The Brattleboro Camerata presents the world premiere of a work by Vermont composer Kitty Brazelton Sunday, April 23.

The 4 p.m. concert at the BMC, titled “The Want of You: Renaissance Music and the Future,” will feature pairs of Renaissance-era and later works, spotlighting the direct ties between music of the 16th century and music created 500 years later.

Included will be the premiere of “The Want of You” by Brazelton.

The Brattleboro Camerata is a chamber choir consisting of 16 to 20 singers, specializing in both Renaissance-era and Renaissance-inspired music. In collaboration with Music Director Jonathan Harvey, the Brattleboro Camerata explores both beloved classics and under-performed gems through innovative and energetic programming and performance.

“I’m always excited at opportunities to highlight the continued relevance and resonance of early music – as we pair old with new on this program, the connections are really striking,” says Harvey.  “The pieces in this concert are all very emotionally intense – whether filled with religious ecstasy or romantic yearning, they explore extremes of feeling.”

He adds, “It has been such a pleasure working with Kitty as we bring ‘The Want Of You’ to life. It is a very special piece that embodies Angelina Weld Grimké’s poetry so sensitively.”

Grimké was an African-American journalist, teacher, playwright, and poet. By ancestry, Grimké was three-quarters white — the child of a white mother and a biracial father — and considered a woman of color. She was one of the first African-American women to have a play publicly performed.

Of her upcoming performance, Brazelton notes, “’The Want of You,’ a song about unrequited — and forbidden — love between two women of color, first appeared in 1923. It’s important to offer audience members the deep poignancy of the poem’s context.”

Brazelton is a pioneering composer, bandleader, and multi-instrumentalist who has championed music’s power to unite—across genre, across tradition, and across language. Brazelton’s latest recording project, COVID Choirs, features works including “Storm,” a retranslation of Psalm 104 written after Hurricane Sandy. Her Choral Essential Prayers Project redefines the tradition of prayer, making powerful words of hurt and hope accessible to all, religion aside, and her award-winning opera, “The Art of Memory,” focuses on St. Augustine’s ever-prescient message, “Now is all there is.”