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Ladies and gentlemen, the bird
ensemble.
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>> This whole wonderful
ensemble.
We're going to single out this
guy and pick on him.
This is mark and he is the
cofounder of the bird ensemble.
How did you pull this whole
group together?
>> We all started singing in
2003, actually maybe just three
of us, and it was just a casual
setting and we decided we wanted
to perform officially.
So here we are nearly 10 years
later with a pretty full group.
>> Let's talk about the name
sake of your group.
I'm going to hit you with the
tough questions.
>> Sure.
>> Why the bird ensemble?
>> We're named after renaissance
composer William bird, who is
one of our favorite English
renaissance composers and he is
such a versatile musician and
composer.
We fell in love with his music
and decided to name ourselves
after him.
>> You've mentioned the word
renaissance a couple of times.
Let's talk about your focus on
the renaissance era.
Why is that?
>> The renaissance era was a
great time for singers.
These big pieces written for up
to 50 parts were just written
for the voice.
And some of them were very long.
They really felt like symphonies
for the human voice.
And so we decided to really
capitalize on that great period
of music.
>> Now, also, something
interesting about the
renaissance era is that a lot of
performing groups in that era,
women were not a part of the
group.
>> True.
>> Although they are a part of
this group, you also hold on to
the tradition of having males
sing the Alto part.
Let's talk a bit about that.
>> Right.
So Josh, who sings Alto for us,
and we do like the male Alto
sound because it's thick and it
adds some clarity to that sort
of midrange of the human voice.
>> Could we hear a little bit
about that?
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>> Wonderful, wonderful.
The bird ensemble.
You can catch them, their
concert is coming up at the
trinity Paris church in Seattle.
>> Yep.
>> On April 6th.
>> Right.
>> 7:30 p.m.
>> Great.
>> Mark and the bird ensemble.
Thank you.