May Festival Premieres
A= American NA=North American W=World
| 1873 | A | George Frideric Handel | Dettingen Te Deum in D Major |
| 1875 | A | Johann Sebastian Bach | Magnificat |
| 1875 | A | Johannes Brahms | Triumphal Hymn (“Triumph Lied”), Opus 55 |
| 1878 | W | Otto Singer | Cantata, Festival Ode (composed for May Festival and opening of new Music Hall) |
| 1880 | W | Dudley Buck | Scenes from Longfellow’s Golden Legend (prize composition) |
| 1882 | W | William Wallace Gilchrist | Psalm 46 (prize composition) |
| 1888 | W | John Knowles Paine | Song of Promise, Cantata, Opus 43 (composed for May Festival) |
| 1894 | A | Carl Goldmark | Sappho, Overture, Opus 44 |
| A | Anton Rubinstein | Moses, Oratorio, Opus 112, tableaux 3 and 4 | |
| 1914 | A | Gustav Mahler | Symphony No. 3 |
| 1916 | A | Richard Strauss | An Alpine Symphony, Opus 64 |
| 1918 | W | Edgar Stillman Kelley | The Pilgrim’s Progress, A Musical Miracle Play, Opus 37 (May Festival commission) |
| W | Eugene Ysaÿe | Exil, Poem for String Orchestra without Basses | |
| 1923 | W | Henry Hadley | Resurgam, Opus 98 |
| 1925 | A | Lodewijk Mortelmans | Young America, a Children’s Cantata |
| 1927 | A | Johann Sebastian Bach | Der zufriedengestellte Aolus (Aeolus Appeased), Secular Cantata No. 205 |
| A | Jesús Guridi | Thus Sang the Little Ones, Three Spanish Childhood Scenes | |
| 1935 | W | Martin Dumler | Stabat mater |
| A | Sir Granville Bantock | Atlanta in Calydon, Symphony for Chorus | |
| A | Cyril Scott | La belle dame sans merci, for Baritone, Chorus and Orchestra | |
| 1937 | W | Robert Nathaniel Dett | The Ordering of Moses, A Biblical Folk Scene |
| 1939 | W | James Heller | Watchman, What of the Night?, Oratorio |
| 1944 | W | Bernard Rogers | The Passion, Oratorio |
| 1946 | W | Martin Dumler | Te Deum |
| A | Frederick Delius | A Mass of Life (first complete performance) | |
| 1954 | A | Franz Schmidt | The Book with Seven Seals, Oratorio |
| 1956 | W | Wallace Berry | Spoon River, Song Cycle for Soprano and Baritone |
| W | Feliks Labunski | Images of Youth | |
| A | Benjamin Britten | Gloriana, Opus 53 | |
| A | Franz Reizenstein | Voces of Night, Cantata, Opus 27 | |
| 1958 | A | Jenö Takacs | The Chant of the Creation |
| 1960 | W | Margaret Johnson Bosworth | Queen City Suite |
| 1963 | W | Gian Carlo Menotti | The Death of the Bishop of Brindisi, Dramatic Cantata (May Festival commission) |
| 1965 | W | Franz Waxman | The Song of Terezin, Song Cycle |
| 1968 | W | Hans Werner Henze | Moralities, Three Scenic Cantatas |
| 1969 | W | Peter Mennin | The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Cantata de Virtute |
| 1970 | W | Wilfred Josephs | Mortales, Opus 62 |
| 1974 | W | Donald Erb | New England’s Prospect, for Narrator, Chorus and Orchestra |
| 1988 | W | Giuseppe Verdi | Luisa Miller (Jeffrey Kallberg’s restored edition) |
| 1992 | A | Carl Maria von Weber | Oberon, Complete Opera (Gustav Mahler’s 1913 version) |
| 1998 | W | Alvin Singleton | PraiseMaker (May Festival commission) |
| 1999 | W | Gideon Lewensohn | Serenata Concertante for Woodwinds, Keyboards, Percussion & Strings |
| NA | Kurt Weill | Propheten from Der Weg der Verheissung (devised by David Drew) | |
| 2000 | W | Daniel Brewbaker | Cincinnatus Psalm (May Festival commission) |
| 2002 | W | Leonard Bernstein | Symphony No. 3, Kaddish (first performance of a revised narration by Jamie Bernstein Thomas) |
| 2003 | W | Franz Liszt | St. Stanislaus |
| 2004 | W | Stephen Paulus | All Things Are Passing (May Festival commission) |
| 2006 | W | Adolphus Hailstork | Earthrise (May Festival commission) |
| 2010 | W | Ian Krouse | Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking (May Festival commission) |
