William Byrd is England’s greatest Renaissance composer. His sublime motets & anthems, nestled around the magisterial Mass for 5 Voices, will captivate & inspire you.

Byrd (ca.1540–1623) was a Catholic composer at a time when it was illegal in England. Yet he composed with apparent impunity, because of the esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries and by Queen Elizabeth I. Quire Cleveland made its début in 2008 with Byrd’s Mass for 4 Voices. His music has proved a favorite of our singers and audiences ever since!

This program features some of the best of the best, including two motets that survive in a set of manuscript partbooks in Case Western Reserve University’s Special Collections Library, and an exquisite anthem that only came to light in 1982.

Enriching your exploration of William Byrd’s choral music will be an introduction by the composer’s prize-winning biographer, Dr. Kerry McCarthy.

This exquisite choral music is brought to life by the glorious voices of Quire Cleveland, guaranteed to make life more harmonious!

Get in the mood for this concert with a visit to Quire’s YouTube channel, where you can hear “Sing joyfully,” “Venite exultemus Domine,” and other works by the great William Byrd.