She loves, but when she confesses...

…it gets really interesting!

 Sometime in the 17th century, or maybe a little earlier, someone wrote these words about love:

My shepherdess, with no fickleness in loving, causes me to find good things every day. But you must manage your time carefully: For it flows away and is lost hour after hour.
Whoever wishes me to fall in love, let him at least tell me, with what: Broken hope, eternal faith? Better a thousand times to die, then for to live thus still tormented.

Crying is my only pleasure; I nourish myself only with tears. Grief is my delight and moans are my joys.
The heavens are raining disasters on me every hour. What can I say? My tears, why do you hold back? Why not give vent to the proud sorrow?
The sun refuses to show his light, and day shall then be turned to night; Then lose no time, for love hath wings, and flies away from aged things.

Your contempt each day causes me a thousand fears, My treasure, I would find torment with you that would be sweeter than happiness with another. My beloved, I suffer... O my sweet love!

Granted, no one poet wrote all of those lines: They are one-liners plucked from each of the songs (in Italian, French, and English) that we are performing in a couple of weeks as part of the cavalcade of “love songs” performed during the Valentine season. We are attempting to give you a pretty full gamut of the emotions involved in 17th-century love songs, but they anticipated Joni Mitchell’s “comfort in melancholy” line in a big way. (I did omit the blatantly ‘happy’ lines in my hodge-podge teaser above... but there are actually a few!)

 Beautiful, often bittersweet love songs from the 17th century in Italy (Strozzi, Monteverdi, & Rossi), France (airs de cour by Lambert, Guédron, & Moulinié), and England (Purcell, Robert Johnson, Dowland, & Lanier).

There are eight soloists and seven instrumentalists; it will be intimate and intense. Maybe we will supply the hankies...

Read the full program description and listen to audio teasers below. 

Happy Valentine’s Day(s) - Why limit it to just one day?
-Danny

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She Loves and She Confesses:
Love Songs from the Baroque

Saturday, February 22, 2020, at  7:30 pm
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Avenue
Sunday, February 23, 2020, 3:00 pm
First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa Drive

Admission $30 general; $25 seniors (60+); $5 students (at the door only)
Tickets available in advance online or by cash, check, or credit card at the door.

Take advantage of preferred seating and other perks by sponsoring a concert!

For more information, call 512-377-6961 and leave a message,
or email info@early-music.org.

The metaphysical English poet Abraham Cowley, who wrote the text of our title song, with music by Henry Purcell, also wrote this:

A mighty pain to love it is, And ’t is a pain that pain to miss;
But of all pains, the greatest pain it is to love, but love in vain.”

Joni Mitchell wrote that there’s a sort of comfort in sadness; both classical and popular composers have long relied on tearjerkers with angst and melancholy to exhibit their powers of expression, and many seem most comfortable when composing in this vein. Barbara Strozzi, John Dowland, and others fit very comfortably into this mold, with music that is passionate and powerful and exquisite.

We will also feature a few wonderful songs about the delights of blissful love, and their exuberance and enthusiasm set them apart from their less happy cousins.

Enjoy these audio teasers from past concerts:

Our 21st season, Love’s Illusion, continues with beautiful, often bittersweet love songs from the 17th century in Italy (Strozzi, Monteverdi, Cavalli, Frescobaldi, & Rossi), France (airs de cour by Lambert, Guédron, Boësset, & Moulinié), and England (Purcell, Johnson, Dowland, & Lanier). Our soloists, accompanied by a small band of lutes, harp, harpsichord, and strings, are Jenifer Thyssen, Meredith Ruduski, Jenny Houghton, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, David Lopez, Brett Barnes, and special guests Ryland Angel, countertenor and tenor, and Donald Livingston, harpsichord.

Join us for a few tears, a few giggles, toe tapping and joy, melancholy and empathy. Oh, and some scary jealousy.

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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December needs another week!

So that we can all go to all the concerts we want to go to, perform in all the concerts we want to / need to, and still have a little time for, oh, I don’t know, maybe shopping/eating/visiting and the occasional nap! I know I’ve seen this idea proposed on other forums but no one seems to do anything about it. C’mon! Someone do something!

