Secret Byrd

This is a roving event that will require audience members to stand and move during the immersive performance. However there will be chairs available for those that need them.

Secret Byrd celebrates the 400-year legacy of William Byrd, one of England’s finest composers, in an immersive performance by candlelight featuring The Gesualdo Six and Fretwork, created and directed by Bill Barclay and produced by Concert Theatre Works. Byrd was a recusant Catholic writing secret Masses to be sung by worshippers during the Reformation.

These Masses were held in people’s homes with smuggled priests and hidden Catholic artifacts. This extraordinary theatrical concert recreates the sense of danger of these secret gatherings in the atmospheric setting of Canterbury Cathedral’s Eastern Crypt.

Audiences rove freely among the costumed artists feeling the original hand-made part-books, all illuminated by candlelight. This will be a concert experience like no other.