ZEPHYRUS PRESENTS
The Early Renaissance In England and France

Sunday, February 24, 2008
3:30 p.m.
St. Paul's Memorial Church
1700 University Avenue
Charlottesville, Virginia

Zephyrus performs gems from the late fifteenth century. Click here for the complete program.

Dec. 15 Staunton Concert Cancelled

The Zephyrus concert scheduled for 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 15 at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, Staunton has been cancelled due to winter weather conditions. We are disapponted that we will not be able to perform this concert.

ZEPHYRUS PRESENTS
A Renaissance Christmas

This year Zephyrus offers its annual Christmas concert in three performances: Saturday, December 8, 8 p.m., at First Presbyterian Church, Park Street, Charlottesville; Sunday, December 9, 3:30 p.m., at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood; and Saturday, December 15, 8:00 p.m., at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, Staunton.

The program will feature trademark Zephyrus performances of Renaissance Christmas motets, both old favorites and new offerings. Other music incldes a set of small-scale, intimate Renaissance pieces that would have been sung in private homes and a set of Christmas pieces from the late Middle Ages. All will be sung unaccompanied.

Tickets are $15 ($10 for students and seniors), available in advance from the New Dominion Bookstore downtown, Greenberry’s Barracks Road, and Mincer’s at the Corner, and at the door.

ZEPHYRUS 2007 - 2008 Concert Schedule

The Zephyrus concert schedule for the 2007 - 2008 season has been announced by Paul Walker, director. Click here to see the complete schedule.

ZEPHYRUS PRESENTS
Music for Easter

Sunday, April 15, 2007
3:30 p.m.
St. Paul's Memorial Church
1700 University Avenue
Charlottesville, Virginia

Music enthusiasts will have the rare opportunity of hearing selections of Easter music spanning four centuries at an April 15, 2007 concert held at St. Paul’s Memorial Church, 1700 University Avenue, in Charlottesville. Zephyrus, a non-profit vocal ensemble based in Charlottesville that is dedicated to the performance of music from the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras, will perform Christ lag in Todesbanden by Johann Sebastian Bach, and other music for Easter. The concert will begin at 3:30 p.m. and is open to the public.

Paul Walker, Director of Zephyrus, is Associate Professor of Music and director of Early Music Performance at the University of Virginia. Walker founded Zephyrus in 1991 and has since devoted the choral group to bringing the treasures of early music to a wider audience.

For this concert, Walker wanted to showcase music written specifically for the Easter season, which is lesser known than pieces composed for Christmas.

“The Bach cantata is one of the best known Easter pieces written,” said Walker. “It’s a fantastic piece written by one of the last top-flight composers to write music primarily within the liturgical contexts of the Church. This is one of Bach’s earliest cantatas and one of his best known and best loved. Sometimes known as Cantata 4, it is based on a tune by Martin Luther that was an adaptation of a Gregorian piece created in the Middle Ages.”

Zephyrus, which consists of approximately 20 men and women representing a wide variety of academic and professional backgrounds, will be accompanied by a small orchestra including players from the University of Virginia Baroque Orchestra.

“At this concert the audience can expect to hear a variety of early music from Gregorian chant to late Baroque, with some standard Renaissance motets,” said Walker. “This concert offers a variety of styles covering 400 years. That is something we don’t do every time but it seemed appropriate for this one where audiences will have a chance to experience music unified around one season of the year.”

Zephyrus audiences have come to appreciate the unique combination of inspiring music and historical information they get at each concert thanks to detailed program notes written by Walker. “We try to do this music in an aesthetically pleasing and intellectually stimulating way,” he said. “A lot of people come to our concerts wanting a spiritual dimension, while others don’t. We present the music in a proper historical way and give out the more intellectual dimensions of it, but we leave the interpretation and the reaction to it up to the listeners.”

Walker added that the acoustics at St. Paul’s is especially conducive to this music. “It’s our favorite place to sing and that will be a big enhancement for this concert.”

Tickets are $15 per person; $10 for seniors and students. They can be purchased in advance at Mincer’s, Greenberry’s at Barracks Road or the New Dominion Bookstore, or at the door.

For additional information, call 434-293-5339 or e-mail pmw6q@virginia.edu.