Because, as it turns out, we have our very own Christmas concert(s). NEXT WEEK. Three days in a row. So I’m too busy and having too much fun to start the 5-week-December campaign.

An Early Christmas is, by all accounts, one of our favorite concerts, because we cover so much territory, historically speaking, that we change the parameters of what early music is and even what Christmas music can be, and yet still tug at the heartstrings. So join us next week. And then, maybe after the New Year, get into gear with the 5-week-December campaign.

Read the full program description and listen to audio teasers below. 

See ya! It’s multilicious!
-Danny

Tickets for Saturday and Sunday's concerts are selling fast. Guarantee your seat by purchasing your tickets in advance. There is still plenty of room on Friday!

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AN EARLY CHRISTMAS

Friday, December 13, 2019, at  7:30 pm
St. John's United Methodist, 2140 Allandale Road
Saturday, December 14, 2019, at  7:30 pm
First English Lutheran Church, 3001 Whitis Avenue
Sunday, December 15, 2019, 3:00 pm
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 8134 Mesa Drive

Admission $30 general; $25 seniors (60+); $5 students (at the door only)
Tickets available in advance online or by cash, check, or credit card at the door.

Take advantage of preferred seating and other perks by sponsoring a concert!

For more information, call 512-377-6961 and leave a message,
or email info@early-music.org.

Join Texas Early Music Project for its annual multilicious feast of Christmas music through the ages. Different cultures across the centuries have celebrated this season of expectation and rebirth, and we are contributing our share with medieval chant and joyous English and French carols, magnificent motets for 8 parts from Italy and France, and lively Celtic songs, dulcet Dutch carols, exuberant folk-tunes, and more.

Enjoy these audio teasers from our most recent CD, In dulci jubilo: Early Music of the Season:

Enjoy more selections from Gaudete: An Early Christmas, Swete was the Songe, Noël: An Early Christmas and Stella splendens: An Early Music Christmas.

Brett Barnes, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, David Lopez, Jenny Houghton, Gil Zilkha, and Jenifer Thyssen are featured soloists, and acclaimed harpist Therese Honey, countertenor Ryland Angel, and Karelian chromatic kantele player Viktoria Nizhnik are featured as special guests.

Join Texas Early Music Project for a splendid and enriching evening of music. Encompassing 700 years of festive creativity and beauty, this music is sure to delight your ears and warm your heart. And you can use our new word, multilicious!

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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They're writing songs of love...

…and we're singing them!

View fullsize

Song of Songs 1:1, Bible moralisée (76 E7, f. 122r): c. 1371 - 1372,
National Library of the Netherlands, The Hague

And it’s not even February / Valentine’s Day! But these songs of love aren’t your everyday, ordinary love songs. They’re divine, mystical (in some interpretations), and gorgeous. With a chamber choir, and viol consort, TEMP presents Praising the Beloved: The Song of Songs.

Enjoy this beautiful duet from our Monteverdi 1610 concerts during our 2016-2017 Season.

Purty music. Y’all come! We won’t see you again until Christmas!

-Danny

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PRAISING THE BELOVED:
THE SONG OF SONGS

Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019, at  7:30 pm
St. John’s United Methodist Church, 2140 Allandale Rd, Austin, TX
Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019, 3:00 pm
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 8134 Mesa Dr., Austin, TX

Admission $30 general; $25 seniors (60+); $5 students (at the door only)
Tickets available in advance online or by cash, check, or credit card at the door.

Take advantage of preferred seating and other perks by
buying season tickets or sponsoring a concert!

For more information, call 512-377-6961 and leave a message,
or email info@early-music.org.

The Song of Songs or Song of Solomon from the Hebrew Bible provided the texts for many of the most polished, sensual, and beautiful compositions by the master composers of the Renaissance and early Baroque, c. 1450-c.1650. Well-known composers such as Dunstable, Josquin, Lassus, Guerrero, Monteverdi, Palestrina, and others will be represented, as well as more rarely performed but splendid works by Vecchi, Clemens, Brumel, Weerbeke, Grandi, Rovetta, Ducis, and Ingegneri. Some of the texts echo the voices of two lovers, praising each other, yearning for each other, sometimes explicitly. Other verses are more indicative of “wisdom literature,” offering teachings about divinity, virtue, and relationship.

