When Anonymous 4 sings about a new
millennium, audiences have to check the date.
When the members of the highly acclaimed quartet
brings their medieval chant and polyphony to Holland through
Hope College's Great Performance Series on Tuesday, April
24, they will perform their latest recording, "1000: A Mass
for the End of Time."
The concert is being held at St. Francis de Sales
Church in Holland, beginning at 8 p.m.
The quartet has become all but anonymous since its
formation in 1986. Acclaimed for its astonishing vocal blend
and technical virtuosity, Anonymous 4 explores works by
modern composers as well as medieval chant and polyphony
(music consisting of two or more independent but harmonious
melodies).
The "New York Times" says that the group has "a
union so precise that it sounds positively supernatural."
The "Chicago Sun Times" takes its praise even higher: "When
we die and go to heaven, it will sound just like the music
from the reigning queens of chant and polyphony."
While all 10 of the quartet's recordings have
reached Billboard's classical top 10 chart, the talent of
these artists is heard best live. The Great Performance
Series makes its foray off Hope's campus in order to take
advantage of acoustical sound created at St. Francis de
Sales.
Marsha Genensky, Susan Hellauer, Jacqueline Horner
and Johanna Maria Rose present "1000: A Mass For the End of
Time" in part because it includes thousand-year-old chants
in celebration of the new millennium. Classic FM (U.K.)
selected their recent recording as October 2000 "CD of the
Month," and Fanfare magazine said, "altogether, this is one
of the most rewarding of all the programs developed and
recorded by this group."
Tickets will be available at the theatre lobby
ticket office in the DeWitt Center on Thursday and Friday,
April 19-20, and Monday-Tuesday, April 23-24, from 10 a.m.
to 5 p.m. If available, remaining tickets will be sold at
the door.
Tickets cost $12.50 for regular adult admission,
$10.50 for senior citizens, and $5 for Hope students and
children under 18. The ticket office can be called at (616)
395-7890.
St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church is located on
the corner of 13th Street and Maple Avenue in Holland.