From South to North, The Hispanic and Indigenous influence on early American Music

A musical journey from South to North across the continent, presenting vocal and instrumental music composed and performed in the key centers of musical excellence including cathedrals and the missions established by the Spanish, ending in the Californian Missions.

The program is predominantly Catholic sacred music sung in Spanish, with strong influences of dances prevalent at the time, and — while European influences are clearly visible — indigenous and local inflections show that the people of the Americas made this music their own. By placing Californian mission music in its wider cultural context we enable it to be heard as an integral part of the sociocultural movement that brought musicians from the heart of Europe to the American continent over a two-centuries sweep from the early 17th to the late 18th century.

El Parnaso Hyspano
Rafael Montero ~ tenor & founder
Biraj Barkakaty ~ countertenor
John Sloboda ~ bass & co-ordinator
with guest
Erinn Sensenig ~ soprano

Ars Poetica
Caroline Nicolas ~ cello & viola da gamba
Kevin Payne ~ theorbo & lute

Friday, May 15 at 7:30 pm
Followed by a reception
Saint Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church
264 West 87th Street between Broadway & West End Avenue, Manhattan