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Spring News from the Directors

With optimism in the air, we are happy to be closing out the current season and getting ready for the next!  We had a very busy winter producing our Mexican Christmas video debut, 30-some newly-created videos from our audio archives, and our Behind the Scenes Lecture series.  Stay tuned; if you missed our lecture series, we will be posting the recorded sessions on YouTube in the following weeks, and you can catch up or watch them again at your leisure!

And now – drum roll, please – for next season, we bring you three of the concerts we had planned for last year, all postponed because of the pandemic.  We’ll open the season Oct. 29 with a Welcome Back gala fundraiser at the Halim Museum in Evanston.  This beautiful, spacious and airy venue will host us once again to meet and greet, hear some great music, and enjoy refreshments together.  Mexican Christmas is back, this time with supertitles!  Then, in the Winter/Spring 2022 we will present “Music Fit for the Medici” and “Fun and Games”.  Dates and venues will be announced shortly, so make sure you’re on our mailing list!

We wish everyone good health and we look forward to seeing you in person soon!

Newberry Consort Co-Directors David Douglass & Ellen Hargis

Our Mission

The Newberry Consort brings together singers and instrumentalists of the highest caliber to create accessible and historically informed performances of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music. We inspire audiences, musicians, and scholars by providing a window into earlier times and cultures through performance, education, and research.

About Us

Beguiling and intelligent, provocative and classic, ravishingly beautiful and deliciously edgy, The Newberry Consort has been delighting audiences for three decades. Directed by David Douglass and Ellen Hargis, the ensemble plumbs the Newberry Library’s vast music collection and assembles a star-studded roster of local and international artists to present world-class performances of music from the 13th to the 18th centuries…and occasionally beyond! Practitioners of “historically informed performance,” also referred to as “early music,” The Newberry Consort brings to the stage the sounds, stories, and spirit of times past.  The Consort performs from its vast range of repertories in a series of programs in the Chicago area, and tours nationally and internationally.  The Consort is affiliated with the Newberry Library Center for Renaissance Studies, offering interdisciplinary classes in the humanities to the Center’s consortium of colleges and universities.  The Consort also serves as an ensemble-in-residence at both the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, interacting with college students in both the classroom and in performing ensembles.

The Newberry Consort offers an annual series of early music concerts, serving a diverse community of early music lovers, performers and scholars. Its programs are exquisitely performed, intimate, and intellectually compelling. The Consort’s offerings include something for everyone, and underscore their conviction that early music—what we sometimes now think of as a rarified musical genre— was music that in its own time belonged to every strata of society, and addressed every human concern.

History

The Newberry Consort, “Chicago’s gift to the early music world” (the Boston Globe) was the brainchild of two old friends, Howard Mayer Brown and Mary Springfels. Brown, who died in 1993, was a brilliant musicologist and a great supporter of early music performance and performers. Mary Springfels was a well-known performer on early stringed instruments and an avid scholar of music history. Brown had offered Springfels the directorship of the early music ensemble at the University of Chicago, and then discovered that the Newberry Library was considering adding a concert series to their public programs.
The Newberry Library, founded in 1887, is one of the few surviving American independent research libraries that remains free and open to the public. In the 1980’s, visionary leaders decided to create an in-house early music series, loosely based on the model of the Folger Consort in Washington DC. In 1981, Springfels was offered a residency at the Library with a mandate: to demonstrate through first-rate musical performances that a non-academic might make imaginative use of the treasures housed in a unique and marvelously eccentric research library.

Early Music from the Newberry Library

The first few concert seasons were called “Early Music From the Newberry Library.” Springfels put together ensembles suited to a wide variety of repertoires: The artists included the singers Jeffrey Gall, Drew Minter, Paul Elliott, Judith Nelson, Julianne Baird and Judith Malafronte. Guest instrumentalists were a veritable who’s who of outstanding early music virtuosi: Among them were David Hart, Wendy Gillespie, Sarah Cunningham, Margriet Tindemans, Marion Verbrueggen, Colin Tilney, David Schrader, Paul O’Dette, John Holloway, Stanley Ritchie and David Douglass. Their efforts were a critical and popular success.

