The celebrated a cappella group Stile Antico ring in the season with their first North American holiday tour, running December 3 - 18, 2011

"Stile Antico...make Thomas Tallis' Christmas Mass and other examples of seasonal 16th century English choral glisten."

- LOS ANGELES TIMES

The program features 16th-century composer Thomas Tallis and his magnificent seven-part mass, first performed in December 1554 by the combined choirs of the Spanish and English Chapels Royal. The Mass is interspersed with seasonal Tudor music, including William Byrd’s exquisite Propers for the fourth Sunday of Advent (from the Gradualia of 1605), responsories by Taverner and Sheppard, Robert White’s exuberant setting of the Magnificat, and Tallis’s own sublime Videte miraculum.


The concert program mirrors Stile Antico's latest recording, Puer natus est, which climbed the charts in U.K. and the U.S., reaching Billboard's Top 10. It has received top awards from the international press, including the latest Edison Klassiek Award, the CHOC and Diapason, U.K.'s IRR "Outstanding" and Germany's Preis de Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, and was named BEST OF 2010 by journals including The New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Stile Antico passed the "bah humbug" test when Time Out New York wrote, "Even Scrooge would embrace this transporting survey of Tudor English Christmas music, sublimely sung by a young English choir whose every new release demands hearing."


Stile Antico spent 2011 on tour and in the studio recording new projects, one of which features the noted viol consort Fretwork: Tune thy Musicke to thy Hart is a fascinating exploration of a long-neglected repertory - the wealth of Tudor and Jacobean sacred music written for private performance, rather than liturgical use. This music was intended to inspire piety and affirm faith, and its styles and concerns offer a unique insight into the turbulent religious climate of the time. Opening with music by Cornyshe from the Henry VIII manuscript, the program also includes music by Tallis, Byrd, Dowland, Weelkes and others. Tune thy Musicke to thy Hart is Stile Antico's sixth album and will be released in February 2012.


“An ensemble of breathtaking freshness, vitality and balance”

- THE NEW YORK TIMES

IN CONCERT



12/03 - Seattle, WA

St. James Catedral



12/5 - Vancouver, BC

Chan Centre



12/07 - Ann Arbor, MI

St. Andrews

Episcopal Church



12/10 - Milwaukee, WI

Cathedral of St. John

the Evangelist



12/13 - Davidson, NC

Davidson United

Methodist Church



12/14 - Richmond, VA

Camp Concert Hall



12/16 - Durham, NH

Johnson Theater



12/17 - Cambridge, MA

St. Paul Church



12/18 - New York,  NY

Corpus Christi Church