Anonymous 4, an internationally acclaimed vocal quartet specializing in medieval music, will perform a guest recital and lecture at the University of Evansville next weekend.
The group will perform at 12:45 p.m. Sunday, February 5 in Wheeler Concert Hall. The event is free and open to the public.
Renowned for their unearthly vocal blend and virtuosic ensemble singing, the members of Anonymous 4 (Ruth Cunningham, Marsha Genensky, Susan Hellauer, and Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek) combine historical scholarship with contemporary performance intuition to create their magical sound. Celebrating their 25th anniversary during the 2011-12 season, the ensemble has performed on major concert series and at festivals throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.
“The winning qualities of this perennially popular a cappella group … are still strong,†wrote New York Times music reviewer Vivien Schweitzer after seeing the group perform last October. “Their impressive vocal blend, purity of tone, and distinctive individual voices, which have helped them sell almost two million copies of their albums on the Harmonia Mundi label, were beautifully highlighted.â€
Anonymous 4 has appeared on a wide range of radio and television programs, including NPR’s All Things Considered, Performance Today, and Weekend Edition; MPR’s St. Paul Sunday; WETA’s Millennium of Music; Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion; and ZDF’s Ersteklassich! (Germany). The ensemble has also been featured on A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts, CBS’ Sunday Morning, and Australian ABC’s Access All Areas.
Anonymous 4’s newest album, released in late 2011, is titled Secret Voices: Chant and Polyphony from The Las Huelgas Codex, c. 1300. This varied repertoire of 13th-century polyphony and sacred Latin song originated at a Spanish convent where the nuns sang this music, despite the rules of their order that forbade the performance of music with more than one part.