The Formation of the Consort
By 1986, the ensemble had coalesced into a core of musicians supplemented as needed by guest artists. The first incarnation of the Newberry Consort consisted of Drew Minter, David Hart, David Douglass and Springfels. Flutist David Hart died tragically in 1988 at the age of 37. Shortly after Hart’s death, mezzo-soprano Judith Malafronte and lutenist Kevin Mason became members of the Newberry Consort. Personnel changed over the years: By 2008, the membership consisted of Springfels, Minter, Douglass and Ellen Hargis. Under Springfels’ direction, the Consort performed unusual repertoires and explored early music in unusual ways. They experimented with medieval story-telling, setting Arthurian Legends and bawdy Italian poetry to recitation formulas; and worked with the Newberry’s wonderful collection of Renaissance occult literature to recreate “magical “music. Another project featured music of the court of Queen Christina in Rome, followed by a screening of the old Garbo “Queen Christina” classic film. With Drew Minter, Springfels presented the Chicago debuts of Scarlatti’s dramatic oratorios “La Giuditta” and “Agar et Ismaele”. With the pipa and erhu virtuosi Yang Wei and Betty Xiang and percussionist Najib Bahri, the Consort put on a Marco Polo Show—a Silk Road project with early music.

Touring
The Consort has toured actively from 1985 to the present. The ensemble has appeared at the prestigious Boston, Utrecht and Regensberg Early Music festivals, and performed in Italy and England, as well as in early music festivals and series throughout the US, Mexico and Canada.

Education

From the beginning, the Consort has been committed to educational outreach at the highest levels. Springfels and the Newberry Library Renaissance Center director Mary Beth Rose designed an innovative National Endowment for the Humanities-sponsored summer program taught by Howard Brown, Benito Rivera, and Springfels. As a part of the ambitious series of programs devised by the Newberry’s Center for Renaissance Studies, the Consort worked with 20 American colleges and Universities over a period of 5 years, appearing in classrooms to provoke discussions about music and the humanities, and gave concerts in each of the institutions. The program, “Music as a Cultural Institution in the Middle Ages and Renaissance” was also sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Consort has been Ensemble-in-Residence at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University in Evanston for more than a decade, performing their Chicago concert series on the campuses as well providing classroom visits, coaching, and directing the early music ensembles.

Recordings

JUAN DE LIENAS: VESPERS

MUSIC FROM THE CONVENTO DE LA ENCARNACIÓN, MEXICO CITY
THE NEWBERRY CONSORT

Ellen Hargis Director

Chicago’s best-known early music ensemble The Newberry Consort exhilarates with VESPERS, a collection of dazzlingly original music for women’s voices. The composer? A mysterious early-17th-century Mexican named Juan de Lienas, whose style energetically oscillates between Renaissance and Baroque elements.

Little is known about de Lienas beyond the manuscripts, which, much to the undeserved discredit of the poor composer, occasionally include unflattering personal remarks scrawled in the margins. Perhaps that these insults on his appearance and personality stemmed from mere envy, for the music captured by his hand presents such skill, wit and zest that it can still be enjoyed a full four centuries after its inception.

Not an easy feat by any means, and certainly facilitated by a spectacular performance of The Newberry Consort under the direction of director and soprano Ellen Hargis. Since the music on VESPERS was originally composed for use in women’s convents, the bass voice is either sung up the octave, or replaced by bassoon or viola da gamba. The result is graceful, airy, ethereal, otherworldly. Easy on the ears not only for lovers of early music, and for these: a veritable treat.

Release Date: February 5, 2021

Catalog #: NV6333

Format: Physical & Digital

PURCHASE ON AMAZON
The Consort’s work soon drew the attention of harmonia mundi use, and under that label, the ensemble made eight acclaimed recordings: “Music for Severall Friends” featured Drew Minter and the music of John Wilson. “Ay Amor!” was a pioneering recording of the music of Juan Hidalgo, with Judith Malafronte as soloist. “Il Solazzo “ explored the repertoire of early 15th Century Italy, and is still available as “Music for a Medieval Banquet”. “Wanderer’s Voices” contrasted the musical and narrative personae of German and Galician poet-musicians. “I Have Seen the Map of the World” centered around the 15th Century “Missa lo Mappa Mundi” of Juan Cornago.
“The Golden Dream” grew out of a concert commissioned by Wellsey College to accompany an exhibit of exquisite Dutch genre drawings. The Consort’s work can also be heard and seen on YouTube, and in a live concert recording of it’s latest Mexican Convent music project “Música Celestial”, featuring baroque music for women’s voices and instruments.

