Press

Henri Chalet, the principal choir conductor, already has butterflies at the thought. On one hand, he tells himself that in the 850-plus-year history of Notre Dame, its closure is just a blip and he needs to be patient a little longer. But for a human lifetime, “five years is very long,” he said, and “unfortunately, in 850 years, it fell on us.”

During the cathedral’s rebuilding, the choir has continued to perform elsewhere, including on international tours. Presented in Incarnation’s concert series, the 24 singers provided vivid, dramatic performances. The program was all French and, unusually for a touring choir, organ accompanied throughout.

The beloved Paris cathedral is still being restored after the devastating 2019 fire, but other churches are keeping its musical traditions alive this holiday season. However since the fire, the Maîtrise of Notre-Dame has struggled financially: the school lost one third of its 2-million-euros-a-year budget and had to fire most of its staff and musicians.

Notre Dame was home to a vibrant 160-strong choir-school, which provided singers for each of the cathedral’s some 1,000 annual services. Midnight Mass at Christmas was always a special event in the year: One of the rare times the entire choir sung together and used the cathedral’s famed acoustics to their fullest.