Please join us for our first concert of the 2026-2027 year on October 25, 2026.

Oratorio di San Francesco by Adriano Ariani (1877-1935) was first performed on October 3, 1916 by the Metropolitan Opera at Carnegie Hall. Ariani was a colleague of Arturo Toscanini, and his tenure at the Brooklyn Academy of Music prompted a renaissance of Italian Opera there.

With a Libretto in Latin by Father Sixtus Lagorio, the oratorio was written to honor the 50th anniversary of the St. Anthony of Padua Church in Manhattan and the founding of the Society of St. Francis in the United States. It features three main soloists: St. Francis, Historicus and St. Clare, with several others including the Voice of Temptation.

Learn more about this composers here.

PURCHASE TICKETS NOW!

We are happy to offer three options for ticket purchasing

• By credit card through EventBrite—click on the button above

• No-fee bank transfer through Zelle—see the instructions for QR code below

• Cash at the door (no credit cards accepted at the door)

via Zelle

If you use Zelle, just scan the QR code here from your banking app to pay online with no service charge. All tickets are $30; children under 10 are admitted free.

Please use the “note” section on the app to indicate how many tickets you would like.

Canterbury Choral Society’s mission since its founding in 1952 has been to perform the finest music, with appropriate orchestral accompaniment, in a sacred space. That space, our home since our founding, has been Church of the Heavenly Rest. In addition to the chorus, which numbers between 75 and 100 singers, every performance includes an orchestra and soloists.

View our concert history here.