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Anonymous 4
Anonymous 4 (Ruth Cunningham, Marsha Genensky; Susan Hellauer, and Johanna Rose) is a vocal quartet specializing in the discovery and performance of medieval music. Established in 1986, and now an ensemble-in-residence at St. Michael's Church in New York City; Anonymous 4 has become recognized for creative programming, exquisite vocal blend, and ensemble virtuosity Anonymous 4 has created a variety of programs interweaving chant, monophonic song, and polyphony with poetry and narrative. Each presentation evokes a different aspect of the medieval experience.
Internationally renowned for their incomparable vocal blend and unsurpassed technical virtuosity, the ensemble takes their name from an anonymous medieval treatise describing the glory days of music at the Cathedral of Notre Dame around the year 1200. Setting a new musical direction, the innovative programs presented by Anonymous 4 combine musical, historical, literary and poetic elements; through their high artistry, they draw the listener into the transcendent world of the medieval spirit.
Anonymous 4 has performed in major cities throughout the United States and abroad. The group's 1998-99 season includes appearances in New York, Boston, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Houston, Brussels, Cologne, Strasbourg, Copenhagen, Berlin, and Kracow, among others. Celebrated regulars at the world's renowned festivals, Anonymous 4 has performed at the Flanders Festival in Belgium, the Brisbane Biennal in Australia, the Turku Festival in Finland, Eros & Ecclesia Festival in Berlin, the Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, the International Early Music Festival in Glasgow, the Oude Muziek Festival in Utrecht, and the Festival du Thoronet in France. The group has also toured as the "voice" of Joan of Arc, in "Voices of Light," a contemporary oratorio by Richard Einhorn, written to accompany Carl Dreyer's classic silent film, "The Passion of Joan of Arc."
In 1998 soprano Jacqueline Horner joined Anonymous 4 for the first time in a performance of A LAMMAS LADYMASS. (HMU 907222). Released in September 1998 on harmonia mundi USA, this sequel to the group's most popular recording, An ENGLISH LADYMASS, contains chant and polyphony for Mary's Assumption, celebrated during Lammas, or harvest-time, with musical texts filled with harvest-related themes of fertility and fruitfulness.
This season also marks Anonymous 4's first tour with the New York-based male ensemble Lionheart. Together, the two ensembles will present a program of music by the 15th-century master, Johannes Ockeghem.
Anonymous 4 has appeared on a wide range of radio and television programs, including NPR's "Performance Today," "Weekend Edition," and NPR stations around the country. The group has been featured on "CBS Sunday Morning" with Charles Osgood, Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion," MPR's "St. Paul Sunday," and WNYC's "Around New York." The ensemble appeared on Australian Broadcasting Company's program "Access All Areas," ZDF's "Ersteklassich!" and were also featured on Classic FM and BBC World Service.
Anonymous 4's recordings have sold over one million copies worldwide. Many of the ensemble's recordings have reached the top ten on Billboard's classical chart. Their first recording, AN ENGLISH LADYMASS (HMU 907080) was named Classical Disc of the Year, 1993 by CD Review. ON YOOLIS NIGHT (HMU 907099) the group's second recording, received France's prestigious Diapason d'Or, and their fourth recording, THE LILY AND THE LAMB (HMU 907125), was Classic CD's Disc of the Year, 1996. Last season's release, 11,000 VIRGINS: Chants for the Feast of St. Ursula (HMU 907200) featuring music of Hildegard of Bingen, was named Best Classical Album 1998 by the A Capella Society of America. The group has been universally praised for having "the most instinctive grasp of Hildegard's wide-ranging, quirkily chromatic, extravagantly melismatic music. They capture her fevered lyricism in masterly fashion, with their characteristic intelligence, suppleness, spontaneity and quality that can only be called spiritual affinity" - The New York Times.
web page: http://www.anonymous4.com/
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