‘Secret’ A Cappella Voices Perform Anonymously at Williams College

Anonymous 4

Anonymous 4

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.)  – The a cappella ensemble Anonymous 4 performs “Secret Voices: The Sisters of Las Huelgas” on Friday, October 21, 2011, at 8 p.m., in Thompson Memorial Chapel on the Williams College Campus. Renowned for their unearthly vocal blend and virtuosic ensemble singing, the four singers of Anonymous 4 combine musical, literary, and historical scholarship with contemporary performance intuition as they create ingeniously designed programs, interweaving music with poetry and narrative. This free event is open to the public.

The women of Anonymous 4 revisit their favorite era with repertoire from the Codex Las Huelgas. Spanning the entire 13th century – from virtuosic motets and conductus to heartfelt laments, plainchants and sacred songs – of aristocratic Castilian women who (in spite of a rule forbidding Cistercian nuns from singing polyphony) sang some of the most beautiful and demanding music of Gothic-era Europe.  For this program, Anonymous 4 are joined by two early music specialists – Shira Kammen on vielle, a medieval bowed instrument of the violin family, and percussionist Peter Maund.

The ensemble has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, including Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” A&E’s “Breakfast With the Arts,” and NPR’s “Weekend Edition.” Anonymous 4’s award-winning recordings have attained unprecedented popularity, rising to the top of Billboard’s classical chart, and selling almost 1.5 million copies worldwide.

Williams concert hotline: 413.597.3146

 

 

 

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