A half century’s early music obsession

More than five decades, three CDs, and dozens of concerts filled exclusively with music written before 1650: that’s quite a legacy, and they’re not done yet…

While Jouyssance Early Music Ensemble is well-known to music lovers for their years of work under artistic director Dr. Nicole Baker, you may not know how long they’ve been a part of the artistic landscape in Los Angeles, or how they got started. Here’s an excerpt from the History page on their website:

The Ensemble’s origins date to 1961. In that year the pioneering early music ensemble New York Pro Musica had its West Coast premiere at USC’s Bovard Auditorium and inspired Michael Agnello to form the first Los Angeles-based group dedicated to singing early music, the Neo-Renaissance Singers. In 1967, five of its members, including longtime patron and Board President John Leicester, incorporated the Foundation of the Neo-Renaissance (“FNR”) as a non-profit organization.

Here we are more than five decades later, and Jouyssance is celebrating this weekend with a special Madrigal Dinner on Sunday. Reservations for the event have been closed for several days, so if you haven’t saved your spots yet, you’ll have to wait for the group’s season finale concerts on June 2 & 3.
But nevertheless, we’d like to offer our sincere kudos and congratulations for the work this ensemble does. Jouyssance is a rich addition to our musical life in SoCal, and we are very lucky to have them. Bravos all around!

Jouyssance.org

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