A Choral Aviary

Come and hear us at the Northern Voice Festival!

The Gregorian Singers are pleased to be participating in this year’s Northern Voice Festival on one of its two Festival Days, Saturday, April 25. We will present A Choral Aviary, a program of music about birds, to celebrate the return of Spring to Minnesota. This will be an a cappella concert mainly of 16th- and 17th-century Italian madrigals and other works of the period, including a French chanson, several English part-songs and a Spanish villancico. Highlights include Janequin’s famously onomatopoetic and complex chanson, Les chants des oyseaux, madrigals by Arcadelt and de Wert, and part-songs by Tallis and others. Since birds are usually best heard outdoors, we will sing a lovely madrigal celebrating the morning, Ecco mormorar l’onde, by Claudio Monteverdi. Our concert will also include three more recent works: the delightfully odd and rarely-heard part-song Owls by Edward Elgar; the breathtaking Blue Bird, by Charles Stanford, and Samuel Barber's beautiful To be sung on the water. And, for our audience participation piece we’ll conduct a sing-along of the thirteenth-century round Sumer is icumen in.

While the choir's name might confuse, there will be nothing Gregorian about this concert! It is a fine way to start your day with an invigorating auditory cup of coffee at the Northern Voice Festival. If you are a fan of early music - or birds - you will enjoy this concert. The performance will be at 11:15 a.m. at the UBS Forum, Minnesota Public Radio, 480 Cedar Street, St. Paul.

Tickets are $10, or $20 for an all-access pass to the Festival. To purchase tickets go to http://www.northernvoicefestival.org/festival_day_saturday_april_25.

Northern Voice is a project of the National Lutheran Choir, a partnership arising from years of collaboration between singing groups throughout Minnesota. Northern Voice’s mission is to harmonize singers and communities by building social and economic equity, celebrating artistic excellence and encouraging deeper engagement among communities of support.