A Legacy

Upon his death, Howard Brown left the Library the largest bequest it was to receive in the 20th century. The Consort made three recordings to honor his memory and a few of his many musical interests: “Villon to Rabelais” was built upon Brown’s early work with French theatrical songs; “A Candle in the Dark” honored his passion for the English Renaissance; “Puzzles and Perfect Beauty” was a mirror of Springfels’ and Brown’s shared fascination with late 14th century music.

Time for a Change

After 25 years of program research, essays, lectures, and performances, Mary Springfels decided to retire from the Library, and in 2007, Consort member David Douglass took over direction of the ensemble. During the economic downturn of 2008, the Newberry Library was forced to end many public programs, including the Consort’s residency, Immediately several loyal supporters of the Consort banded together to ensure the continuation of the ensemble. Thanks to the pro-bono efforts of these friends, the Consort organized as a not-for-profit group, and a small but determined Board of Directors was formed. After many years of hard work, the Consort boasts a strategic plan, a strong donor base, a robust Board of Directors, and continues as a treasure in the Chicago cultural scene. In 2009, Douglass was joined by co-director Ellen Hargis. Together they have continued the cutting-edge work begun by Springfels, while expanding into new territory. Douglass assembled, arranged, and directed a period-music score for Sarah Bernhardt’s silent film “The Loves of Queen Elizabeth”. Hargis has researched, edited, and produced three programs of Mexican convent music drawn from a rare set of 17th c. choirbooks at the Newberry Library.

In collaboration with Michael Miles, banjo, and actor Paul Hecht, they presented a concert of music from Lincoln’s America featuring gut-strung banjo, historical piano, and readings from contemporary accounts. Their multi-media performance of the medieval Cantigas de Santa Maria were critically acclaimed in Chicago, and have toured throughout the US, culminating in performances in Boston and New York City. This year, in their 30th Anniversary season, they will present the Consort’s first-ever staged production. Celebrating the Shakespeare anniversary year with a set of Elizabethan Jigs, or street theater skits, they will perform in full costume, and with a Renaissance string band. Later in the season, Founding Director Springfels will return to perform German medieval music with the Consort’s now-trademark visual display and supertitles. Investing in the future of early music performance, the Consort has initiated a Young Artist Mentorship Program, which invites rising stars in the early music field to rehearse and perform in a world-class project with seasoned performers.

Douglass and Hargis are committed to keeping the Consort fresh and innovative, and will continue to bring the best and brightest to perform in Chicago while they invest in local talent. Watch for more ground-breaking recordings and concerts, unusual venues, and inspiring collaborations in the years to come!

reviews

A Mexican Christmas 2019

“Newberry Consort’s A Mexican Christmas made the gorgeous St. John Cantius Church even more awe-inspiring by isolating polyphony singing to the choir loft while villancicos were sung near the altar. Whenever the two factions performed together, it felt like a dialogue between heaven and earth.” I Heard You Sing Editor’s Notes – Vocal Arts Chicago

Vocal Arts Chicago - Editor's Notes

The Empress: Margarita Teresa – Salomé Sandoval

“Leave it to local Queen of Early Music, Ellen Hargis — co-director of The Newberry Consort — to find the appropriate vehicle to showcase Sandoval in Chicago. Newberry Consort’s fall program The Empress: Margarita Teresa, cast Sandoval as a castanets-playing, dancing-on-the-way-to-hell Euridice in a comic Spanish-language intermezzo composed for Margarita Teresa by the Emperor Leopold I; and as a show-stealing Venus in the Judgement of Paris scenes from Antonio Cesti’s epic Il Pomo d’Oro. Cesti’s triumph aria for Venus after… Read more “The Empress: Margarita Teresa – Salomé Sandoval”

Vocal Arts Chicago - Editor's Notes
www.vocalartschicago.com/editors-notes/

Newberry Consort mixes the sacred and secular with flair in “A Mexican Christmas”

