​The Newberry Consort Announces Concerts for 2023-2024 Season

The Newberry Consort is pleased to present its 37th season filled with music that spans from the Middle Ages through the 17th century, and from Germany to Italy, France, Latin America and beyond.

The season’s theme revolves around the spirit of collaboration. The Newberry Consort will team up with other prominent early music groups from around the country, allowing Chicago audiences to hear music rarely presented in the United States.

In September, The Newberry Consort and Haymarket Opera Company will offer a mini-festival of 17th-century music by women composers. From Sept. 22 to 24, The Consort will present In the Castle of the Moon: The Music of Sophie Elisabeth, the Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and Sept. 29 through Oct. 1, Haymarket will present a period production of Francesca Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina, which will feature The Newberry Consort’s sackbut quartet as well as other Newberry Consort artists.

The Newberry Consort’s performance, In the Castle of the Moon, will feature the music of Sophie Elisabeth, a 17th century German duchess, composer, poet, and patron of the arts. As a lover of music, Sophie Elisabeth organized countless performances at her court, including large masquerades, plays, and ballets, for which she often wrote music and poetry. Through her extensive patronage, she ended up influencing an entire generation of German musicians.

More than 100 of her pieces of music have survived, but despite her accomplishments, Sophie Elisabeth’s music is rarely performed. In fact, Liza Malamut, The Newberry Consort’s artistic director, said she had never heard of Sophie Elisabeth until she was doing research for one of last year’s concerts.

“I came across her name while I was doing research for Madama Europa in the Gonzaga Court last fall, and I performed two of her pieces for the first time later that year. They were absolutely beautiful works, and it gave me the idea to program this concert and draw attention to her significant—and thus far overlooked—artistic talents,” Malamut said.

In December, The Newberry Consort will revisit the tradition of its beloved “A Mexican Christmas” with A Latin American Christmas (Dec. 15-17). This concert will expand the scope of “A Mexican Christmas” to celebrate music from Peru, Spain, Guatemala, Panama, and the indigenous cultures of the Americas. Co-directed by Salomé Sandoval, a frequent artist of The Newberry Consort, the framework of the program is a witty nativity égloga—a very short rustic Christmas drama—written by Juan del Encina in the 15th century. Traditional percussion, plucked strings, Renaissance winds and voices bring together this multi-lingual holiday program.

The third concert of the season, I Sing a New Song: The Epic Journey of a Traveling Musician in the Middle Ages (Feb. 29-March 4), is a collaboration between The Newberry Consort and Cleveland-based medieval ensemble Trobár, headed by longtime Newberry Consort artists Allison Monroe and Elena Mullins Bailey. The concert will also feature world-famous keyboard specialist Catalina Vicens playing The Newberry Consort’s specially commissioned organetto. The program tells the story of a traveling menestrel, or minstrel—a professional traveling musician in Europe during the Middle Ages—and her companions as they undertake the perilous journey on foot from Paris to a menestrel school in Brussels. Featuring music for voice, plucked instruments, shawms, medieval slide trumpet, and organetto, this program captures the excitement that these musicians felt when they traveled to menestrel schools to compete, socialize, and learn new songs to take back to their home cities.

For the fourth and final concert of the season, The Newberry Consort will team up with the violin and sackbut consort Incantare to present Il Furioso: Music Influenced by the Life and Art of Jacopo Tintoretto (April 12-14). In this program developed by Incantare, singers Matthew Dean and Allison Selby Cook will narrate a traditional rhetorical dialogue in the characters of painter Jacopo Tintoretto and his daughter, Marietta Robusti, as they talk about their lives and the artists and musicians who were part of the Venetian School during the Italian Renaissance. Audience members will get to see projections of paintings by Tintoretto and his contemporaries while hearing music inspired by the paintings, including works by Andrea Gabrieli, Gioseffo Zarlino, Nicola Vicentino, Leonora Orsina, Madalena Casulana, Diego Ortiz, and Giovanni Priuli.

“This concert will feature a trifecta of art, music and theater, so I think there is something here for everyone,” Malamut said. A mixture of opulent antiphonal works for instruments and voices balances small-scale improvisatory solos, dances, and canzonas that mirror the richly hued textures of the paintings.

Season subscriptions and individual tickets are available at newberryconsort.org.

