ne of the worst-kept secrets of Elizabethan England was the illicit Catholic faith of the composer of the Chapel Royal, William Byrd. Under Protestant rule, Byrd was playing with fire—almost literally—as he secretly composed and performed explicitly Catholic music; in those years, renegade Catholics were regularly burned alive or executed in other cruel ways.
This ReRenaissance program imagines how this circle of hidden Catholic companions might have celebrated Advent and Christmas in secrecy and peril at Ingatestone Hall in Essex.
Elizabeth Sommers – violin, voice
Elizabeth Rumsey – viol
Simon MacHale – voice
Katharine Hawnt – voice
Grace Newcombe – voice, organ; direction
Free entry – Collection