If Baroque + Christmas = Handel in your mind, then Friday night’s concert at Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest would have been a welcome taste of less familiar fare. There the Newberry Consort teamed up with EnsAmble Ad-Hoc for the second year in a row for a Mexican Christmas concert. The premise was similar to last year’s event: juxtapose music that might have been performed in the 17th century on either side of the doors of the Convento de… Read more “Newberry Consort mixes the sacred and secular with flair in “A Mexican Christmas””

chicagoclassicalreview.com/2019/12/newberry-consort-mixes-the-sacred-and-profane-with-flair-in-a-mexican-christmas/

Newberry Consort wraps season with a delightful French Banquet

Chicago Classical Review – Lawrence A. Johnson – April 6, 2019 In a world where even high culture is increasingly coarsened by banality, vulgarity, and political acrimony, there is, fortunately, always the Newberry Consort. Chicago’s most venerable early music ensemble is closing its season this weekend with “Le Jardin de Melodies”—a program of secular French music of the 16th-century. Friday night’s delightful concert at the Newberry Library displayed the graceful mix of vibrant music-making and lightly-worn scholarship that has made… Read more “Newberry Consort wraps season with a delightful French Banquet”

Lawrence A. Johnson
Chicago Classical Review

In luminous concert, Newberry Consort recalls music of Spanish Jews in Renaissance tumult

In 1492, while Columbus was unveiling a new world far to the west across an uncharted ocean, the Jews were being thrown out of Spain. Those who would not convert to Catholicism were ordered, on pain of death, to leave a land that had been their home for a millennium and a half. This suddenly banished people, compelled to find new lives around the Mediterranean basin and across Europe, took with them, besides their faith and their learning, a long… Read more “In luminous concert, Newberry Consort recalls music of Spanish Jews in Renaissance tumult”

Lawrence B. Johnson
Chicago on the Aisle

Review: Consort, Josefowicz seize the musical road less traveled

The mass diaspora that resulted from the infamous edict by Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella (remember them?) in 1492 expelling all Spanish Jews who refused to renounce their faith and convert to Catholicism spread the Ladino tradition of the Sephardic Jews throughout the Mediterranean. These highly evocative songs of the Sephardim later took root in the soil of more hospitable cultures, especially that of the Ottoman Empire, thereby preserving for posterity music that existed only in oral form and would… Read more “Review: Consort, Josefowicz seize the musical road less traveled”

John von Rhein
Chicago Tribune

Early Sephardic music proves timeless in Newberry Consort program

Last year marked the Newberry Consort’s 30th anniversary season. The city’s oldest early music ensemble—and the nation’s second oldest—showed no sign of losing momentum as they embarked on their fourth decade of scholarly music-making this weekend with a series of concerts entitled “Sacred Love: Songs of the Sephardim.” Guest curated by soprano Nell Snaidas, Saturday night’s performance at the University of Chicago’s Logan Center was an engaging examination of 16th-century songs that, as always with Newberry, came across as highly… Read more “Early Sephardic music proves timeless in Newberry Consort program”

Tim Sawyier
Chicago Classical Review

Recommended Chicago-area classical concerts (excerpt)

Newberry Consort: Chicago’s flagship early music ensemble begins its 31st anniversary season with “Sacred Love,” music of faith and longing from Renaissance Spain and the Ladino oral tradition of the Sephardic Jews. 8 p.m. Friday, Galvin Recital Hall, Northwestern University, 70 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston; 8 p.m. Saturday, Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago, 915 E. 60th St.; and 3 p.m. Sunday, Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, 610 S. Michigan Ave.; www.newberryconsort.org Read full article

John von Rhein
Chicago Tribune

Newberry Consort to perform early Sephardic music at the Logan Center

The Newberry Consort will kick off its 2017-18 season with the first of a three-part series of concerts. The three themes for this season are: “Sacred Love,” “Forbidden Love,” and “Dangerous Love.” The second performance in the “Sacred Love” series will be held on Saturday, Nov. 4 at the Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St. at 8 p.m. “Sacred Love,” the first installment in the series, will focus on the music of Sephardic Jews in Renaissance Spain.… Read more “Newberry Consort to perform early Sephardic music at the Logan Center”

