A Renaissance Christmas: Music by Palestrina, Lassus & Victoria

Sunday, December 8, 3:00 pm
St. John’s Church
410 Harrison Street, Scottsville

Friday, December 13, 7:30 pm
St. Paul’s Memorial Church
1701 University Avenue, Charlottesville

Saturday, December 14, 4:00 pm
Trinity Episcopal Church
1118 Preston Avenue, Charlottesville

Zephyrus’s annual carol-free (almost!) Christmas concert, with sublime motets for Advent and Christmas by four of the most revered composers of the high Renaissance, Josquin des Prez, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Orlande de Lassus, and Tomás Luis de Victoria.

Our Lady of Sorrows: Music by Josquin, Isaac & Senfl

Friday, February 28, 7:30 pm
Cove Presbyterian Church
5531 Covesville Lane, Covesville

Saturday, March 1, 4:00 pm
St. Paul’s Memorial Church
1701 University Avenue, Charlottesville

This year’s winter program, “Our Lady of Sorrows,” focuses on one of the most popular chansons of the fifteenth century, Gilles Binchois’s Comme femme desconfortée.  Setting a text in the voice of a woman whose lover has been taken by death, the chanson was repurposed in sacred polyphony, transforming its original meaning to refer to Mary’s grief over the death of Jesus.  A small ensemble sings music by Agricola, Josquin, Isaac, Senfl and others.

Faire Is the Heaven: Music by Harris, Gjeilo & Lambe

Saturday, May 3, 7:30 pm
St. Paul’s Memorial Church
1701 University Avenue, Charlottesville

In May Zephyrus presents a program entitled “Faire Is the Heaven,” exploring the music of the spheres from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first. The concert features heavenly music by a star-studded list of composers: Walter Lambe and William Byrd, William Harris and Charles Villiers Stanford, Eric Whitacre and Ola Gjeilo.