Lyracle

Musicians of the Tenshō Embassy
2024-04-12 19:30 - 21:00 UTC | Logan Center Performance Hall, 915 E 60th St, Chicago, IL, 60637
This Early Music program celebrates the musical accomplishments of Japanese students at Jesuit missionary schools in Japan (1549–1613) who became accomplished viol players and singers. European Jesuits ran the schools where music was considered essential learning. Although surviving accounts by the Jesuits about the mission in Japan are laden with racism and eurocentrism, the students were highly gifted musicians. Lyracle honors these boys’ achievements through music and storytelling with works by Durante Lobo, Francisco Guerrero, Damião de Góis, and Jacopo Peetrino. Actor Danielle Boivin joins the five musicians for the readings from historical documents.
Presented by the Howard M. Brown International Early Music Series at the University of Chicago.

Lecture-Demonstration
2024-04-13 10:30 - 11:30 | Logan Center Performance Penthouse, 915 E 60th St, Chicago, IL, 60637
Classical music concerts often center around a particular composer, canonical masterwork, or geographical compositional style. Consequently, today’s programs celebrate a relatively small group of composers, and we miss opportunities to approach music in ways that incorporate a broader range of music-making experiences by a diverse range of music-makers. Curating concert programs to focus on people who, unlike history’s most celebrated composers, we know little about is inherently challenging. Using textual and musical examples from Musicians of the Tenshō Embassy, Lyracle will provide a behind-the-scenes peek at how, with a lot of research and a little imagination, Lyracle puts together concerts about figures who have remained in the shadows of history.

Musick’s Recreation
2024-05-22 18:00 - 19:30 | Redwood Library & Athenaeum, 50 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI, United States
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 this 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
2024-08-26 19:00 - 20:30 | Historic Wicks House, 55 Palmer Ave, Falmouth, MA, 02540, United States

At Home in Sweden
2024-11-09 15:00 - 16:30 | United First Parish Church, 1306 Hancock St, Quincy, MA, 02169, United States
Welcome the sweater weather and cozy up with tea and cookies to enjoy music and dance for a Swedish living room! We’ll explore how music from 17th-century Europe’s courts, theatres, churches, and street corners all made its way into the very same pages where it delighted communities of friends and family in Sweden’s living rooms.
Ashley Mulcahy, mezzo soprano
James Perretta, lyra viol
Julia Bengtsson, baroque dance
Lindsey Clark, nyckelharpa
Click here for tickets

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Quincy Arts Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

At Home in Sweden
2024-11-10 15:00 - 16:30 | Somerville Music Spaces, 1060 Broadway, Somerville, MA, 02144

Guest Presentation at UMass Amherst
2024-11-14 09:30 - 11:00 | University of Masscahusetts Amherst
Lyracle will present in an early music history course at the University of Massachusetts Amherst taught by Professor Emiliano Ricciardi, whose Tasso in Music Project aided in the curation of our program, “Molza: Music for a Muse.” We’ll perform a few excerpts from the program and use them as a spring board to engage with students in a discussion about Tarquinia Molza and female court musicians in the Italian Renaissance.

Musicians of the Tenshō Embassy
2025-01-10 19:30 - 21:00 | Congregational Church of Birmingham, 1000 Cranbrook Road, Bloomfield Hills, MI, 48304
Presented by the Academy of Early Music
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.
Ashley Mulcahy, Mezzo-Soprano
James Perretta, viol
Danielle Boivin, actor
Jacob Jahiel, viol
Arnie Tanimoto, viol

Musicians of the Tenshō Embassy
2025-01-11 19:30 - 21:00 | St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 306 N. Division Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, United States

Musical Coachings at the University of Michigan
2025-01-12 | University of Michigan School of Music, 1100 Baits Dr., Ann Arbor, MI, 48109
Lyracle Co-Artistic Directors Ashley Mulcahy & James Perretta will coach voice majors a the University of Michigan on select arias composed before 1750.
More information forthcoming.

Guest Presentation
2025-01-13 13:00 - 14:30 | University of Michigan School of Music, 1100 Baits Dr., Ann Arbor, MI, 48109
Lyracle Co-Artistic Directors Ashley Mulcahy & James Perretta will visit Professor Stefano Mengozzi’s musicology seminar on music of the European Renaissance. They will relate topics in 16th-c music theory and history to Lyracle’s program Musicians of the Tenshō Embassy.

