Tenebrae – Nigel Short, Director

“Song shows us a world that is worthy of our yearning, it shows us our selves as they might be if we were worthy of the world.”    — Salman Rushdie, from The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Few things can move us as deeply as the human voice in song—in exaltation, in ecstasy, in memorial. In just over a decade, Britain’s 17-voice Tenebrae has combined passion and precision to become one of the premier chamber choirs in the world. This year they won a BBC Music Magazine Award after being the first artists nominated twice in one category. Their concert will reveal treasures of the Russian repertoire as well as works by Paul Mealor, the British choral composer who’s been wildly popular since his music was performed at the recent Royal Wedding. The evening will be downright Princetonian as well, since one of Tenebrae’s principal singers, Gabriel Crouch, directs Princeton’s Glee Club and Choral Program. And Tenebrae are known for exploiting the unique qualities of the space in which they’re performing, which in this case will be the gothic splendor of the Princeton University Chapel.