Dear Friends,

Thank you for your interest in Chalice Consort! If you believe in resurrecting forgotten music and advancing the knowledge and experiences of all students, scholars, performers and listeners of early music, please join our friends listed above and support our cause.

You can either donate online at Community Initiatives' website or write a check in any amount to Chalice Consort, and mail it to c/o Community Initiatives, 354 Pine Street, Suite 700, San Francisco, CA, 94104.

I founded Chalice Consort with six other founding members in 2008 with a unique mission: Chalice Consort is a vocal ensemble; a collaborator with global early music scholars and musicians; and a leading catalyst for discovering, transcribing, and making accessible undiscovered or rarely performed Renaissance- and Baroque-era choral pieces. Chalice Consort's goal is to advance the knowledge and expand the experiences of all students, scholars, performers, and listeners of early music in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.

Our first annual Early Music Mining Conference (EMMC) drew the participation of 3 luminary early music choral directors from the UK including Jeremy Summerly (Royal Academy of Music, London), David Trendell (King's College, London) and Geoffrey Webber (Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge) along side our Artistic Director and early music specialist, Davitt Moroney.

Last fall, we called upon ~1000 early music scholars that we could find from all over the world to submit newly transcribed and unpublished music scores that complement Ashwell’s piece, and we received 7 such submission from the US and Europe.

The global Conference brought together scholars, performers, and listeners of early music in a unique combination of lecture, performance, and discussion that included the modern day premiere of five newly edited pieces of music sung by Chalice Consort.

After the presentation, discussion, and performance of each “newly mined” edition, the audience and panel of scholars voted for the editions they preferred. The first place winner was Peter S. Poulos ( University of Cincinnati) with his edition of Quae est ista que progreditur (1597) by Italian composer Simone Molinaro (c.1570-1636). In second place was Sean Doherty (Trinity College, Dublin) with his edition of Vidi aquam (c. 1520) by an anonymous composer, preserved in the Lambeth Choirbook in London, England.

The success of the Conference has led Chalice Consort to reaffirm its commitment to other projects of this nature. This conference was sponsored by Early Music America, Eventbrite, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Winston & Strawn LLP and St. Mark's Lutheran SF. If you are interested in sponsoring the 2011 EMMC, you are welcome to contact me directly.

Since the conference, Artistic Director, Moroney, discovered that Molinaro had also written a 10 voice mass masterwork and other motets that are being edited by Poulos. Poulos has agreed to collaborate with Chalice and Moroney saying: “The EMMC has opened up a new door of discovery to the work of this fascinating and masterful composer, and through the initiative of the ‘Molinaro Project’, a new undertaking under the direction of Moroney to perform and record other works by Molinaro, future generations will be greatly enriched.  I look forward with great enthusiasm and anticipation to collaborating on this endeavor as I think the ‘Molinaro-Chalice Consort-Moroney’ combination is a world-class winner!”

Chalice has exclusive performance rights to those editions through the completion of the recording project. The funds donated during the "Molinaro Project" campaign will be used to world premiere in modern performance the newly edited and unpublished 10 voice mass masterwork and motets by Simone Molinaro and record a commercial CD. All donations are tax-deductible and made through Community Initiatives.

Please email me with any questions. Chalice Consort appreciates your support!

Sincerely,

Rebekah Wu
Visionary, Founding Member
(letter posted- 5/5/2010)

Chalice Consort is a fiscally sponsored project of Community Initiatives.

© Chalice Consort 2008