Hesperus is an early music

Early music

Early music is generally understood as comprising all music from the earliest times up to the Renaissance. However, today this term has come to include "any music for which a historically appropriate style of performance must be reconstructed on the basis of surviving scores, treatises,...

 and folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 ensemble. It was founded by Scott Reiss and Tina Chancey

Tina Chancey

Tina Chancey is a multi-instrumentalist specializing in early bowed strings from the rebec and vielle to the kamenj, viol and lyra viol. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts to support solo performances on the pardessus de viole at the Kennedy Center and Weill Recital...

 in 1979. While they are particularly noted for playing early European music, American folk music and crossover

Crossover (music)

Crossover is a term applied to musical works or performers appearing on two or more of the record charts which track differing musical tastes, or genres...

s between the two, they often play music from a variety of other traditions.

History

From 1989 to 1996, Hesperus was a resident ensemble at the National Museum of American History

National Museum of American History

The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific and military history. Among the items on display are the original Star-Spangled Banner and Archie Bunker's...

. Songs from their album Early American Roots

Early American Roots

Early American Roots is an album and compact disc with twenty-two instrumental songs and musical instruments heard on them by Hesperus published on April 22, 1997.-Instrumentation:...

 are part of the sound track for the 1999 film Sleepy Hollow

Sleepy Hollow (film)

Sleepy Hollow is a 1999 American period horror film directed by Tim Burton. It is a film adaptation loosely inspired by the 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving and stars Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Marc Pickering, Michael Gambon, Jeffrey Jones,...

. In a concert program sponsored by United States Information Agency

United States Information Agency

The United States Information Agency , which existed from 1953 to 1999, was a United States agency devoted to "public diplomacy". In 1999, USIA's broadcasting functions were moved to the newly created Broadcasting Board of Governors, and its exchange and non-broadcasting information functions were...

, Hesperus performed in Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/17/AR2005121701099.html

The group is presently an ensemble-in-residence in Arlington County, Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

.

Discography

• Crossing Over (1988)
• Neo-Medieval (1997)
• Unicorn (1997)
• Luminous Spirit: Chants of Hildegard von Bingen (1998)
• I Love Lucette (1998)
• Celtic Roots (1999)
• Spain in the New World (1999)
• Baroque Recorder Concerit (1999)
• Patchwork (2000)
• Dancing Day (2000)
• The Food of Love (2001)
• My Thing is My Own (2001)
• Colonial America (2003)
• Early American Roots
  Early American Roots
  Early American Roots is an album and compact disc with twenty-two instrumental songs and musical instruments heard on them by Hesperus published on April 22, 1997.-Instrumentation:...
  
  (2003)