Group.

Lionheart is one of America's leading ensembles in vocal chamber music. Acclaimed for its "smoothly blended and impeccably balanced sound" (Allan Kozinn, The New York Times), Lionheart (Jeffrey Johnson, Lawrence Lipnik, John Olund, Richard Porterfield, Kurt-Owen Richards, and Michael Ryan-Wenger) is best known for its interpretation of medieval and Renaissance a cappella music, with Gregorian Chant as the keystone of its repertoire. The ensemble also collaborates with instrumental ensembles, dance companies, and contemporary composers, and was recently selected for inclusion on the Star Spangled Touring Roster, the first year of an initiative by Early Music America.

Lionheart has released two CDs on the Nimbus label: "My Fayre Ladye: Tudor Songs and Chant: (1997), and "Paris 1200: Chant and Polyphony from 12th Century France" (1998). The ensemble is also heard on Sony Music's CD companion to A History of Western Music, and on NPR's "Christmas Around the Country II," a collection of favorites from NPR's Performance Today. The grpup recently recorded a new CD of the music of Palestrina and his contemporaries with Koch International which is due for release in October of 2001. On radio, Lionheart has been featured on Performance Today, on PRI's Harmonia, on WGBH, and appears regularly on WNYC. Lionheart has also received significant air play on Radio Shanghai, which broadcasts Western music to a wide audience in China.

In 1998 the six men of Lionheart began a continuing collaboration with Anonymous 4, joining forces to explore rare and ravishing repertoire to create a combined sound that is "mystical... resonant with haunting beauty" (The New York Times). In December 2000, Lionheart furthered its commitment to presenting the work of living composers by premiering a new piece by composer Julia Wolfe as part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival/p>

In New York City Lionheart performs regularly on the distinguished series Music Before 1800, at The Cloisters, and in its own concert series at Saint Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church. The ensemble has also appeared at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, at Lincoln Center, and at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall (in collaboration with composer Steve Reich). Out-of-town venues include the Kennedy Center, the National Cathedral and the Folger Library in Washington, D.C., the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Friends of Chamber Music series in Kansas City, and the campuses of Stanford, UCLA, and Yale University. In Europe they have participated in festivals including musikpodium in Stuttgart, Tage Alte Musik in Regensburg, and the Covent Garden Festival in London.