ZEPHYRUS PRESENTS
Claudio Monteverdi
Music For St. Mark's Basilica, Venice

Saturday, February 17, 2007
8:00 p.m.
University Baptist Church
1223 West Main Street
Charlottesville, Virginia

Charlottesville music lovers will have the chance to travel back to early 17th century Venice when Zephyrus, Central Virginia’s Early Music Ensemble, presents works by Monteverdi at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 17, at University Baptist Church on West Main Street.

The program is built around psalms and duets Monteverdi composed when he followed Giovanni Gabrieli as maestro di capella of St. Mark’s in Venice, where his primary responsibility was to provide music for the various liturgical services.

The concert will remind Zephyrus fans of the group’s presentation several years ago of Monteverdi’s Marian Vespers of 1610 and will, again, feature more solo and duet performances than have recently been offered. In addition, the whole-group pieces contain much contrasting texture and grand effects, making this event particularly appealing to those who enjoy the more modern works in Zephyrus’ repertory. Click here to see the complete program.

Paul Walker will direct the ensemble from the organ. He will be joined by David Sariti, Lee Bidgood, and Loren Ludwig, members of the U.Va. Baroque Orchestra, playing violins and viola da gamba, and by Constance Whiteside, playing Baroque harp.

General admission tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students and elders. They can be purchased in advance at Greenberry’s at Barracks Road, Mincer’s on the Corner, and New Dominion Bookstore on the Downtown Mall. For more information, call 434-293-5339.

Zephyrus Releases Fourth CD

Four Members of Zephyrus—tenors J. R. Ankney and Jason Stell, and counter-tenors Colin Bird and Zephyrus director Paul Walker—perform the 14th-century mass, Messe de Nostre Dame, by Guilluame de Machaut. Machaut was arguably the most famous musician of fourteenth-century Europe. This complete setting of the Mass Ordinary was the first by single composer.

Charlottesville, Virgina fans can find copies for sale at Hotcakes in the Barracks Road Shopping Center and at Spencer’s 206 downtown on Water Street. To purchase a copy by mail, click the button below.

For information on other Zephyrus CDs, click here.

ZEPHYRUS PRESENTS Music For Christmas Saturday, December 9, 2006 8:00 p.m. First Presbyterian Church 500 Park Street Charlottesville, Virginia Sunday, December 10, 2006 3:30 p.m. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church 851 Owensville Road Ivy, Virginia

Charlottesville-area audiences can get a taste of both Christmas past and Christmas present when Zephyrus, Central Virginia’s Early Music Ensemble, performs Renaissance motets and contemporary music of the holiday season under the direction of Paul Walker. There will be two opportunities to enjoy this varied program: at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 9, at First Presbyterian Church on Park Street in Charlottesville, and at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, December 10, at St. Paul’s Ivy just north of Route 250 West on Owensville Road.

The entire concert will be sung a capella and will feature favorites from Zephyrus’ repertoire as well as pieces new to the group. The Renaissance set includes selections from the ensemble’s two Christmas CD’s, Nativity and Angelus, both of which will be available for purchase. The modern set is built around 20th and 21st century music such as Franz Biebl’s Ave Maria and Morten Lauridsen’s O magnum mysterium, most of which the singers will be performing for the first time. Finally, a set of carols will treat audiences to a wide variety of tunes in myriad languages — English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Czech and Polish. These selections result in a program ranging from complex, challenging pieces to simpler, more traditional holiday fare, thus providing an excellent opportunity to experience the scope of Zephyrus’ repertoire. Click here to see the complete program.

Music lovers new to Zephyrus as well as long-standing fans can get into the holiday mood while experiencing a wide spectrum of Christmas works in a festive, family-friendly concert. Be advised that these general admission holiday concerts often sell out, so plan to arrive early. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students and elders; they may be purchased in advance at Greenberry’s at Barracks Road, Mincer’s on the Corner, and New Dominion Bookstore on the Downtown Mall, or at the door. For more information, call 293-5339.

The Zephyrus Medieval Quartet
Secular Music from Late Fourteenth-Century France

Friday, October 13, 2006
8:00 p.m.
Meade Hall
Christ Episcopal Church
120 West High Street
Charlottesville, Virginia

What did Medieval monks sing for fun, as a break from the routine of daily Gregorian Chant? Find out when Zephyrus’s Medieval Quartet presents secular music of 14th-century France at 8 p.m. on Friday, October 13, at Christ Episcopal Church in downtown Charlottesville.

