Well, the album is now out into the wild! We joined Petroc Trelawney for BBC Radio 3’s In Tune for our launch, and so much fun was had. Listen carefully for the gasps as he announced that Ricordanze will be the featured Album of the Week on Radio 3’s Essential Classics next week – a … Read more
With just under a week to go until the release of our new album Ricordanze, scores for all the tracks are now available in our web shop. Full perusal scores can be downloaded, and there are the usual accoutrements of keyboard and viol scores (where appropriate), and rehearsal tracks in equal temperament and meantone. And while … Read more
We are now halfway through our crowdfunding campaign and making progress: the publicity roster is growing, thanks to our wonderful publicist Jo Carpenter, and the physical CDs have been ordered. First, we have a super exciting new reward iin the Crowdfunder – our lovely friend Sarah Dunant has promised signed copies of her new book, The … Read more
And, our new double album, Ricordanze: a record of love, here! Well, almost…. While the recording is made and the videos are excellent, production and publicity costs also need a budget. Can you help us get over the financial line? If you would like to support us, you can do so in three ways: You … Read more
2024 was a year of exciting preparation, hard work, and sorrow. In January, we recorded around 100 minutes of music from the Biffoli-Sostegni manuscript, both for our new album, Ricordanze: a record of love, and as audio material for Laurie’s forthcoming publication in the Cambridge Element format, a multimedia exploration of the history and music of … Read more
Musica Secreta and Celestial Sirens will be participating in a memorial concert for our founder and dear friend, Deborah Roberts, on 9 February 2025. Details of the event are on the Brighton Early Music Festival website. We will perform Suor Chiara Margarita Cozzolani’s Magnificat a8, as we did on 6 October 2002, from Deborah’s … Read more
Deborah Roberts, Musica Secreta’s founder and long-time co-director, died on 9 September 2024. There have been tributes for her from the entire early music community, on social media, on the radio, and in the press: she was so clearly loved and esteemed by so many people. While Deborah was central to Musica Secreta, we were … Read more
Last year, Musica Secreta got in touch with a number of other early music/vocal ensembles to see if they would be interested in creating an album that could be used to raise awareness and funds for cancer charities. The only criterion for inclusion was that the text should include a reference or references to breasts … Read more
Into 2024 with the fourth of our five tracks recorded to raise awareness (AND MONEY) for breast cancer research and support – and if 2024 is as epic as this piece, we can’t wait for it. There is not a lot known about “Murus tuus” except for its composer – Jacques Colebault, known as Jacquet … Read more
So much music to give you!! On this, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we have something really special. This track is the third in our series of motets, Corpore et Anima, that we recorded to raise money for breast cancer research and support – and it’s an absolute banger. … Read more
On Friday we release our second digital Christmas single, O magnum mysterium – it’s Bandcamp Friday again, and 100% of sales will come to us directly. The single has two tracks and a bonus: Cristobál de Morales, “O magnum mysterium”: Josquin des Prez, “Alma redemptoris Mater”; and November’s Corpore et anima track, Marc’Antonio Ingegneri’s … Read more
For many years, Deborah and Laurie had a pipe dream of creating a programme around motets about breasts – specifically to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research and support. Finally, we have taken steps to start realising that dream, with a series of videos/recordings that we will be releasing monthly between October 2023 … Read more
As a group, we are committed to working collectively – everyone pitches in to make sure recordings and performances go smoothly. But we felt it was time to acknowledge that very often the labour of setting tempi, getting everyone in on the right note, keeping things on track, and making in-the-moment musical decisions falls on … Read more
We have had so many lovely reviews for Mother Sister Daughter, including featuring in the New York Times “5 Classical Albums You Can Listen To Right Now” for August ’22. But we were utterly delighted to see the album included in both Alex Ross’s list in the New Yorker of “Notable Performances and Recordings of … Read more
Last week, we met for a day to do some filming – it’s always odd to sing Christmas music when it’s still sunny and warm and there are leaves on the trees! We’ve long wanted to do an album of Advent and Christmas music: even though it seems like an obvious undertaking, we’ve never done … Read more
