As part of the Claudio Monteverdi’s 450th birthday celebrations, Nicholas Mulroy is directing the Dunedin Consort in four performances of the composer’s great Madrigals.
The project is called 'Love’s Fire; Love’s Ashes' and includes a selection of Madrigals from books 2 to 8. As Nicholas says on his recent appearance on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune, the Madrigals represent the real ‘heart of Monteverdi’ as he experimented and perfected his compositional techniques in these works.
With a performance in the Dunedin Consort’s home city of Edinburgh (21 May), they will also tour to Aberdeen (18 May), Shetland (19 May), and Bath Festival (22 May).
Nicholas began curating concerts in April 2011 when he devised and sang a programme entitled ‘Via Dolorosa’ with Barokksolistene at the Zamora Festival in Spain. The programme centred around the idea of Christ's final journey, with music from a selection of cantatas by Bach. Since then, he has been Director of Chapel Music at Girton College, Cambridge (he is currently Associate Director of Cambridge University Chamber Choir) and has sung Evangelist without a director in Bach's St John Passion in London, Amsterdam and Cambridge with the Britten Sinfonia. Nicholas was also instrumental in setting up Ensemble 42, and has curated programmes and directed them at the Rheinvokal, BRQ Vantaa and Gdansk Early Music Festivals.
You can still listen to Nicholas speaking about his project with the Dunedin Consort and singing Si dolce è’l tormento and Nigra Sum accompanied by Toby Carr on the theorbo by visiting BBC Radio 3's In Tune webpage.
