Organization Member
Contact Information
(917) 838-4636
[email protected]https://polyhymnia-nyc.org
New York, New York
Type of Organization
Performing Ensemble
About
Polyhymnia, recipient of Early Music America’s 2016 Outreach Grant, is a small select ensemble of singers focusing on historically informed performance of sacred music from the courts and cathedrals of the Renaissance world. The ensemble has been in residence at The Church of St. Ignatius of Antioch since 2003 where the ensemble presents three concerts per year.
Since 2000, director John Bradley has been creating original editions of music for the ensemble, some of it lying undiscovered since the 16th-century. Working in concert with libraries, liturgical historians and institutions, Polyhymnia hopes to both preserve and reintroduce choral masterworks of the Renaissance and early Baroque in ways that both entertain and enlighten. In addition to the concert series, the ensemble's unique relationship with Saint Ignatius of Antioch, a forerunner in the preservation of historical liturgy, provides opportunities to perform Renaissance and Baroque music in a liturgical context, while fostering musical artistry and scholarship in these interdependent disciplines.
Since its formation in 1994, Polyhymnia has amassed a vast repertoire performed in both traditional concerts as well as historical liturgical reconstructions. Mr. Bradley has reconstructed several liturgies, from Seville, Imperial Germany and Tudor England, which have included works by both well known composers like Lassus and Palestrina, and a wide array of unjustly neglected composers including Clemens non Papa, Crecquillon, de Rore, Fayrfax, Gombert, and Vaet.
