Friday, December 18, 8:00pm
Early music group MIRA will be presenting their annual Christmas program at First Presbyterian Church at 500 Park Avenue, Charlottesville. MIRA, a Charlottesville-centered ensemble, founded and directed by early musician Debbie Hunter, has sung throughout central Virginia, and will be expanding its geographical perimeters in the 2010 – 2011 season, with a premier performance in NYC and an overseas tour. They are, continuing – and hoping to increase – their offer of the healing power of music to various hospitals, medical centers and senior living facilities.
Their 2009 Christmas program, Out of your Sleep, Arise and Wake! will feature a number of their trademark Renaissance repertoire of polyphonic works, drawing from such brilliant composers as Tallis, Gibbons, and Praetorius and weaving hauntingly beautiful tapestries of sound with MIRA’s well-tuned and clear, clean singing. This concert will include a number of the particularly notable 15th century English carols, with their sweet melodies, characteristic – for their genre – harmonies, and dancelike rhythms. A number of rousing wassails, fascinating and ancient Christmas ballads and sweetly ‘composed’ medieval Marian carols – celebrating Mary and her necessary role in the story – are a wonderful complement to the lovely 16th century polyphony (meaning ‘many voices’) and provide some interesting theological twists for those drawn to particulars of text. A number of the pieces will be augmented by the harp, gamba, or hurdy gurdy.
A performance of the music will also be performed in Staunton, Virginia at Christ Lutheran Church, on Sunday, December 20 at 3pm.
