PIVA: The Renaissance Collective

PIVA’s program The Road to Venice, developed especially for LIFEM, is a reflection of popular English and Italian music of the late 16th century. Performed in PIVA’s trademark earthy and robust style, playing both loud and soft winds, bagpipes and strings, the program showcases how Italian musical style was influenced and absorbed by the English.



Inspired by 16th Century Italian styled entertainments, such as masques or morescos, musical forms such as the ground bass or basso ostinato and new dance and choreographies of the time, the concert features music from a number of English and Italian composers: Augustine Bassano, Anthony Holborne, William Byrd, John Dowland, Giorgio Mainerio, Gasparo Zanetti, Tarquinio Merula, Francesco Corteccia and Fabritio Caroso, amongst others as well as the ever-present, ‘Anon’. Plus, a LIFEM 2021 commission composed by Toby Young.