The Secret Letter re-imagines a program of the same name performed by Cantus in the spring of 2025, weaving music together with excerpts from letters by Marcus Aurelius, Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and others. These interludes offer fleeting access to private moments of longing, devotion, and vulnerability, while the surrounding music expands and amplifies their emotional terrain, carrying forward their tension, tenderness, restraint, and release. The Secret Letter bears witness and celebrates queer love that has always existed—persistent, imaginative, and worthy of song—and that even in secrecy, has found ways to speak, to sing, and to survive.

The “engaging” (New Yorker) low-voice ensemble Cantus is widely known for its warmth and blend, innovative programming, and riveting performances of music ranging from the Renaissance to the 21st century. The Washington Post has hailed the Cantus sound as having both “exalting finesse” and “expressive power” and refers to the “spontaneous grace” of its music-making. The Philadelphia Inquirer called the group nothing short of “exquisite.”