EVAN HAMIN, Herald Intern
Hyde Park Herald

Music of Sephardic Jews comes to Chicago

The Newberry Consort will present the music of the Sephardic Jews in Renaissance Spain at their first concert of the season, taking place Nov. 3 to 5 at Northwestern University in Evanston, the Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago and at Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership. NELL SNAIDAS, SOPRANO Entitled “Sacred Love – Songs of the Sephardim” the program will include traditional songs of the Sephardic Jews at the time when they were exiled from Spain… Read more “Music of Sephardic Jews comes to Chicago”

Ellen Braunstein, Special to Chicago Jewish News
Chicago Jewish News

Newberry Consort closes season with a tribute to a singular Swedish queen

The Newberry Consort enjoys an honored place in Chicago’s musical landscape, pioneering local early music performance on period instruments. The Consort is closing its 30th anniversary season this weekend with a typically offbeat program centered on Queen Christina of Sweden–a patroness of the arts who had a remarkable amount of music either inspired by her or dedicated to her. Friday night’s concert at the Newberry Library’s Ruggles Hall showed the graceful blend of scholarship and superb musical values that have… Read more “Newberry Consort closes season with a tribute to a singular Swedish queen”

Lawrence A. Johnson
Chicago Classical Review

Review: A diverse and surprising program was devoted to the obscure music of 15th-century Austrian Oswald von Wolkenstein.

By Kyle MacMillan, Submitted by Lawrence B. Johnson While some unexplored or at least under-explored crannies of Baroque, Romantic or even modern composition can still be found, the music of the Middle Ages remains filled with buried treasure. For a set of concerts that ran Jan. 13-15, the ever-intrepid, ever-imaginative Newberry Consort delved into this rich period and hit pay dirt with a transporting and absorbing program devoted entirely to the little-known music of Oswald von Wolkenstein. The early 15th-century bard… Read more “Review: A diverse and surprising program was devoted to the obscure music of 15th-century Austrian Oswald von Wolkenstein.”

Kyle MacMillan
Chicago on the Aisle

Review: Newberry Consort pays homage to the versatile Count von Wolkenstein

Sat Jan 14, 2017 at 1:49 pm By Tim Sawyier The Newberry Consort performed music of Count von Wolkenstein Friday night at the Newberry Library. The Newberry Consort presented the second program of their 30th anniversary season Friday night at the Newberry Library’s Ruggles Hall. Entitled “The Count,” the concert was devoted to music of Count Oswald von Wolkenstein (1376-1445), a peripatetic nobleman with the singular pastime of recording his personal exploits and musings in song. The performance successfully overcame the… Read more “Review: Newberry Consort pays homage to the versatile Count von Wolkenstein”

Tim Sawyier
Chicago Classical Review

Evening of scholarly clowning opens 30th year for early-music masters the Newberry Consort

Review: A program of bawdy Elizabethan amusements performed by the Newberry Consort and period comedian Steven Player. By Lawrence B. Johnson For the perennially devoted followers of the Newberry Consort, which this season celebrates its 30th anniversary of presenting concerts of music from the Middle Ages to the Baroque, the concert experience is a beguiling paradox: entertainment that’s very old and yet at the same time quite new. “For us, and we believe for our audience, this music is essentially about… Read more “Evening of scholarly clowning opens 30th year for early-music masters the Newberry Consort”

Lawrence B. Johnson
Chicago on the Aisle

Newberry Consort opens 30th season with delightful “stage jigs”

Tim Sawyier – Chicago Classical Review above – Steven Player performed in the Newberry Consort’s season-opening program Friday night at Ruggles Hall. Friday night in Ruggles Hall the Newberry Library hosted the opening performance of its eponymous Consort’s 30th anniversary season. The program, entitled “The Clown: Kemp’s Jig,” compellingly explored late 16- and early 17-century stage jigs as part of the Library’s commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death this year. A “stage jig” is not an isolated dance but a… Read more “Newberry Consort opens 30th season with delightful “stage jigs””

