Stile Antico Closes the 2011-12 Miller Theatre Early Music Series, 4/21

Miller Theatre at Columbia University SCHOOL OF THE ARTS closes the 2011-12 season of its Early Music series with Treasures of the Renaissance featuring Stile Antico on Saturday, April 21 at 8:00 p.m. at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin. 

Miller Theatre Director Melissa Smey said, “I am thrilled to close our 2011-2012 Early Music series with the return of the exquisite British choral ensemble, Stile Antico. They dazzled our audience last season with a refined and mature sound that belied their youth. And this program promises to be just as staggering, with a broad range of works.”

This season’s Early Music concerts began with a sold-out performance by The Tallis Scholars, with a program centered around the Magnificat. The series continued in 2012 with three more Early Music concerts, two in Midtown Manhattan at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin (affectionately known as Smoky Mary’s) and one uptown at The American Academy of Arts & Letters. New York’s young-yet-polished New York Polyphony brought a romantic Valentine’s Day program. And in March France’s Le Poème Harmonique makes a stop on their international tour to perform emotional works by flickering candlelight.

Saturday, April 21, 2012, 8:00 p.m.

Treasures of the Renaissance
Stile Antico

The “crystalline and ethereal voices” of the young British choir Stile Antico are back with a program of masterpieces from the golden age of choral music. The richly varied repertoire features works by fifteen composers, including Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, and represents a broad range of Renaissance styles from Flemish to Tudor to Jacobean—even a piece based on a medieval text, but written specifically for the twelve voices of Stile Antico.

PROGRAM:

Magnificat primi toni - Nicolas Gombert

Ego flos campi - Jacobus Clemens non Papa

Veni dilecte mi - Orlandus Lassus

Laetentur coeli - William Byrd

O Sacrum convivium - Thomas Tallis

Woefully arrayed - John McCabe

Why fum’th in fight - Tallis

Vigilate - Byrd

The Lord’s Prayer - John Sheppard

O praise the Lord - Thomas Tomkins

I am the resurrection and the life - Orlando Gibbons

Exultate Deo - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

Hortus Conclusus - Rodrigo de Ceballos

Veni, dilecti mi - Sebastián de Vivanco

O magnum mysterium - Tomás Luis de Victoria

Tota pulchra es - Hieronymus Praetorius

Stile Antico is an ensemble of young British singers. Prizewinners at the 2005 Early Music Network International Young Artists' Competition performs regularly throughout Europe and North America. Their recordings on the Harmonia Mundi label have enjoyed great success, receiving the Diapason d’Or de l'Année and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik; their debut album, Music for Compline, was nominated for a Grammy Award. The group's most recent release, Song of Songs, won the 2009 Gramophone Award for Early Music and reached the top of the United States Classical Chart. Working without a conductor, the members of Stile Antico rehearse and perform as chamber musicians, each contributing artistically to the musical result. Their performances have repeatedly been praised for their vitality and commitment, expressive lucidity, and imaginative response to text. Stile Antico's repertoire ranges from the glorious legacy of the English Tudor composers to the works of the Flemish and Spanish schools and the music of the early Baroque.

The Church of St. Mary the Virgin is located at 145 W. 46th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues.

Single tickets are now available online at www.millertheatre.com.

The public may also purchase tickets through the Miller Theatre Box Office

in person or at 212/854-7799, M–F, 12–6 p.m.

Miller Theatre is located north of the Main Campus Gate at 116th St. & Broadway on the ground floor of Dodge Hall.