TEMP will perform this serene and entrancing music with a small chamber choir, a consort of viols, and theorbo. Featured singers include Brett Barnes, Jenifer Thyssen, Gitanjali Mathur, Laura Mercado-Wright, Cayla Cardiff, Shari Alise Wilson, Tim O’Brien, Steve Olivares, and more, including special guest Ryland Angel, countertenor. Our consort of viols, led by guest Mary Springfels, will perform instrumental versions of some of these exquisite motets.

Superb and intense music performed in a quiet, intimate setting.
Bring someone you love.

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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It's May, it's M..... August, the Pretty Darned Hot Month of August

Speaking of hot…

And so, like all reasonable people, we are taking it easy, looking forward to the cooler season before we get busy! Ha. Not really. The “reasonable” part should have given it away. We are preparing for our season opener in September: “Oh Henry! The World of Purcell” (more on that in the next post) AND we’re also preparing for a special event during the same week as the Purcell concert! We are excited to announce a special FREE concert at UT on Sept. 18, from 3pm–5pm, in Bates Recital Hall. We’ve had the good fortune to collaborate with the renowned Sephardic music specialist, Dr. Edwin Seroussi, who will give a brief talk and then members of TEMP will perform, including Jenifer Thyssen, Cayla Cardiff, Gil Zilkha, harpist Therese Honey, and more. Enjoy these audio teasers from our La Rosa and Night & Day CDs and read the details below about this exciting event. Y’all come!

Hope you had a more reasonable summer! More soon!

-Danny

Click on the poster image to download! Please see the parking info below the poster.

Parking Information for Sephardic Songs

Parking is, unfortunately, not free, but the San Jacinto Parking Garage is right across the street from the Music building. The map below shows the location of the parking garage and Bates Recital Hall. Park in the garage and walk across the street. Enter the doors to MRH. Go straight through the hallway to the very end and you’ll see the big staircase leading to the entrance of Bates Recital Hall. See you there!

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It's May, it's May, the lusty mont…oh, what?

Oh yeh, it’s still April. Cruelest month, and all. Sorry. On the other hand, it’s April 25 and your taxes are done or done’ish. Also, it means that it’s Pam Corn’s birthday! Yes, OUR Pam Corn, TEMP Treasurer and Board member! Join me in wishing her a Happy Birthday and in thanking her for all that she and Corn & Corn, L.L.P. do for TEMP! And my sister: It’s her birthday, too! What an auspicious day!!

So, we are preparing for our May concert of Medieval music from Germany, the Texas Toot workshop in June, the Amherst Early Music Workshop in July, and also the upcoming season, which we will keep to ourselves a little longer. Season tickets for 2019-2020 will be available at the May concert, so bring your calendar and grab those tickets while they’re hot!

Learn more about the May concert below and enjoy this audio sample from our 2012 concert “Living Waters: Works by Hildegard von Bingen” and recorded on our Sacred CD:

Hildegard’s music is unique and rare. Come for the 30-minute, pre-concert lecture by Sara Schneider, too, 1 hour before each performance.

More soon, featuring an exciting interview from this year’s SXSW! No more clues!
-Danny

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Mystic, Scientist, Scholar, Nun:
Music of Hildegard von Bingen

Saturday, May 11, 2019, at  7:30 pm
St. Louis King of France Catholic Church Chapel, 7601 Burnet Road, Austin, TX
Sunday, May 12, 2019, 3:00 pm
St. John’s United Methodist Church, 2140 Allandale Road, Austin, TX

Admission $30 general; $25 seniors (60+); $5 students (at the door only)
Tickets available in advance online or by cash, check, or credit card at the door.

Take advantage of preferred seating and other perks by sponsoring a concert!

