The Newberry Consort

Chicago's Newberry Consort is one of the city's leading early music groups, offering concerts and recordings of consistently high quality since its founding in 1986. The group is associated with Chicago's Newberry Library and has based its programming in part on the rich lode of music manuscripts among that private library's holdings. Among those holdings is the music library of the Venetian nobleman Count Pio Resse, as well as a variety of other rare printed works from the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. University of Chicago musicologist Howard Mayer Brown, who eventually donated his entire collection of books and music to the library, suggested in 1982 that the institution organize concerts to showcase some of its holdings. Brown asked viol player Mary Springfels to serve as musician-in-residence, and after the success of these concerts, she formed the Newberry Consort in 1986, retaining the services of musicians who had appeared at the library. Other key early figures were countertenor Drew Minter and violinist and early violin specialist David Douglass, who founded the Renaissance group The King's Noyse. Springfels served as the Newberry Consort's director for many years, and she was succeeded by Douglass and soprano Ellen Hargis. Often there has been a core group of three members, augmented as needed by other players. The Newberry Consort made its recording debut on the Harmonia Mundi label in 1991 with ¡Ay Amor!, a program of 17th century Spanish songs. The group presents several concerts annually at the Newberry Library, tours the U.S., and has appeared as far afield as Europe. The Consort has held residencies at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. It made several more recordings for Harmonia Mundi, including A Candle in the Dark (2000), a collection of English Renaissance songs and instrumental music. In 2021, the Newberry Consort moved to the Navona Records label, releasing the albums Juan de Lienas: Vespers and A Mexican Christmas. That year, Douglass and Hargis stepped down as music directors and were succeeded by wind player Liza Malamut. ~ James Manheim, Rovi