Barefoot Chamber Concerts (“an enterprise noted for both its quality and informality” – San Francisco Classical Voice) presents really good music in the right acoustic and without the formality of most classical music events.
Continuing its annual tradition, Barefoot welcomes the New Year with a festive concert of viol consort music. This year’s extravaganza features the consort music of the great William Byrd. Deservedly the most famous of the Elizabethan/Jacobean composers, Byrd is remarkable for having composed a huge variety of types of music: sacred, secular, vocal (in Latin and English) and instrumental. He also has the distinction of having been universally admired by his contemporaries (a rare feat).
This concert will feature Byrd’s spectacular works for six viols, interspersed with fantasies, In Nomines, and dances for 3, 4, and 5 viols, as well as several of the Master’s most beloved vocal works, re-cast for viol consort.
The Barefoot All-Stars (the Bay Area’s viol-consort collective of choice) are joined for this program by viol superstar Wendy Gillespie. A Byrd expert (among other things), Gillespie has enjoyed the rare honor of recording the complete works of Byrd twice (with different groups). In the lovely wooden hall of the Hillside Swedenborgian Church, this will be an acoustic treat to round off the holidays.
There will be the usual Barefoot snacks, and the concert (which starts at 6:30) will be without intermission and about 75 minutes long. For more information, visit barefootchamberconcerts.com. Tickets online (recommended) or at the door (if not sold out).