Res Facta, led by Ryan James Brandau, is a project-based vocal ensemble comprised of fourteen of New York, Chicago, and Washington D.C.’s finest consort singers. The program offers a rich and diverse survey of William Byrd’s body of work for choral ensemble. It combines motets, anthems, mass movements, and songs curated from volumes published across five decades highlighting the breadth and impact of Byrd’s consummate skill. At the core of the program stands a selection of Byrd’s large-scale motets from the 1589 and 1591 Cantiones Sacrae collections. Exquisitely crafted, they present the composer at the height of his expressive and rhetorical power from the aching poignancy of Ne Irascaris, Domine and Tribulationes Civitatum, to the pathos of Miserere Mei and jubilance of Haec Dies. Their intensity juxtaposes the buoyant joy of English anthems Sing We Merrily and Blow Up the Trumpet, the tender intimacy of movements from the Mass for Four Voices and Mass for Five Voices, and the cheeky pithiness of miniatures from the 1588 and 1611 song collections. Join us for a moving, beautiful experience celebrating one of the greatest contributors to the choral repertoire.