Our all-Renaissance Concert, Sunday Feb 8th, 2026
was a smash success and completely filled St Hilda’s Church in Sechelt BC. Watch the video! Read about it in the Coast Reporter.
A variety of Sunshine Coast performers, including the RenFriends Singers, Coast Shakespeare Fairy Band, SunCoast Viol Consort & BC Viols, and special guests Caitlin Bradley Beaupré, Janice Brunson, Simon Gidora & Isabella Perron, were joined by friends from Vancouver, Texada Island, and Nanaimo.
Program (click title for lyrics/translations, & composer for bio):
Sing We & Chant It, Thomas Morley
Paduan a4, Samuel Scheidt
O Mistress Mine, Thomas Morley
The Silver Swan, Orlando Gibbons
Dances, Anthony Holborne: 1) Honiesuckle Alman, 2) Heigh Ho Holiday Galliard, 3) The Fairie Round
It Was a Lover And His Lass, Thomas Morley
Dances, Tielman Susato: 1) Fanfare Morisque, 2) Pavane Pass e Medio, 3) Hobokentanz, 4) Galliard Le Tout
To Shorten Winter’s Sadness, Thomas Weelkes
10 Minute Intermission
Browning, William Byrd
Go From My Window, Orlando Gibbons
Nunc Dimittis from Fifth Service, Thomas Tomkins
Sicut Cervus, Giovanni Pierluigi de Palestrina
Zefiro Torna, Claudio Monteverdi
Hodie Nobis Caelorum Rex, Jacobus Gallus
Performers:
Kim Aippersbach – voice
Leona Axbey – voice
Karen Baxter – voice, viols
Caitlin Bradley Beaupré – voice
Albano Berberi – nyckelharpa, harpsichord
Denise Bonte – voice
Janice Brunson – soprano recorder, voice
Tegan Ceschi-Smith – viols
Maureen Drake – voice, viols
Jon Eriksson – voice, recorders, crumhorn
Simon Gidora – voice, harpsichord
Barbara Jackson – voice
Shirley Jackson – voice
Carole James – voice
Lise Kreps – voice, recorders, flute
Heidi Kurz – voice, recorders, flute
Joya Muma – lute, viols
Juliet O’Keefe – voice
Earle Peach – voice, percussion
Isabella Perron – voice
Evelyn Phillips – voice
David Poon – voice, viols, harpsichord
Sarah Poon – voice, viols
Sue Power – voice
Russ Proudman – voice
Chris Sallis – voice
Danielle Stephens – voice
Marvin Svingen – voice, bass recorder, bass viol
Pat Unruh – viols
Deborah van der Goes – voice, recorders, crumhorn, viols
Carol Yamada – voice
Alan Yoshioka – voice
The RenFriends Consort is an informal group of singers and instrumentalists on the Sunshine Coast, who enjoy meeting in each others’ homes to sing and play Renaissance music (and eat snacks!).
Renaissance secular music was designed for exactly this – for friends to get together and sing and/or play in small groups, for fun. All the parts are equally interesting, often trading off melodic themes, which encourages us to listen to each other.
If you can sing in tune and/or play a Renaissance(ish) instrument, you can read music, and you would like to join us, email Lise [ a t ] transcenturyradio.com. Please include your phone number so she can call you for a chat and informal phone audition.