Tim Sawyier
Chicago Classical Review

Newberry Consort sings the bawdy electric in spirited season opener

Early music groups come and go in Chicago, but the ensemble that started it all continues to thrive, setting an example of artistic integrity and sound management for the groups that have followed in its wake. Having survived a serious funding crisis in 1997 and the retirement of founder Mary Springfels, the Newberry Consort soldiered on, wisely staying small, flexible and true to its musical mission, dusting off forgotten but worthwhile preclassical instrumental and vocal works and presenting them in… Read more “Newberry Consort sings the bawdy electric in spirited season opener”

John von Rhein, Contact Reporter
Chicago Tribune

NEWBERRY CONSORT REVEALS SOARING MUSIC FROM MEXICAN CHOIR BOOKS

The Newberry Consort is completing its season this weekend by returning to the Newberry Library’s collection of choir books from the Convent of Our Lady of the Incarnation in Mexico City for a program of vespers music by Mexican Baroque composer Juan de Lienas. To say he is little-known is an understatement. Beyond the Newberry choirbooks, his music is found in only one other Mexican source, and no facts have emerged about his life. Apart from the music — an… Read more “NEWBERRY CONSORT REVEALS SOARING MUSIC FROM MEXICAN CHOIR BOOKS”

Alan Artner
freelance critic

A SPLENDID EVENING WITH THE NEWBERRY CONSORT

Lots of concerts are presented under an umbrella title that attempts to both accurately describe the links among the various works performed and offers an appealing concept to the public. But usually the concept is over-broad (“Love and War”) with the music unable to effectively support the dramatic idea. The Newberry Consort, on the other hand, offered a concept concert here in Hyde Park Saturday night at the Logan Center which was an entertaining story told in instrumental music, solo… Read more “A SPLENDID EVENING WITH THE NEWBERRY CONSORT”

M.L. RANTALA
Classical Music Critic

Newberry Consort brings scholarship and horse sense to delightful “Le roman de Fauvel”

The Newberry Consort brought the medieval Le Roman de Fauvel (“The Tale of Fauvel”) to life in a stellar production at the Logan Center for the Arts on Saturday night. The evening’s fourteenth-century romp was a showcase of rarified musicianship, meticulous scholarship, and humor running the gamut from genteel to obscene. Le Roman de Fauvel, something of a morality play, has come down to us in a fourteenth-century manuscript housed at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The title character is… Read more “Newberry Consort brings scholarship and horse sense to delightful “Le roman de Fauvel””

Chicago Classical Review

Ten New Classical Albums

Featuring Chicago Talent Newberry’s nuns highlight recent classical albums “Musica Celestial from the Covent of the Encarnacion.” (Newberry Consort): The manuscript source of this attractive program of Renaissance and baroque rarities for women’s voices, organ and other instruments is six valuable choir books preserved at Chicago’s Newberry Library. Written for the singing nuns of the Order of the Immaculate Conception in Mexico City, the pieces suggest the richly diverse musical culture that was enshrined in the convents. Performances under the… Read more “Ten New Classical Albums”

John von Rhein
Chicago Tribune

The Newberry Consort Unveils Rare Spanish Treasures for BEMF

In certain medieval manuscripts, music and image combine to evoke powerful religious feelings. Take, for example, the sources for the Cantigas de Santa Maria, where colorful drawings of musicians, saints, and nobles frame music and poetry that tell of miracles performed by the Virgin Mary. Gazing at the manuscript, one can catch a glimpse of the celebratory religious culture the authors were trying to convey from across the centuries. Friday night at the First Church in Cambridge, the Chicago-based Newberry… Read more “The Newberry Consort Unveils Rare Spanish Treasures for BEMF”

Boston Classical Review

Newberry Consort full of spirit, polish with program of rediscoveries

Two decades ago this month the Newberry Consort was among the first historically informed performing groups in the United States to revive the music of Baroque composer Johann Rosenmuller. But some artists successful in their own time nonetheless require periodic revival thereafter, and as consort co-director David Douglass said at Friday night’s concert opening the season at Newberry Library, “Rosenmuller is rediscovered every five years.” The all-Rosenmuller program drew heavily on the group’s 1995 compact disc, presenting five selections from… Read more “Newberry Consort full of spirit, polish with program of rediscoveries”

Alan Artner, freelance critic
Copyright © 2015, Chicago Tribune

Smooth control of the phrasing and fine communication with the singers, effects that seemed to lay each song in a feathery bed of accompaniment

