Secret Byrd Spotlight: Owain Park

This weekend, the UK’s lauded vocal consort, The Gesualdo Six, flies across the pond to join Revels for Revels Presents: Secret Byrd. We sat down with Owain Park, director of the ensemble, to learn more about the group’s busy performance schedule, work in the community, and experiences performing Secret Byrd.

You’re the director and one of the founders of The Gesualdo Six. How did the group come to be?

Owain: In the spring of 2014, I asked six singers to join me in putting together a concert in Cambridge. Several of us were at Cambridge University, which has an amazing choral tradition, but most of the choirs there are large choirs. We wanted to sing in a smaller group, so it feels a bit more like a string quartet, with each singer having real ownership of each vocal line. The group was really born out of a desire to just try something new.

In our first concert, which I conducted, we sang some extraordinary music by Carlo Gesualdo, hence the group name – basically, we just had to put something on the poster! That first concert went well, so we ended up doing a second concert, and it just snowballed from there. Over the last couple of years, the team has been very stable – we still perform with four of the original singers who were in that first concert. Especially when we’re now doing about a hundred concerts a year, it’s great to have that regularity on the team.

Boston is just the first stop on your North American tour. What are you expecting from these next few performances in the US?

Owain: This will be our sixth tour to the US. In fact, next year we’re visiting three times, which shows how we’ve found a sort of second home there. This tour in particular will see us on the East Coast performing in Philadelphia, New York, Providence, and Westport. One of the things I’m really excited about is the concert we managed to put in at the last minute on Election Day, which will be on Long Island. We hope it will serve as a break from the news for everyone, an hour to forget what’s happening outside and enjoy some music. 

How has The Gesualdo Six been involved in the creation of Secret Byrd and in its evolution?

Owain: Bill Barclay of Concert Theatre Works came to me early on and told me he had this idea for a performance of the Recusant Mass in Byrd’s anniversary year, that he wanted to bring it back to life. We talked together about the music that would be featured, and he devised the stagecraft of it, but it really came together when we premiered it at St. Martin in the Fields in London, back in January 2023. We only had a day to workshop it, but it was amazing when it came to life.

A lot of the program is built around how we are able to sing this music that is 400 years old, and how we can remind audiences that they are experiencing something that, at the time it was written in England, was illegal. It has a secretive sense to it. The whole experience by candlelight, which I think helps bring audiences’ imaginations into the picture. We’re not just performing a standard concert, we are giving them an immersive experience of music that people may have heard before, but certainly not in a setting like this. 

What is it about this era of music that speaks to you and the ensemble?

Owain: In England, we’re really blessed with such an amazing heritage for choral music, and composers like William Byrd were right at the front of things, working with the royal families and with the church as it changed throughout the sixteenth century. As singers today, we still regularly recreate these works. A lot of us grew up as choristers in church, that’s how we learned a lot of this music, so to bring it to a concert is part of who we are as musicians. It’s very exciting to share this music with people all around the world, especially in this heightened way – I think there’s nothing quite like it.

How did you find your way to this career path specifically?

Owain: I started by playing the piano. From a young age, I was really into music, and I sang in my school choir, and one day somebody came into my school told us a church choir was looking for singers, where we could earn some pocket money. That really just set everything in motion from there, because I started to play the organ, which took me to Wells Cathedral, one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world. From there, I went to Cambridge University, which unlocked all of these doors for me, leading me not only to The Gesualdo Six, but also to my role as a conductor with groups like the BBC Singers, and to my work giving workshops and working with choirs around the world. I’m enjoying exploring the different tracks of my career path every day. 

Tell us a little bit about the group dynamic in terms of programming and researching repertoire. How does that work within the ensemble?e invention. What does preparation for the HONK! Festival look like on your end?

Owain: With a small number of singers, it’s important that everyone contributes, so in rehearsals, we’ll sing through a piece, and then everyone will give feedback. It’s useful, I think, to have leadership, because even if there are different points of view, at least it means that everyone knows what we’re aiming for. There’s nothing worse than getting to a concert and not being sure what the message is that you’re trying to convey. In terms of the repertoire, I’ll put together the programs, but I’ll make sure that everyone can include some of their favorite pieces so that they really enjoy the work that they’re doing. I think that’s shown just by how long we’ve had our singers stick around with us. It’s a happy ship.

Are there any additional projects that the ensemble is working towards?

Owain: We’ve just established a charity in the UK which will allow us to think a bit more strategically, but also creatively, about the bigger projects we want to do. That mostly involves working with living composers to commission and develop pieces, especially emerging composers. Aside from that, we do a lot of work with young singers, and the project we’re putting together will help us work with more ensembles and pass on everything we’ve learned over the past ten years to them, as they make their first steps in an industry that’s increasingly difficult to work in. We’re lucky because a lot of the stuff we did, we fell into, which is great. But, some of that is luck, and some of that is hard work, so anything we can do to share that with the next generation is very important. We do a lot with those who are making their very first steps in the industry and just need support and guidance in order to feel like they’re not doing it alone. Being a relatively young group, we can speak to them in a way that they understand, and we don’t feel too far away from where they are. 

Coming back to Secret Byrd, what would you like your Boston audience to walk away with having seen this production?

Owain: I just hope that they feel moved in some way after the show. If the audience comes ready to soak up whatever happens in the show, then I feel that they will come away feeling nourished, musically and potentially spiritually as well. 

If Revelers want to hear more of your work or see an upcoming performance, where should they go to learn more about you? 

Owain: We are across social media, and we have a really good set of videos on Instagram and TikTok. Our YouTube page is a great way to see longer format, and we’ve recorded in some of the UK’s most beautiful venues. Our recordings are available wherever you might receive them normally, on both CD format and on streaming platforms. My personal work as a composer and as a conductor is also in similar places. Just type the name “The Gesualdo Six” and you’ll be taken to wherever you need.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with the Revels audiences? 

Owain: Because we haven’t been to Boston before, I’m just excited to meet the people there! I know that lots of people from Boston have come to our concerts elsewhere, in New York and Washington D.C, and I’m just hoping that since we’re doing five shows, we’re going to meet everyone who’s into early music, or everyone who’s into history, or anyone who’s just in for a good night. Come along, don’t be afraid – just give it a go!

Tickets are still available for the 9 PM show of Revels Presents: Secret Byrd, on Saturday, November 2 at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul on Tremont Street in Boston. Learn more and buy tickets today at revels.org/secretbyrd