Renaissance poetry, set to music

Posted 11/13/19

Kairos: A Consort of Singers, under the direction of Edward Lundergan, continues its 2019 season with a concert titled “Dead Poets Society” on Sunday, November 17, at 3 p.m., in the …

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Renaissance poetry, set to music

Posted

Kairos: A Consort of Singers, under the direction of Edward Lundergan, continues its 2019 season with a concert titled “Dead Poets Society” on Sunday, November 17, at 3 p.m., in the intimate and acoustically superb chapel of the Holy Cross Monastery, 1615 Route 9W, West Park.

The program includes settings of poetic texts from the heart of the Renaissance to the present day, in different languages -- from the unsurpassed heights of the Italian madrigal settings to the classical glories of German poets Schiller and Goethe and charming doggerel by English Romantic poet John Keats. Petrarch, Christina Rosetti, Giovanni Battista Guarini, Walt Whitman and Guillaume Apollinaire are some of the “dead” poets featured. The musical settings are by Poulenc, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Lassus, Monteverdi, and Woodstock composer and resident George Tsontakis.

A highlight of the concert is a performance of American composer Dominick Argento’s A Nation of Cowslips, a delightful and witty set of seven bagatelles on nonsense text by Keats. Dr. Argento served as Professor of Music at the University of Minnesota for 40 years and retained the title of Professor Emeritus until his death earlier this year.

Tickets to the concert are $20 for general admission, $15 for seniors, and $5 for students and youths. Tickets may be purchased online at the Kairos website or by calling 800-838-3006 and requesting Event No. 4426053.

It is suggested that, to secure seating, audience members arrive at the venue at least 20 minutes before the performance.

Founded in 1994, Kairos: A Consort of Singers is the premier vocal ensemble of the Hudson Valley. Kairos specializes in the unaccompanied choral literature from the medieval to the present, and has performed with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, the Bach Festival Orchestra, the Esopus Chamber Orchestra, and the Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Quartet. The Consort serves as Artists-in-Residence at Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, and performs throughout the Hudson Valley and beyond.

For more information visit kairosconsort.org or call 256-9114.