The theme behind this seasonal programme is the Virgin Mary, whether celebrating her own divinity (in the Votive Mass written by Byrd), or in the context of the birth of Christ (in Tallis’ epic Missa Puer natus).

Mother and Child

Smith Square Hall

Come and enjoy an atmospheric Christmas concert where the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra meets over 100 choir singers from the Music Classes at Hagaskolan.

Christmas with Music classes

Louis de Geer konsert & kongress

Mahan Esfahani, perhaps today’s best-known harpsichordist, is an eloquent ambassador for the brilliance, beauty and versatility of the instrument.

Mahan Esfahani: Byrd, Dowland & Gibbons

Southbank Centre

EPSG:4326

Bach’s Third Orchestral Suite

Wooddale Church

Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

The Estonian composer Arvo Pärt acts as a pivot within music history. On the one hand, he is one of the most successful composers of so-called New Music, even though he quickly distanced himself aesthetically from the experiments of the post-war avant-garde. On the other hand, medieval Gregorian chant – "music with soul, without harmony or meter," as he once said – served as his greatest source of inspiration. In this respect, it seems only logical that the celebrated British choir Tenebrae has now designed a program that presents Pärt's music in the context of composers from the Middle Ages and the present.

Darkness / George Herbert / Nigel Short

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

What would the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival be without "its" castles and manor houses, which the team explores and performs in throughout the country? For its 20th anniversary, the festival launched the "Sleeping Beauties" series to highlight monuments that were in decline and urgently needed to be saved. The series was held for a second time in 2020, and now, for its 35th anniversary, we're picking up the thread again.

YOUNG ELITE ensemble firebird

St.-Marien-Kirche

Whilst coming from very different eras, William Byrd and Arvo Pärt are both considered masters of sacred music despite having faced considerable persecution for their work. As part of  the 2025 Tanglewood Festival, this programme presents six of William Byrd’s works from the Cantiones Sacrae including the monumental Tribue, Domine, and the mighty eight-voice motet Ad Dominum cum tribularer. The three works by Arvo Pärt speak in his unmistakable voice, with its unique blend of ancient and modern, and include his mesmerising Nunc dimittis which is crafted in his bell-like ‘tinitinnabuli’ style.

The Deer’s Cry: Tanglewood Festival

Tanglewood Music Center

Sokolov solo concert

Great Festival House

To mark the final day of the Egerton Music Festival, ten members of The Sixteen will perform a special programme drawing on the connection of spoken word, with poetry by Rosetti, Wordsworth, Shelley and T S Eliot, accompanying the music of Byrd, Palestrina, Hildegard, Finzi, Sheppard and Stanford.

Good night, good night beloved: Egerton

St James' Church, Egerton

This lighthearted matinee featuring everything from classical to pop will make the walls at the venerable Semper Oper shake! The exceptional all-round musician Friedrich Gulda, who passed away in 2000, wrote a five-movement Concerto for Cello and Brass Ensemble, which he dedicated to Heinrich Schiff in 1980. It begins in a funky rock tone and ends with an Alpine folk melody. The solo part will be played by Jan Vogler, not only the Intendant of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele and an outstanding cellist, but also a former student of Heinrich Schiff, bringing matters full circle.

 Vogler – Berlin Philharmonic Brass – Handler

Semperoper Dresden

We conclude our monumental 60th Anniversary season with a spectacular celebration of harmony and innovation that honors our storied past, embraces the vibrant present, and set the stage for an exciting future. We are thrilled to present an extraordinary playlist of music ranging from Shakespeare’s England to the choral Renaissance happening in Los Angeles right now. These composers represent the creative forces that have both shaped the Chorale and solidified its place at the epicenter of the choral world.

New Renaissance

Walt Disney Concert Hall

This year, the Tapiola Sinfonietta Spring Chamber Music Festival will be held in Dipoli, Otaniemi. In three different concerts, listeners will be treated to a diverse and out-of-the-box musical experience. This year, the festival program has been designed by Tapiola Sinfonietta horn player Ilkka Hongisto and violinist Kanerva Mannermaa. The theme of the program is beauty, and each concert embodies the theme in its own way.

