Cathedral introduces Arts & Music at the Madeleine

SALT LAKE CITY — The Cathedral of the Madeleine has combined its three annual concert seasons – the Cathedral Choir Concert Series, the Eccles Organ Festival, and the Madeleine Festival of the Arts and Humanities – into a single, unified series called Arts & Music at the Madeleine.

The change was made “to kind of marshal all of our forces” and “streamline and make it more efficient,” said Gregory Glenn, the cathedral’s director of liturgy and music.

The 2025-26 season highlights will include the St. Cecilia Day concert with Beethoven’s Mass in C, “a rare performance of one of his religious works,” Glenn said.

The Founders’ Day concert, which will have the theme of charity, will feature a piece by J.S. Bach as well as Benjamin Britten’s cantata “The Good Samaritan.”

The series will continue to offer a mix of concerts, with most remaining free to the public. However, a few select Cathedral Choir events – the St. Cecelia Day Concert, the Christmas Carol Services and the Founders’ Day Concert – will now require paid tickets.

“These are the most expensive Cathedral Choir concerts, which involve large orchestras and soloists and have become difficult to sustain through donations alone,” Glenn said. “These are all incredibly beautiful religious works and they’re the things that we want to be sure to offer to the community, but they do have costs associated with them.” 

The new ticket sales will help the choir cover its costs and continue to make these concerts available to the public. Glenn noted that prices will be less expensive than other major local arts organizations, such as the Utah Opera and Utah Symphony, and will be tiered based on seating, Glenn said. 

The goal, he added, is not to make a profit but to ensure the “continuation of high-quality, ambitious performances for the community for years to come.”

There is a “long-standing tradition of cathedral churches supporting the arts and humanities, and specifically the financial support for those who commit their lives to advancing music, the arts and humanities,” Glenn added. “This allows us to support young and developing musicians and artists who serve our larger community.”

If the concerts are not sold out, day-of tickets will be available at a reduced price. Tickets will also be available for those who are unable to pay.

The St. Cecilia Day concert will feature Beethoven’s Mass in C, a rare performance of one of his religious works. The Founders’ Day concert, centered on the theme of charity, will include a piece by Johann Sebastian Bach about feeding the hungry and Benjamin Britten’s cantata “The Good Samaritan.”

The popular Eccles Organ Festival and Madeleine Festival concerts, which receive support from nonprofit foundations, will remain free. 

This season’s Madeline Festival will feature a performance of Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time,” something about which Glenn is excited. 

The work is of particular interest as it was composed by Messiaen in a concentration camp during World War II, and is based on the Book of Revelation and the end of time, Glenn said. “He only had a pianist, a clarinetist and a couple of other instruments. They were all prisoners in the prison camp, and so he wrote this work for the musicians that he had in the prison camp.”

The season will conclude with the Madeline Festival concert performance of “Noah’s Flood,” a revival of Benjamin Britten’s children’s opera. This production will feature a cast of more than 100 children in animal costumes.