Spanish Renaissance and Sephardic Music on North Oak Street

Our program will feature 16th c. Spanish Renaissance canciones and solos for vihuela (played on the lute), when such repertoire was commonly heard in the royal courts of Spain, then at the height of its colonial power. Complementing this music, we will perform traditional songs of the Sephardim, Spanish Jews exiled from Spain in 1492. In exile, the Sephardim continued to speak Spanish (this language is now known as Ladino or Judeo-Espanyol), incorporating some words and phrases from the areas where they settled (the Balkans, Turkey, North Africa) and Hebrew. The songs do not date back to medieval Spain, but many evoke a sense of antiquity, and typically deal with timeless topics of love, loss, and journeys through life.