The Closeted, the Converted, and the Steadfast

The Closeted, the Converted, and the Steadfast explores Early Modern European composers whose personal religious identities required complex political and social negotiations. The program features a diverse array of musicians: a secretly Jewish composer whose family “converted” and fled the Portuguese Inquisition, a Roman Catholic in Protestant England whose religious identity was an open secret, a famed Italian composer with special permission not to wear the Star of David that would proclaim his Jewishness, a German Lutheran educated by Catholic mentors, and a French Catholic composer drawn to the classical mythologies of Ancient Greece. Come hear their stories and listen to their music.