Springing forward: London quintet Apollo5 brings ‘The Evening Primrose’ to ABQ

Apollo5, an a cappella ensemble that hails from London, is bringing its versatile sound to New Mexico.

The five-person group will be performing a new springtime program, “The Evening Primrose,” created by artistic director and bass singer Augustus Ray.

Ray said the music speaks to the changing seasons and longer evenings.

“The program covers music from lots of different eras and genres,” Ray said, “and it’s gonna be really fun. ... It’s quite an uplifting program, I would say, and quite like a program that celebrates kind of spring and summer.”

The name of the program comes from a poem by John Clare that 20th-century composer Benjamin Britten set to music.

“The key to programming is not putting too much music down that’s unfamiliar,” Ray said. “So (‘The Evening Primrose’) kind of a mixture of things that we’ve been singing for quite a while and some newer things as well.”

The program includes new music by Piers Connor Kennedy and ensemble member Penelope Appleyard, along with older pieces from the Tudor era by Thomas Tompkins and William Byrd.

Ray said the ensemble has a repertoire spanning centuries — from the early Renaissance to the last 100 years of jazz, pop, soul and funk.

Apollo5 — which is is made up of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, two tenors and a bass — is “a really fun formation of singers,” Ray said.

“The Evening Primrose” is really fun and lively, he said.

“We’ve even put some choreography into it. So, would describe it as bonkers, to be honest, pretty unhinged.”

“We tend to leave the kind of pop and jazz music towards the end of the program, some by that point, it feels more like a kind of celebration,” Ray said.

Elizabeth Secor is an arts fellow from the New Mexico Local News Fellowship program. You can reach her at esecor@abqjournal.com.