Composer

Experience Thomas Tallis’s majestic work, Spem in alium, considered the greatest piece of English early music, as performed by Spoleto’s masterful 40-strong choral ensemble. This Renaissance motet begins an evening exploring choral density: each subsequent work—by contemporary composers David Lang, Caroline Shaw, and Jonathan Dove—incrementally strips vocal parts, leaving only a soloist for the final piece.

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Spoleto Festival USA Chorus: Density 40:1

St. Matthew's Lutheran Church

The Renaissance saw increasing freedom and development in music, with more variety in range, rhythm, notation, form and harmony than ever before. Music became a vehicle for personal expression, with composers finding ways to make vocal music ever more expressive. This program charts some of the most prolific and influential European composers of the age, with a reflection on their legacy through the response of contemporary composers.

Voces8

Kaufman Music Center

Celebrating their 50th anniversary this season, the peerless Tallis Scholars are at the very height of their powers, winning both the Recording of the Year and the Choral Award in BBC Music Magazine last year, and taking home the 2021 Gramophone Music Award in Early Music. These Berkeley favorites are master performers of sacred Renaissance choral music, and here lend their crystalline clarity and pinpoint precision to an exciting program of works that includes Tallis’ monumental Suscipe quaeso, Byrd’s masterful Tribue domine, and contemporary works by Nico Muhly and Arvo Pärt.

Tallis Scholars

First Congregational Church

The Festival returns to the magnificent Carmel Mission Basilica presenting the exceptional Bach Festival Chorale in a program entitled “Cathedral Echoes.”  “This program is an emotional journey through time. It features music from 500 years of great British sacred choral music,” said Associate Conductor Andrew Megill. “From the energetic and otherworldly medieval carols through the sublime polyphony of Byrd and Tallis in the late 16th century, to the beautiful 20th century works inspired by this unique and profound tradition.”  One of the glories of Great Britain is its extraordinary choral tradition. For centuries, many of the world’s greatest choirs have come from England, due in large part to an extraordinary network of Cathedral choirs which required significant music every week.  Highlights include excerpts from Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices, originally sung during clandestine services in private homes, and the 20thcentury masterpiece inspired by Byrd’s Mass, Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G Minor, as well as Tallis’ profound Lamentations of Jeremiah, and the gorgeous motets by Stanford, Harris, MacMillan, and Britten which are some of the most loved choral works of all time, for singers and listeners and alike.  “The magic of the concert at the Mission is the way it incorporates the aesthetic and the beauty of the building itself,” said Andrew Megill.

Cathedral Echoes

Carmel Mission Basilica

THIS CONCERT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.  Patrons will be notified about options for their tickets.

RUMORS

St. John’s Lutheran Church

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Santa Clara University

Founded in Leipzig in 1992 by five singers from the famous Thomanerchor, amarcord – a name that means “I remember” in the Emilia-Romagna dialect – is part of this new generation of a cappella choirs that has no qualms about breaking down barriers between genres and eras. Together with Daniel Hope's violin and Simon Crawford-Phillips' piano, they plan to take the audience on a journey through half a millennium of creation, from Thomas Tallis to Benjamin Britten.

Composer

Thomas Tallis

Events

Past events

7 - 8 Jun, 2024

Spoleto Festival USA Chorus: Density 40:1 · Spoleto Festival USA

10 - 11 Oct, 2023

Voces8 · Kaufman Music Center

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