Lady Tarquinia
2025-05-30 19:30 - 21:00 | United First Parish Church, 1306 Hancock St, Quincy, MA, 02169, United States
Concert Description:
Italian virtuosa singer and viol player Tarquinia Molza (1542-1617) was one of few women of her time to be gainfully employed as a musician. As if that weren’t impressive enough, her employment at the Este Court of Ferrara was prestigious and influential. However, her career was taken away from her over allegations of a romantic relationship with a colleague, which she denied. Despite her banishment, Molza was named a Citizen of Rome in 1600 for her musical and intellectual talents, the first woman in history to receive this honor.
Gleaning what we can from the historical sources that still survive, it appears that Molza’s fascinating life more or less stopped being documented as soon as her career was taken from her. However, the little that we do know makes clear that she remained musically active in her hometown of Modena, where she regularly hosted musical gatherings. Today, Molza is a relatively unknown figure in music history.
In Lady Tarquinia, Lyracle celebrates the musicianship that polymath Tarquinia Molza cultivated her whole life, even after she was confined to making music at home. The program will include pieces that we know Tarquinia sang and played and musical settings of her poetry.
Community Sing & Play: Stick around after the concert and join the musicians of Lyracle for tea, cookies, and music-making! We’ll sing/play through an ensemble piece in English composed during Tarquinia’s lifetime. All voices and instruments welcome!
Tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/lady-tarquinia-may-30-quincy-7kydl9ew
Performers:
Ashley Mulcahy, mezzo-soprano
James Perretta, viola da gamba
Margaret Carpenter Haigh, soprano
Craig Juricka, baritone
Transportation & Parking
United First Parish Church is a less than 2 minute walk from the Quincy Center Station. Click here to learn about nearby $1/hr parking options.

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Quincy Arts Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

音乐会简介：
意大利歌唱兼维奥尔琴演奏家塔尔奎尼娅 莫尔扎（Tarquinia
Molza，1542–1617）是当时极少数以音乐为职业的女性之一。更
令人称奇的是，她受雇于费拉拉的埃斯特宫廷，该职位既具声望
又有影响力。然而，她的职业生涯因被指控与一位同事有恋情而
终止，虽然她否认了这一指控。尽管被放逐，她仍因其卓越的音
乐和学术才华，于1600年被授予“罗马公民”称号——这是历史上
首位获此荣誉的女性。
从现存的历史资料来看，莫尔扎的生平在其事业中断后便鲜有记
载。然而，已有的资料显示她在故乡摩德纳仍持续参与音乐活动
，并定期举办家庭音乐聚会。时至今日，塔尔奎尼娅仍是音乐史
上较鲜为人知的人物。
在《塔尔奎尼娅夫人》项目中，Lyracle 向这位多才多艺的女性致
敬，呈现她终生培养的音乐修养，即便她被限制只能在家中演奏
音乐。本场演出将包括她曾演唱和演奏的作品，以及根据她的诗
作谱写的音乐。
社区合唱与合奏活动：
音乐会结束后欢迎留下来与 Lyracle 的音乐家们一起享用茶点并
参与音乐活动！我们将共同演绎一首创作于塔尔奎尼娅时代的英
文合奏作品，欢迎所有歌者和乐手加入！
门票链接：
https://events.humanitix.com/lady-tarquinia-may-30-quincy-7kydl9ew
演出人员：
Ashley Mulcahy，女中音
James Perretta，维奥尔琴
Margaret Carpenter Haigh，女高音
Craig Juricka，男中音
交通与停车：
教堂距离昆西中心站步行不到2分钟。点击此处了解附近每小时
仅$1的停车选项。

