Houston Chamber Choir Presents BYRDS OF A FEATHER Concert With A Salute To William Byrd

Marking the 400th anniversary of composer William Byrd's death, the Grammy Award-winning Houston Chamber Choir, under the direction of founder and artistic director Robert Simpson, presents Byrds of a Feather, the third concert of the 2023-2024 season.

In this step back in time, the Choir sings works by Byrd and his contemporaries Thomas Weelkes, Orlando Gibbons, and Thomas Morely.  Concluding the concert, members of the University of Houston Concert Chorale join the Chamber Choir in a rare performance of the celebrated motet Spem in alium by Byrd's teacher, colleague, and friend, Thomas Tallis. This lush motet is seldom performed due to the demands of needing eight, five-voice choirs for a full 40 choral lines being performed simultaneously. Members of the UH Chorale and the Houston Chamber Choir will perform Spem with one singer on a part and stand encircling the audience for an experience that you will not want to miss. 

WHO: The Houston Chamber Choir is made up of 24 professional musicians of diverse backgrounds who hail from some of the finest music programs in the country, including Cleveland Institute of Music, New England Conservatory in Boston, Moores School of Music at the University of Houston, College Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati and the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Members of the Choir have performed professionally across the United States and internationally, singing in festivals, operas, concerts, church choirs and in musical theater.

Saturday, Nov. 11 at 7:30 p.m. CT

St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 4900 Jackwood St., Houston, TX 77096

COST: Single tickets for the performance range from $10 for students to $45 for general admission. Seniors and military personnel receive a discount. Tickets can be purchased online at https://www.houstonchamberchoir.org/byrds-of-a-feather.

MORE: Parking and seating are first come, first served.

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Led by Founder and Artistic Director Robert Simpson, the Houston Chamber Choir is a Grammy Award-winning ensemble of 24 professional musicians selected from the finest choral artists in our region. “One of the jewels of the city's cultural scene” (Houston Chronicle), the Houston Chamber Choir has brought Houston an array of choral works for 28 years ranging from early music and Baroque masterpieces, including the city's first period instrument performance of Bach's B Minor Mass, to the rarely heard Third Sacred Concert by Duke Ellington, and performances and premieres of works by today's leading composers, many with Houston ties — David Ashley White, Christopher Theofanidis, Dominick DiOrio, J. Todd Frazier, Mark Buller, Karim Al-Zand, Pierre Jalbert, Marcus Maroney, and Daniel Knaggs.

The Houston Chamber Choir's awards include Chorus America's Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence and the American Prize. They were one of 24 international ensembles selected to appear at the 2020 World Symposium on Choral Music in New Zealand. The Houston Chamber Choir has appeared at national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, the American Guild of Organists, and Chorus America. Tours have taken them to Mexico, Wales, and the Northeastern United States where they performed at Trinity Church, Wall Street in New York City, and Yale University at the invitation of the Institute of Sacred Music. 

The Houston Chamber Choir's recording of the complete choral works of French composer Maurice Duruflé was awarded the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance. In January 2022, Signum Classics released its newest recording of compositions by acclaimed British composer Bob Chilcott. For this recording, the Houston Chamber Choir is joined by the Treble Choir of Houston directed by Marianna Parnas-Simpson. The title work, Circlesong, is a 13-movement composition for two choirs, two pianos, and percussion based on indigenous poetry of North America.

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