverse and impressive list of composers and lyricists ranging from Broadway hitmakers to Pulitzer Prize-winning classical composers. They are: Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Michael Abels (the opera Omar, and the film Get Out); the team of Tony Award-winning composer Will Aronson (Maybe Happy Ending) and lyricist Dolan Morgan (That’s When the Knives Come Down ); the team of 2023 President’s Call to Service Award recipient composer William C. Banfield and Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning lyricist Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop); Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist Jason Robert Brown (The Last Five Years, Parade); composer/lyricist and  2025 MacArthur Award winner Heather Christian (Oratorio for Living Things); two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist composer/lyricist Ted Hearne, whose recently released Farming with The Crossing received a 2026 GRAMMY nomination; and opera composer Gregory Spears (Fellow Travelers), whose opera Sleepers Awake will premiere at Philadelphia Opera in April 2026.

Says Ted Sperling, “The concept started with a desire to program the beloved Fauré’s Requiem, and to pair it with something noteworthy and contrasting in tone. The Fauré is known for its gentle approach to dying and the heavenly afterlife; in contrast, I thought it would be fun to explore the temptations that torment us as we’re living our daily lives. I landed on the idea of commissioning a new song cycle built around the seven deadly sins, inviting composers from a wide array of genres to add even more texture. After our premiere, SEVEN: A Cycle of Sins will receive regional premieres by our partners, Los Angeles Master Chorale and VocalEssence.”

Sins and Grace

Monday, March 23, 2026, 7:30 pm

Tuesday, March 24, 2026, 7:30 pm

Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center

Gabriel Fauré: Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48

SEVEN: A Cycle of Sins (World Premiere), commissioned by MasterVoices in partnership with Los Angeles Master Chorale and VocalEssence

Conceived and Conducted by Ted Sperling

MasterVoices Chorus

Orchestra of St. Luke’s

Mikaela Bennett, soprano

Justin Austin, baritone

Composing teams:

Michael Abels, music and lyrics (LUST)

Will Aronson, music; Dolan Morgan, lyrics (GLUTTONY)

William C. Banfield, music; Michael R. Jackson, lyrics (SLOTH)

Jason Robert Brown, music and lyrics (ENVY)

Heather Christian, music and lyrics (WRATH)

Ted Hearne, music and lyrics (GREED)

Gregory Spears, music and lyrics (VANITY)

Tickets, priced from $34, are now on sale and may be purchased at mastervoices.org, by visiting the Alice Tully Hall box office (Broadway and 66th Street), or calling CenterCharge at 212.721.6500.

About the Composers and Lyricists

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’s (SLOTH, music) 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’s (SLOTH, lyrics) 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” (The 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.

About MasterVoices

MasterVoices was founded in 1941 as The Collegiate Chorale by legendary choral conductor Robert Shaw, breaking barriers as one of America’s first interracial and interfaith choral ensembles. That tradition continues today, with a diverse choral community and an expansive roster of world-class artists with whom they perform musicals, operas, and choral repertoire in New York City’s top venues. The Chorus has performed at the opening of the United Nations and has sung and recorded under the batons of esteemed conductors including Serge Koussevitzky, Arturo Toscanini, and Leonard Bernstein, among others. It has been engaged by top-tier orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic, and has appeared at the Verbier and Salzburg Festivals.

Under the leadership of Tony Award winner Ted Sperling since 2013, recent concerts include Sweet Smell of Success with Raúl Esparza and Lizzy McAlpine, The Frogs with Nathan Lane, Anyone Can Whistle with Vanessa Williams, Lady In The Dark with Victoria Clark, the New York premiere of Blind Injustice, Sheldon Harnick’s adaptation of Carmen, the digital production of Adam Guettel’s Myths and Hymns, and commissioned works by Ricky Ian Gordon, Marisa Michelson, Tariq Al-Sabir, and Randall Eng. The Chorus has been heard at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, New York City Center, Madison Square Garden, the Barclays Center, and internationally.

For more information, visit mastervoices.org. Connect with MasterVoices on Facebook, Instagram (@mastervoicesny), and YouTube.

About Ted Sperling

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 Marvin Hamlish’s Sweet Smell of Success, Stephen Sondheim’s The Frogs and Anyone Can Whistle, 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.