Jouyssance invites ACDA members to “Hidden Voices” June 3 and 4

Jouyssance Early Music Ensemble presents Hidden Voices June 3 and 4

` Jouyssance Early Music Ensemble will present “Hidden Voices,” a program of Renaissance and early Baroque music – some recently discovered – by women and composers of color.
The concerts will take place June 3, at 8 p.m. at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, at 3590 Grand View Blvd., in Mar Vista, and June 4, at 4 p.m. at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 122 S. California Ave., in Monrovia. Tickets are available in advance at www.jouyssance.org/current-season or at the door, at $25 (General Admission), $20 (Seniors/SCEMS members), or $10 for students with current school ID.
As part of its educational outreach program, and funded in part by the Colburn Foundation, Jouyssance can offer free admission to members of the American Choral Directors Association, as well as their students.
The program showcasing unexpected diversity in early music will include sumptuous motets by 16th century composer-theorist Vicente Lusitano first composer of African heritage to be published, as well as music by Mexican composers Juan de Lienas, Juan García de Zéspedes and Antonio de Salazar. Of particular interest is a work with text, and possibly music, by Juana Inés de la Cruz, the 17th century writer who has been called “The Shakespeare of Mexico” and a “proto-feminist.”
Filling out the program will be a selection of sacred and secular music by women who were cloistered Italian nuns, such as Raphaela Aleotti, her sister Vittoria Aleotti, Sulpitia Cesis, Isabella Leonarda and Chiara Margharita Cozzolani. Some of these works are quite grand, featuring double choirs and instruments.
“This concert will easily demonstrate that even with the choral field’s renewed interest in diversity and multi-cultural representation, early music can be part of any program,” said Artistic Director Nicole Baker. “Early music is what got many of us hooked on choral music in the first place, and we need to keep it in our schools.”
The program draws upon Dr. Baker’s well-received presentation, “Beyond Palestrina: Keeping Early Music Relevant in the Diversifying Choir Room,” at the 2022 Western Division conference of the American Choral Directors Association, held in Long Beach.
Based in Los Angeles, Jouyssance is an auditioned, primarily vocal ensemble dedicated to performing the music of the medieval, Renaissance, and early Baroque periods.
For further information, call 213-533-9922 or email .

3590 Grand View Blvd., Mar Vista
122 S. California Ave., Monrovia
Los Angeles, California United States