Florence: Music in the Cultural Crucible
Bloomfield Hills
Friday, January 10, 8 PM
Ann Arbor
Saturday, January 11, 8 PM
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Pre-Concert Lecture starts at 7:15pm
Inspired by the absurd and extravagant richness of the Florentine cultural landscape, Eya explores the varied forms of vocal music from several generations of composers popular in Renaissance Florence. The musical landscape of renaissance Florence reveals a splendid symbiosis of contrasting elements: sacred and secular, foreign and native, highborn and humble. These elements nurtured the development of an unusually vibrant cultural climate within the relatively small confines of a magnificent Italian city. Eya traces these coexisting elements within the cultural and social fabric of Florence from the trecento (late 14th century) through the late 16th century. Each part of the program begins with a medieval chant from a local confraternity (lay order) and further explores the varied forms of vocal music that define this rich cultural moment, including lauda (sacred songs in Italian), several generations of the wildly popular Franco-Flemish composers (DuFay, Isaac, Agricola), and works by native Francesco de Layolle composing in the style of the Burgundians.
Eya is an award-winning vocal ensemble based in Washington, DC specializing in the interpretation of medieval music for women’s voices. Lauded as “remarkable” and “gorgeous” (The Washington Post), Eya is an early music ensemble of hauntingly beautiful vocal quality married with deep spirit. Eya crafts programs that interweave diverse repertories, forging new points of connection between contemporary audiences and medieval repertoire which underline our common humanity with early poets and composers. Eya has performed at a variety of notable venues including the National Gallery of Art, The Music Center at Strathmore, Washington National Cathedral, and Dumbarton Oaks, as well as numerous colleges, universities, and concert series across the east coast. They have been featured on Voice of America radio and Millennium of Music on NPR, and are the recipient of the 2013 Ovation Award for Best Specialty Group: Early Music, as well as a 2015 nominee for Most Creative Programming. They are also a 2018 nominee for Best New Recording following their latest album release, The Three Marys. Eya (pronounced “EH-yah”) is a Latin exclamation of joy.
-The Washington Post
“The program had elegant chansons, shaped with mellifluous, delicately-wrought phrasing, alternating with robust energy…”
- The Washington Post