Folger Consort Announces 2025-26 Season of Early Music

A collaboration with the Folger’s O.B. Hardison Poetry Series will open the season

Folger Consort, the early music ensemble-in-residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library, today announced its 2025-26 concert series. The season will feature a collaboration between Folger Consort and the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series, holiday performances to coincide with the Folger’s second annual Frost Fair, the return of romantic music for Valentine’s Day weekend, and a springtime-themed program to close the season and celebrate Mother’s Day.

For almost five decades, Folger Consort, led by founding directors Robert Eisenstein and Christopher Kendall, has invited artists—including prominent musicians, poets, and actors—for performances of medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music.

“The upcoming season will entice regular attendees and new audiences to engage with the early music tradition through a rich variety of performances. Longtime patrons know the power of sharing in the experience of live musical performances. As we dive into 15th-century chansons sung from a woman’s perspective and create conversations between the virtuoso violin music of the 17th and 18th centuries and contemporary poetry, we think there are new pathways for engaging with Folger Consort,” said Karen Ann Daniels, the Folger’s Director of Artistic Programs.

Virtuosos of Violins and Verse begins the season in November, and Folger Consort is partnering with the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series for a performance that connects virtuosos of poetry and music across centuries. For this winter’s treasured holiday tradition, Holiday Music from Spain and Portugal (Working Title) will transport listeners to Spain and Portugal for festive songs of hope and cheer. Love Songs of the 15th Century offers the perfect opportunity for Valentine’s or Galentine’s plans with late medieval French love songs. To conclude the season, the Consort presents An English Garden, curated by special guest Mary Springfels with Elizabethan music honoring the beauty of flowers and spring. Each series of concerts is preceded by an Early Music Seminar on Wednesdays where Robert Eisenstein is joined by a slate of guests to discuss the historical and musical background related to each upcoming performance.

“We are more eager than ever to get started on next season,” shared founding directors Robert Eisenstein and Christopher Kendall. “There are unique aspects to every program, and we have assembled, as always, a stellar group of guest artists to play and sing with us. All in all, it’s a season for all seasons, including medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music, and it’s a season of music that speaks to all of us, whether we know much about early music or not.”

Subscription packages to the 2025-26 season of Folger Consort begin at $156, 20% off single ticket prices, and are available now by contacting the Folger Box Office at (202) 544-7077 or visiting www.folger.edu/tickets/subscriptions/folger-consort-subscriptions/. Discounted subscriptions for patrons under 35 are available for $120. Single tickets go on sale on September 8.

Season Overview

Virtuosos of Violin and Verse

November 7-9, 2025

In a collaboration with Folger Poetry, the Consort will be joined by poet, author, and actor Rose Solari for a performance across the centuries in words and music. Among the highlights of this program are songs and cantatas by Barbara Strozzi, violin music of the 17th and 18th centuries, and the lyric verse of 16th-century poet Torquato Tasso (1544-1595), which inspired a number of Baroque composers.

Holiday Music from Spain and Portugal (Working Title)

December 5-14, 2025 

Continuing a beloved tradition for the winter holidays, Folger Consort celebrates with festive music from Spain and Portugal. The performance will showcase the lush, many-voiced motets of 16th-century Portuguese composer Vicente Lusitano and lively 16th- and 17th-century villançicos (early Spanish Christmas carols). Plus, there will be holiday music by Lusitano’s contemporaries Cristobal de Morales and Adrian Willaert, along with songs celebrating the season with flashy dances and works for our ensemble that includes lute, guitar, viols, winds, and voice.

Love Songs of the 15th Century

February 13-15, 2026

Performing the sole surviving musical setting of a ballad written by poet Christine de Pisan, author of the early feminist utopia The City of Ladies, Folger Consort’s February concert will be an affair to remember. This concert includes 15th-century chanson repertoire sung from a woman’s perspective and is perfect for a romantic Valentine’s Day weekend.

An English Garden

May 8-10, 2026

Folger Consort presents a program of Elizabethan songs and instrumental music interspersed with short readings of poems, garden descriptions, and advice from contemporary authors. The Folger will welcome back audience favorite soprano Emily Noël and an ensemble of viols and lute for this springtime program, curated by Mary Springfels.

Folger Consort Artistic Directors

Robert Eisenstein has led over 200 productions and performances with Folger Consort over the past 40 years including Measure + Dido at the Kennedy Center and Napa Valley Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice at Strathmore, The Fairy Queen, and Hildegard Von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum at the Washington National Cathedral. Director of the Five College Early Music Program; Music Director for the Five College Opera Project production of Francesca Caccini’s La Liberazione di Ruggiero; former faculty member of Mount Holyoke College, where he taught music history and performed the viola de gamba, violin, and medieval fiddle. He is an active participant in the Five College Medieval Studies. Recipient of Early Music America’s Thomas Binkley Award for outstanding achievement in performance and scholarship by the director of a college early music ensemble.

Christopher Kendall is the co-founder of the Folger Consort, and dean (2005-2015) and professor emeritus of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance. Since 1975 he has been Artistic Director and conductor of the 21st Century Consort, new music ensemble-in-residence at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Mr. Kendall formerly served as Director of the University of Maryland School of Music from 1996 to 2005, as Associate Conductor of the Seattle Symphony from 1987 to 1992, and as Director of the Music Division and Tanglewood Institute of the Boston University School for the Arts from 1993 to 1996. He has guest conducted many orchestras and ensembles in repertoire from the 18th to the 21st centuries, and his recordings can be heard on the Bard, Delos, Nonesuch, Centaur, ASV, Arabesque, Innova, Bridge, and Smithsonian Collection labels.

About Folger Shakespeare Library

The Folger Shakespeare Library makes Shakespeare’s stories and the world in which he lived accessible. Anchored by the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, the Folger is a cultural organization where curiosity and creativity are embraced, and conversation is always encouraged. Visitors to the Folger can choose how they want to experience the arts and humanities, from interactive exhibitions to captivating performances, and from path-breaking research to transformative educational programming. The Folger welcomes everyone to connect in their own way—from communities throughout Washington, DC, to communities across the globe. Learn more at www.folger.edu.

About Folger Consort

For 49 seasons as the early music ensemble-in-residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Folger Consort has delighted audiences with a stunning repertoire of early music spanning roughly 800 years. With world-class guest artists, from virtuoso soloists to large choirs and period orchestras, Folger Consort has performed masterpieces of the most renowned composers and hidden treasures from those who might otherwise be lost to history. Performing in the intimate setting of the Folger’s Elizabethan Theatre, as well as such grand spaces as Washington National Cathedral, Strathmore Hall, and the Kennedy Center, Folger Consort has also toured nationally and internationally to Shakespeare’s Globe and other prestigious venues.

Among other awards and critical acclaim for its performances and recordings, Folger Consort has received Best Classical Chamber Ensemble from the Washington Area Music Awards multiple times. For more on Folger Consort, please visit www.folger.edu/folger-consort.

Folger Consort recordings are available for purchase and digital download at iTunes and available for streaming on Spotify.