The American Classical Orchestra (ACO) begins its 42nd season with a concert led by Founder and Artistic Director Thomas Crawford on September 17 at Alice Tully Hall. New York City’s leading period instrument orchestra provides a rare opportunity for audiences to hear masterworks on such original instruments as valveless horns, gut strings, and wooden flutes. The opening program presents Haydn’s “Lord Nelson” Mass in D minor with award-winning soprano Shelén Hughes Camacho in her ACO debut, along with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1—the first of three Alice Tully Hall Celebrate Beethoven! concerts during 2026-27, continuing the Orchestra’s performance cycle of all nine symphonies begun last season to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death.
The ACO will next appear in a salon concert of chamber music by Mozart and Haydn on October 21 at Columbus Citizens Club, 8 East 69th St.
“As we continue our Beethoven symphonies cycle this season, pairing his First Symphony with Haydn’s Mass for Troubled Times reveals two masters responding to the anxiety and drama of a changing world with equal defiance,” said Founder and Artistic Director Thomas Crawford. “Performing these works on period instruments isn’t a history lesson—it delivers the warm and visceral sound of the moment directly to our audience.”
Celebrate Beethoven!: Turning the Key
Thursday, September 17, 2026, at 7:30 PM
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center
American Classical Orchestra
ACO Chorus
Thomas Crawford, conductor
Shelén Hughes Camacho, soprano
Franz Joseph Haydn: “Lord Nelson” Mass in D minor, Hob. XXII:11
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21
Haydn wrote this famous choral work in 1798 with the title Missa in Angustiis, or “Mass for Troubled Times,” as Napoleon’s forces were threatening much of Europe, including the composer’s native Austria. In honor of British Admiral Horatio Nelson’s defeat of Napoleon that year in the Battle of the Nile, the mass eventually took on its more familiar nickname “Lord Nelson.” The performance spotlights the young Bolivian soprano Shelén Hughes Camacho, a winner of the 2025 George and Nora London Foundation Competition, in her ACO debut. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 marks the beginning of a new musical path with sudden harmonic shifts and the use of sforzandi accents. ACO’s performances of the First, Fourth, and Fifth Symphonies in 2026-27 offer NYC’s only opportunity to hear these works this season on period instruments, as Beethoven intended for his first audiences.
Tickets: Priced at $35, $55 & $75, are available at aconyc.org; by calling ACO at (212) 362-2727, ext.4; or by visiting lincolncenter.org or calling CenterCharge at 212.721.6500.
