April 7, 1999
Simon Carrington, KU director of choral activities, conducts the Oread Consort and the Collegium Musicum Vocal Consort. Paul Laird, associate professor of music history, directs the Collegium Musicum Instrumental Consort.
The spring program will open with the Oread Consort performing "The Monteverdi Cycle," a series of madrigals of the high Italian Renaissance, including works by Giaches de Wert, Carlo Gesualdo, and Claudio Monteverdi.
For the second portion of the program, the Collegium Musicum will perform a series of works by Guerrero including motets and several vocal and instrumental selections from the "Canciones y villanescas espirituales."
Guerrero worked for many years at Seville Cathedral, first as a singer, then as choirmaster. His works became revered throughout the Spanish Empire, but he spent much of his own money publishing his music. In 1589 he was forced to pay a large ransom to pirates who boarded his ship; by 1591 he was in debtors prison, but the cathedral paid his creditors. In 1599 he obtained leave to visit the Holy Land, but he died of a plague in Seville before departing.
Both performances are free and open to the public.