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| When Dean Applegate first proposed to Dr. Richard Marlow, Trinity College, Cambridge, that he conduct Cantores in Ecclesia in a week-long choral festival devoted to the music of William Byrd, the project seemed ambitious. By the close of their conversation, however, both men optimistically decided to proceed, and the First Annual William Byrd Festival was held in Portland, Oregon the last week of August, 1998. Conceived as a marriage of music and scholarship, Dr. William Mahrt of Stanford University agreed to participate in the planning process and prepare two public lectures. The choir would perform Byrd’s Mass settings within the context of three Latin liturgies, with the week culminating in a Sacred Concert of Byrd motets and keyboard pieces featuring Cantores in Ecclesia and its resident organist, Delbert Saman. Choosing music for the liturgies was simple; Renaissance England’s most celebrated composer only wrote three Masses. Selecting concert pieces from Byrd’s vast treasury of sacred and secular work was more challenging, given the prolific genius of this consummate Renaissance composer. The Festival was a success. Encouraged, planning began for the following year after which the Oregonian heralded the William Byrd Festival as a “valuable addition to Portland” (September 7, 1999). Cantores in Ecclesia is proud to have sponsored Portland’s William Byrd Festival for over a decade. With so much of Byrd’s music yet unsung, it looks forward to many more years under the gifted leadership of Dr. Marlow, Festival Conductor, and Festival Founder and Director, Mr. Applegate. |
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