The Gesualdo Six Pilgrimage

A very special sequence of concerts featuring one of the UK’s most accomplished vocal ensembles who have devised a series of programmes celebrating the 650th anniversary of the reform movement. The three performances take place variously in the former Catholic Priory Church of St Mary’s Easebourne, progressing to St Giles’s parish church in Graffham, one of the first scenes of Protestant activity in West Sussex (the rector allowed the hair to grow over his tonsure and replaced the communion wafer with bread as early as 1536) and finally to the United Reformed Church in Petworth. They will perform repertoire charting a musical path from 14th century composers Guillaume de Machaut and Philippe de Vitry, through renaissance English repertoire that draws in Robert Fayrfax, Sheryngham, and John Dunstaple, and bringing us right up to date with contemporary works by Judith Bingham and Richard Rodney Bennet.