The 2017-2018 St. James Concert Series closes with a return visit by the vocal ensemble, New York Polyphony. Tom Moore of Early Music America says, “Each individual voice is beautifully produced, and the blend and tuning are exemplary.” New York Polyphony tours extensively, participating in major concert series and festivals around the world. The New Yorker says that the four men are “singers of superb musicianship and vocal allure,” giving vibrant, modern voice to repertoire ranging from Gregorian chant to cutting-edge compositions. Their dedication to innovative programming, as well as a focus on rare and rediscovered Renaissance and medieval works, has earned New York Polyphony wide acclaim, and also helped to move early music into the classical mainstream.
The ensemble’s growing discography includes two GRAMMY-nominated releases and albums that have topped the “best of” lists of The New Yorker, Gramophone, and BBC Music Magazine. In August 2016, New York Polyphony released “Roma aeterna”, a program highlighted by two masses of the High Renaissance by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Tomás Luis de Victoria. The album, their seventh overall and fourth on BIS Records, debuted at #4 on Billboard magazine’s Traditional Classical Album chart. It has been hailed as “blissfully confident and beautiful” by BBC Radio, “resplendent and elegant” by the San Francisco Chronicle, and “nothing short of revelatory” by AllMusic.
The ensemble is comprised of Geoffrey Williams, countertenor, Steven Caldicott Wilson, tenor, Christopher Dylan Herbert, baritone, and Craig Phillips, bass. They have been featured on Performance Today for American Public Media, Footprints to Paradise: A Medieval Christmas for Public Radio International, and BBC Radio 3’s In Tune.
