The Long Beach Camerata Singers continue their 57th concert season with “Spain and the New World,” a performance focused on musical compositions by 16th and 17th century Spanish Baroque composers and the evolution of that sound.
Led by 2021 Grammy-award winning Artistic Director Dr. James K. Bass, the show on Sunday, March 26, at Los Altos United Methodist Church, will be performed by Camerata’s all-professional singing group, the Catalyst Chamber Ensemble.
“This concert celebrates the golden age of Spanish polyphony in the 17th century, some of the most beautiful liturgical music ever written, and traces its path and transformation when brought to the New World,” Bass said.
“Native folk music, indigenous languages and the melding of two cultures resulted in unexpected musical forms and developments that are still relevant today,” he added.
Audience members can expect to hear famous compositions by Tomas Luis de Victoria, who studied music from a young age and was ordained as a priest in 1574. He is regarded as the most significant composer of the counter-reformation in Spain and one of the best composers of sacred music in the late Renaissance.
The concert also will feature New World compositions by Juan Gutierrez de Padilla, who was born in Malaga before moving to Mexico in 1620. He worked in the Puebla de Los Angeles and served as maestro de capilla (leader of the choir or orchestra) of the Puebla Cathedral for more than three decades.
The Long Beach Camerata Singers also will perform masterful compositions by Francisco Guerrero, Alonso Lobo and Gaspar Fernandes.
The concert will take place at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, March 26, at the Los Altos United Methodist Church, 5950 E. Willow St. Tickets, starting at $40 each, are available now. Contact the box office at 562-900-2863 or visit www.lbcamerata.org. Group ticket packages are available for parties of 10 or more.