The concert promises to be a lively, enlightening event that treats the audience to music rarely performed since the era of its creation. Its style is one of incredible technical sophistication: included in the performance will be a long canon that tells of a bird-hunting expedition, complete with appropriate calls and whoops; a piece in four parts, of which two can be sung both forwards and backwards against the other two; a love song originally notated in the form of a heart (the image on concert posters), and a song about a harp notated on the strings of a harp

Two tenors, J. R. Ankney and Jason Stell, and two counter-tenors, Colin Bird and Zephyrus director Paul Walker, combine for a typical Zephyrus evening: an opportunity to learn more about intricate early music while listening to singers who convey that complexity with astonishing ease and beauty.

Tickets, available only at the door, are $15 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. The concert takes place in Meade Hall of Christ Episcopal Church. The church is located at 120 West High Street, although the side entrance on 2^nd Street NW near Jefferson is more convenient to Meade Hall. For more information, call 434-293-5339.

ZEPHYRUS PRESENTS
Guillaume de Machaut, Messe de Nostre Dame

Sunday, September 10, 2006
4:00 p.m.
St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church
121 North Augusta Street
Staunton, Virginia

Four Members of Zephyrus, the Charlottesvile-based early music vocal ensemble, will perform this 14th-century mass of the Virgin Mary by Guilluame de Machaut.

Machaut was arguably the most famous musician of fourteenth-century Europe. His complete setting of the Mass Ordinary was the first by single composer. Our performing forces are those of the fourteenth century: only four singers – two countertenors and two tenors.

Tickets are $10-15, available at The Bookstack in Staunton and at the door before the performance.

Hearing Heaven:

The Creation of the Choir in Renaissance England

Dr. Roger Bowers has provided an expanded version of his lecture that preceded the Zephyrus concert on April 2, 2006. Click here.

ZEPHYRUS PRESENTS
Choral Polyphony: the First 100 Years

Sunday, April 2, 2006
8:00 p.m.
St. Paul's Memorial Church
1700 University Avenue
Charlottesville, VA

Saturday, May 6, 2006
7:30 p.m.
Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church
8 North Laurel Street
Richmond, VA

Program

Kyrie, Messe de Nostre Dame	Guillaume de Machaut (c.1300 - 1377)
Gloria	Leonel Power (c.1375 - 1445)
Credo Deus Deorum	Antonio Zacara Teramo (c.1355 - 1413)
Sanctus "Papale"	Guillaume Dufay (1397 - 1474)
Agnus Dei	Anonymous (Old Hall manuscript, c.1421 )
Ave maris stella	Guillaume Dufay
Descendi in hortum meum	John Dunstaple (c.1380 - 1453)
Maria plena virtute	Robert Fayrfax (1464 - 1521)
O Maria Salvatoris Mater	John Browne (b.1453?)

Machaut was arguably the most famous musician of fourteenth-century Europe. His complete setting of the Mass Ordinary was the first by a single composer. Our performing forces are those of the fourteenth century: only four singers – two countertenors and two tenors.

The balance of the program illustrates the development of the chorus in the early fifteenth century.

The Charlottesville performance will be preceded by a talk at 7:15 p.m. Dr. Roger Bowers of Cambridge University will talk on the early development of the chorus in sacred music.

Zephyrus Releases Third CD

In January 2005 Zephyrus released its third CD, a recording of music by Flemish masters of the high Renaissance. Central to the recording is a complete performance of the Missa Sub tuum presidium by Jacob Obrecht, the first mass that Zephyrus has recorded. We chose it because of its interesting progression of movements from Kyrie to Agnus Dei: the first incorporates only three voices, the second (Gloria) has four, and so on, until one arrives at seven voices in the Agnus Dei. The entire mass is based on various Gregorian chants with texts to the Virgin Mary, of which the title chant, Sub tuum presidium, is the most prominent and can be heard in every movement. In the Agnus Dei, no fewer than four voices carry chant tunes (and texts).

Other pieces on this CD include the dramatic Lugebat David Absalon of Nicolas Gombert, the ethereal Nesciens mater of Jean Mouton, the sensual Ego flos campi of Jacobus Clemens non Papa, the intricate Christe Redemptor omnium of Adrian Willaert, the flowing Alma Redemptoris mater of Johannes Ockeghem, and the well-crafted Gaude virgo of Josquin des Prez. It’s our most ambitious CD to date and our best work.

Charlottesville, Virgina fans can find copies for sale at Hotcakes in the Barracks Road Shopping Center and at Spencer’s 206 downtown on Water Street. To purchase a copy by mail, click the button below.

For information on other Zephyrus CDs, click here.