December 2008

December 2008

December 3
New York Polyphony
I sing the birth

photo: Joanne Bouknight

The highly acclaimed young quartet will present a program of unaccompanied vocal music from several centuries, including early Italian madrigals and canzonettas and sacred and traditional works from England and Ireland on themes of Advent and Christmas.

New York Polyphony is rapidly gaining a reputation as one of the finest classical vocal ensembles of a new generation. Fusing elegant vocalism with expert ensemble singing, the four men deliver dynamic, historically-informed performances in a range of styles. From the simplicity of plainchant to the dense chromaticism of contemporary works, the New York Polyphony sound is strong, unified and distinctive. The members of New York Polyphony maintain active performing lives, each bringing a diversity of experience to their craft. Alto Geoffrey Williams is in growing demand as an early music specialist throughout the United States, performing regularly with groups such as Vox Vocal Ensemble, St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, and Early Music New York. Tenor Geoffrey Silver, a native of the United Kingdom, began his musical career as a Chorister of Westminster Abbey and later sang at Trinity and St. John's Colleges in Cambridge. Baritone Scott Dispensa, a graduate of The Juilliard School, has performed extensively as a soloist equally at home in classical music as in contemporary musical theater. Bass-baritone Craig Phillips enjoys a successful operatic solo career, performing with companies throughout the United States including New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, and Florida Grand Opera. Their debut CD, I sing the birth, was released internationally on Avie Records September 2007.

December 10
New York Continuo Collective
Vanitas

The New York Continuo Collective, led by Grant Herreid, performs music from their fall workshop on the theme of vanitas: meditations on morality and mortality by early 17th-century Roman composers such as Anerio, Landi and Mazzocchi.

The New York Continuo Collective began in 1998 as a series of informal meetings of members of the Mannes Collegium Musicum who sought to learn more about the art of continuo (the improvisation of accompaniments from figured bass) in the music of the early Baroque. The group has evolved into an ongoing workshop numbering more than thirty active participants, including both singers and instrumentalists. The Collective conducts weekly sessions in performance practice, examining rhetoric of text, gesture, ornamentation, and phrasing to create a common language for realizing this highly improvised music. In addition, the Collective has offered a number of shorter, more specialized classes; masterclasses, and spring baroque opera workshops. While not a performing group per se, performance is an integral part of the Continuo Collective’s mission. Past performances have included appearances with ARTEK, the Mannes Collegium, Polyhymnia, and the New York Historical Dance Company. The Collective is a regular participant on the Midtown Concerts series, presenting two concerts a year. They have performed a staged work as part of the Fringe Concerts at the Boston Early Music Festival since 2003, most recently with Francesca Caccini’s La Liberazione di Ruggiero.

December 17
Arlene Travis, soprano
Baroque Christmas Music

Soprano Arlene Travis performs a delightful program of vocal music for the holiday season, including Telemann's Advent cantata "Lauter Wonne, lauter Freude" and Boddecker's Christmas cantata "Natus Est Jesus." She will be accompanied by Deborah Booth, recorder and baroque flute; Lisa Terry, viola da gamba; and Rebecca Pechefsky, harpsichord.

December 24
NO CONCERT

Because of preparations for special Christmas Eve services at St. Bartholomew's Church, there will be no concert on this date.

December 31
My Lord Chamberlain's Consort
Holiday Concert

photo: Andrew Strawcutter

In what has become a Midtown Concerts tradition, the merry musicians of My Lord Chamberlain's Consort offer holiday cheer in celebration of the turning of the year, with seasonal song from the courts of medieval and Renaissance England.

My Lord Chamberlain's Consort was formed in 1997 to present a complete performance of John Dowland's landmark First Book of Songs or Ayres in its 400th anniversary year. The New York Times called the Consort "a whimsically named new grouping of distinguished early music practitioners. . . . excellent . . . thrilling . . . noble and expressive." Dowland's First Book carries a dedication to Sir George Carey, the Queen's Lord Chamberlain, from whom MLCC takes its name. Carey also was a patron of William Shakespeare's acting troupe, The Lord Chamberlain's Men. Their members have appeared with many of the world's leading early music ensembles, including Les Arts Florissants, Hesperus, Sequentia, Pomerium, ARTEK, New York's Ensemble for Early Music, and the Folger, Newberry, and Waverly Consorts. MLCC has won acclaim for its refined approach to ensemble singing, its entertaining approach to the Elizabethan repertoire, and the variety and originality of its vocal and instrumental arrangements. My Lord Chamberlain's Consort presents a new program each fall at its home venue in New York, the Church of St. Luke in the Fields. In the spring of 2001 the Consort made a successful tour of the American Southwest, with concerts in Phoenix, Tucson, Los Angeles, and San Diego. MLCC has since made a number of appearances at The Cloisters and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as the Renaissance and Baroque Society of Pittsburgh; Columbus Early Music Society; St. Andrew's Music Society at Madison Avenue Presbyterian, New York; and the George Bishop Lane Series in Burlington, Vermont. The Consort has also been heard live over Vermont Public Radio and New York Public Radio, WNYC.

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Midtown Concerts is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.
These programs are also supported, in part, by public funds from the Department of Cultural Affairs, New York City.
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