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About the Ensemble
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, ranging from Dunstable and Du Fay through Ockeghem to Josquin; Spanish music between about 1500 and 1575; and neglected early sixteenth-century English music, especially the rich and unexplored repertory of the Peterhouse partbooks (c. 1540). The ensemble has also reached outside these areas to perform very early music (organa by the twelfth-century French composer Perotinus), very recent music (new works by Elliott Gyger), and more, including the complete Eighth Book of Madrigals by Luca Marenzio, prepared for the international Marenzio conference at Harvard University in April 2006. Founded in 1999, Blue Heron presents its own series of concerts in Cambridge, performs regularly at Monadnock Music in New Hampshire, and has appeared at other venues throughout the Northeast, including the 92nd Street Y in New York City. Its first CD, featuring music by Guillaume Du Fay, was released in March of 2007 on the Blue Heron label.