(WASHINGTON, DC) — Folger Consort, the early music ensemble in residence at Folger Shakespeare Library, releases its first new album in eleven years with A New Song, a musical celebration of the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. Musical settings of biblical verse and other sacred works from the reigns of England’s James I and James II by composers Henry Purcell, Thomas Tomkins, Orlando Gibbons, and John Blow are complemented by instrumental fantasies and by Purcell, Gibbons, and Giovanni Coprario.
Folger Consort artistic directors Robert Eisenstein (violin) and Christopher Kendall (lute, theorbo) are joined by instrumentalists Risa Browder (violin), Adam Pearl (organ), Alice Robbins (viol, basse de violon), and Henry Valoris (viola) and by Washington National Cathedral’s chamber vocal ensemble CATHEDRA, under the direction of Michael McCarthy.
Released on Bard Records, A New Song is a studio recording of Folger Consort’s 2011/12 season-opening concert.
A New Song, along with other Folger Consort recordings, is currently available as a CD and digital download on CDBaby.com. It is also available for purchase at the Folger Shop and at Politics and Prose in Washington, DC, and will soon be available on iTunes, Amazon, Folger.edu/store, and other online retailers. For a complete list of Folger Consort recordings, please visit www.folger.edu/consort.
In addition, Folger Consort is offering a free download of six selections from Handel's Messiah, recorded live at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, on December 20, 21, and 22, 1993. Folger Consort is joined on the recording by the Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford, and vocalists Drew Minter, Ann Monoyios, and William Sharp. The free download is available at www.cdbaby.com/cd/folgerconsort10.
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