William Byrd Festival

About as:

The First Annual William Byrd Festival was held in Portland, Oregon in late August, 1998. Conceived by Founder of Cantores in Ecclesia Dean Applegate and Dr. Richard Marlow of Trinity College Cambridge as a marriage of music and scholarship, musicologist and professor Dr. William Mahrt of Stanford University was asked to participate in initial planning sessions and prepare the Festival's two inaugural lectures. Cantores in Ecclesia sang Byrd’s three Masses, and the week culminated in a Sacred Concert of motets and keyboard pieces featuring the choir and its resident organist, Delbert Saman. Encouraged by a successful first year, planning began almost immediately for the following summer, after which the Oregonian heralded the William Byrd Festival as a “valuable addition to Portland” (September 7, 1999). Cantores in Ecclesia is proud to have sponsored Portland’s William Byrd Festival every summer since its inception. From humble beginnings, the Festival has grown in scope and reputation, increasingly attracting scholars and musicians from the United States and Great Britain. A collection of Festival lectures by the prominent guest scholars was edited by Richard Turbet and recently published by The Church Music Association of America (musicasacra.com.) Entitled “A Byrd Celebration: Lectures at the William Byrd Festival, Portland Oregon 1998-2008,” this volume is a beautiful tribute to the Festival, its participants, and the vision of its founder and director; above all, it is a tribute to the enduring power and musical mastery of William Byrd.