Two hundred singers, a full symphony orchestra, a pipe organ and a dozen harps are set to fill the Cathedral of Saint Paul this Friday for a piece of music that demands exactly that kind of scale. VocalEssence will perform Hector Berlioz's Te Deum on Oct. 30, opening its 58th season with a work so massive it needs a building like the cathedral just to contain it.
The concert, titled “Lineage: French Choral Masterworks,” runs from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Cathedral of Saint Paul, located at 239 Selby Avenue, according to a VocalEssence press release. The program features tenor Andy McCullough alongside the VocalEssence Chorus and Ensemble Singers, a Festival Choir and a symphony orchestra, with Philip Brunelle and G. Phillip Shoultz III sharing the podium. Tickets are priced between $30 and $45.
As CBS News reports, VocalEssence performs Berlioz's Te Deum with 200 singers and 12 harps at the Cathedral of St. Paul. Brunelle, the ensemble's founder and artistic director, said it has been 20 years since VocalEssence or anyone else in the Twin Cities tackled the piece. A VocalEssence digital concert program, however, states that the group gave the Twin Cities premiere of the Te Deum at the same cathedral 18 years ago, a discrepancy the available record does not resolve.
A Work Built for Cathedral Acoustics
The scale of the instrumentation is not incidental. The program will include a chorus of 200 singers, a full orchestra, a pipe organ and twelve harps, according to jazz88.fm. The cathedral's architecture itself is expected to become part of the performance, as noted by a report from MinneapoliMedia, a nod to Berlioz's original intent for the work to resonate within vast stone spaces.
That intent is not new to this particular building. Back in 2008, VocalEssence and the St. Olaf Choir joined forces for a Te Deum performance that also called for 200 voices and 12 harps, with organizers at the time explaining that Berlioz composed the piece to be performed in the vast, spacious acoustic of a cathedral like that of the Cathedral of Saint Paul. That Oct. 17, 2008, concert underscores how rarely a production of this size returns to the same hall.
Part of a Season Built Around Singing Together
VocalEssence has organized its 58th season around the phrase “Together We Sing,” per the same MinneapoliMedia report. Earlier in 2026, 37 members of the ensemble's Singers Of This Age program traveled to Philadelphia for what organizers described as the group's first tour outside the Midwest, a sign of the organization's reach beyond its home turf this year.
Founded in 1969, VocalEssence says it has debuted more than 350 commissions and world premieres through its performance series, a track record that frames Friday's Te Deum as both a return to familiar ground and a rare event in its own right. For now, the cathedral doors open Friday evening, with the architecture, the harps and the 200 voices set to do the rest.
