For nearly twenty years now, the Ensemble William Byrd has been performing Renaissance and Baroque vocal music , with a particular emphasis on that of the 17th century.Whereas the High Renaissance is dominated by the Flemish school, and the High Baroque by the Italian, in the settecento each country has its own style, as each feels their way at their own speed towards the new Baroque world.For our programmes, we try to highlight these differences by searching out masterpieces from those countries that might be considered out of the main-stream (Bohemia, Portugal, Mexico, Poland …) and bringing them into the context of the central tradition of Italy, France and Germany.