The Phoenix Rising – Stile Antico

Amongst the many endeavours funded by the Carnegie Trust marking its centenary in 2013), was the publication and editing of ‘Tudor Church Music’ in ten large folio volumes of music, with 50 performing pieces published individually. This had a considerable impact on the revival of this important music: for the first time a significant body of the greatest Tudor compositions became accessible to scholars, performers and listeners having languished in cathedrals, museums and colleges. It also inspired a further generation of English composers after its resurrection including Howells, Britten and Vaughan Williams. Stile Antico presents a varied selection of the finest pieces from TCM in a programme centred around William Byrd s masterful five-part mass.

Stile Antico is an elite ensemble of young British singers, working without a conductor, each contributing artistically to the musical result. They are now established as the crack ensemble to beat, having enjoyed huge success, via their SACD recordings for harmonia mundi USA. Awards include the 2009 Gramophone Award for Early Music [Song of Songs] which also reached the top of the US Classical Chart. Their performances have repeatedly been praised for their vitality, commitment and imaginative response to text. Highlights of Stile Antico’s 2012-13 season include a series of concerts as co-curators of the Wigmore Hall’s William Byrd: Sacred Music festival, and this new recording celebrating the centenary of the Carnegie UK Trust, publisher of the pioneering Tudor Church Music edition. Carnegie Trust: changing minds, changing lives 1913-2013 Set up by Andrew Carnegie in 1913 to improve the wellbeing of the people of the United Kingdom and Ireland, it is one of the oldest and most respected charitable trusts in the British Isles. The Carnegie medal of philanthropy, given to those who have dedicated their private wealth to public good, will be presented in the Scottish Parliament in October 2013, in a week of events seeking to engage the Scottish public with the legacy of Andrew Carnegie.