Amuse is a 12-voice women’s ensemble founded by Lee Ryder in the fall of 2002 to bring music for
women’s voices to New York audiences. An often overlooked area of choral literature, this repertory comprises works written throughout the last 10 centuries by well-known composers, including many new contemporary works.
Amor Artis is one of the first and foremost presenters in New York of lesser-known Baroque
masterpieces, Amor Artis has distinguished itself through authentic versions in style and setting. It has
achieved considerable recognition internationally through its many concerts and extensive discography, encompassing more than forty recordings.
Blue Heron is a vocal ensemble that combines a commitment to vivid live performance with the study
of original source materials and historical performance practice. Blue Heron’s principal repertoire
interests are fifteenth-century English and Franco-Flemish polyphony; and neglected early
sixteenth-century English music, especially the rich and unexplored repertory of the Peterhouse
partbooks (c. 1540). Founded in 1999, its first CD, featuring music by Guillaume Du Fay, was released in March of
2007 on the Blue Heron label.
C4 is the world’s first Choral Composer/Conductor Collective. Founded in 2005, it functions not only as a presenting ensemble with a three-program concert season, but also as an ongoing workshop and recital chorus for the emerging composers and conductors who form the core of the group.
Canticum Novum Singers is now in its 38th season under the direction of its founder, Harold Rosenbaum. This
chamber choir has achieved both national and international recognition for its stylistic versatility, vocal
blend, and expressive range. The group has performed in all of New York’s major concert halls and
has collaborated with prominent New York area orchestras.
Cerddorion is a mixed chamber choir dedicated to outstanding performances of adventurous programs
that span the breadth of the choral repertoire from medieval polyphony to new compositions. As befits
its name (cerddorion is Welsh for “musicians”), the ensemble aspires to musicianship in the fullest
sense, using the human voice to explore and fulfill the expressive potential of the art.
Polyhymnia is a small ensemble of singers and instrumentalists focusing on historically informed
performance of sacred music from the courts and cathedrals of the Renaissance world. Director John
Bradley has been creating original editions of music for the ensemble to both preserve and reintroduce
choral masterworks of the Renaissance and early Baroque in ways that both entertain and elucidate.
Lionheart is one of America’s leading ensembles in vocal chamber music, best known for its
interpretation of medieval and Renaissance a cappella music, with Gregorian Chant as the keystone of
its repertoire. The ensemble also collaborates with instrumental ensembles, dance companies, and contemporary composers.
TENET. Praised for their “purity of tone, clarity of diction, and blended ensemble” (Fanfare), Tenet is composed of renowned singers who are equally at home performing in ensembles and as soloists. They offer virtuosic programs sung one voice to a part that span several centuries, while often juxtaposing early and modern music.
New York Virtuoso Singers. Founded in 1988 by conductor Harold Rosenbaum, the group has become
this country’s leading exponent of contemporary choral music with an emphasis is on commissioning,
performing and recording the music of American composers. NYVS has twice received the prestigious
ASCAP-Chorus America “Award for Adventuresome Programming of Contemporary Music,” and has
been given Chorus America’s “American Choral Works Performance Award.”
Saint Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church is pleased to be home (or home-away-from-home) to several distinguished vocal ensembles. These ensembles-in-residence rehearse and perform in the church and, as part of their relationship with the parish, each year usually offer their vocal talents and perform the liturgical music at Solemn Mass on a week-day feast. We are pleased that they all participate in our arts ministry.