Brattleboro, Vt. – As part of its 50th Anniversary Season, Friends of Music at Guilford is presenting a special guest-artist concert combining the Early Music repertoire with recently composed pieces that bridge the centuries of musical expression in between. Considered one of the world’s finest vocal chamber ensembles, New York Polyphony will perform its “Faith & Reason” program on Sunday, September 27 at 4:00 p.m. in the sanctuary of Centre Congregational Church at 193 Main Street in Brattleboro.
They have toured widely in the U.S. and Europe, appearing at major international festivals and prestigious music series. Their 2013 and 2014 CDs were Grammy-nominated, and a number of their albums have made the “Top 10” lists of The New Yorker, Gramophone, and BBC Music Magazine.
The “Faith & Reason” repertoire includes the 16th-century Mass for Four Voices by Thomas Tallis, between complementary opening and closing “movements” that NYP commissioned from two contemporary British composers, Gabriel Jackson and Andrew Smith. Gregory Brown’s Missa Charles Darwin, also an NYP commission, replaced the sacred mass texts with poetic excerpts from Darwin’s “On the Origins of Species” and “The Descent of Man”; the genetic code of Darwin’s famous Finch was employed in some of the musical patterning. Brown’s arrangements of three American Folk Hymns are also on the program. 
The Pre-Concert Lecture at 3:00 p.m., with limited seating in the parlor of Centre Church, traces development of the Missa Charles Darwin with audiovisual aids and live samples by the quartet. Event corporate sponsors include Brattleboro Savings & Loan; Dead River Company; Douglas Cox Violin Maker; The Richards Group; and Trust Company of Vermont. Tickets: $50 Patron, including lecture seating and a gala reception with the quartet, patrons, and sponsors; General Admission: $15, Students: $10; Lecture Seating (limited, by reservation): $5 per person Information and reservations: (802) 254-3600 or office@fomag.org. Friends of Music’s 50th Anniversary Season is sponsored in part by Vermont Public Radio and the Vermont Arts Council.
