The Concord Ensemble

Performances Archives

The Concord Ensemble

Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. (Program)

Mission San Buenaventura (Map)

211 East Main Street

Ventura, California

Daniel Carberg, tenor

Corey Carleton, soprano

Pablo Corá, tenor

Claire Fedoruk, soprano

Scott Graff, bass-baritone

Kristen Toedtman, mezzo-soprano

Annalisa Pappano, gamba and lirone

Daniel Zuluaga, plucked strings

The Battle of the Sexes was inspired by the highly virtuosic compositions for equal voices that defined the courtly chapels of Italian noble families at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries. Since music in most religious establishments banned the use of women as professional singers, many courts saw fit to allow women to contribute their art in the secular courts.

The works on this program range in style from the bawdy musings of Gabrieli's Chi chi li chi, to the sacred exhortations of Carissimi's Plorate filii Israel from the oratorio Jepthe. And allow us a rare opportunity to showcase the beauty of the female and male voices, both separately and in concord.