UVM LANE SERIES
460 S. Prospect Street
Burlington, Vermont 05401
802-656-4455
PRESS
RELEASE
For immediate release: 11/19/13
Contact: Rebecca.Stone@uvm.edu 802-656-4455/802-656-4507
Artist photos are available on the Lane Series website
LIONHEART ROARS ‘LAUDARIO’ FOR THE HOLIDAYS
“…gorgeously blended…hauntingly beautiful…singing as sublime as the music; firmly projected but
unforced, velvet-finished. You could spend your money on a week at a spa, or several sessions with a
shrink, but you would be hard pressed to have a more warming, calming experience than this.”
— Kansas City Star
The University of Vermont Lane Series is proud to present Lionheart, one of America's leading
ensembles in vocal chamber music. Lionheart (Jeffrey Johnson, Lawrence Lipnik, John Olund, Richard
Porterfield, Kurt-Owen Richards, and Michael Ryan-Wenger) is best known for its interpretation of
medieval and Renaissance a cappella music, with Gregorian Chant as the keystone of its repertoire. This
special holiday concert, will take place on Friday, December 6th, at 7:30pm at the UVM Recital Hall.
Acclaimed for its “smoothly blended and impeccably balanced sound” (New York Times), the vocal
ensemble also collaborates with instrumental ensembles, dance companies, and contemporary
composers. Lionheart has released two CDs on the Nimbus label: “My Fayre Ladye: Tudor Songs and
Chant” (1997), and “Paris 1200: Chant and Polyphony from 12th Century France” (1998). Lionheart is
also heard on Sony Music's CD companion to A History of Western Music, and on NPR's "Christmas
Around the Country II," a collection of favorites from NPR's Performance Today. In New York City,
Lionheart performs regularly on the distinguished series “Music Before 1800,” at The Cloisters, and in
its own concert series at Saint Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church. The ensemble has also appeared at
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, at Lincoln Center, and at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall (in
collaboration with composer Steve Reich).
Lionheart’s Lane Series holiday concert will be an adaptation of ‘lauda’ melodies from 13th- and 14thcentury musical manuscripts. It all started with Saint Francis of Assisi, whose preaching and ascetic
example provoked many to become his followers, and the spiritual movement he initiated is still very
much alive today. Saint Francis and his disciples denied themselves many worldly things, but indulged
heartily in artistic pleasures, especially those of music and poetry. Franciscan humility, devotion, joy,
and mystery found characteristic expression in the lauda, or song of praise. Il laudario di Cortona (The
lauda-book of Cortona) is the earliest surviving collection of such pieces, a manuscript produced
sometime between 1250 and 1300 in Cortona (not far from Assisi).
These manuscripts give only the words and pitches of the lauda melodies, not the rhythm. Lionheart will
perform songs from these sources in its own rhythmic transcriptions, which are inspired by Luigi
Lucchi’s analysis of melodic and prosodic correlations in Cortona, but decorated with underlying
syncopations and other irregularities. Over the years the lauda incorporated new ideas of harmony,
counterpoint, and form. Laude soon began to be composed in two and three parts, then four and more,
and the program will reflect these stylistic changes. Manuscripts from Bologna, Florence, Trier, and
Venice serve as sources of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century polyphonic laude for this concert, but, as
with the Cortona manuscript, all the music in these collections is handed down anonymously.
The concert is generously sponsored by Saint Michael’s College. Tickets are $35 adults/$15 students.
For more information about the concert with Lionheart or to purchase tickets, visit the Lane Series
website, or call the Lane Series office, 802-656-4455.
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