Paul Winter’s Winter Solstice celebrates the spirit of the holidays within the extraordinary acoustics of New York’s greatest Cathedral. A dazzling extravaganza of music and dance, these performances offer a contemporary take on ancient solstice rituals, when people gathered together on the longest night of the year to welcome the return of the sun and the birth of the new year. The event has become New York’s favorite holiday alternative to the Nutcracker and Radio City’s Christmas Spectacular.

PAUL WINTER’S  37TH ANNUAL WINTER SOLSTICE CELEBRATION 

ICARUS: A TRIBUTE TO SIR GEORGE MARTIN 

WITH SPECIAL GUEST, GARY BROOKER, THE VOICE OF PROCOL HARUM 

Four Shows only:
Thursday December 15, 8pm; Friday December 16,8pm; Saturday December 17, 2pm & 7.30pm

General Admission: $35 and $55
Reserved Seating: $90

CATHEDRAL OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE, NYC 

“An immersive, multimedia extravaganza, as grand and expansive as its location.” 

– The New York Times 

The seven-time Grammy-winning Paul Winter Consort will present their 37th Annual Winter Solstice Celebration at New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in four concert performances December 15, 16, & 17, 2016. The ten-member Consort will be joined once again by the 25 dancers and drummers of the Forces of Nature Dance Theatre, with special guest Gary Brooker, founder, composer, and vocalist of the iconic band Procol Harum.

Performances take place on Thursday, December 15 at 8:00 pm, Friday, December 16 at 8:00 pm, and Saturday, December 17 at 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm, at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine located at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street, Manhattan.

This year’s Solstice Celebration will be a tribute to the late George Martin, renowned producer of the Beatles’ recordings, who also produced the Paul Winter Consort’s landmark album Icarus. Winter recalls that working with Martin was a great learning experience for the Consort, and the Icarus album provided the group with the accolade of a lifetime. In his 1979 autobiography, All You Need is Ears, Martin refers to Icarus as “the finest record I have ever made.”

Gary Brooker, founder, vocalist, composer, and pianist of the iconic band Procol Harum, will be a featured special guest in these concerts. Paul Winter has loved Gary’s bluesy voice (most famous for “A Whiter Shade of Pale”), since Procol Harum and the Consort played together at the Fillmore East in 1971. The two bands felt a musical kinship from their common grounding in classical music, and commitment to dynamic rhythm in their respective genres. This December, in honor of their mutual friendship with the late Sir George, Paul and Gary will be presenting a program that includes classics from Procol Harum and from the ICARUS album, along with new music created for the Solstice Celebration.

Also featured will be gospel singer Theresa Thomason, a beloved favorite of past Winter Solstice Celebrations.

The Consort includes: Paul Winter on soprano saxophone, cellist Eugene Friesen, double-reed player Paul McCandless, keyboardist Paul Sullivan, bassist Eliot Wadopian, drummer Jamey Haddad, organist Tim Brumfield, and Sun-gong maestro Scott Sloan. The Forces of Nature Dance Theatre, led by choreographer Abdel Salaam, will premiere a new piece, choreographed for this year’s Solstice Celebration.

Manhattan’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine is more than a site of liturgy or dogma. It’s a home for the human spirit, meant to uplift, inspire awe, unite, and give refuge. It’s the perfect location for Paul Winter Consort’s ongoing exploration of the turning of the seasons and the tuning of the soul. The Winter Solstice Celebration is designed to give deeper festive meaning to the year’s end.

“Of course, this is a concert, a performance, but it’s also a way to make the transition from the old year to the new, to find a new evocation of the ancient rite of passage of our ancestors in the Northern Hemisphere,” says Winter. “The longest night of the year marks the moment despair can turn to joy. It’s a message we can all hear, that most likely we all need.”

More information on Paul Winter’s 37th Annual Winter Solstice Celebration is available at: solsticeconcert.com

General Admission tickets are available for $35 and $55. Reserved Seating is available for $90. To purchase tickets please visit stjohndivine.org or call (866) 811-4111.