Lyracle

Escape to the Stage
2025-11-14 19:30 - 21:00 UTC | Lyman Hall at First Churches, 129 Main St, Northampton, Massachusetts, 01060
Use Center St. entrance across the street from the Iron Horse
Escape to the stage with Ann Ford (1737-1824)! When British socialite Ann Ford’s father demanded that she marry a man 30-years her senior (who had attempted to pay for her hand in marriage), she was desperate to find a way out. With money she borrowed from her well-to-do friends, Ann rented out some of London’s most prestigious concert venues and launched a concert series to fund her own independence. Despite her father’s attempt to have her arrested for performing in public, Ann’s 1760 and 1761 concert series were a huge success.
Hear some of the music that Ann sang and played on the viol and plucked instruments, including a few of her own compositions! Actor Julie Nelson joins musicians Ashley Mulcahy (mezzo), James Perretta (viol), and Nathaniel Cox (plucked instruments) to frame musical selections with narrated excerpts from surviving letters, articles, and books by and about Ann.
Community Sing & Play to immediately follow the concert! Stick around for tea and cookies and join the Lyracle musicians to sing/play through a few short English pieces composed during Ann’s lifetime. All voices, instruments, and levels welcome.
Click Here for Tickets

Escape to the Stage
2025-11-15 15:00 - 16:30 | United First Parish Church, 1306 Hancock St, Quincy, MA, 02169, United States
Escape to the stage with Ann Ford (1737-1824)! When British socialite Ann Ford’s father demanded that she marry a man 30-years her senior (who had attempted to pay for her hand in marriage), she was desperate to find a way out. With money she borrowed from her well-to-do friends, Ann rented out some of London’s most prestigious concert venues and launched a concert series to fund her own independence. Despite her father’s attempt to have her arrested for performing in public, Ann’s 1760 and 1761 concert series were a huge success.
Hear some of the music that Ann sang and played on the viol and plucked instruments, including a few of her own compositions! Actor Julie Nelson joins musicians Ashley Mulcahy (mezzo), James Perretta (viol), and Nathaniel Cox (plucked instruments) to frame musical selections with narrated excerpts from surviving letters, articles, and books by and about Ann.
Community Sing & Play to immediately follow the concert! Stick around for tea and cookies and join the Lyracle musicians to sing/play through a few short English pieces composed during Ann’s lifetime. All voices, instruments, and levels welcome.
Click Here for Tickets

与Ann Ford（1737–1824）一同“逃向舞台”！当英国名媛
Ann Ford的父亲要求她嫁给一位年长她30岁的男子（此
人曾试图用金钱“购买”她的婚姻）时，她急切地寻找出路
。借助富人朋友的帮助，Ann租下了伦敦一些著名的音乐
厅并创办了一系列音乐会以资助自己的独立生活。尽管
父亲试图以“公开表演”为由将她逮捕，Ann于1760年和
1761年举办的音乐会却取得了巨大成功。齐来欣赏Ann
曾经演唱以及用低音维奥尔琴、拨弦乐器演奏的音乐，
包括几首她亲自创作的作品！
演员Julie Nelson将与女中音Ashley Mulcahy，维奥尔琴手
James Perretta以及拨弦乐手Nathaniel Cox一同表演。演
出中将穿插朗读Ann本人及相关人物的书信、文章和书籍
节选，为音乐作品增添更多生动元素。
音乐会后将有“社区合唱与演奏”活动！请大家留下来享用
茶点与饼干，并加入 Lyracle 一起演唱/演奏几首Ann时期
的英语作品。欢迎所有声部、乐器与水平的朋友参与！
点击此处购买门票

The Family Band
2026-04-18 15:00 - 16:30 | Lyman Hall at First Churches, 129 Main St, Northampton, Massachusetts, 01060
Please use the Center St. entrance to access Lyman Hall.
Lyracle’s Spring 2026 concert brings you 400 year-old music that connects the 17th and 21st centuries through the timeless theme of family relationships. We imagine a musical afternoon in a fairy-tale worthy German castle spent with the immensely talented Sophie Elisabeth, August II, and their six children. Join us to explore the role that music played in one 17th century family’s learning from and caring for each other through a program featuring music that they composed together. Several of these pieces are from unpublished manuscripts in Sophie Elisabeth’s hand, and to the best of our knowledge, our performance will mark their modern-day premiere!
A Community Sing & Play will immediately follow the concert for those who wish to participate. Stick around for tea and cookies and join the Lyracle musicians to sing/play through a few short pieces composed during Sophie Elisabeth’s lifetime. All voices, instruments, and levels welcome.
Performers
Ashley Mulcahy, mezzo-soprano
James Perretta, viol,
Karen Burciaga, viol
Judah Coffman, viol
Guinevere Fridley, viol
Tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/the-family-band

