Friday 24th October, 1.05pm

Wells Cathedral
Admission free
Performers: Alistair Dixon conducts singers from the Wells Tudor Music Course

The Wells Tudor Music Course presents a concert of unaccompanied music by William Byrd and his contemporaries in the nave of Wells Cathedral.

Friday 24th October, 8.00pm

St Thomas Church, Wells
Tickets £8, under 18 free
Performers: Chapelle du Roi

Chapelle du Roi. Chapelle du Roi is one of England's finest early music vocal ensembles. Founded in 1994 by Alistair Dixon, then a Gentleman-in-Ordinary at the Chapel Royal, Chapelle du Roi has made highly acclaimed appearances at the York Early Music Festival in July 1997, the Utrecht Early Music Festival in 1998, 1999 and 2000, and at many other festivals across the UK and Europe. Chapelle du Roi is noted for its engaging stage presence in live performance. Specialising in the performance of sacred music from the European Renaissance, the ensemble has two aims in its programming; to unearth music that has languished unseen and unheard on library shelves and is deserving of greater prominence, and to help re-establish Renaissance music as repertoire that can be enjoyed by everybody. Their nine-disc recording of the complete works of Thomas Tallis (Signum Records) has met with international critical acclaim.

Saturday 25th October, 3.00pm

St Thomas Church, Wells
Admission free (retiring collection)
Performers: Dawn Johnston (lute), Peter Wells and Maria Sanger (recorders), Kyoko Murai (soprano)

This concert focuses on intimate Tudor consort music exploring the sonoroties of voice with instruments. As well as the masterworks of Dowland and Byrd, a less-common aspect is the performance of instrumental elaborations of vocal models, showing the influence of continental developments and composers on the English Court. Dawn, Peter, Maria and Kyoko will be joined by the choir of the Wells Tudor Music Course (dir. Alistair Dixon).

Kyoko Murai specialises in early vocal music and sings with the professional choirs of Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Square and with English Voices with whom she has recently toured the USA.

Maria Sanger performs with the early music and drama ensemble Punchinello and the baroque ensemble Pellegrina. She has performed in England and in European festivals including Roccatederighi in Italy and Galway in Ireland

Peter Wells studied the recorder in New Zealand and in The Netherlands with Reine-Marie Verhagen and Marion Verbruggen. He has performed in countries from Canada to The Czech Republic, has broadcast recital programmes on radio and features on various television soundtracks.

Dawn Johnston studied the lute with Robert Spencer and David Miller. As a continuo player Dawn has worked with English National Opera, the London Baroque Players, the London Handel Orchestra, Ex Cathedra, the City of London Sinfonia and at The Globe Theatre.

Saturday 25th October, 8.00pm

St Thomas Church, Wells
Tickets £6, under 18 free
Performer: Colin Booth

Harpsichord and chamber organ recital by Colin Booth

Colin Booth's recital, played on small organ and harpsichord, will focus on two great masters of the period: Orlando Gibbons and Peter Phillips. Both composers wrote music of unusual emotional intensity, and in very different styles. There will also be an opportunity to compare their work with the radically different-sounding music of their Italian contemporary, Girolamo Frescobaldi

Colin Booth has combined the careers of harpsichordist and harpsichord-maker for more than 25 years. During this time he has sold more than 300 instruments, of which an unusually large proportion continue to be commissioned by Early Music professionals.

As a player he has performed in many countries from Denmark to South Africa; he also plays and teaches throughout the South-west of England, has conducted courses at West Dean, and is a regular contributor to the annual Dartington International Summer School. His book, Did Bach Really Mean That? is published this year by Positif Press of Oxford, and is an introduction to some of the most important conventions underlying the notation used by Baroque composers.

Colin has released 10 CDs of solo harpsichord music. His recording project for 2007 was of music by Buxtehude, and this accompanied a recital-tour of Denmark (the composer’s birthplace) and north Germany, including Buxtehude’s “home town” of Lubeck. This year sees the release of a world-premiere recording of the complete Mattheson suites of 1714.

This recital gives Colin a welcome opportunity to return to earlier repertoire. Gibbons, Phillips, and Frescobaldi have long been among his favourite composers, and two of his CDs feature their music. Of Colin’s recording of Frescobaldi, the German magazine Alte Musik Aktuell said:

“One doesn’t have to be an Italian to create a sensation by a provocative and extraordinary performance. This is demonstrated here by the English harpsichordist Colin Booth, on a copy of an early Italian harpsichord with two keyboards – which is rare for this type of instrument. …the real thrill of the CD is the almost non-conformist approach of the player, which on the one hand brings Frescobaldi much closer to Bach and the Baroque, and on the other shows how a shrewd musician can – to put it rather daringly – play the music as if it were jazz. The range of tonal colour, rhythmic freedom, and creative boldness are all features of jazz. It is to the great credit of Colin Booth that he has brought a composer from the late-Renaissance much closer to our own age. For this he is to be warmly thanked.”