New York Polyphony

Founded in 2006, New York Polyphony occupies a place as one of the foremost vocal chamber ensembles active today. Throughout their tenure together, the singers have demonstrated a commitment to innovative programming, giving vibrant voice to repertoire ranging from overlooked masterpieces of antiquity to works commissioned from composers in the vanguard of contemporary vocal music such as Gabriel Jackson, Ivan Moody, Greg Spears and Gregory Brown. Their dedication to exploring the intersection between ancient and modern music, as well as a focus on rare Renaissance and medieval works, has not only earned New York Polyphony two GRAMMY nominations and wide acclaim, but also helped to move early music into the classical mainstream. In 2016, New York Polyphony released Roma aeterna, a programme highlighted by two masses of the High Renaissance by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Tomás Luís de Victoria. The album, their seventh overall and fourth on BIS, was hailed as ‘blissfully confident and beautiful’ (BBC Radio 3 – Record Review), ‘resplendent and elegant’ (San Francisco Chronicle) and ‘nothing short of revelatory’ (AllMusic).

New York Polyphony tours extensively, participating in major concert series and festivals around the world. Noteworthy engagements include début performances at London’s Wigmore Hall and the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, residencies at Dartmouth College and Stanford University, concerts under the aegis of the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht (Netherlands), and the European première of the Missa Charles Darwin – a newly commissioned secular Mass setting based on texts of Charles Darwin by composer Gregory Brown – at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. Elsewhere New York Polyphony has performed as part of the Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, Rheingau Musik Festival, Thüringer Bachwochen (Germany), Abvlensis International Music Festival (Spain), Stiftskonzerte Oberösterreich (Austria), Festival de Música de Morelia (Mexico) and the Elora Festival (Canada), among others.