©Jacob Blickenstaff
Friends of Chamber Music presents New York Polyphony, a two-time GRAMMY Award-Winning all-male vocal group, with the Christmas program, Sing Thee Nowell, on Friday, Dec. 3, at 7 p.m. at A&M United Methodist Church in College Station.
NY Polyphony Singers
- Geoffrey Williams, countertenor
- Steven Caldicott Wilson, tenor
- Christopher Dylan Herbert, baritone
- Craig Phillips, bass
The Program: Sing Three Nowell
An intimate meditation on Christmas, this sequence of unaccompanied music spanning seven centuries offers a unique, diverse, and spellbinding musical experience that features new works composed for the ensemble alongside traditional medieval and Renaissance carols and motets.
Composers Featured on this Program
George Ratcliff Woodward, Andrew Smith, Thomas Byttering, Richard Smert, William Byrd, Antoine Brumel, Antoine Busnois, Jean Mouton, John Tavener, Michael McGlynn, Paul Manz, Gustav Holst, Susan LaBaar, Peter Maxwell Davies.
NY Polyphony Bio
Praised for a “rich, natural sound that’s larger and more complex than the sum of its parts,” (NPR) New York Polyphony is one of the foremost vocal chamber ensembles active today. The four men, “singers of superb musicianship and vocal allure,” (The New Yorker) give vibrant, modern voice to repertoire ranging from Gregorian chant to cutting-edge compositions. Their dedication to innovative programming, as well as a focus on rare and rediscovered Renaissance and medieval works, has not only earned New York Polyphony two GRAMMY nominations and wide acclaim, but also helped to move early music into the classical mainstream.
New York Polyphony tours extensively, participating in major concert series and festivals around the world. Noteworthy engagements include performances at Wigmore Hall in London and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, a residency at Stanford University, the 2018 European première of The Vespers Sequence–a work commissioned from Ivan Moody–at Musica Sacra Maastricht (the Netherlands), and performances at the Tage Alter Musik Regensburg (Germany), Festival Internacional de Música Abvlensis (Spain), Stavanger Kammermusikkfestival (Norway), Cartagena Festival International de Música (Colombia) and Early Music Vancouver (Canada), among others.
In early 2021, New York Polyphony released And the sun darkened on BIS Records. Hailed by BBC Music Magazine as “imaginatively p
rogrammed” and “immaculately sung,” the album has received accolades from publications around the world. Early Music America called the disc “radiant,” and Klassik Heute applauded New York Polyphony’s “flawlessly pure sound that amazes the listener.”
In 2020, New York Polyphony released Aleph Earth, a groundbreaking audiovisual work developed in collaboration with the University of Oregon’s Artificial Intelligence Creative Practice Research Group (AICP). A statement on the global threat of climate change, the 12-minute presentation was created using artificial intelligence to visualize the musical complexities of Spanish Renaissance composer Francisco de Peñalosa’s Lamentationes Jeremiae Feria V, a work featured on their acclaimed BIS Records release Lamentationes.
New York Polyphony’s growing discography includes two GRAMMY-nominated releases and albums that have topped the “best of” lists of The New Yorker, Gramophone, and The New York Times. Lamentationes, released in September 2019, was a finalist in the 2020 Gramophone Awards and praised by Classics Today as “perfect ensemble singing, ideally recorded.” The 2017 release Missa Charles Darwin (Navona Records) features Gregory W. Brown’s innovative work of the same name—a piece that directly inspired bestselling author Dan Brown’s novel in the Da Vinci Code series, Origin. New York Polyphony’s 2016 release Roma aeterna debuted at #4 on Billboard’s Classical chart and was hailed as “resplendent and elegant” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “nothing short of revelatory” (AllMusic). Called a “spacious, radiant retreat” by The New York Times, 2014’s release Sing thee Nowell earned the group a second GRAMMY nomination in the Best Chamber Music / Small Ensemble Performance category.
Friends Forum | The New York Polyphony
©Jacob Blickenstaff
Immediately following live performance, the NY Polyphony singers will answer questions from the audience and those that are sent to Friends of Chamber Music ahead of the event. Send questions for the NY Polyphony: info@fcmtx.org. Free Livestream with registration at fcmtx.org; fcmtx.org/event-details/new-york-polyphony. Livestream of the concert and forum will be available only at the time of the event.
FCM COVID-19 Protocol for Indoor Events
To ensure safety of the audiences, guest musicians, and the venues’ staff at indoor events, Friends of Chamber Music is following these requirements and recommendations for the rest of the 2021:
- All guests attending FCM concerts and Forums with Artists are required to wear a mask covering the nose and mouth while inside the venue, including while seated for concert and Forum with Artists and during intermission.
- All musicians performing in the FCM concert series are fully vaccinated.
- Social distancing from non-family members of the audience at the concerts, Forums with Artists, and during intermissions is recommended.
For more information, visit fcmtx.org.
Courtesy of Friends of Chamber Music
