In Stile Moderno: Madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi

In Stile Moderno spotlights the “Madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi,” for five voices and theorbo Sunday, March 10 at the BMC.

The 4 p.m. concert will feature Agnes Coakley Cox, soprano; Julia Soojin Cavallaro, mezzo soprano; Corey Dalton Hart, tenor; Adam Jacob Simon, baritone; Andrew Padgett, bass; and Nathaniel Cox, theorbo.

The five-voice madrigal developed as a genre in the 16th century and became a proving ground for young composers. Monteverdi, whose career bridged the Renaissance and Baroque, was one of these composers, as a teenager testing his skill in his early, Renaissance-style madrigals. He later began to push the boundaries of the genre, with concertato-style madrigals that were as dramatic and complex as his operas. In this concert, In Stile Moderno will explore the riches of Monteverdi’s nine books of madrigals, from pristine counterpoint to virtuosic showpieces.

An ensemble for early music, In Stile Moderno was founded in Basel, Switzerland in 2012 by soprano Agnes Coakley and Brattleboro’s own lutenist/cornettist Nathaniel Cox. Named after the “modern style” of music which emerged in Italy around 1600, the ensemble is dedicated to music of the 17th century and combines fidelity to historical performance practice with a drive to make early music accessible and relevant to modern audiences.