The Gesualdo Six is an award-winning and critically-acclaimed vocal ensemble made up of some of the UK’s most esteemed consort singers. The group, who are lauded for their ‘imaginative programming and impeccable blend’, has toured around the world and records exclusively for Hyperion Records (their tenth album was released in August 2025). Following their residency at the 2023 A Cappella Academy, The Gesualdo Six returns to UKARIA with a program that traces the evolution of the vocal consort tradition.

From Renaissance motets by William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons, to arrangements of British folk songs, to contemporary compositional responses to poetry by Christina Rossetti and Kathleen Jamie, this concert program forges fresh connections between old and new. With their trademark imagination, The Gesualdo Six suggests a consort tradition that is alive and flourishing in our very hearing.

PROGRAM

William Byrd (c. 1540–1623)
This sweet and merry month of May

David Bednall (b. 1979)
Put out into the deep

Traditional (arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams)
Bushes and Briars

Alison Willis (b. 1971)
The Wind’s Warning

Joby Talbot (b. 1971)
The Wishing Tree

Christen Holmes
Summer Shower

Charles Villiers Stanford (1852–1924)
The Blue Bird

Traditional (arr. Gordon Langford)
The Oak and the Ash

INTERVAL

Anna Semple (b. 1997)
My bonny lies

Traditional (arr. James Whitbourn)
The Lark in the clear air

Josquin des Prez (c. 1450–1521)
El Grillo

Francis Poulenc (1899–1963)
Les Petites Voix

Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625)
The Silver Swan

Sarah Rimkus (b. 1990)
My heart is like a singing bird

Owain Park (b. 1993)
Louisa

Traditional (arr. Simon Carrington)
O my love is like a red, red rose