For more information, call 512-377-6961 and leave a message,
or email info@early-music.org.

TEMP’s 2003 performance of Hildegard von Bingen’s liturgical drama Ordo virtutum won the Austin Critics Table award for Best Chamber Concert of the season. Now we return to the beautifully sophisticated and powerful music of the 12th-century German abbess with a performance of several of her compelling antiphons and sequences, performed by 15 women singers. KMFA’s Sara Schneider, host of the nationally syndicated program Early Music Now, will present a 30-minute lecture one hour before each concert.

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was a composer, a writer of theological, botanical, and medical texts, a Christian mystic, and an abbess. She has become increasingly important in recent decades due to renewed interest in her visions, music, and holistic healing teachings. She has long been venerated within the Catholic Church, and she was canonized as Saint Hildegard in October 2012. For Hildegard, music was the sacred means through which we become tuned to celestial unity while we remain linked to the lowly vibrations of life on Earth. The melodies of her chants highlight the emotions of the texts through soaring melodic arches, creating an ecstatic aural atmosphere that is unique to her compositions. She compiled all her music into a cycle called Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum (The Symphony of the Harmony of the Heavenly Revelations), which includes antiphons, sequences, and hymns set to her own texts.

Featured soloists include Jenifer Thyssen, Meredith Ruduski, Gitanjali Mathur, Jenny Houghton, Laura Mercado-Wright, Cayla Cardiff, Shari Alise Wilson, and others. We will also present a few instrumental pieces by composers contemporary to Hildegard’s time, featuring a small instrumental ensemble of vielles, hurdy-gurdy, gittern, and psalteries, led by featured guest Mary Springfels.

Extraordinarily creative and remarkably relevant, Hildegard’s music resonates through the centuries. Please join us for a concert of rare beauty by an exceptional genius.

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

How Many Tudors did the Tudors Tutor?

So, while March comes roaring in like a lion bundled up in down and scarves, I really must thank all of you who supported TEMP and other nonprofits during the Amplify Austin campaign! Your generous contributions will help us present another spectacular concert season for 2019-2020 and will help us continue and “amplify” our education programs in Austin-area schools. I think the final totals for Amplify Austin Day were about $11.2 million (for 740 local organizations) and TEMP came in #18 among the Arts and Culture organizations with 58 donors who helped us reach almost 80% of our goal!

THANK YOU!

I think you will see the results on the concert stages and in our outreach programs!

Speaking of concert stages, we hope you are keeping track of the calendar and are making plans to come to our Tudor concert: It’s epic, both in the planning and the musical scope.

Here’s a little snippet from our concert of Eton Choirbook/Tudor music back in 2007 and recorded on our Sacred CD:

Tutor yourself by reading the Symphony of Voices concert details below—and thank you, TEMP Fans, for your generosity and enthusiastically amplifying TEMP!

With gratitude,
-Danny

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A Symphony of Voices:
Choral Masterworks of Tudor England

Saturday, March 30, 2019, at  7:30 pm
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Avenue, Austin, TX
Sunday, March 31, 2019, 3:00 pm
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 8134 Mesa Drive, Austin, TX

Admission $30 general; $25 seniors (60+); $5 students (at the door only)
Tickets available in advance online or by cash, check, or credit card at the door.

Take advantage of preferred seating and other perks by sponsoring a concert!

For more information, call 512-377-6961 and leave a message,
or email info@early-music.org.

A symphony of voices, 26 a cappella voices in this case, works in the same way an orchestral symphony might: There are thickly colorful choral tutti sections alternating with starkly transparent solo lines, hypnotically static harmonic rhythms alternating with florid vocal lines that are full of subtle virtuosity, resplendent with both shimmering beauty and unexpected dissonances resolving quickly to more beauty. This is the tradition of the Eton Choirbook, compiled between c.1490 and c.1510, during the transition from the late Medieval to the early Renaissance in England, which set the path for English choral music for generations. TEMP explores a few of the breathtaking masterpieces from the Eton collection as well as music from the contemporaneous English court.

