About Illuminare
Illuminare, founded in 2006 as the Carmina Women’s Ensemble, focuses on music of the medieval through Baroque eras composed or arranged for women’s voices. The name symbolizes the ensemble’s efforts to illuminate the glorious music of the past, often overlooked today. Just as beautiful initial letters, or illuminations, add beauty and meaning to medieval manuscripts, the group strives to enhance and enrich the lives of its listeners through its performances.
Illuminare has performed at the National Presbyterian Church, Anderson House, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral, the Mansion at Strathmore, and First Night Alexandria. They have sung with Eya, the Countertop Quartet, Slaveya, and the Capitol Hill Chorale, as well as with sibling ensemble Carmina. Illuminare’s performances for the Washington Early Music Festival have been favorably reviewed by The Washington Post.
Carmina and Illuminare presented a Fringe Concert at the 2017 Boston Early Music Festival, and the groups regularly participated in the Washington Early Music Festival. Both were invited to take part in the Washington Arts Group's 2007 international convocation in a showcase performance, An Evening of Brillance, Past and Present, which also featured several internationally known artists and ensembles. Area choral directors honored Carmina and Illuminare in 2016 with the Choralis Foundation's Greater Washington Choral Excellence "Ovation" Award for Best Chamber Choir. The next year the groups shared an "Ovation" nomination for Most Creative Programming.
Illuminare’s two CDs can be purchased through this website (see below) and at concerts.
Illuminare on Video
Watch Illuminare sing Pastor, quien madre Virgen by Francesco Guerrero. Click here to find other videos from the same concert.
Listen to Illuminare and Carmina
Click here to hear samples of some of Illuminare’s and Carmina’s best performances.
Illuminare and Carmina on CD
Click here for ordering information for Illuminare Sings! and A Festival of Carols and Carmina’s recordings A Carmina Sampler, The Son of Getron, and Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu nostri.
About the Singers
Illuminare’s singers hail from the greater Washington DC area and have a strong interest and practiced expertise in early music.
Reviews
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“Unison singing is the gold standard of choral art. It may sound easy, but there’s nowhere to hide in a unison melodic line. Every bit of faulty intonation, every wobble and every misplaced consonant hangs out there. But unison singing is what the two chamber choruses Carmina, a mixed chorus, and Illuminare, its smaller, all-female sister ensemble, do so well, and the program they brought to St. Peter’s Catholic Church on Friday as part of the Washington Early Music Festival played handsomely to their strengths.”
- The Washington Post, June 14, 2010. Click here to read the full review. -
“Chamber choirs Carmina and Illuminare brought medieval music and words to life in an uplifting performance…. Illuminare’s 12 sopranos blossomed… the unison melody rose and fell sweetly with each verse and the choir clung to the ends of phrases so that they melted away like sugar…. [Carmina’s male singers] were striking… the baritones sounded an earthy, primeval ringing as the tenors sang tenderly above…. Both groups under director Vera Kochanowsky flowed through the Latin verses with ease and maintained a gentle, precise quality in their voices. They blended so well that only in von Bingen’s ‘O Ecclesia’ did individual timbres emerge in shapely solos.”
- The Washington Post, June 30, 2008. Click here to read the full review.
Some of Our Past Concerts
Illuminare regularly shares the bill in Carmina performances. It sings on its own as well, as in the following performances:
“Green Grow’th the Holly” - Illuminare and hammered-dulcimer artist Jody Marshall reflected on this symbol of life’s renewal amid the bleakest of seasons, presenting chants, carols, canons, dazzling polyphony, and other music of the twelfth through nineteenth centuries. (December 5, 2021)
“Life, Spirit, and Song” - Illuminare wove a broad and magical tapestry of styles, moods, and colors with music of the 12th through 17th centuries. Included were works by Hildegard von Bingen, Dufay, Brumel, Guerrero, Monteverdi, and others. (April 7, 2019)
“The Play of the Virtues” - Illuminare presented an abridged version of Hildegard von Bingen’s morality play, Ordo Virtutum, the composer’s most ambitious musical work and one of the oldest musical plays from western Europe. Tempted by the Devil (actor Wilson Hutton), the Soul (soprano Allison Mondel) strays, but is redeemed with the help of the Virtues. To round out the program, Illuminare sang musical contemplations on the subject of Virtue from the thirteenth-century Carmina Burana manuscript. (May 7, 2017)
“Treasures of the Italian Baroque” - Illuminare and Japanese harpsichordist Atsuko Watanabe presented passionate and energetic music of the early seventeenth century. Featured were works by Milanese nun Chiara Margarita Cozzolani as well as music by Monteverdi, Grandi, and Giovanni Gabrieli. (May 22, 2016)
“A Festival of Carols” - Illuminare joined harpist Beth Mailand to perform Benjamin Britten’s beloved A Ceremony of Carols in its original setting for three treble voices and harp. To complement its Middle English text, Illuminare also sang a medley of exquisite English medieval carols. Ms. Mailand performed Handel’s Harp Concerto in B Flat Major. (December 4, 2015)
