|
Anonymous 4Biography
MARSHA GENENSKY - SUSAN HELLAUER JACQUELINE HORNER - JOHANNA MARIA ROSE Renowned for their unearthly vocal blend and virtuosic ensemble singing, the four women who comprise Anonymous 4 combine musical, literary, and historical scholarship with contemporary performance intuition as they create ingeniously designed programs, often interweaving music with poetry and narrative. Anonymous 4 has performed in major cities throughout North America, Europe, and Asia and are celebrated regulars at major international festivals, including Tanglewood (MA), Wolf Trap (VA), BBC Proms (UK), Lucerne International Festival (Switzerland), Flanders Festival (Belgium), International Oude Muziek Festival (Holland), Brisbane Biennial (Australia), and the Bergen Festival (Norway). Anonymous 4's award-winning recordings for harmonia mundi usa have sold nearly two million copies worldwide. Their debut recording, "An English Ladymass," was named 1992 Classical Disc of the Year by CD Review. "On Yoolis Night" received France's prestigious Diapason d'Or, and "The Lily and the Lamb" was Classic CD's Disc of the Year for 1996. "Legends of St. Nicholas" was Classic FM's 1999 Early Music Recording of the Year, and "1000: A Mass for the End of Time" was a Gramophone Editor's Choice for 2000. The Second Circle (love songs of the 14th-century Florentine, Francesco Landini) received Italy's Antonio Vivaldi Award for 2001. "Darkness into Light" received an Editor's Choice Award from Gramophone in 2001; "La bele marie" was a Gramophone Editor's Choice for 2002 and received Le Monde de la Musique's Choc award. "Wolcum Yule" (with harpist Andrew Lawrence-King) garnered ClassicsToday.com's highest rating (10/10) and was in Billboard's Classical Top Ten in 2003-04. The group's 2004 release, "American Angels" (18th - 20th century folk psalmody, hymnody, and gospel songs), spent over 35 weeks on the Billboard Classical Top Ten and received a perfect 10/10 from ClassicsToday.com. Their most recent release, "The Origin of Fire" (sequel to their 1997 best-seller, 11,000 Virgins, music of Hildegard of Bingen) was named in Amazon.com's Top 25 Classical CDs for 2005. For two consecutive years (2004 and 2005), Anonymous 4 has been voted one of Billboard's Top Classical Artists of the Year. In the realm of contemporary music, Anonymous 4 tours as the voice of Joan of Arc in "Voices of Light," an oratorio with silent film, composed by Richard Einhorn. Anonymous 4 has performed the work under Marin Alsop, with the Vienna Symphony and with Concordia Orchestra at Lincoln Center, as well as with the Hong Kong Philharmonic under Lucinda Carver. In 2000-01, Anonymous 4 and the Chilingirian String Quartet premiered John Tavener's newly commissioned work, "The Bridegroom," included in their 2002 release, "Darkness into Light." The ensemble commissioned Sir Peter Maxwell Davies to write "A Carnival of Kings," premiered and recorded on their 2003 release, "Wolcum Yule," which also included works by Geoffrey Burgon and Richard Rodney Bennett. Other new works include Steve Reich's "Know What is Above You," and Richard Einhorn's "A Carnival of Miracles," both commissioned by WNYC Radio. Anonymous 4 has appeared on a wide range of radio and television programs, including NPR's "All Things Considered," "Performance Today" and "Weekend Edition," NPR's "St. Paul Sunday," WETA's "Millennium of Music," Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion," ZDF's "Ersteklassich!" (Germany). The ensemble has been featured on A&E's "Breakfast With the Arts," CBS "Sunday Morning" and Australian ABC's "Access All Areas," as well as on Discovery Health Channel and Fox News Channel. |
