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Photo by Willi Pixel
"...a fine group that has achieved an enviable standard of tuning, blend, and ensemble."
—JOHN RUTTER
"...the clear, fresh voices of the Byrd Ensemble, an American group with a strong background in Renaissance music, mean that the dissonances and their consequent resolutions...are brought into focus in a truly remarkable way"
—GRAMOPHONE
26-27 CONCERT SCHEDULE
Oct 24, 2026
Oct 25, 2026
Nov 28, 2026
Nov 29, 2026
Dec 5, 2026
Feb 6, 2027
Feb 7, 2027
Apr 10, 2027
Apr 11, 2027
Portland, OR (SPEM IN ALIUM: Hope in Darkness)
Seattle, WA (SPEM IN ALIUM: Hope in Darkness)
Seattle, WA (SILENT NIGHT)
Seattle, WA (SILENT NIGHT)
Seattle, WA (Readings and Carols with the Seattle Girls Choir)
Seattle, WA (MISERERE: Music from the Sistine Chapel)
San Francisco, CA (MISERERE: Music from the Sistine Chapel)
Seattle, WA (WHEN DAVID HEARD: Whitacre, Pärt, Górecki)
Seattle, WA (WHEN DAVID HEARD: Whitacre, Pärt, Górecki)
26 | 27
PROGRAMMING
SERIES #1
SPEM IN ALIUM: Hope in Darkness
SERIES #2
#02 SILENT NIGHT
SERIES #3
MISERERE: Music from the Sistine Chapel
SERIES #4
WHEN DAVID HEARD: Whitacre, Pärt, Górecki
NEXT CONCERT
SPEM IN ALIUM: Hope in Darkness
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2026
1:00 PM
St. Mary's Cathedral
1716 NW Davis St
Portland, OR 97209
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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2026
3:00 PM
Holy Rosary Catholic Church
4139 42nd Ave SW
Seattle, WA​​​​​
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​Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, and John Taverner shaped the sound of English sacred music during one of history's most turbulent periods of religious change. This collection of motets moves between grief and hope: Byrd's Tristitia et anxietas gives voice to sorrow, his Miserere nostri pleads for mercy, Taverner's Gaude plurimum answers with joy, and Arvo Pärt's Da pacem Domine asks for peace.
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That weight resolves in Tallis's Spem in alium — forty voices in eight choirs, surrounding the listener from every side. Its text is the program's title made sound: Spem in alium nunquam habui praeter in te — "I have never put my hope in any other but in thee."
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Thomas TALLIS: Loquebantur variis linguis
John TAVERNER: Mater Christi sanctissima
William BYRD: Tristitia et anxietas
John TAVERNER: Gaude plurimum
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William BYRD: Magnificat
Thomas TALLIS: Absterge Domine
Arvo PÄRT: Da pacem Domine
Thomas TALLIS: Miserere nostri
Thomas TALLIS: Spem in alium
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