Hilliard Ensemble Premiere’s New Eddy Work at Chandler

The renowned Hilliard Ensemble will perform the premiere of Randolph Composer Kathy Wonson Eddy's "Veni Creator Spiritus" Saturday, Nov. 3 at Chandler Music Hall.

The Hilliard Ensemble, one of the world's foremost vocal ensembles, performs in concert at Chandler Music Hall in Randolph on Saturday, Nov. 3 at 7:30 p.m. Featured in this performance is a work commissioned by Chandler for its centennial year and composed expressly for the Ensemble by Braintree composer, Kathy Wonson Eddy.

Considered to be one of the finest vocal chamber groups, this British male vocal quartet was founded in 1974 and named after the Elizabethan miniaturist and goldsmith, Nicholas Hilliard. It is probably unrivaled for its formidable reputation in the fields of both early and new music.

The group’s initial goal was to explore the pre-baroque repertoire and make it better known to the public. The early music craze hit England in the early 1970s and the Hilliard Ensemble was soon very much in demand. They issued a number of recordings in the 1980s that bear witness to the purity of their voices and above all to the seriousness and the desire for authenticity with which it approaches this early repertoire.

The Hilliard Ensemble keeps one foot in the 14^th, 15^th and 16^th centuries, but the other one firmly planted in the 21^st. An encounter with the contemporary Estonian-born composer Arvo Pärt greatly widened their horizons. Over the years they have established a fruitful relationship and the Hilliard became Pärt’s favorite vocal ensemble.

The ensemble discovered Norwegian jazz saxophonist Jan Garbarek and this collaboration catapulted them into mass recognition. Since that time, they have established links with contemporary composers who write expressly for the Hilliard singers, since the current vocal repertoire generally has few works for their four voices: a countertenor (David James), two tenors (Rogers Covey-Crump and Steven Harrold), and a baritone (Gordon Jones).

This apparently dual nature of their repertoire is to their liking, as they admit to having a preference for crossover concerts that allow early works to be juxtaposed with contemporary pieces.

As Covey-Crump puts it, "From a philosophical point of view, all music is new because we are interpreting it. We don’t make a real distinction. The music tells us what style is wanted; we merely respond to its demands. We approach early music as though it were new."

In the concert at Chandler there will be works composed between the time frame of the 15^th century and the 21^st century. Included in the program is a work, "Cathedral in the Thrashing Rain," composed in 2000 by American composer, Stephen Hartke, in homage to September 11 victims.

The composition by Kathy Eddy is a five-movement work titled "Veni Creator Spiritus." When invited by Chandler Executive Director Becky McMeekin to create a work for this centennial commission, Eddy said she would love to write something specifically for the Hilliard Ensemble, whom she admired. She was thrilled when the Ensemble accepted her request. The work is meant to be, in her words, "an invocation of the creative spirit for Chandler and for all of the arts."

Reserved seating tickets are available through the Chandler box office at 782-6464 and tickets@chandler-arts.org.

This performance is presented by Chandler Center for the Arts, with support from the Vermont Arts Council, the Vermont Community Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, the Max Seaton Charitable Trust, and the Mascoma Savings Bank Foundation. Additional sponsorship support is provided by First Light Studios and Gifford Medical Center.

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