Chamber music in Dipoli – Singing without words

Aalto University

Immerse yourself in the ethereal sounds of the Baroque era with "Celestial Voices - Music of the Baroque," a concert series that promises to transport audiences back in time through the power of music. Under the baton of Principal Guest Conductor Nicholas Kraemer, the Music of the Baroque Chorus and Members of the Orchestra will showcase their incredible talent and versatility. The program features a rich tapestry of compositions from the Renaissance to the Baroque period, including works by Tallis, Palestrina, Purcell, Monteverdi, Byrd, Pachelbel, Rameau, and Bach.

The concert series will highlight the shimmering sounds of Palestrina and Byrd, the intricate compositions of Purcell, and culminate in the high energy of Bach’s "Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied" (Sing unto the Lord a new song), BWV 225. This selection of music not only showcases the technical prowess of the performers but also the emotional depth and spiritual uplift inherent in Baroque music.

"Celestial Voices" will be performed at two iconic locations, offering audiences a choice of venues to experience the magic of Baroque music. The first performance will take place on Sunday, May 11, 2025, at 7:30 PM at the Faith, Hope, & Charity Church in Winnetka. The series will continue with a performance on Monday, May 12, 2025, at 7:30 PM at the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago. For those unable to attend in person, an on-demand performance will be available on Friday, May 16, 2025, at 5:00 PM.

This concert series is a must-attend for lovers of choral and orchestral music, offering a rare opportunity to experience the breadth and depth of Baroque music performed by a talented ensemble under the guidance of Nicholas Kraemer. Don't miss your chance to be part of this musical journey through time.

Celestial Voices

Fourth Presbyterian Church

Sts Faith, Hope, And Charity Catholic Church

The ORA singers present a concert themed around ‘the passing of the Year’, centred around Jonathan Dove’s song-cycle of the same name for double choir and piano, alongside Renaissance songs celebrating sacred feast days, poetry for each season and new work from Manchester-based composer Emily Pedersen, and BBC Philharmonic composer-in-residence Tom Coult.

ORA Singers

The Stoller Hall

Mishka Rushdie Momen is a young British pianist who looks at the world differently: “innate musical sensibility combined with true technical brilliance” was how one critic described her special blend of poetry and passion. Schubert’s huge, haunting late sonatas begin and end a recital that embraces the melancholy of William Byrd and the exquisite, untamed imagination of Janacek’s On an Overgrown Path.

Steinway International Piano Series: Mishka Rushdie Momen

Bute Park

Together with the NDR Vokalensemble and hundreds of guest singers, the award-winning choir conductor Simon Halsey will bring the Great Hall of the Elbphilharmonie to life on March 18th.

SINGING! 2025: Rutter in Context

The Artist in Residence’s first programme of the Season invites us to look forward to the New Year in a Shakespearean manner.

Nicky Spence tenor; Dylan Perez piano

Wigmore Hall

The ensemble’s recent album brings together a sequence of works, ancient and modern, to mark the feast of Epiphany.

The Gesualdo Six

Charting the progress from twilight to sunrise, this programme concentrates on Renaissance composers but includes a recent work by Nico Muhly specially written to form part of the nocturnal trajectory.

Stile Antico

Ton Koopman Harpsichord Recital

Takasaki City Theatre

SFCM welcomes Opus 3 Artist and GRAMMY-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer for its first official artistic collaboration with SFCM's Conservatory Chorus, under the direction of Eric Choate. Chanticleer’s repertoire is rooted in the Renaissance, and has continued to expand to include a wide range of classical, gospel, jazz, popular music, and a deep commitment to the commissioning of new compositions and arrangements.

