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Montréal, April 26, 2023 – Ensemble Scholastica is pleased to announce its upcoming concert interweaving musical cultures, Miragres fremosos, featuring virtuoso singer and oud player Lamia Yared. The concert will be held on Thursday, May 18 at 7:30 p.m. at the Notre Dame de Bon Secours Chapel.
The program showcases songs and poetry from medieval Andalusia, where arts, architecture and many other fields were deeply influenced by Muslim culture in the early Middle Ages when these lands came under Muslim rule. Christian and Sephardic influences also continued to develop under Alphonse X “the Wise,” who reigned over the kingdoms of Castille and León in the 13th century.
Steeped in eastern and western musical traditions, the pieces chosen for the program attest to this effervescent period on the Iberian peninsula. Ensemble Scholastica will present a selection of two of the most important medieval repertoires: the muwashahat of some of the great Arab-Andalusian poets of the 10th and 11th centuries, and 200 years later, the renowned Cantigas de Santa Maria, with their many accounts of wondrous miracles. The performance will feature six singers accompanying themselves on period instruments and a narrator to regale the audience with miracle tales.
Guest singer and musician Lamia Yared specializes in traditional Arabic, Turkish-Ottoman and Sephardic repertoires. Her first album, Chants des trois cours, was released in 2020. In collaboration with the Centre des Musiciens du Monde, she formed the Ensemble Oraciones and recorded the album Ottoman Splendours / Lumières Ottomanes under the Analekta label in 2022. Born in Lebanon and based in Montréal, Lamia Yared has captivated audiences in festivals across Canada and has attracted international attention at the Institut français de Turquie, the Labyrinth Musical Workshop in Greece, and other international events.
Miragres fremosos
Thursday, May 18 at 7:30 p.m. – Notre Dame de Bon Secours Chapel Lamia Yared, singer and oud player
Ensemble Scholastica, 5 singer-instrumentalists
Anne Sophie da Silva, narration
Program
Muwashahat, Arab-Andalusian poems (10th-11th century) set to music
Cantigas de Santa Maria (13th century), excerpts
Tickets: $25 – $30
Available at ensemblescholastica.ca
Ensemble Scholastica
Ensemble Scholastica is a professional female vocal ensemble that specializes in medieval plainchant and polyphony (c. 800-1300 AD). Founded in 2008 by musicologist Pascale Duhamel and directed by leading medievalist Rebecca Bain since 2012, Scholastica is made up of talented and enthusiastic vocalists from Montréal’s thriving early music community, some of whom also play medieval instruments.
In recent years, Ensemble Scholastica has been exploring historical world-music repertoires, including Indian classical music (Raag & Mode concert, March 2022) and the classical Mandinka music of West Africa (upcoming concert in 2024). Between 2017 and 2022, Scholastica collaborated with Geneviève Soly and her ensemble Les Idées heureuses on a repertoire of sacred music from New France (17th century). Concerts resulting from their collaborative work were nominated twice for a Prix Opus award for Concert of the Year in the category of “Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque Music” (2018, 2022).
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