Boston’s Liber Ensemble to replace canceled Trio Mediaeval

Thu Feb 11, 2010 at 12:56 pm

By Lawrence A. Johnson

Trio Mediaeval has cancelled its U.S. tour due to the pregnancy of one of its members. That means the group will not perform its scheduled April 23 concert at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, part of the Chicago Early Music Festival.

The good news is that University of Chicago Presents has nabbed Boston’s Liber Ensemble to take their place. The early-music vocal quartet has earned accolades for its intelligent and historically informed performances of a wide range of repertoire. The Liber Ensemble will perform settings of poetry by Petrarch, Sacchetti, Boccaccio and others.

Tickets for Trio Medieval may be used for the Liber Ensemble concert on the same date, donated, or exchanged for another University of Chicago Presents event. Call 773-702-8068 or go to University of Chicago Presents.

Posted in News


4 Responses to “Boston’s Liber Ensemble to replace canceled Trio Mediaeval”

  1. Posted Feb 12, 2010 at 4:38 pm by Free C

    Can’t someone find a Chicago area early music group that would make this a real Chicago Early Music Festival?

  2. Posted Feb 13, 2010 at 8:07 am by Plush

    U.of C. concert management looking east is a slap in the face to Chicago musicians. Of course I already knew that they are not sophisticated nor are they from Chicago. They have no feel for the base
    of talent here in Chicago.

  3. Posted Feb 13, 2010 at 11:18 am by larryj

    Chicago Opera Theater, Baroque Band, the Newberry Consort and Trio Settecento are all participants in the Chicago Early Music Festival, so I don’t think anyone can claim local organizations are being shut out.

    Also, while the festival is a city-sponsored initiative, it seems a bit parochial to criticize U of C for booking a Boston-based group. No one complained when Trio Mediaeval was announced as part of the original festival lineup, and, if anything, the presenters should be praised for quickly finding a replacement and not canceling the event. In fact, except for this concert, I believe all other festival performances are being presented by local ensembles.

    Larry Johnson

  4. Posted Feb 16, 2010 at 2:33 pm by Free C

    I would not presume to question who any presenting organization wishes to book or offer a venue for. This includes the University of Chicago Presents series and this yet-to-be Chicago Early Music Festival. But as a potential audience member, we can speak with our ticket-buying option. I don’t know the reason for the Trio Mediaeval cancellation, but since it would have been their 3rd visit to the U of C series, we will see if that happenstance will be a boon to the series or a disappointment to some fan base here.

    Just as the locally produced Chicago International Film Festival does not see itself obligated to show only local works, nor should this fledgling Early Music Festival. In their official Web page , the city’s DCA does promise to present, besides those already named, “many other ensembles of local, national and international renown.” So the ticket-buying public should wait and see what more shows up when the “full festival schedule” shows up.

    But in early music, Chicago is not starting from square one with this April festival. The city has a long and rich heritage of performers and programs starting back in the 1960’s, some fostered by the universities and colleges in this region. A select few of those first presenters and scholars deserve to be acknowledged, perhaps by this festival. When an event takes on the mantle of a “Chicago Early Music Festival,” let’s hope that it can measure up against other such festivals from around the world of early and period performance.

Leave a Comment