Continuo Connect — Concert // Galliarda: A celebration of the life and music of John Wilson

The concert will be performed by Galliarda, with a programme devised and introduced by Matthew Spring, and performed with voices, viol, lute and recorder. The concert brings together Wilson’s songs and vocal works from all periods of his life, many of which were from the stage productions in which he appeared.

We also perform works by his close friends and associates, Robert Johnson, Nicholas Lanier, Henry Lawes, John Jenkins and Matthew Locke. Wilson (1595-1674) was born in Abbey Street close to this church and was likely a chorister in Faversham in the early seventeenth century. He was in London by 1614 and became principal composer for the King's Men. Wilson knew Shakespeare, who died in 1616 (The Oxford Shakespeare attributes the play Arden of Faversham in part to Shakespeare), and set many of Shakespeare’s stage songs to music, along with those of the bard’s successor John Fletcher.