Echo Vocal Ensemble

Echo Vocal Ensemble are playing at the National Centre for Early Music on Sunday 6 December, as part of the York Early Music Christmas Festival. It's a vocal-led programme, with the ensemble as the sole feature of the evening.

The concert sits within the Christmas Festival, which has been running since 1997. The festival was set up to bring together music associated with Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, stretching from the Medieval to the Baroque, and it's run by the York Early Music Foundation, a registered charity. The National Centre for Early Music itself is based in St Margaret's Church, a medieval Grade I listed building in the heart of York. A National Lottery grant turned it into a concert venue back in 2000, and it seats up to 180, so it's a relatively small, enclosed space rather than a big hall.

That puts the ensemble right in the middle of the room. The music is early music, and the venue is a medieval church, so the two fit together. The festival's focus on the period from the Medieval to the Baroque means the programme will draw from that same span, and the ensemble's performance will be the main event of the night.

The concert starts at 6:30pm on 6 December at the National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret's Church, Walmgate, York YO1 9TL.