Works by Billings, Cage, Harman, Le Jeune, Ligeti, Messiaen, Panneton and Wild.

The music of yesterday and today come together in a concert featuring Peter Schubert conducting both Cappella McGill and The Orpheus Singers — groups that have been bringing unusual works to life for over 25 years.

Eighteen-century composer William Billings meets John Cage while the sixteenth-century Claude Le Jeune shares the stage with Olivier Messiaen and early and late Ligeti: all the ingredients for a fascinating encounter that reaches beyond geographical boundaries and centuries! Cage was inspired by Billings’s New England Psalm Singer (1770)! Messiaen composed his Rechants as a tribute to Claude Le Jeune. Isabelle Panneton drew inspiration from Machiavelli’s Prince. Jon Wild set anonymous, thirteenth-century texts. Chris Paul Harman refers to the celebrated Es ist Genug by Bach. Finally, Ligeti’s Lux Aeterna can be viewed as a creative revival of Renaissance compositional techniques.

The human voice has truly stood the test of time.