Zephyrus 2023-2024 Season
Evensong
Sunday, October 22, 2023
7:30 pm
St. Paul’s Memorial Church
1701 University Avenue, Charlottesville
Evensong was adapted from the ancient vespers liturgy by Thomas Cranmer in the earliest versions of the Book of Common Prayer (1549/1552). In this service Zephyrus sings English Renaissance polyphony composed specifically for the then new evening prayer liturgy. The service includes canticle settings by Robert Parsons and responses by William Byrd.
An English Renaissance Christmas:
Music by Tallis & Byrd
Friday, December 8, 2023
7:30 pm
St. Paul’s Memorial Church
1701 University Avenue, Charlottesville
Saturday, December 9, 2023
4:00 pm
Trinity Episcopal Church
1118 Preston Avenue, Charlottesville
To mark the 400th anniversary of William Byrd’s death, Zephyrus presents a Christmas program with music by Byrd and his teacher, colleague, and friend, Thomas Tallis. Tallis’s monumental 7-part mass on the chant Puer natus est nobis was written for the grandest of occasions, a Christmas day service at the English court of Queen Mary with Philip II of Spain and his own choir present as well. Byrd’s settings of the other texts for Christmas mass, by contrast, were written for private services well away from court, in the most intimate country house chapels. Together they showcase the best seasonal music from the golden age of English Renaissance music.
Polyphony & Prejudice:
Music by Vicente Lusitano
Saturday, February 17, 2024
8:00 pm
St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish
401 Alderman Road, Charlottesville
Friday, February 23, 2024
7:30 pm
Cove Presbyterian Church
5531 Covesville Lane, Covesville
Vicente Lusitano was one of the most talented composers of the early 16th century, and he needed to be, for as a composer of mixed race in Renaissance Portugal he faced many challenges. Lusitano was unable to hold any position within the church (despite being ordained) and made a living as a teacher, giving lessons to children of the nobility and publishing several well-regarded treatises on music. He traveled with the Portuguese ambassador to Rome, where a collection of his motets was printed in 1551, the first known publication of music by a Black composer. This remarkable music literally picks up where Josquin left off, in several motets expanding Josquin’s setting of the same text in virtuosic fashion.
Polyphony & Power:
Music from the Court of Charles V
Saturday May 4, 2024
7:30 pm
St. Paul’s Memorial Church
1701 University Avenue, Charlottesville
Friday, May 10, 2024
7:30 pm
St. Benedict Catholic Church
300 N. Sheppard Street, Richmond
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, was a central figure in some of the most pivotal moments in history, from the Reformation to the Atlantic slave trade. He was not only a powerful monarch but also a great patron of music, employing at his court some of the most celebrated composers of his day. Zephyrus traces Charles’s life through the music that accompanied it—his favorite chanson, written by Josquin; wedding and coronation masses by Gombert and Morales; motets marking political victories; and music composed for the emperor’s funeral.