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Grammy Award-winner Sting revisits the music of 16th-century
English composer and court musician John Dowland.
Born in 1563 into an age of religious and political strife, English
composer and court musician John Dowland has for centuries
captivated performers and listeners alike with his serene and
introspective music. Composed primarily for lute, but also for
small ensembles, Dowland's music remains arresting in its
simplicity, spellbinding with melancholy and joy. It is perhaps
inevitable that Sting - one of today's most acclaimed troubadours -
would be drawn to revisit Dowland's work from a contemporary
perspective, some 400 years after the composer's death. "The songs
of John Dowland have been gently haunting me for over 20 years,"
says the Grammy Award-winning Sting, who had little knowledge of
Dowland until the gift of an exquisitely manufactured lute
rekindled his interest in the Elizabethan musician. This one-hour
program features Sting's yearning tenor accompanied by acclaimed
Bosnian lute player Edin Karamazov in performances of Dowland's
timeless songs, interspersed with recitations from Dowland's
personal correspondence, offering insight into his life and times.