Spain in the Middle Ages, like contemporary America, was a nation of diverse religions and cultures. In the thirteenth century, Alfonso X the Wise (1221-1284) called himself “King of the Three Religions”, and welcomed Jewish, Christian, and Muslim musicians, artists, and thinkers to his multi-ethnic court. The concert program is an attempt to recreate the unique musical, poetic, and spiritual climate of Iberia in the thirteenth century. Using King Alfonso’s magnificent collection of songs to the Virgin Mary as its central element, the program weaves Jewish and Islamic elements around the Christian songs. The performers, all recognized experts in their fields of medieval and/or Andalusian music, come, like the musicians at Alfonso’s court, from the different musical and religious traditions that made up the court orchestra of the Wise King.