Thanks to boosts from popular culture on television and in movies, more people than ever are aware of and interested in the very important Tudor court of Henry VIII. During the time during which the Tudors ruled England—almost 90 years, from 1509 until 1603—England’s importance in the world increased dramatically and English musical and artistic culture became more important. In addition to small masterpieces from prominent composers like Robert Fayrfax and William Cornysh, we will perform a least one work written by Henry VIII, who received lessons in music and languages from an early age as a part of the standard curriculum for royal children. He played harp, lute, recorder, harpsichord, and organ. Though some of his best-known compositions are lively and roughly hewn, a much larger percentage of his works are rather intimate and delicate pieces written with obvious care and skill. (No, he did not compose Greensleeves. Who starts these rumors?) Most of his compositions can be dated to the early part of his reign (1509-1547) and can be found in the so-called “Henry VIII manuscript,” which dates from about 1520.

The TEMP viol consort, led by Mary Springfels, will freshen the aural palate with some selections from the court and the chapel. The chorus will include several frequent guests, including countertenor Ryland Angel, Temmo Korisheli, Erin Calata, and former UT-EME member, Joel Nesvadba. They will be joining TEMP core members Jenifer Thyssen, Meredith Ruduski, Jenny Houghton, Stephanie Prewitt, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, Gil Zilkha, Brett Barnes, and many more. Twenty-six singers, each a soloist in his or her own right, will help create an unforgettably beautiful experience.

Join us for a beautiful and moving concert that will illuminate the passage from the late Medieval to the early Renaissance with passion and beauty and soothe the souls of 21st century audience members.

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

Well, you know what they say:

There’s cauld Kail in Aberdeen

I reckon that’s a good thing. Maybe it’s a less good thing. Anyway, it’s a fun song that Jeffrey Jones-Ragona will be singing in our upcoming Celtic Fancies concert (see details below). There are lots of fun pieces, ne’er you fear, to balance out the sad love songs, the happy love songs, the longing love songs, the. . .well, you get the idea. Some of the most romantic songs express love for specific places in Scotland, like The Birks of Invermay, The Braes o’ Ballochmyle, Etrick Banks and, of course, The Broom of Cowdenknows. . .well, there’s quite of variety of aspects of love mixed in that one song alone.

Peter Walker (NY) will be featured on a variety of Scottish smallpipes—think of them as chamber bagpipes, ‘saft and sweet’—and will be featured, along with Cayla Cardiff and Ryland Angel, in the Game of Thrones portion of the concert, based on an historical event in 1630: murder, deception, revenge. Frennet Hall. Amazing! And you don’t need HBO to catch it! Jenifer Thyssen sings a few of Robert Burns’ best poems, Jenny Houghton sings The Broom, David Lopez will warm your heart with his rendition of The Birks…, and all 5 guys (Jeffrey, David, Peter, Ryland, and Danny) will make you laugh with The Pleugh Song, an amazing, epic, 16th-century advertisement for. . .wait for it. . .plows!

Click on the CD images below to listen to more audio teasers!

Besides Peter Walker on pipes, we will feature always-amazing Peter Maund on percussion, Therese Honey and Elaine Barber on harps, and our Ballad Band (see below) with reels, strathspeys, and more! “We are a band compleatly fitted to be joyly!”

“We’ll please ourselves with mutual Charms, as we did lang syne.” Ok, yes, it’s an earlier Auld lang syne than the one that we all sing without really knowing…

Join us! It’ll be wonder bonny!
-Danny

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Celtic Fancies: Music From Ireland & Scotland, c. 1500–1800

Saturday, February 16, 2019, at  7:30 pm
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 8134 Mesa Drive
Sunday, February 17, 2019, 3:00 pm
First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa Drive, Austin, TX

Admission $30 general; $25 seniors (60+); $5 students (at the door only)
Tickets available in advance online or by cash, check, or credit card at the door.

Take advantage of preferred seating and other perks by sponsoring a concert!

For more information, call 512-377-6961 and leave a message,
or email info@early-music.org.

