March 30, 2004
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu
Early music superstars Anonymous 4 to perform The Origin of Fire: Music and Visions of Hildegard of Bingen at the First United Methodist Church and La Casa de Maria Chapel
Summary Facts:
- Anonymous 4
- Early music superstars celebrated for their rich vocal blend
- Their farewell tour after 17 years as an ensemble
- A Chamber Music in Historic Sites® concert
- Fri., April 30 / 8 pm / First United Methodist Church, 305 E. Anapamu St.
- Sat., May 1 / 4 pm / La Casa de Maria Chapel, 800 El Bosque Rd., Montecito
- The La Casa de Maria concert is sold out
- General public: $40 / UCSB students: $20 (limited availability)
- Tickets & information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535
The acclaimed female early music quartet Anonymous 4—on its farewell tour—will perform The Origin of Fire: Music and Visions of Hildegard of Bingen on Friday, April 30 at 8 pm at the First United Methodist Church, 305 E. Anapamu Street, Santa Barbara and on Saturday, May 1 at 4 pm at La Casa de Maria Chapel, 800 El Bosque Road, Montecito. Although the Saturday concert is sold out, tickets remain for Friday’s performance. Anonymous 4 combines musical, literary and historical scholarship with adept dramatic instinct. The Washington Post claims, “This paradox—a unified sound seemingly purged of human intervention but radiating mystically from four women—is the mark of exceptional artistry.”
Anonymous 4 previously turned to German mystic, scholar and composer Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) for richly inspiring material with its 1997 recording of 11,000 Virgins: Chants for the Feast of St. Ursula. The Origin of Fire, the current program, takes as its theme the transforming power of the “Fiery Spirit” and its mystical gifts of wisdom and love. Hildegard’s liturgical chant, with its wide vocal range and intense emotional pitch, will be presented with plainchant hymns and sequences that she and the sisters of her abbey would have heard daily.
The women of Anonymous 4—Marsha Genesky, Susan Hellauer, Jacqueline Horner, Johanna Maria Rose—perform in major cities throughout North America and are celebrated regulars at major international festivals. The ensemble has appeared on a wide range of radio and television programs, including Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, CBS Sunday Morning and A&E’s Breakfast With the Arts.
Anonymous 4 records exclusively for harmonia mundi usa. Their debut recording, An English Ladymass, was named 1992 Classical Disc of the Year by CD Review. Since then they have released 11 recordings, including award-winners On Yoolis Night, The Lily and the Lamb, Legends of St. Nicholas and 1000: A Mass for the End of Time.
Anonymous 4 has branched out into the realm of contemporary music, premiering works by John Tavener and Steve Reich. They have also established a fruitful relationship with composer Richard Einhorn, including performing his oratorio Voices of Light, which he wrote to accompany screenings of Carl Dreyer’s famous 1928 silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc.
The group’s name derives from the designation for an unknown author of a musical treatise from the Middle Ages. In the nineteenth century, a musicologist edited and published a series of such documents, designating the anonymous ones as Anonymous 1, Anonymous 2, Anonymous 3, etc. Anonymous 4 is the most important of these treatises, largely because it describes compositional style and music practice during the golden age of music at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris around the turn of the thirteenth century.
Anonymous 4 will conduct a Musicology Forum discussing their sources and performance practices with UCSB faculty on Friday, April 30 / 12 noon / UCSB Music Building, Room 1145. This event is free and open to public observation.
UCSB Arts & Lectures previously presented Anonymous 4 three times: on February 3, 2002; April 27, 1999; and October 24, 1995.
Anonymous 4’s Chamber Music in Historic Sites® concerts are the concluding events in UCSB Arts & Lectures’ 2003-2004 performing arts season held in local buildings of architectural significance where audiences can experience music in unique and intimate environments.
Santa Barbara’s Romanesque Revival-style First Methodist Church, a steel and concrete building with a stucco finish, was completed in 1927. Designed by architect Thomas P. Barber, the building is noted for its stunning rose-colored stain glass window above the entry arch that was crafted in Munich, Germany.
The 1955 La Casa de Maria Chapel, designed by Ayres and Fieges, features a façade resembling an early California mission, a sandstone interior, a beamed ceiling, and a life-size carving of the crucifixion in front of a thirty-foot window with a view of the surrounding woods.
UCSB Arts & Lectures presents its historic sites series by agreement with Chamber Music in Historic Sites®—a nationally licensed series, Dr. MaryAnn Bonino, president and founder. Thanks to the Pearl Chase Society for its support and to KDB Classical Radio for sponsoring this concert. This residency is funded in part by an organizational development grant using funds provided by the City of Santa Barbara in partnership with the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.