Bridge

Entering their Fifth season performing in the greater Baltimore/Washington Corridor, Bridge is a professional vocal chamber ensemble specializing in new music and works from the Renaissance and Middle Ages. Led by Artistic Directors Gilbert Spencer, Crossley Hawn, Allan Laino, and Jacob Perry Jr., Bridge is a collective of top Baltimore and Washington-based professional singers who come together to create new works of music for voices through commissioning projects with some of the world’s leading composers, and present them in concert alongside rarely heard masterpieces from the Renaissance and Middle Ages. The ensemble bridges this gap of several centuries, and aims to create innovative and engaging programs that will challenge the rhetoric of "classical performance" in the 21st Century.

Bridge is also thoroughly dedicated to its home city of Baltimore. Their dedication to working with local artists helps to ensure that the Baltimore arts economy continues to thrive, and significant efforts are made to see that performances are held in geographically diverse locations in the area. The uniquely creative and DIY attitude that Baltimore has come to be known for is one that the ensemble hopes to mirror in its efforts to present the world’s oldest musical traditions in innovative ways that resonate with its local conscience.

In 2018-2019, the ensemble worked with Composer-in-Residence Jenny Olivia Johnson and presented several world premieres alongside over a dozen regional and national premiere performances of works by living composers. Their artists worked with leading arts advocacy and outreach organizations in a new educational scheme designed to give children tangible examples of the benefits to studying music seriously. Most importantly, they are one of the strongest advocates in Baltimore and the Nation for the creation and presentation of new works of music for voices. They continue to seek to challenge the notion that "classical music is dead" by giving performances of works that respond directly to our modern lives and the issues we face in society by composers who are very much still alive and creating music for our time. Bridge’s sound is timeless, but the music they make is truly modern and cutting-edge.