The Lucy Cavendish Singers were formed in 2008 and have rapidly acquired a reputation for intimate, powerful and heartfelt performances. Small in number but with a big sound, their wide-ranging repertoire spans every musical genre – from plainsong to traditional songs and from opera to musicals. This concert will include works by Mozart, Verdi and Duruflé, as well as Sondheim, Bernstein and Barber. It will also feature solo performers and small ensembles.

http://www.lucy-cav.cam.ac.uk/pages/news-events/lucy-cavendish-singers.p...

Image: Aria di Armore (C)2008 Soleil Lisette simplysoleil@yahoo.com

The Cambridge Early Music Concert Series 2008 are delighted to welcome back this vibrant young period-instrument chamber orchestra for a Christmas concert. This year they will play Bach's Concerto for 3 violins, Vivaldi's Concerto for 4 violins, Telemann's Concerto for 2 violas, and Graun's Harpsichord Concerto.

As part of the celebrations of the 400th anniversary of John Milton's birth, spearheaded by Christ's College, and in partnership with the Suffolk Villages Festival, the Cambridge Early Music Concert Series 2008 present this performance of a Handel masterpiece, sometimes known as "Merriment, Melancholy and Moderation". Milton's "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" provide the text of the first two sections of this secular oratorio, while Handel's regular librettist Charles Jennens completed the set with "Il Moderato". Extolling the pleasures of the English countryside, this rarely-performed work contains some of Handel's most beautiful and memorable music.
There will be a pre-concert talk by Dr Jessica Martin, Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge, at 5.00pm in Trinity College Chapel. Admission to the talk is free.

Fairy tales, adventure novels, Hollywood movies - stories in their many guises are a part of the fabric of our cultural identity, exerting a formative influence on our thinking and our values. In this programme we hear sacred and secular stories by Carissimi, Strozzi, Merula, d'India and others. From very different corners of Europe, the baroque harpist Marie Bournisien (France) and the two sopranos Kristine Jaunalksne (Latvia) and Ulrike Hofbauer (Germany) bring a highly unusual approach to this entrancing music.

Prizewinners in the Early Music Network Young Artists Competition, 2005.
Sumptuous continental settings of the beautiful and erotic texts of the Song of Solomon. This rich selection of music by Victoria, Palestrina, Gombert, Lassus and others explores the way these texts enhanced Marian worship in the sixteenth century.

Eighteenth-century French music is amongst the most elegant and compellingly beautiful in the whole baroque repertoire. In an evening of enchanting music by Couperin, Marais, Bismortier and Rameau, Passacaglia will take you on a trip back on time to expereince the opulence of Versailles, home of the most famous monarch of all time - Louis XIV, the Sun KIng. The concert follows our Friends' launch party so please note the starting time is 8.30pm.