Sweet Ayres of Arcadia

Musicke in the Ayre begin their three-concert series in the historic chapel at the Charterhouse with a programme of 17th century English songs to the lute and baroque guitar. Inspired by some of the Arcadian memes that abound in music and poetry of the Elizabethan and Stuart periods, they include songs that reflect on nature as a metaphor for love, beauty, and constancy; a nature that nevertheless exhibits transience as well as transcendence.

Soprano Gwendolen Martin has performed and recorded with the Monteverdi Choir, the BBC Singers, the Tallis Scholars, the Gabrieli Consort, Eric Whitacre Singers, Musica Poetica and the Marian Consort, and has performed alongside Dame Emma Kirkby in her Dowland Works project. Ensemble director and lutenist Din Ghani has specialised over the last decade in curating engaging programmes that provide intriguing glimpses of this wide and wonderful repertoire.