"A wonderfully crystalline performance"
- GRAMOPHONE
"[The Byrd Ensemble] exploit a brighter part of the color palette, enabling perfect intonation and balance."
- OREGON ARTS WATCH
NEXT:
MUHLY MEETS BYRD
Saturday, October 21, 2023 at 8:00 PM
St. James Cathedral (Seattle, WA)
Sunday, October 22, 2023 at 3:00 PM
The Madeline Parish (Portland, OR)
Opening our 20th Anniversary season and to honor 400 years since the death of our namesake, William Byrd, this program features a world premiere commissioned by the Byrd Ensemble. The new work, Fallings, by American composer Nico Muhly, is based on Byrd's motet, Ne irascaris, Domine and will be conducted by Muhly himself (Seattle premiere only)
The program also features other favorites by Byrd and his contemporaries and will conclude with a performance of Tallis’s monumental 40-part motet, Spem in alium.
We are excited to be presented by Portland-based choral ensemble, In Medio, for our program on Sunday, October 22 at 3pm. The program will open with a performance by In Medio and will combine forces for a performance of Tallis's Spem in alium.
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20
YEAR ANNIVERSARY SEASON
BIG BYRD
Resonating through time
OCT 21, 2023
OCT 22, 2023
NOV 3, 2023
NOV 4, 2023
NOV 25, 2023
NOV 26, 2023
DEC 2, 2023
FEB 3, 2024
FEB 4, 2024
APR 27, 2024
APR 28, 2024
MAY 4, 2024
MAY 5, 2024
Seattle, WA
Portland, OR
Birmingham, AL
Fairhope, AL
Seattle, WA
Seattle, WA
Seattle, WA
Seattle, WA
San Francisco, CA
Seattle, WA
Seattle, WA
Seattle, WA
Seattle, WA
Resonating through time
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In celebration of our 20th Anniversary Season and in honor of 400 years since the death of our namesake, William Byrd, this season pays tribute to the choral tradition by making contemporary connections with Renaissance masterpieces.
Our season opens featuring a world-premiere commissioned by the Byrd Ensemble. The new work, by American composer Nico Muhly, is based on Byrd's, Ne irascaris, Domine, which will be conducted by Muhly himself. To conclude the occasion will be a performance of Thomas Tallis's monumental 40-part Spem in alium.
Our Christmas program, this year with orchestra, pays homage to the early 20th century English Christmas tradition with Gerald Finzi’s In terra pax and Gustav Holst’s Christmas Day—a time when composers looked to the past for inspiration and brought renewed life into the traditional carol arrangements that live at the heart of the Christmas spirit.
We juxtapose the old and new in the remaining two programs. Two settings of Salve regina by Renaissance composer William Cornysh and contemporary composer Gabriel Jackson frame the program HAIL, and the season ends most notably with a performance of Allegri's Miserere.
Resonating through time

Markdavin Obenza
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
In addition to our Seattle series we are happy to announce that we will be performing in Portland, San Francisco (debut), and Alabama this season.
By pairing old and new pieces together, singing music that transports us to another time, and exploring the themes of love, reverence, and despair that have permeated music since the beginning, we are given a window to the past. A window to look back through, as we honor the present.
We are looking forward to singing for you this season.
NEW CD RECORDING PROJECT
PENITENCE & LAMENTATION
NOV
3
For our 20th Anniversary season, we are releasing a new recording of Renaissance motets on November 3, 2023. In honor of 400 years since the death of our namesake, William Byrd, the album will also include a world-premiere recording of a work, commissioned by the Byrd Ensemble, by American composer Nico Muhly based on Byrd's motet, Ne irascaris Domine. This musical reflection of grief and loss will be released on the Scribe Records label.
01 Nicolas Gombert - Lugebat David Absalon
02 William Byrd - Domine secundum actum meum
03 Thomas Tallis - In jejunio et fletu
04 Thomas Tallis - Absterge Domine
05 Thomas Crecquillon - Pater peccavi
06 Robert Ramsey - How are the mighty fallen
07 William Byrd - Emendemus in melius
08 William Byrd - Ye sacred muses
09 William Byrd - Ne irascaris Domine
10 Nico Muhly - Fallings
11 Robert Carver - O bone Jesu