Water Passion After St Matthew – 2019

In June 2019, Mendelssohn Chorus gave the Philadelphia premiere of Tan Dun’s Water Passion after St. Matthew as part of the Chorus America National Conference, which the Chorus was proud to host. We were thrilled to be joined by several artists from the work’s world premiere: soprano Elizabeth Keusch, bass-baritone Stephen Bryant, water percussionist David Cossin, and Juanling Che on keyboard and sampler.



Commissioned by the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart to mark the 250th anniversary of J.S. Bach’s death, Water Passion premiered in Stuttgart, Germany, in 2000 under the baton of Helmuth Rilling. The work is staged with seventeen large, illuminated, transparent bowls of water arranged in the shape of a cross. Percussionists play the water with their hands, water stones, and waterphones, making water itself a central instrument, both seen and heard.