Carson City Consort Canzona planning two concerts

Consort Canzona, a select group of instrumentalists and singers who specializes in early music, will present “A Royal Birthday Celebration” in two concerts in Carson City.

The first performance at 7 p.m. May 12 at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 314 N. Division St., will be followed by another at 7 p.m. May 13 at Shepherd of the Sierra Lutheran Church, 3680 Highway 395, just south of Best Buy.

Admission to both concerts is free, and donations are welcome.

The program includes a set of madrigals by Renaissance composers John Farmer, Thomas Ravenscroft, Thomas Tomkins, and John Bennet, and a set of works from the same period for instrumental ensemble performed on recorders, cello, and harpsichord.

A highlight of the concert is “Come, Ye Sons of Art,” by English Baroque composer Henry Purcell, written for the birthday of Queen Mary II, April 30, 1694. It features the choir, vocal soloists, and instruments, with words by Nahum Tate.

Consort Canzona, a performing group of the Carson City Symphony Association, was founded by Sharon Kientz in 2009 for recorders, cello, and harpsichord. Singers were added in 2011. The group is directed by Gary Schwartz.

The concerts are supported in part by a grant from the Nevada Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and by Carson City Symphony Association memberships and donations.

For information, go to CCSymphony.com, or call the Symphony at 775-883-4154.