Sunday, December 18, 2005

Program

The Christmas Story

Each holiday season the thirteen-member Waverly Consort, one of the world’s premier early music ensembles, tours The Christmas Story, a pageant of music and gestures inspired by the music and illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages. This program combines solemn and festive music, processions and dance music to dramatize the Biblical narrative of Christmas. Since its premiere at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1980, this offering has become a favorite of audiences throughout America.

The Waverly Consort has performed across the length and breadth of North America, toured South America, Britain and the Far East, and appeared at major international festivals, including the Caramoor Festival, the Casals Festival, the Hong Kong Festival, and the Madeira Bach Festival. Featured many times on national radio and television broadcasts, the ensemble has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning and NPR’s Performance Today. Its numerous recordings include the best-selling CBS Masterworks’, A Renaissance Christmas Celebration with the Waverly Consort, and the special Angel-EMI Classics recording for the Columbian Quincentenary, entitled 1492: Music from the Age of Discovery, listed on Billboard’s classical chart of bestsellers for seventeen weeks. Three additional compact discs have been released by Angel-EMI: A Waverly Consort Christmas: From East Anglia to Appalachia; an anthology of Iberian music entitled Traveler: Medieval Journeys Through Time; and An American Journey: Bound for the Promised Land. In 1999 the Waverly launched its own record label, Wave Records, with the release of The Christmas Story, featuring selections from its most popular medieval program. Wave Record’s latest release is Iberia: Spanish and Portuguese Music of the Golden Age.

The December 18th Waverly Consort performance will take place at 4:00 p.m. at the Wilton Presbyterian Church, 48 New Canaan Road, Wilton (on Route 106) . Tickets will be available at the door one-half hour before the performance for $25 each, (Seniors pay $18, students $10). For more information, or to reserve a ticket, call (203) 762-3401 or (203) 762-5019. Please note that seating for the concert is not assigned. The Wilton Candlelight Concerts benefit the Wilton Library.