Northern Harmony is the highest level of performing group under the umbrella of the world music organization Village Harmony, which sponsors singing camps and workshops in New England and many parts of the world.  (see www.villageharmony.org)   Through 25 years of international touring the group has won wide recognition for its exciting command of very diverse singing styles and timbres.  All the singers in the present ensemble are veterans of many years of Village Harmony and Northern Harmony programs and have toured widely in Western Europe, Caucasus Georgia and South Africa.
 
The concert program presents a selection of music from many different countries and  vocal styles including:

•           15th and 16th century Spanish and Italian renaissance works

•           traditional songs from Bulgaria, Georgia and Corsica

•           traditional English carols

•           American Appalachian and shape-note songs

 
Georgia’s ancient three-part harmony singing tradition features a dark, sonorous vocal quality, and startling harmonies, unlike anything in European music. Traditional Corsican singing, passed down through oral tradition, features two highly ornamented upper voices over a more sustained harmonic bass. The Bulgarian songs feature the characteristic bright, "hard-voiced" Balkan vocal timbre, with dissonant harmonies based on drones, and compound 7/8 dance meter
 
The renaissance pieces include works by Johannes Ciconia and Juan del Encina from the 14th and 15th centuries, and lively anonymous villancicos from mid-16th century collections.
 
On several numbers the voices will be accompanied by a brilliant band of fiddles, accordion, guitar and drum.