The Thirteen, a professional choir and orchestra founded in 2012, will play Alexandria for the first time this Friday, opening its 15th season at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall with a pairing of Johannes Brahms and Margaret Bonds. The Oct. 16 concert, part of a season titled In Our Time, kicks off a schedule that stretches across the Washington region and into next spring.
A First Stop in Alexandria, Then On to D.C. and Bethesda
According to ALXnow, this is the musical group's first performance in Alexandria, a milestone the organization's spokesperson confirmed to the outlet. The show at Schlesinger Concert Hall, located at 4915 E. Campus Drive, features artistic director and conductor Matthew Robertson alongside pianists Brian Ganz and Eric Conway and soloists Edmund Milly and Andréa Walker. From there, the ensemble heads out of town, with a performance in Washington, D.C. on Saturday and another in Bethesda, Maryland on Sunday.
The program, titled Brahms & Bonds, features Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem and Margaret Bonds' Credo, the same report notes. The Thirteen performs the Brahms work in the composer's own version for piano four hands, according to the group's website, a choice that pares the Requiem down to its vocal and pianistic core rather than presenting it with full orchestra.
Two Works, One Theme of Hope
Robertson has described both pieces as grounded in hope despite their differing origins. Brahms wrote his Requiem as a work for the living, offering consolation to those who grieve, while Bonds' Credo sets to music W.E.B. Du Bois' 1904 poem on racial equality, dignity and hope. Together, Bonds and Du Bois affirm the dignity and equality of human beings and the possibility of a more just world, per the same account from ALXnow.
That blend of old and new fits the broader arc of the season, which explores how great works live across time, as BroadwayWorld describes the 15th-season programming. The idea is to show how historical works acquire new resonance and purpose when performed for present-day audiences.
From a Dozen Singers to a Fifty-Person Ensemble
Matthew Robertson founded The Thirteen in 2012 with a vision of 12 musicians and one conductor, according to the group's website. The ensemble has since grown well beyond that original concept, with sizes now ranging from five to 50 performers depending on what's being programmed, and the organization added Choir & Orchestra to its name in 2022 to reflect that expansion.
Alexandria resident Hannah Baslee is among the performers who make up the group. The ensemble's earlier programming has included a Bach motet concert at Immanuel Chapel, reviewed in detail by the Washington Classical Review, which featured 17 professional singers plus four instrumentalists across a two-hour program. The group also performed The New American Songbook at Trinity United Methodist Church in Alexandria, a concert the Washington Post reviewed last year.
Season Schedule Continues Into Spring
Following the Oct. 16 opener, The Thirteen will perform Reincarnations on Nov. 13 at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, followed by Path of Miracles at the same seminary on Feb. 5, 2027. The season wraps with US In Our Time on April 30, 2027, a program the group's site describes as an exploration of American voices and contemporary stories through the frame of relationships with lovers, family, others and the country.
That final concert's venue is listed differently across sources: the group's own website names it Trinity Methodist Church in Alexandria, while ALXnow's report identifies it as Trinity United Methodist Church, also in Alexandria.
The Thirteen offers both individual performance tickets and season subscriptions, with preferred seating priced at $70, general admission at $45 and student tickets at $15 before any door surcharge. The group has also launched a Kids Come Free initiative, providing one free children's ticket for ages 5 to 17 with each adult ticket purchased. ALXnow also reported that the organization received funding from a city grant, according to a group spokesperson.
