Sylvan Consort

of Viols

Re/Create

Friday March 14, 2025 at 8 pm, presented by Bowerbird at the Fleisher Art Memorial

Saturday March 15, 2025 at 3pm , presented by Market Street Music at First & Central Presbyterian in Wilmington

Sunday March 16, 2025 at 2pm, presented by the Bala Cynwyd Library concert series at the Levering Mill Tribute House

Variant 6 and the Sylvan Consort of Viols perform RE/CREATE, a program for six voices and six viols. The highlight of this program is a world premiere by Philadelphia composer, Kile Smith highlighting the unique sound world created by the combination of voices and viols. Smith’s new work entitled “Endless Morn of Light” features poetry of John Milton that explores ideas of timeless divinity and the power of music to elevate the soul. Paired with this new work is Orlando di Lasso’s Prophetiae Sibyllarum, a stunning and unconventional work that the two ensembles will present in different combinations of voices and viols. Variant 6 vocalists are Jessica Beebe, soprano ; Rebecca Myers, soprano ; Elisa Sutherland, mezzo-soprano ; James Reese, tenor ; Harrison Hintzsche, baritone ; and Daniel Schwartz, bass. Viol players are Sarah Cunningham, Margaret Humphrey, Donna Fournier, Elena Kauffman, Gretchen Gettes, and Rebecca Humphrey.

Past Concerts

Lawes and Order!

Sunday January 26, 2025 at 3pm, presented by Main Line Early Music at Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, PA, tickets

Experimentation, new forms, pushing boundaries of instrumental virtuosity and vocal expression - these are the hallmarks of 17th century music throughout Europe. While we might consider English consort music to be the exception, with its orderly contrapuntal conversations and serene flow of ideas, in fact the old rules were constantly stretched and often broken. William Lawes, the admired and beloved composer who died early, losing his life to a stray bullet during the lawless period of the English Civil War, extended those rules to the furthest limits of both harmony and technique. The Sylvan Viols will play his challenging and sublime music in the context of others who experimented in their own unique ways.

A Secret Fire

with Laura Heimes, soprano and Mark Rimple, lute

“By a secret fire I feel myself consumed... True, I could heal, if I ceased to love – but, I prefer the malady to the cure.”

When we find ourselves obsessed – by a person, a feeling, a melody, a creative idea – the obsession may seem to consume us while at the same time fueling us. The energy of fire stands for love, eros, the very root and source of life.

This French song from 1671, by Michel Lambert, takes us on a journey from England to France and back, spanning the 17th century, with viols, lute, and voice intertwining in dances, songs, and fantasias by Byrd, Dowland, Lawes, Le Jeune, Lambert, and Purcell.

April 7, 2024, 3pm, Church of the Good Shepherd, 1116 East Lancaster Avenue, Rosemont, PA 19010, goodshepherdrosemont.com/mainline-earlymusic

What is Our Life? Music for Viols and Voice

The Sylvan Consort of Viols is joined by guests Laura Heimes, soprano and Matthew Glandorf, organ on a musical journey from birth to death with songs of infancy, youth and new love, disappointment and triumph, loss and grief, and healing in works by Byrd, Dowland, Gibbons, Jenkins, Lawes, Gesualdo, and Monteverdi.

February 19, 2023, 4pm, Church of the Good Shepherd, 1116 East Lancaster Avenue, Rosemont, PA 19010

Song of the Soul: Music for Voices and Viols

The Sylvan Consort joins the Choir at Christ Church Christiana Hundred under the direction of Bruce Barber for a concert of English works for voices and viols.

March 20, 2022, 3:00pm , 505 Buck Road, Wilmington, Delaware 19807

Viola da Gamba Society of America Annual Conclave

Conclave faculty members Sarah Cunningham and Heather Miller Lardin invites the Sylvan Consort to join them for the conclave Faculty Spotlight video concert, July 2021 where they play "A Songe Called Trumpets" by Robert Parsons (ca. 1535-1572)

Bach@7 Narratives in Music Series: Heinrich Schütz Resurrection Historia

With Choral Arts Philadelphia, directed by Matthew Glandorf; performed by six voices, four bass viols, and organ. Also on the program, a beautiful pavan by Samuel Scheidt.

April 24, 2019, 7:00pm, Saint Clement's Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103

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