Booking Cantores
If you would like Cantores Cleveland to design a program for your school, church or private venue, please contact us at cantorescleveland@gmail.com.
We offer seasonal Christmas programs, weddings, private parties, fund-raisers as well as collaborated programs to meet your group's particular interests and needs. Some of our most popular past projects are listed below.
We offer seasonal Christmas programs, weddings, private parties, fund-raisers as well as collaborated programs to meet your group's particular interests and needs. Some of our most popular past projects are listed below.
Early Music Sampler
This is a "back to basics" survey of early music from chant forms through the start of the Baroque era. The pieces represent composers who stand out for their innovative techniques and/or for their mastery of music composition for voices during their own times. Some of these musicians were already well known by their contemporaries while others have become so, as scholars have uncovered and analyzed their work in modern times. You will hear the music of Dunstable, Hildegard, Du Fay, Josquin, Byrd, Palestrina, di Lasso, Marenzio, Vecchi, and Monteverdi. If you join us on this musical adventure spanning several centuries, you will come away with a better understanding of the origins of the musical forms and genres we hear today.
Ancient Souls: Voices from the Hebrew Bible
Sarajevo Haggadah
Sample selections from the massive body of music set to texts from Torah, Nevi'im and Ketuvim - five books of Moses, the Prophets, and the Writings. As you listen to creations by LeJeune, Dunstable, Palestrina, Gomólka and others, hear the pleas and praises of Psalms, feel Job's suffering, wander through the exquisite poetry of the Songs of Solomon. This presentation emphasizes the beauty and timelessness of the literature of the ancient Near East.
Penitence, Passion, and Praise
Our Lent program offers a multidisciplinary approach to this period in the Christian calendar. We have combined outstanding music with representative Renaissance art images and dramatic recitation. With the added elements, you have the opportunity to broadly experience the meaning and purpose of the weeks leading from Lent to Palm Sunday. The three days of the Passion follows and you are drawn in by the intensity of the paintings representing Christ on the Cross. We finish on a more upbeat note. You will leave the program realizing that your senses have been more fully engaged and you have been brought into the experience of this season.
La Bella Musica: Singing the Italian Renaissance
Sixteenth century traveling cloth merchant Giovanni da Padova has found himself in an unfamiliar land at a time very different than his own. He discovers that a group has gathered and, seeing musicians preparing to perform, assumes the role of dramatic narrator. What a unique opportunity to tell the audience all about the music he recognizes from his beloved Italy. As we watch and listen, we learn of the enormous contributions of northern European composers during the century, how uniquely Italian styles emerged, and what we could look forward to in Italy at the dawn of the Baroque musical era. A multidisciplinary project with musical presentation and an Italian art and general history display.
An Advent Evening of Reflection
Botticelli, 1489-90
Cantores Cleveland presents a wide range of music for Advent from the Medieval and Renaissance eras. In traditional churches, Advent texts are standardized by week for the four weeks preceding Christmas, and have been read or chanted as such for hundreds of years. The music you will hear poignantly reveals and enhances the meaning of the sacred readings. Among our selections are the well known "Pray for peace of Jerusalem", "Sound the trumpet in Zion", "Ave Maria", "Prepare ye the way of the Lord" and many more. The beauty of the musical settings by Palestrina, DuFay, Isaac, Purcell and others evoke a quiet, calm state of mind-- a welcome antidote to the hurried pace of the season.
Tudor England: Music in Times of Turmoil
Holbein, 1536
When we think of Tudor England, monarchs Henry VIII and Elizabeth I come to mind first. Movies, books and television series about them ensure the primacy of these two icons in our knowledge of this period. Music, as always, was influenced by the environment in which it existed, and indeed there were enormous cultural changes during the Tudor reign. We offer representative music from 1485 - 1603 and demonstrate the nature and magnitude of stylistic changes that occurred in both sacred and secular music. You will hear traditional Latin liturgical pieces and a new English sacred musical form, a cappella songs in English and in Continental languages, and a new accompanied style of choral music. Follow the path with us as we outline how religious and secular power collide and cause a schism and a new Church to emerge. Listen as we musically examine how this watershed period changed the way English musicians wrote music, using uniquely English styles. And compose magnificent music they did, music that gratifies and delights us today.
Mad about Madrigals
Anonymous
John, a 16th century English merchant takes you with him on his next sales trip to the Continent and back home. Accompany him as he hears musical delights from Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and finally, England. Along the journey with John, you will enjoy a sumptuous feast for the ears. We will sample music by some of the earliest composers writing in madrigal style, such a Verdelot, Josquin, and Arcadelt. When we finally arrive back home in England, we will hear the uniquely English style of the late madrigal period, with examples by Weelkes, Ravenscroft, and Farmer.
