Event Details
Three Free Concerts, March 2007
The Josquin Singers, a professional vocal ensemble based in the Bay Area, present “The Gates of Repentance: Lenten Music from the Byzantine and Slavic Traditions,” a free concert in cooperation with the St. John Koukouzelis Institute for Liturgical Arts and sponsored in part by the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco. Some of the most elegant and profound music ever created comes out of the Lenten period of the Eastern Orthodox tradition. This program will include Byzantine chants, including the famed “Great Troparion,” by the 9th century composer Kassiane the Nun and excerpts from the “Great Canon” of St. Andrew of Crete (7th-8th centuries); and Slavic chants and polyphony, including selections of Dvestmenny polyphony and compositions by Peter Tchaikovsky.
The program will be performed Thursday, March 15th @7:30PM in San Francisco at St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, 3281 16th Street; Saturday, March 17th 7:30PM at Sacramento’s Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, 600 Alhambra Blvd.; and Thursday, March 22 7:30PM in Oakland at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension, 4700 Lincoln Ave, as part of The Greek Cultural Celebration Week. Admission is free; suggested donation is $15.
About the Josquin Singers
Founded in Berkeley in 2002, the Josquin Singers are a professional vocal ensemble specializing in Josquin and other Medieval and Renaissance music of Western Europe, and in the repertoires of the Eastern Orthodox Church, including Chants of the Greek Byzantine tradition as well as Slavic chant and polyphony from periods ranging 500 years. The ensemble’s performances of Byzantine Chant are sung from transcriptions by artistic director John Michael Boyer, who is Protopsaltis (First Cantor) of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco, and alumnus of the Music Department of the University of California, Berkeley.
The Josquin Singers’ mission is to present, in a setting affordable to the public, stellar performances of ecclesiastical vocal repertoire ranging from the ensemble’s namesake Josquin de Prez to the rarely-heard chant and polyphonic traditions of the Greek and Slavic churches.