William Byrd Festival Organ Recital: Anniversaries
Free (donations accepted)
- Mark Williams, organ
Join us for "Anniversaries", an organ recital given by Mark Williams, Magdalen College, Oxford. This recital will take place immediately before the Choral Evensong at 5pm. Free-will offering.
About the Festival: The Annual William Byrd Festival returns to Portland this year – featuring services sung by Cantores in Ecclesia, directed by Blake Applegate; lectures given by leading scholars Kerry McCarthy, William Mahrt, and Katie Bank; and illustrated recitals by ensembles directed by internationally renowned Byrd experts Ross Duffin and William Dawes. Mark Williams, Informator Choristarum and Fellow in Music at Magdalen College, Oxford, returns to Portland to give a recital on the organ of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, and direct the closing concert which will include a number of Byrd's most famous motets as we mark the 400th anniversary of his death in 1623.
Mark Williams, Informator Choristarum at Magdalen College, Oxford and Artistic Director of the Byrd Festival, writes that "This year's Festival sees all the usual fixtures, including lectures, services and concerts, plus some exciting extras, including two short illustrated recitals, led by Byrd experts, Ross Duffin (of Case Western University) and William Dawes (of Oxford University, and one of the founding members of the early music ensemble, Stile Antico). In this anniversary year, as we mark 400 years since the death of the composer who has been the focus of our festival for over 25 years, I greatly look forward to this annual celebration of some of the most beautiful music to come out of England in the Renaissance era."