Conservatory Chorus Concert with Chanticleer

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

The majesty and grandeur of brass instruments has been celebrated since the Renaissance. Not just for their power, either. They’re thrilling when played softly, too, and indeed the title of Giovanni Gabrieli’s piece means ‘Quiet and Loud Sonata’ because it was one of the first pieces to specify the level of volume with which the instruments should be played.

Colours Of Brass

Holy Trinity Cathedral Auckland

When the renowned English choral conductor Peter Phillips returns to the DR Vokalensemblet with a special All Saints programme, which combines two of the Renaissance masterpieces for choir with an equally evocative work from our own time.

All weekend concert

Frederiksborg Castle

Sorø Monastery Church

The Round Tower

One of the world's most renowned choral ensembles, The Sixteen makes their Miller debut with a stunning program pairing works by William Byrd and Arvo Pärt. Though hailing from different eras, the two composers are both celebrated masters of sacred music, despite facing considerable persecution for their work. The program alternates between works from Byrd’s Cantiones Sacrae, including the mighty eight-voice motet Ad Dominum cum tribularer, and three works by Pärt that highlight his signature style, with its unique blend of ancient and modern.

The Sixteen

The Church of St. Mary the Virgin

Whilst coming from very different eras, William Byrd and Arvo Pärt are both considered masters of sacred music despite having faced considerable persecution for their work. This programme presents six of William Byrd’s works from the Cantiones Sacrae including the monumental Tribue, Domine, and the mighty eight-voice motet Ad Dominum cum tribularer. The three works by Arvo Pärt speak in his unmistakable voice, with its unique blend of ancient and modern, and include his mesmerising Nunc dimittis which is crafted in his bell-like ‘tinitinnabuli’ style.

The Deer’s Cry: Dallas

Highland Park United Methodist Church

The Los Angeles Master Chorale opens the 2024-2025 season with Sing Joyfully | 60th Anniversary Celebration Concert, which features a cappella pieces from the Renaissance to present day. The concert opens with William Byrd’s ebullient Sing Joyfully, and the Chorale will take Byrd at his word by joyfully singing choral showpieces by Anton Bruckner, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla. The second half of the program celebrates the 30th anniversary of Morten Lauridsen’s classic O Magnum Mysterium (written for the Chorale), along with glorious music of Elinor Remick Warren, Moses Hogan and Leonard Bernstein among many others.

Sing Joyfully | A 60th Anniversary Celebration Concert!

Continuing his residency, James McVinnie offers a programme that celebrates music of flair and fantasy on the Royal Festival Hall’s historic organ.

James McVinnie: Fantasias

Breaking down the barriers between meditative church music and theatre music, this rich programme features sumptuous symphony anthems, including the vivid Like as the hart by Pelham Humfrey, who remains little known owing to his untimely death in his mid twenties. Charles II liked to use his violin band even in chapel, creating a special blend of intense spiritual anguish punctuated by cheerful instrumental moments

Resounding Shores: Chamber and Chapel

Royal Academy of Music

A veritable feast of Baroque gems opens the Chamber Soirée season. Ceremonial brass set the stage for J.S. Bach’s festive Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 for strings. The percussion have their moment with Philador’s March for Two Pairs of Timpani, which was first performed for King Louis XIV in 1683. Igor Stravinsky's glorious Neo-Baroque Pulcinella Suite concludes this royal banquet.

Baroque Banquet

Sarasota Orchestra

The Civil Service Choir return to Smith Square for the third time this year, with a charity concert featuring Norwegian composer Kim André Arnesen’s Holy Spirit Mass, in a programme celebrating the mixing of the Latin and English liturgies in sacred choral works.

Charity Concert: Holy Spirit Mass

**Renaissance Choral Music: A Night with Voices of Ascension**

**Date & Time:** Tuesday, May 7, 2024, at 7:30 PM  
**Location:** Church of the Ascension, W 10th St & 5th Ave, New York, NY 10011

Dive into the Golden Age of Choral Music with the Voices of Ascension as they present an evening dedicated to the splendor of Renaissance choral music. This exceptional concert will take place in the magnificent Church of the Ascension, a venue renowned for its acoustical beauty and historical significance in the world of choral music.

