Eya: Ensemble for Medieval Music
Performance Details
Date: Friday, November 22nd at 7:30pm
Location: Great Hall, Wren Building
Admission: Free
About the Performers
Eya - featuring Crossley Hawn, soprano, Allison Mondel, soprano, and Kristen Dubenion-Smith, mezzo-soprano - is an award-winning vocal ensemble based in Washington, D.C. specializing in the interpretation of medieval music for women's voices. Launched in 2010, Eya has established its place in the Washington, D.C. community as an early music ensemble of impeccable vocal quality, deep spirit, and smarts.
Directed by Allison Mondel, Eya presents concert programs that interweave diverse repertories of the 12th through 15th centuries, from Hildgard von Bingen to Notre Dame to the flyleaves of early English manuscripts and beyond. Through this lens, these programs seek to tell a story that forges new points of connection between contemporary audiences and medieval repertoire, underlining our common humanity with these early poets and composers.
Eya's performers are some of the finest young early music specialists in the area and appear regularly with the Washington Bach Consort, Washington National Cathedral, Apollo's Fire, the Folger Consort, among others. Eya has performed at a variety of venues, notably at Dumbarton Oaks (Harvard University) for the opening of the special exhibition "Cross References," the Boston Early Music Festival Fringe, and Georgetown University, among others. This season, Eya made a special guest appearance with the Cathedral Choral society in a performance of Richard Einhorn's cantata Voices of Light, set to the exquisite 1928 silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc, in addition to releasing their first recording, Stella Serena, to be released this winter.
Audiences have praised the ensemble for its vocal beauty, fascinating programming, fresh and inspired interpretations, and musicianship of the highest standard. Most recently, Eya was the proud recipient of the 2013 Greater DC Choral Excellence Award for Best Specialty Group: Early Music.
Eya (pronounced "EH-yah") is a Latin exclamation of joy. For more information about Eya, visit their website at www.eyaensemble.com.
Program Selection
| O speculum spericum | Motet segment, Durham Cathedral, early 14th C (poss. Philippe de Vitry 1291-1361) |
| Marie qui gratiam | Conductus, St. Victor Manuscript, Notre Dame 13th C |
| Virgo pudicitie | Conductus, Worcester, 13th C |
| Salve virgo tonatis solium | Conductus, Worcester, 13th C |
| Salve, mater misericordie | Randellus, Worcester, 13th C |
| Salve, sancta parens patrie | Conductus, Notre Dame, 13th C |
| Caeli Domina/Ave virgo virginum/ET SUPER | Motet, Las Huelgas Codex, early 14th C |
| Intermission | |
| Si membrana cesset | Conductus, Notre Dame, 13th C |
| Tu decus es/O Maria beata/NOSTRUM | Motet, Bamber Codex, 13th C |
| Salve rosa venustatis | Conductus, Worcester, 13th C |
| Flos Regalis | Rondellus, Worcester, 13th C |
| Ave regina caelorum | Hymn, Liber Usualis |
| Ave Maria gratia plena | Conductus, Worcester, 13th C |
| Iam vellus imbuitur | Conductus, Worcester fragment, 13th C |
| O speculum spericum | Michael McCarthy |
