From Philip Cave to Dr. Whitmire: I hope you are enjoying a good summer.
Chorworks’ summer workshop in DC approacheth…and I wanted to let you know about some concerts by my UK ensemble Magnificat, who are on tour in the NE and are performing and acting as faculty for the workshop. Please will you forward this to friends and colleagues who might be interested?
1. On Tuesday, 24th June, we are singing the lunchtime concert at Church of the Epiphany in downtown DC, with music by the great English composers John Taverner, Thomas Tallis, Robert White and William Byrd. The program covers the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth I, and includes White’s spectacularly beautiful and moving Lamentations for Five Voices. (Admission free: donation requested.)
2. At 7:30pm on Friday evening, 27th June, we are performing at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle on Rhode Island Ave, NW. The program begins with more English music, including Robert White’s “Tota pulchra es” which has been specially reconstructed for us. It is one of only a handful of 16th century English settings of words from the Song of Songs – and it forms a link to the second half of the program, which consists of Continental settings by Palestrina, L’Heritier, Isaac, Lassus, and others. (Admission free: donation invited.)
3. Then the next evening, Saturday 28th, MAGNIFICAT will perform with the summer school participants in their closing concert. This will take place at St. Paul’s, K-Street NW, at 7:30pm. It features some fabulous Song of Songs settings, such as Clemens Non Papa’s “Ego Flos Campi”, and some rareties by Praetorius, Massaino, Bertulosi, Croce and da Silva. (Admission free: donation invited.)
Magnificat was formed in 1991, and specializes in the restoration and performance of neglected choral masterpieces with particular emphasis on music from post-Reformation England and from late 16th century Spain. We have released over a dozen CDs, the two most recent ones being recordings of Latin-texted sacred music from Tudor England. Magnificat’s singers are among the UK’s leading consort singers; they frequently sing for other groups including The Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen, and Stile Antico. Magnificat has won prestigious awards from the BBC, and from Gramophone Magazine, etc.
Please visit www.chorworks.com for further information.