Don't miss this opportunity to hear the Chamber Choir in an acoustically unique setting: our very own tennis court transformed into "Catlin Cathedral."

Don't miss this opportunity to hear the Chamber Choir in an acoustically unique setting: our very own tennis court transformed into "Catlin Cathedral."

Thomas Tallis (1505-1585) was a prolific composer of sacred music for both the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches. His career spanned four monarchies: Henry VIII (with the dissolution of the monasteries), Edward VI, Mary (who re-established Catholicism) and Elizabeth I. Thomas Tallis was fortunate becauset he was in Queen Elizabeth's favor because he was a Catholic — like William Byrd, his pupil — during a period of religious unrest in English history, resulting in the state religion of England switching from Catholic to Protestant. In 1575, Queen Elizabeth granted Tallis and Byrd a monopoly in England on printing music.

William Byrd (1543-1623) was the leading English composer of his generation, and together with his continental colleague Giovanni Palestrina (c.1525-1594) one of the acknowledged great masters of the late Renaissance. Byrd is considered by many the greatest English composer of any age, and indeed his substantial volume of high quality compositions in every genre of the time makes it easy to consider him the greatest composer of the Renaissance.