In certain medieval manuscripts, music and image combine to evoke powerful religious feelings. Take, for example, the sources for the Cantigas de Santa Maria, where colorful drawings of musicians, saints, and nobles frame music and poetry that tell of miracles performed by the Virgin Mary. Gazing at the manuscript, one can catch a glimpse of the celebratory religious culture the authors were trying to convey from across the centuries. Friday night at the First Church in Cambridge, the Chicago-based Newberry… Read more “Smooth control of the phrasing and fine communication with the singers, effects that seemed to lay each song in a feathery bed of accompaniment”

Boston Classical Review

Sounds of autumn: A 2014 music preview

The Newberry Consort, affiliated with the Newberry Library Center for Renaissance Studies, draws on the library’s vast music collection and assembles local and international artists to perform music from the 13th to the 18th centuries. The Consort also serves as an ensemble-in-residence at both the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. It has been a part the Chicago music scene for nearly three decades and is co-directed by violinist David Douglass and soprano Ellen Hargis. In November they present “¡Música… Read more “Sounds of autumn: A 2014 music preview”

M.L. RANTALA, Classical Music Critic
Hyde Park Herald

Newberry Consort’s Singing Nuns

Choral music from an earlier period and of a far more specialized sort made up the season finale of the Newberry Consort. Co-director Ellen Hargis and colleagues presented the second in a series of programs devoted to music from the trove of musical manuscripts at the Newberry Library known as the Mexican choirbooks. These priceless volumes include works by Old World and New World Spanish and Mexican composers, written for the use of nuns singing the mass and worship services… Read more “Newberry Consort’s Singing Nuns”

John von Rhein
Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune: Review Feast of the Pheasant

Friday night at the Newberry Library the Newberry Consort celebrated one of the most spectacular and outlandish banquets in history. Almost 460 years to the day, the ensemble presented a 90-minute program of music, projections and narration to commemorate the Feast of the Oath of the Pheasant. This party, given by Philip, Duke of Burgundy, was to urge a crusade against the Ottoman Turks who nine months before had taken the holy city of Constantinople. The early-music community has for… Read more “Chicago Tribune: Review Feast of the Pheasant”

Alan G. Artner, Special to the Tribune
Chicago Tribune

Feast of the Pheasant

“…spiritedly played and sung… early music at its committed best.”

Alan Artner
The Chicago Tribune

Early Music America – Fall 2013

A highlight of the (BEMF) festival was a superb multimedia presentation by the Newberry Consort in Jordan Hall on Thursday afternoon drawn from the 13th-century Cantigas de Santa Maria,a manuscript attributed to Spanish ruler and arts patron Alfonso X. This stellar Chicago ensemble, directed by David Douglass (vielle and rebec) and Ellen Hargis (soprano), performed a dozen richly multicultural cantigas, while projecting the brightly colored illustrations that originally accompanied them onto an overhead screen, along with translations of the lyrics.… Read more “Early Music America – Fall 2013”

“Celestial Sirens” at the Church of the Covenant

The overlapping musical talents and resources of Cleveland’s early music community were in full multi-tasking mode at the Church of the Covenant last week — with some help from Chicago and Tennessee. The occasion was one event in celebration of the church’s magnificent new tracker organ, modeled on north German 17th-century organs. The organ was built by the Tennessee firm of Richards, Fowkes and Company and installed only this January. It replaces a small gallery organ in the back of… Read more ““Celestial Sirens” at the Church of the Covenant”

Nicholas Jones
ClevelandClassical.com

‘Cantigas’ Bloom Like Roses at Boston Festival

There are few places on earth where an audience can enjoy a purely magical performance of Medieval song in a glorious hall. The Boston Early Music Festival is on that short list. The music: Cantigas de Santa Maria, by Alfonso X. The performers: the Newberry Consort with the vocal ensemble Exsultemus. The place: New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall. The Cantigas de Santa Maria consists of 420 poems set to music, attributed to Alfonso X, King of Castile, Leon, and Galicia during the 13th century. Alfonso was known as El Sabio,… Read more “‘Cantigas’ Bloom Like Roses at Boston Festival”

Ken Keaton

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