Lady Tarquinia
2025-05-31 15:00 - 16:30 | Somerville Music Spaces, 1060 Broadway, Somerville, MA, 02144
Program Description:
Italian virtuosa singer and viol player Tarquinia Molza (1542-1617) was one of few women of her time to be gainfully employed as a musician. As if that weren’t impressive enough, her employment at the Este Court of Ferrara was prestigious and influential. However, her career was taken away from her over allegations of a romantic relationship with a colleague, which she denied. Despite her banishment, Molza was named a Citizen of Rome in 1600 for her musical and intellectual talents, the first woman in history to receive this honor.
Gleaning what we can from the historical sources that still survive, it appears that Molza’s fascinating life more or less stopped being documented as soon as her career was taken from her. However, the little that we do know makes clear that she remained musically active in her hometown of Modena, where she regularly hosted musical gatherings. Today, Molza is a relatively unknown figure in music history.
In Lady Tarquinia, Lyracle celebrates the musicianship that polymath Tarquinia Molza cultivated her whole life, even after she was confined to making music at home. The program will include pieces that we know Tarquinia sang and played and musical settings of her poetry.
Tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/lady-tarquinia-may-31-somerville
Performers:
Ashley Mulcahy, mezzo-soprano
James Perretta, viola da gamba
Margaret Carpenter Haigh, soprano
Craig Juricka, baritone
Transportation & Parking: https://www.somervillemusicspaces.com/contact
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Quincy Arts Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

Musick's Recreation
2025-08-21 18:00 - 19:30 | The Neighborhood House, 1 Kimball Rd, Northeast Harbor, ME, 04662
Presented by the Mount Desert Island Historical Society
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
2025-08-23 17:00 - 18:30 | Eagle Hill Institute, 59 Eagle Hill Dr, Steuben, Maine, 04680
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
2025-09-06 19:00 - 20:30 | Historic Deerfield, 16 Memorial Street, Deerfield, MA, 01342

Musick's Recreation
2025-09-14 15:00 - 16:00 | Thomas Crane Public Library, 40 Washington St, Quincy, MA, 02169, United States
Presented by Concerts at the Crane
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.
Click Here for Tickets

Escape to the Stage
2025-11-14 19:30 - 21:00 | 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 | MA
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

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 | MA

Guest Presenter at Harvard College
2026-09-24 | Harvard College, Cambridge, MA, 02138
Lyracle will visit Introduction to Western Music, a musicology class at Harvard College as a guest presenter.
This event is not open to the public.

Commonplace | Oct 2, Easthampton
2026-10-02 19:30 - 20:45 | Blue Room at CitySpace, 43 Main St 01027, Easthampton, MA, 01027
Music found in commonplace books, personal notebooks of indispensable knowledge. Hear it performed live!
In times when access to paper and ink was limited, you could learn a lot about what someone valued from their commonplace book. If music made it into someone’s precious pages, then it must have meant a lot to them. Join us for an hour of ordinary people’s musical treasures found tucked between pages of 15th-17th century recipes, inspirational quotes, poems, and medicinal cures. Help us celebrate these powerful examples of music’s ability to amplify the areas in which people have always found and made meaning: family care, spirituality, work, and play.
We’re excited to welcome members of the local literary and book arts communities to help us celebrate and explore the theme of commonplace books. Local bookbinders Laurel Rogers of Passionato Books and Matthew Lawler Zimmerman of Studio Alcyon will display some of their work at the concert. The doors will open at 7pm to allow for extra viewing time. And Karolina Zapal, writer and Program Manager at the Massachusetts Center for the Book, will read a poem from a commonplace book featured on the concert program.
Tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/commonplace-or-oct-2-easthampton
Performers:
Ashley Mulcahy, mezzo-soprano & co-artistic director
James Perretta, viol & co-artistic director
Noah Horn, tenor
Corey Shotwell, tenor
This program is funded in part by a grant from the Eastampton Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

Commonplace | Oct 3, Williamstown
2026-10-03 15:00 - 16:15 | First Congregational Church Williamstown (Greylock Room), 906 Main St, Williamstown, MA, 01267
Music from commonplace books, personal notebooks of indispensable knowledge. Hear it performed live!
In times when access to paper and ink was limited, you could learn a lot about what someone valued from their commonplace book. If music made it into someone’s precious pages, then it must have meant a lot to them. Join us for an hour of ordinary people’s musical treasures found tucked between pages of 15th-17th century recipes, inspirational quotes, poems, and medicinal cures. Help us celebrate these powerful examples of music’s enduring ability to amplify the areas in which people find and make meaning: family care, spirituality, work, and play.
Tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/commonplace-or-oct-3-williamstown
Performers:
Ashley Mulcahy, mezzo-soprano & co-artistic director
James Perretta, viol & co-artistic director
Noah Horn, tenor
Corey Shotwell, tenor
This program is funded in part by a grant from the Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire, a local agency which is supported by Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
