In this episode (pgm 7) of Performance Upstate we’ll hear a few selections by Musica Spei from their “Keeping Your Head: The peril & power of sacred choral music in the English renaissance" June 2018 concert. Juli Eliot, a soprano with Musica Spei said this about the concert.
“British church musicians prior to the reign of Henry VIII enjoyed hundreds of years of development in compositional style in a relatively stable social and religious context. That all changed with the Reformation. Henry VIII and his successors from three different wives each brought changes to the music and liturgy of the church during their reigns. Each composer brought his own baggage of background and belief and each accommodated himself as best he could to the latest blast of the doctrinal trumpet. This involved doing at least some of what your employer told you, even if your own musical and religious instincts were heading in a different direction. At times, failing to adapt to the tastes of the ruling monarch put a composer literally at risk of “losing his head.” As changing monarchs alternated their loyalties between Roman Catholicism and support for the Church of England, composers skillfully adapted the music to remain in the ruling monarch’s favor. John Taverner was one of the first to encounter the tensions of the changing religious landscape, being imprisoned after being caught with Protestant writings, and unlike others similarly charged, was released only because of his talent as a musician.” 
plainchant: Salvete flores martyrum (Musica Spei)
Robert Fayrfax: O lux beata Trinitas (Musica Spei)
Mozart: Rondo in a (Robert Weirich, p; all-Piano Festival; Skaneateles Festival)
G. F. Handel: Armida Abbandonata (Laura Heimes, s; Adriane Post & Boel Gidholm, v; Lisa Terry, viola da gamba & c; Naomi Gregory, hc; Deborah Fox, theorbo & guitar) “Nevertheless, She Persisted”
Shulamit Ran: Lyre of Orpheus (Shawn Moore, Geoffrey Herd, v; Kirsten Docter, Noah Fields, vla; Clive Greensmith, Hannah Collins; Geneva Music Festival) "Clive Greensmith and Friends: Chamber Music Finale"
Ryan George: Firefly (Roberts Wesleyan College Wind Ensemble, Paul Shewan, cond)
Isabella Leonarda: Sonata 10 (Laura Heimes, s; Adriane Post & Boel Gidholm, v; Lisa Terry, viola da gamba & c; Naomi Gregory, hc; Deborah Fox, theorbo & guitar) “Nevertheless, She Persisted”
Stravinsky/Stravinsky: Three movements from Petrushka: Russina Dance, Petrushka's Room, The Shrovetide Fair (Elinor Freer, Andrew Russo, p; all-Piano Festival concert; Skaneateles Festival)
Jackson Browne/Cary Ratcliff: Before the Deluge (premiere) (Alison Wahl, s; John Wiesenthal, g; Madrigalia)
Eric Whitacre: Cloudburst (Joe Finetti, bs; Allison Charette, Brenda Nitsch, a; Connor Stevens, Katie McInerney, John Wiesenthal, perc) “Earthkeeping with Kevin Nitsch”
Cary Ratcliff: Voyager for Trombone and Piano (David Breustle, tn; Cary Ratcliff, p) "Voyager"
John Taverner: Leroy Kyrie Thomas Tallis: In manus tuas (Musica Spei) “Keeping Your Head: The peril & power of sacred choral music in the English renaissance”
