Baroque string band ACRONYM joins forces with the vocalists of Les Canards Chantants for a program featuring the unusual and enticing large-ensemble sonatas of Giovanni Valentini (c1582–1649) – once Kapellmeister of the Holy Roman Empire – coupled with the first modern performances of a number of his madrigals for voices and instruments, exactly four hundred years after their publication.

Acronym
ACRONYM, a twelve-member string band, formed in 2012 to create the first recording of a collection of ensemble sonatas by Johann Pezel. Their next disc, sonatas by Antonio Bertali, was released in 2014 to critical acclaim; Alex Ross selected it as a CD Pick, and Early Music America magazine wrote “the idiomatic performances and spacious recording by these young musicians are absolutely first rate. This is a disc … belonging in everyone’s collection.”

Les Canards Chantants
Praised for their “polished singing” and for “instilling their superb performances with liveliness and theatricality” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer) and for their “brilliant and moving” programming (Early Music America magazine) Les Canards Chantants is a solo-voice ensemble committed to dynamic interpretation of renaissance polyphony.
Upcoming performance page, slide1 and ACRONYM bio photos: Alice Hixon Kirk / Slide2 photo: Becky Oehlers Photography / Les Canards Chantants bio photo: Paul Shields