Puneet Varma (Editor)

New York Pro Musica

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Active until
  
1974

Genres
  
Holiday, Classical

Albums
  
English Medieval Christmas Carols

Members
  
Noah Greenberg, Bernard Krainis

Awards
  
Grammy Hall of Fame, Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance

Similar
  
Russell Oberlin, Safford Cape, Seymour Barab, Thomas Binkley, Dubravka Tomšič Srebotnjak

Tudor court music new york pro musica


New York Pro Musica was a vocal and instrumental ensemble that specialized in medieval and Renaissance music. It was co-founded in 1952, under the name Pro Musica Antiqua, by Noah Greenberg, a choral director, and Bernard Krainis, a recorder player who studied with Erich Katz. Other prominent musicians who joined included Russell Oberlin (the first American counter-tenor) and Martha Blackman (the first American gambist) and Frederick Renz, who founded Early Music Foundation after Pro Musica disbanded.

Contents

The ensemble is perhaps best known for reviving the medieval Play of Daniel in the 1950s, which has since become a popular liturgical drama among early music groups. The group gave its first concert at the New School for Social Research in New York City on April 26, 1953. The ensemble performed in 1960 for the Peabody Mason Concert series in Boston. The group continued after Greenberg's death in 1966 and disbanded in 1974. Greenberg's successor, musicologist John Reeves White, took over the direction of the ensemble in 1966; the last director was George Houle, who tried to bring the group more in line with trends in Europe at a time when the United States was not ready for such changes. Houle went on to teach musicology at Stanford University.

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Select discography

  • New York Pro Musica: An Anthology of Their Greatest Works, Noah Greenberg, conductor. 7 record set. Everest Records (1966, Everest 3145/7)
  • Songs

    Lullay Lullow1956
    Nowell Sing We1956
    Tibi Laus - Tibi Gloria1956

    References

    New York Pro Musica Wikipedia