Winsome Evans
Winsome Evans directs the Renaissance Players through medieval pilgrim songs and the Cantigas de Santa Maria with dance-driven energy, bold arrangements and a palette of shawms, harps, rebecs and voices that make the past feel flesh and blood.
Her reconstructions of the Llibre Vermell treat pilgrim songs as living dance music rather than museum pieces, fleshing out monophonic lines with improvisatory instrumental colour and circle-dance drive. Across the Cantigas de Santa Maria she draws on the mixed Christian, Sephardic and Moorish world of Alfonso X’s court, pairing complete vernacular ballads of Marian miracles with shawms, zurna, gemshorn and harp. She composes and arranges inside the tradition, adding estampies, xoros and memorial pieces that keep the material moving. Voices range from trained choristers to earthier cabaret grain. The aim is always the same: lost performance traditions can still sound spontaneous, catchy and rousing.
Winsome Evans is featured on the following titles
Pilgrimage to Montserrat
The Renaissance Players, directed by Winsome Evans, was founded in Sydney in the mid-1960s. A nucleus of nine to ten singers and instrumentalists expands or contracts to suit each programme.
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Compositions by Winsome Evans also appear on
Gabriel's Message: Cantigas de Santa Maria, Vol. V
The Renaissance Players, directed by Winsome Evans, was founded 48 years ago at the University of Sydney. It has a nucleus of nine to ten musicians (singers and instrumentalists), varied according to the needs of particular performances.
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Cantigas de Santa Maria IV: Pillar of Wisdom
The Renaissance Players, directed by Winsome Evans, was founded in 1966 at the University of Sydney. A flexible nucleus of nine or ten singers and instrumentalists is shaped to each programme.
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