Blue Heron performing live this Sat. - 2/11-- SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2023 AT 3 PM Fortuna & Fama: Josquin’s Missa Fortuna desperata & Dido’s lament First Church in Cambridge, Congregational, U.C.C. --A program on the themes of Fortuna (the goddess Fortune) and Fama (rumor, reputation), featuring Josquin Desprez’s sunny mass based on the song Fortuna desperata and a group of six settings of Dido’s last words, Dulces exuvie, by Josquin, Marbriano De Orto, Alexander Agricola, Johannes Ghiselin, Jean Mouton, and anonymous. Free pre-concert talk 45 minutes prior to the performance.

'Kalte Nacht' (Cold Night) is a minimal / dark synth duet that has emerged from the Athenian underground the last couple of years.

Building off of the themes of her most recent album, Medieval Femme, Fatima Al Qadiri’s forthcoming release sees her pairing up with fellow Kuwaiti vocalist Gumar. The EP —also titled Gumar, Arabic for "moon"— is a homage to the influence of lamentation singing that both Fatima and Gumar grew up with and as a teenager, Gumar was formally trained in. On these four short songs, Fatima provides a minimal counterpoint to Gumar's elegant vocals, a coalescence that powerfully and sympathetically complements and extends with cosmic depth. Serious and mournful in tone, the record ruminates on the subject of unrequited love, arguably the most common theme in Arabic music past and present.