**Featuring Works By:**
- **Thomas Tallis:** "If ye love me," "In ieiunio et Fletu," "O Sacrum Convivium"
- **William Byrd:** "Praise Our Lord," "Non Vos Relinquam," "Miserere mei, Domine," "Justorum animae," "Sing Joyfully"
- **Orlande de Lassus:** "Christus Resurgens ex Mortuis," "Ave Verum Corpus," "Surrexit Pastor Bonus"
- **Jan Pietezoon Sweelinck:** Selections of Psalms
- **Vicente Lusitano:** "Heu me Domine"

This concert celebrates the glory of the human voice through a broad expanse of a cappella music, featuring iconic works by Tallis, Byrd, and Lassus, alongside a Renaissance rarity by Vicente Lusitano. Experience the beauty and complexity of these masterpieces in a space that has introduced the Voices of Ascension to the world through the Billboard-topping album "Beyond Chant: Mysteries of the Renaissance."

**Tickets:** Available now. Don't miss this opportunity to be part of a memorable evening that pays homage to the Renaissance era, showcasing the timeless beauty of choral music.

Join us for a night that promises to be a profound celebration of the human voice and the enduring legacy of Renaissance music.

Renaissance Voices

Church of the Ascension

Sacred-music chamber choir The Tallis Scholars explores a collection of stories tied to Easter, Lent, and natural disaster spanning six centuries. Renowned as “one of the UK’s greatest cultural exports” (BBC Radio 3), The Tallis Scholars will treat audiences to an evocative blend of sacred Renaissance music and contemporary works by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lang, Nico Muhly, Eric Whitacre, and more.

The Tallis Scholars

Carnegie Hall

England’s finest Renaissance composer was a covert Catholic facing brutal prosecution in the English Reformation. Nonetheless, he persisted, composing clandestine services for worshippers who risked everything for their faith. Hear Byrd’s divine Mass for Five Voices as he intended: sung one-on-a-part in strictest secrecy.

Secret Byrd

Scottish Rite Temple

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

The 2023-2024 season of Schubert Club Mix opens at the Landmark Center on October 10, 2023 with a performance by close-knit British vocal ensemble Stile Antico, One of the world’s leading a capella ensembles. Stile Antico’s program England’s Nightingale: the remarkable music of William Byrd marks 400 years since Byrd’s death, and will take full advantage of Landmark Center’s cathedral-like acoustic.

Landmark Center

The Englishman William Byrd (c.1540-1623) was one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance, who wrote music for voices and instruments in a wide variety of genres. His choral music for the Anglican church is particularly celebrated for its unusual beauty and significance. Our Columbus-based Fior Angelico joins choral ensembles worldwide in celebrating the 400th anniversary of the composer’s death. Their all-Byrd program will include portions of the composer’s Great Service, the last of four sets of canticles composed for services in the Anglican liturgy. The BBC writes that this elaborate work “stands alongside the best English sacred music of Purcell as the finest in the history of the Church of England.”

Fior Angelico

St. Joseph Cathedral

Students in the Vocal Consort certificate program perform a final recital in the Princeton University Chapel.

Vocal Consort

Princeton University Chapel

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

Donna M. Di Grazia, David J. Baldwin Professor of Music, leads the celebrated Pomona College Glee Club in a program of music for a spring tour to England and Scotland.

Pomona College Glee Club in Concert

Pomona College

Performances by the Iranian-born harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani leave critics breathless and audiences rapt—his light touch and superhuman agility conjuring interpretations that are “exquisite beyond measure” (Los Angeles Times). Esfahani—a highlight of the 2020–21 Cal Performances at Home streaming series—bristles at many of the conventions of historical performance, and enjoys programming Baroque works alongside contemporary compositions. Here, in addition to music by Bach and Scarlatti, he pairs three of William Byrd’s pioneering and virtuosic 16th-century keyboard works with a new composition by Australian composer Brett Dean. Dean’s ByrdSong Studies, for solo harpsichord with prerecorded voices, celebrates Byrd’s unique and influential style, and the transgressive mass settings Byrd wrote for clandestine Catholic services during the Protestant Reformation.

Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord

University of California, Berkeley

The Princeton University Chamber Choir, directed by Gabriel Crouch, presents a concert on the 400th anniversary of the death of William Byrd.

Princeton University Chamber Choir: Celebrating William Byrd

Richardson Auditorium

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

Voilà vingt ans que James O'Donnell exerce la charge d'«Organist and Master of the Choristers» – entendez: de directeur de la musique – sous les voûtes de l'une des plus prestigieuses églises d'Angleterre: Westminster Abbey. Deux ans après le titulaire de Notre-Dame de Paris, Olivier Latry, il est convié à la tribune de l'église Saint-Maurice de Saanen pour y faire résonner les plus belles pages de son répertoire, en harmonie bien sûr avec la thématique de l'été. C'est ainsi que l'on se délectera à l'écoute de pages pour orgue des grands maîtres anglais, de Purcell à Vaughan Williams. Une «tradition» serait-elle en train de naître?

Westminster Abbey at Saanen Church – James O'Donnell

Eglise de Saanen

Ils sont quatorze chaque année, pour toute l'Angleterre, à pousser la porte du prestigieux King’s College de Cambridge. Parmi ces élus figurent à la fin des années 1960 les six choral scholars à l’origine des King’s Singers. Six étudiants, six amis, immergés en permanence dans la pratique individuelle et commune du chant, et qui un beau matin décident de mettre leurs capacités au service d’un répertoire plus… «fun»: celui de leurs loisirs, de leur âge, de leur époque. Depuis, le groupe a bien sûr évolué, mais la recette reste la même et le succès est intact; plus de 150 albums documentent leur immense répertoire. Après «Horizon» en 2012, «Black Humor» en 2015 et «Gold Standards» en 2018 (pour célébrer leur demi-siècle de scène), ils sont de retour à Saanen avec un programme à leur image: multicolore. Littéralement incontournables en cet été 100% british!

Royal Blood – The King's Singers

Acclaimed for her “imaginative intelligence and warmth” (The Guardian), British pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen crafts a hauntingly beautiful program traversing centuries of English music, illuminating the lineage between early keyboard works and modern soundscapes. Hear graceful works by Henry Purcell, Dr. John Bull’s expansive Walsingham Variations, Joseph Haydn’s Sonata in C Major, and Beethoven’s stirring and expressive Sonata No. 30 in E Major. The shadowed lyricism of John Dowland’s In Darkness Let Me Dwell echoes forward into Thomas Adès’s spectral Darknesse Visible, blurring time and texture. In Momen’s hands, this journey through centuries becomes a seamless meditation on introspection, memory, and transformation.

Mishka Rushdie Momen, piano

Washington Performing Arts

Windswept

University of Alabama

Conductor Andrew Megill leads a celebration of our Chorus in breathtaking spaces. From the intricate counterpoint and surprising dissonance of Machaut’s Kyrie and Andrieu’s Armes, amours to the Renaissance splendor of Ockeghem, Josquin, and Byrd, the evolution of choral music unfolds. Tallis’s breathtaking 40-part motet, Spem in alium (Hope in no other), soars alongside Monteverdi’s highly expressive madrigals and Bach’s deeply moving Komm, Jesu, komm and Jesu, meine Freude.

William Byrd

Events

Upcoming events

Mar 14, 2026

Mishka Rushdie Momen, piano · Washington Performing Arts

Mar 30, 2026

Windswept · Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra

17 - 22 May, 2026

Celestial Voices · Music of the Baroque

Past events

Dec 20, 2025

Mother and Child · Sinfonia Smith Square

Dec 4, 2025

Christmas with Music classes · Norrköpings Symfoniorkester

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