2023 – 2024 Season Details

● In the Castle of the Moon: The Music of Sophie Elisabeth, the Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg

Sophie Elisabeth was a 17th-century German duchess who was also a composer, musician, and poet. She influenced generations of German musicians through her patronage of the arts, yet her music has almost never been performed in modern times. In this program, The Newberry Consort will feature music written by Sophie Elisabeth as well as her teacher, Heinrich Schütz, and some of her patrons. Repertoire will include strophic songs, instrumental sinfonias, dances, sacred concertos, and song-ballets for singers, viola da gamba, keyboards, lute, and a consort of strings and trombones. The soundscape recalls that of Sophie Elisabeth’s “Castle of the Moon”—an interpretation of the name “Lüneburg” by the dukes who lived there, as well as an allusion to female power.

Friday, Sept. 22, 2023 at 7:30 p.m. at Hyde Park Union Church, 5600 S. Woodlawn Ave., Chicago

Saturday, Sept. 23 2023 at 7:30 p.m. at Ganz Hall, Roosevelt University, 430 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago

Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023 at 4 p.m. at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 939 Hinman Ave., Evanston

Tickets: $45, $65 for preferred seating, $10 for students with a valid student ID.

● A Latin American Christmas

Following in the tradition of the beloved “A Mexican Christmas,” this festive program expands in scope to celebrate sacred and secular music from Peru, Spain, Guatemala, Panama, and the indigenous cultures of the Americas. Co-directed by Salomé Sandoval, the framework of the program is a witty nativity égloga—a very short rustic Christmas drama—written by Juan del Encina in the 15th century. Traditional percussion, plucked strings, Renaissance winds, and voices bring together this multilingual holiday program.

Friday, Dec. 15, 2023 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 939 Hinman Ave., Evanston

Saturday, Dec. 16, 2023 at 2 p.m. at Mother of the Americas Catholic Church, 2226 S. Whipple St., Chicago

Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023 at 4 p.m. at St. Mary’s of the Lake Catholic Church, 4220 N. Sheridan Rd., Chicago

Tickets: $25, $10 for students with a valid student ID, or free for children under 16. Purchase a 10-person pass for $100.

● I Sing a New Song: The Epic Journey of a Traveling Musician in the Middle Ages

The Newberry Consort is pleased to collaborate with Cleveland-based medieval ensemble Trobár and internationally recognized keyboard specialist Catalina Vicens to present “I Sing a New Song.” The program tells the story of a traveling menestrel, or minstrel—a professional traveling musician in Europe during the Middle Ages—and her companions as they undertake the perilous journey on foot from Paris to a menestrel school in Brussels. Featuring music for voice, plucked instruments, shawms, medieval slide trumpet, and organetto, this program captures the excitement that these musicians felt when they traveled to menestrel schools to compete, socialize, and learn new songs to take back to their home cities.

Friday, March 1, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. at Bond Chapel, University of Chicago, 1025 E. 58th St., Chicago

Saturday, March 2, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. at Ganz Hall, Roosevelt University, 430 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago

Sunday, March 3, 2024 at 4 p.m. at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 939 Hinman Ave., Evanston

Tickets: $45, $65 for preferred seating, $10 for students with a valid student ID

● Il Furioso: Music Influenced by the Life and Art of Jacopo Tintoretto

The Newberry Consort closes the 2023-2024 season with Renaissance music influenced by the life and art of Venetian painter Jacopo Tintoretto, presented in collaboration with the early music group Incantare. This visually and aurally sumptuous program explores music by Italian composers from the Venetian School, juxtaposing musical works by Andrea Gabrieli, Gioseffo Zarlino, Nicola Vicentino, Leonora Orsina, Madalena Casulana, Diego Ortiz, and Giovanni Priuli against visual art by Tintoretto and other Venetian artists such as Titian, Veronese, Bellini, and Bassano. A mixture of opulent antiphonal works for instruments and voices balances small-scale improvisatory solos, dances, and canzonas that mirror the richly hued textures of the paintings.

Friday, April 12, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. at Ganz Hall, Roosevelt University, 430 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago

Saturday, April 13, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. at Hyde Park Union Church, 5600 S. Woodlawn Ave., Chicago

Sunday, April 14, 2024 at 3 p.m. at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 939 Hinman Ave., Evanston

Tickets: $45, $65 for preferred seating, $10 for students with a valid student ID.

Season passes

Season passes are $110 for general admission or $160 for preferred seating for three concerts (not including Latin American Christmas), or $130 for general admission and $180 for preferred seating for all four concerts.

To purchase tickets please visit www.newberryconsort.org.

About the Newberry Consort:

The Newberry Consort brings together singers and instrumentalists of the highest caliber to create historically informed performances of music from the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Baroque, and beyond. By integrating historical performance and research with contemporary themes and multimedia, we inspire audiences, musicians, and scholars by providing a window into earlier times and diverse cultures. The Consort continues to uplift Chicago’s early music community through mentorships, teaching, and engagement of local artists.