Resurgam will perform ‘Lusitano: Travels & Tributes’, a concert of sixteenth century polyphony by Vicente Lusitano and his circle, with Ennis Cathedral Junior Choir in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Ennis at 6.00pm this Sunday, 2 March 2025.
Founded by Artistic Director Mark Duley in 2003, Resurgam is one of Ireland’s most acclaimed vocal ensembles. In what promises to be a stunning concert of rarely performed works, Resurgam’s singers will include sopranos Aisling Kenny and Charlotte O’Hare, altos Mark Chambers and Stephen Wallace, tenors Christopher Bowen and Rory Lynch and basses Jeffrey Ledwidge and Paul McGough.
This concert will be preceded by a panel discussion exploring this rarely performed repertoire and the impact of this performance opportunity on the development of this children’s choir, at the end of which questions from the audience will be welcomed.
Tickets: €15 full price; €10 concession; and €5 students. Tickets for this concert will be available at the door and are also currently available via Eventbrite.
Resurgam and its Artistic Director Mark Duley regularly undertake outreach and education projects with local choirs across Ireland. The outreach and education element of this project will consist of choral skill-building sessions through ‘deep dive’ rehearsals by Mark Duley with Ennis Cathedral Junior Choir and their Choral Director Fiona Walsh in the weeks leading up to a joint performance.
Vicente Lusitano – From Portugal to Germany, from Catholicism to Lutheranism, from holy orders to heresy, Vicente Lusitano’s birth life and travels compass the confessional, musical, and racialised divides of 16th Century Europe.
Born in Portugal, most likely to an enslaved mother and a father with the means to give his son an education, if not a surname, Lusitano became a priest and secured the patronage of one of Portugal’s most illustrious families in bringing his works to print in a monumental collection of motets for the Catholic liturgy, published in Rome under the copyright of Pope Julius III.
In doing so, he became the first composer racialised as Black to publish his music in Europe, some 200 years before Ignatius Sancho would do so. His achievements didn’t stop there, however: leaving the priesthood, he embraced Protestantism in the secret heretical circles operating in Northern Italy, married, and travelled to Germany, where a sole motet in a Stuttgart choirbook bears witness to his presence.
In this programme, Resurgam explore Lusitano’s travels, patrons, and influences: the opulent polyphony of the motets dedicated to dukes and popes; the simplicity of the music composed for Protestant Stuttgart, and the composers of previous generations who, in turn inspired him. Lusitano’s circle include Josquin, Rampollini, and Sigmund Hemmel.