THE Ebor Singers will launch their new album, Mystery And Miracle: Musical Treasures Of York, at a candlelit concert on May 18 at Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York.

“Our latest disc on the Boreas Music label includes the premiere recording of a mass from the so-called York Masses, a collection which only survived the Reformation because it happened to be re-used as book bindings,” says the York choir’s director, Paul Gameson.

“It shows a flourishing musical culture in 15th-century York with a musical style as sophisticated as anything being produced at the royal court.”

The launch event will begin with drinks and a pre-concert talk on the music at 8pm, followed by the 9pm concert under the album-matching title of Mystery And Miracle.

“As a religious centre, medieval York was considered second only to London, as is seen by Richard III’s wishes to be buried here,” says Paul. “Little is known of the music that undoubtedly accompanied services, as presumably much was destroyed during the Reformation.”

The Ebor Singers have been working with musicologist Dr Lisa Colton, who has reconstructed a music manuscript re-used as a book-binding in an example of 16th-century recycling. “It really is a miracle that any music survived,” says Paul. “The result of this detective work is a collection of masses that reflects musical style at the royal court, a find as important in helping us understand life in medieval York as the discovery of medieval artefacts.”

The May 18 concert will be one of several opportunities to hear the choir over the next month in York’s city-centre medieval churches, beginning this Saturday, May 11, at All Saints Church, North Street, with a 7.30pm programme of Music From The Golden Age Of Spain, featuring Victoria’s Requiem.

“This was the last piece the composer published, written when Victoria had retired to Madrid after a career in Rome, and it’s seen by many to be his greatest work,” says Paul. “It’s also regarded as a swansong, the last glorious flowering of the Renaissance.”

On Saturday, June 8, the choir marks this year’s centenary of Benjamin Britten’s birth by presenting Best Of Britten at St Olave’s Church, Marygate. The programme will include Britten’s Hymn To St Cecilia, with a text by York’s own W. H. Auden, who was born close to St Olave’s on Bootham.

Britten’s works will be augmented by Handel’s Chandos Anthem No 9, O Praise The Lord; Elgar’s Great Is The Lord; and part songs by Elgar, Stanford and Pearsall, and the 7.30pm concert will be preceded by the opportunity to hear the service of Compline at 7pm in the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey in Museum Gardens. Tickets will include a complimentary glass of wine.

Tickets for all events are available in advance online at eborsingers.org or on the door from 30 minutes before each concert, priced at £12, concessions £10, students £3.