Alexander Blachly's professional ensemble Pomerium presented a concert of sacred polyphony for the Imperial diets in Augsburg of 1518, 1530, and 1548 at Vassar College on September 21 and in Marquand Chapel of Yale University's Institute for Sacred Music on September 27. Included in the program were large-scale Masses and motets by Henricus Isaac, Ludwig Senfl, Nicolas Gombert, and Thomas Crecquillon. This program will be presented again in New York on January 25, 2015, at Music Before 1800.
On November 22, Pomerium will present a program of music from the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales in Madrid at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The program is a complement to an exhibit at the Getty of paintings by Peter Paul Rubens and tapestries based on them that were commissioned by the wealthy Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales in the 1620s. The tapestries have recently been restored. They are now on display for the first time ever outside the Monasterio chapel, where Tomás Luis de Victoria was organist and maestro de capilla at the end of his life. Pomerium's concert program features music by Victoria, surrounded by works by other fine composers who were active in Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries: Cristóbal de Morales, Francisco Guerrero, Joan Pau Pujol, Géry de Ghersem, and Sebastián López de Velasco.
On April 4, 2015, Pomerium will present its annual Holy Saturday concert at The Cloisters in New York. The program, which is called "Passion and Resurrection Motets of the Renaissance," features music by Guillaume Du Fay, Ludwig Senfl, Robert White, William Byrd, Orlande de Lassus, Claudio Monteverdi, and Carlo Gesualdo.
On Thursday, April 9, 2015, Pomerium will present a concert in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York for a series called "Before Bach" that includes performances by the Tallis Scholars, Jordi Savall, and John Eliot Gardiner. Pomerium's program will feature music for the two Tudor Queens (Mary and Elizabeth I) by Christopher Tye, Thomas Tallis, Robert White, John Sheppard, and William Byrd.
For more information, including full program and program notes for each of the concerts, visit www.pomerium.us.