Celtic music is very popular, beautiful, and exciting in the 21st century. But what was it like in earlier periods, 200-500 years ago? Well, it was popular, beautiful, and exciting! Even the English held the Scottish ballads in high esteem and our own Ben Franklin adored these songs and considered them the height of great art. TEMP enjoys presenting this repertoire because of its musical challenges and rewards and because of its musical link to another time and place—one that is still vibrantly alive in many ways.

TEMP’s featured singers for the ballads are Jenifer Thyssen, Cayla Cardiff, Jenny Houghton, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, and David Lopez, as well as frequent guest singers from New York, Peter Walker and Ryland Angel. Peter Walker will also play a variety of evocative Scottish smallpipes and reelpipes, and will join the TEMP “ballad band” for several exhilarating dances. Harpist Therese Honey will perform traditional music from Ireland and will be joined by guest artists Peter Maund (percussion) and TEMP core players Marcus McGuff (flute), Elaine Barber (harp), Bruce Colson & Stephanie Raby (violin), John Walters (mandolin), Scott Horton (lutes and guitar), and Carolyn Hagler (cello).

Join us for an exhilarating / heartbreaking / knee-slapping funny /
bonny sweet concert.
I guess I could’ve just said it has lots of variety!

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

I'll be thanking you-oo-oo-oo*

So, just so you know, we are thankful all year long: thankful that we have audience members, both long-term and newly-found, who come to our playful-yet-virtuosic concerts like the November production of Pimpinone. We are thankful for the chance to present beautiful/humorous/melancholic music like the ‘Complaints’ concert that we performed in Austin last spring and in college Station in late October. We are thankful for the adventurous amateur and semi-pro musicians who joined us at the Texas Toot workshop last summer and this last weekend led by professionals from around the nation.

We are thankful for donors like the Fifth Age of Man Foundation, which will be sponsoring the upcoming Christmas concert (see deets below!), and we are thankful for donors who help to keep us going on a daily basis with contributions from $10 to $10,000!

We hope you all have a lovely, peaceful, heart-warming, multilicious Thanksgiving, and we hope to see you all at our upcoming Early Christmas concerts. We will have our new Christmas cd ready for you, gathered from our 2016 and 2017 Early Christmas concerts. For now, enjoy these audio teasers from our earlier Christmas CDs: Gaudete, Noël, Swete was the Songe, and Stella splendens.

Breaking news! We have a NEW Christmas CD!

Learn more —>

Photo credit: Kudos Kitchen by Renée

And now, I think I hear a pumpkin pie calling my name…
-Danny

*Curious about the title of this post? Here’s the reference: https://bit.ly/2Q8UvBi

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An Early Christmas

Friday, December 7, 2018, at  7:30 pm
St. John's United Methodist, 2140 Allandale Road
Saturday, December 8, 2018, at  7:30 pm
First English Lutheran Church, 3001 Whitis Avenue
Sunday, December 9, 2018, 3:00 pm
First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa Drive, Austin, TX

Admission $30 general; $25 seniors (60+); $5 students (at the door only)
Tickets available in advance online or by cash, check, or credit card at the door.

Take advantage of preferred seating and other perks by sponsoring a concert!

For more information, call 512-377-6961 and leave a message,
or email info@early-music.org.

Join Texas Early Music Project for its annual multilicious feast of Christmas music through the ages. With sweet medieval lullabies and joyous English and French carols, magnificent motets from Germany, dulcet Celtic cradle-songs and exuberant folk-tunes, and more, we celebrate this season of expectation and rebirth, along with different cultures encompassing more than 700 years of humanity's hope, love, and joy.  TEMP puts its distinctive stamp on the intangible essence and passion of Christmas with arrangements for solo voices, small chorus, harps, violin, flute, mandolin, viols, and lute.

Brett Barnes, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, David Lopez, Jenny Houghton, and Jenifer Thyssen are featured soloists, and acclaimed harpists Therese Honey and Elaine Barber are featured as special guests.

Join us for a splended and enriching program. With more than 700 years of creativity and beauty, this music is sure to delight your ears and warm your heart.

And you can use our new word: multilicous!

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!