The Family Band
2026-04-19 15:00 - 16:30 | United First Parish Church, 1306 Hancock St, Quincy, MA, 02169, United States
Lyracle’s Spring 2026 concert brings you 400 year-old music that connects the 17th and 21st centuries through the timeless theme of family relationships. We imagine a musical afternoon in a fairy-tale worthy German castle spent with the immensely talented Sophie Elisabeth, August II, and their six children. Join us to explore the role that music played in one 17th century family’s learning from and caring for each other through a program featuring music that they composed together. Several of these pieces are from unpublished manuscripts in Sophie Elisabeth’s hand, and to the best of our knowledge, our performance will mark their modern-day premiere!
A Community Sing & Play will immediately follow the concert for those who wish to participate. Stick around for tea and cookies and join the Lyracle musicians to sing/play through a few short pieces composed during Sophie Elisabeth’s lifetime. All voices, instruments, and levels welcome.
Performers
Ashley Mulcahy, mezzo-soprano
James Perretta, viol,
Karen Burciaga, viol
Judah Coffman, viol
Guinevere Fridley, viol
Tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/the-family-band-6khzvpnw
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Quincy Arts Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

Musicians of the Tenshō Embassy
2026-05-29 | Lutheran Church of Honolulu, 1730 Punahou St, Honolulu, HI, 96822, United States
Presented by Early Music Hawaii
In 1582, four teenage Japanese boys of noble birth set sail from Nagasaki to Lisbon. They were students at the Jesuit school in Kyushu and were sent on a tour of Italy and Iberia as ambassadors of three Japanese daiymo, or feudal lords, who had converted to Christianity. Known collectively as the Tenshō Embassy, their names were Mancio Itō, Michael Chijiwa, Martin Hara, and Julio Nakaura. Music was an essential component of the embassy’s eight-year trip to and from Europe and played an equally essential role in the Jesuit mission in Japan, which lasted from the first Jesuit’s arrival in 1549 to the expulsion of the Jesuits by Japan’s Edo government in 1613.
History and storytelling meet in this program that explores the musical experiences of the Tenshō Embassy and their classmates at Jesuit schools in 16th and early 17th century Japan. Many of the details of their music making remain unknown, and those that are known were not recorded by the Japanese musicians themselves but rather by European Jesuits. The European Jesuits’ recording of this history exposes their eurocentrism, hubris, and ignorance, but their records also give us insight into the lives and experiences of these otherwise unknown musicians who are part of this centuries-old tradition of making music with voices and viols. Lyracle honors these musicians’ achievements through music and storytelling with short historical readings, delivered by actor Danielle Boivin, paired with works by Italian and Iberian composers including Durante Lobo, Francisco Guerrero, and Giacomo Carissimi.
Performers
Ashley Mulcahy, Mezzo-Soprano
James Perretta, viol
Danielle Boivin, actor
Judah Coffman, viol
Jacob Jahiel, viol

Guest Workshop
2026-05-29 11:00 - 12:00
Lyracle visits BYU Hawaii’s campus to work with students in the university’s Music Program.

Musicians of the Tenshō Embassy
2026-05-31 | Queen Emma Community Center, Kealakekua, United States

Musick's Recreation
2026-06-18 19:00 - 20:00 | Lexington History Museums, 13 Depot Square, Lexington, MA, 02420
Historic houses help us imagine what home life for some people in colonial New England might have looked like, but what might it have sounded like? Find out at a performance of historical music ensemble Lyracle’s program, Musick’s Recreation. In this program, Lyracle focuses on a few documented viol players in colonial New England as well as viol players who were left out of historical records. Lyracle connects what can be inferred about their varied musical experiences to English repertoire that was likely present in 17th and early 18th century New England. Experience the music of beloved composers like Henry Purcell and his lesser-known contemporaries recontextualized, and help celebrate all kinds of local historic music-making: the silly, the serious and everything in between.

Musick's Recreation
2026-07-19 15:00 - 16:30 | Shoreham Inn, 51 Inn Rd, Shoreham, VT, 05770, United States

Musick's Recreation
2026-09-12 18:00 - 19:00
