Friday, January 10 | 7:30 PM
Congregational Church of Birmingham
Saturday, January 11 | 7:30 PM
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
Musicians of the Tenshō Embassy
In 1582, four teenage Japanese boys of noble birth set sail from Nagasaki to Lisbon. They were students at the Jesuit school in Kyushu and were sent on a tour of Italy and Iberia as ambassadors of three Japanese daiymo, or feudal lords, who had converted to Christianity. Known collectively as the Tenshō Embassy, their names were Mancio Itō, Michael Chijiwa, Martin Hara, and Julio Nakaura. Music was an essential component of the embassy’s eight-year trip to and from Europe and played an equally essential role in the Jesuit mission in Japan, which lasted from the first Jesuit’s arrival in 1549 to the expulsion of the Jesuits by Japan’s Edo government in 1613.
History and storytelling meet in this program that explores the musical experiences of the Tenshō Embassy and their classmates at Jesuit schools in 16th and early 17th century Japan. Many of the details of their music making remain unknown, and those that are known were not recorded by the Japanese musicians themselves but rather by European Jesuits. The European Jesuits’ recording of this history exposes their eurocentrism, hubris, and ignorance, but their records also give us insight into the lives and experiences of these otherwise unknown musicians who are part of this centuries-old tradition of making music with voices and viols. Lyracle honors these musicians’ achievements through music and storytelling with short historical readings, delivered by actor Danielle Boivin, paired with works by Italian and Iberian composers including Durante Lobo, Francisco Guerrero, and Giacomo Carissimi.
Pre-concert talk begins at 6:45 pm.
They use musical performance as a vehicle to tell the stories of people throughout history who partook in music for voice and viol. Founded in 2018, Lyracle launched its self-produced concert series in Greater Boston in the 2022-2023 season.
Lyracle’s narrative, non-composer-centric approach to concert programming has earned it recognition as an emerging ensemble in the field. In the 23-24 season, in addition to producing two new concert programs in Greater Boston, Lyracle performs/presents on the Howard M. Brown Early International Early Music Series at the University of Chicago, at the Early Music America Summit, and at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Lyracle enjoys introducing young people to the viol and to historically informed performance and has additionally presented for and worked with students at Brandeis University and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Lyracle also enjoys collaborating with other organizations with shared interests and missions. Favorite collaborations include a performance-presentation on at-home music-making in 17th century Massachusetts with historian Barbara Lambert at the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.
Lyracle has given presentations at the 2021 Indiana University Historical Performance Conference and at the 2021 Low Strings in the Americas Symposium. Lyracle was a 2020 Early Music America Emerging Artist and a 2018 Pegasus Rising Young Ensemble. Additional presenters include the Viola da Gamba Society of America, GEMS Midtown Concerts, Early Music Missouri and the Society for Historically Informed Performance.
