Salzinnes Saints: Plainchant from the Salzinnes Antiphonal
Psallentes Ensemble, directed by Hendrik Vanden Abeele
Saturday, September 23, 2017, 8 p.m., Saint Mary’s Basilica ($30 adults / $20 seniors / $15 students / $10 children)
The women of Psallentes will sing a program of plainchant from the Salzinnes Antiphonal, including music for Advent, for the Nativity of Mary and the Annunciation, and for Saints Andrew, Agnes, Agatha, Roch and Hubert.
Founded in 2000 by singer and conductor Hendrik Vanden Abeele, the ensemble seeks out plainchant and associated polyphony from various historical periods, and particular attention is paid to plainchant of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance.
With his own and other ensembles, Vanden Abeele has recorded some 50 CDs, and has given concert tours in Europe, North America, New Zealand, South Korea, China and Japan. The Psallentes Ensemble’s various CDs have received high praise, with five stars awarded by the Goldberg Magazine, two ‘Diapason d’O’r labels, a ‘Répertoire 10’ and a ‘Prix Choc’ from the French ‘Monde de la Musique’, and the ‘Cecilia prize’ of the Belgian music critics.
Hendrik Vanden Abeele holds a doctorate from the Leiden University (The Netherlands), with a thesis on “What late medieval chant manuscripts do to a present-day performer of plainchant.”
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