UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 25, Page 4
March 21, 1996
Anonymous 4 to perform April 11 in Mitchell Hall

     Anonymous 4, the group whose recordings of medieval music have
topped Billboard's classical music charts, will bring its "singing of
... tonal purity, unanimity and precision of pitch" to the University
in a concert at 8 p.m., Thursday, April 11, in Mitchell Hall.
     Group members also will offer a coaching class at 4:30 p.m. on
Wednesday, April 10, in Room 118 of the Amy E. du Pont Music Building.
     Originally formed to experiment with the sound of medieval chant
and polyphony as sung by higher voices, Anonymous 4 is renowned for
its astonishing vocal blend and technical virtuosity as it specializes
in the high church music of the medieval period. The four women in the
group combine musical, literary and historical scholarship with 20th-
century performing intuition as they create innovative programs
interweaving music with poetry and narrative.
     Critics have been unanimous in showering the group with
compliments for its performances and recordings. A reviewer in
Stereophile wrote, "Anonymous 4 makes the most gorgeous sound you're
likely to hear anywhere: their purity of intonation is certain to
astonish anyone." A critic in the Milwaukee Journal wrote, "I half
expected to look up and see the Anonymous 4 hovering in the dome of
St. Joseph's Convent Chapel Monday evening. They did, after all, sing
like angels.... The transcendent and the personal merge in their
singing."
     The ensemble takes it name from the designation given by
musicologists to an anonymous 13th-century Englishman, who, as a
student in Paris, wrote about the vocal polyphony then being performed
at the Cathedral of Notre Dame.
     In addition to presenting its own concert series at New York's
St. Michael's Episcopal Church, Anonymous 4 has performed to critical
acclaim throughout the United States.
     Several of the group's programs have been broadcast nationally on
National Public Radio's Performance Today and other programs. The
group also has been featured on Prairie Home Companion and Weekend
Edition.
     Anonymous 4's first recording for Harmonica Mundi USA An English
Ladymass has sold over 150,000 copies worldwide. Named Classical Disc
of the Year for 1993 by CD Review, this recording spent much of 1993
and 1994 on Billboard's classical chart. The group's second recording,
On Yoolis Night, went to the top of Billboard's classical chart within
two months of its release and received the prestigious French Diapason
d'Or award.
     Love's Illusion, the ensemble's third recording, also topped the
classical charts, and the most recent recording, The Lily and the
Lamb, released last year, was named "Record of the Month" by CD
Review.
     Members of Anonymous 4 are Ruth Cunningham, Marsha Genensky,
Susan Hellauer and Johanna Maria Rose.
     Tickets for the group's April 11 performance, sponsored by the UD
Performing Arts Series, are $15 for the general public, $10 for
University faculty, staff and senior citizens and $6 for students. For
more information, call 831-2204.
                                                          -Beth Thomas