Sunday 17th August 2025
Location: Cleere’s Theatre
12 — 13 August 2025
6.30pm & 9pm
The Black Abbey
Seated ticket €38. Promenade ticket €33
75 min approx.
BOOK TICKETS
Wheelchair accessible
“
profound, spiritual and beautiful
”
The Financial Times on Secret Byrd
“
quietly transfixing
”
The New Yorker on Secret Byrd
“
effortless perfection
”
The Observer on Secret Byrd
William Byrd was one of the most important English composers of the Renaissance, renowned for his brilliantly inventive music, but his courage is sometimes overlooked. A Catholic at the court of Elizabeth I, Byrd was obliged to write music for the Anglican Church, yet at the height of his fame he defied his paymasters, composing three Latin masses and giving up his post to join a community of Catholic recusants.
Part art installation, part concert, and part immersive theatre, Secret Byrd celebrates Byrd’s remarkable story. Created by writer, director and composer Bill Barclay, former Director of Music at Shakespeare’s Globe, this immersive concert brings together vocal ensemble The Gesualdo Six and viol consort Fretwork to perform Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices for an intimate audience in The Black Abbey.
Commissioned by the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and Washington National Cathedral, and presented to rapturous acclaim in cities across the US, Secret Byrd is a concert experience like no other: a thrilling mix of music and drama that recreates the experiences of Catholics in Tudor England and makes a powerful and timely plea for tolerance.
Book Tickets
Book Tickets
Tue 12 Aug, 6.30p.m. Seated ticket €38. Promenade ticket €33 BOOK NOW
Tue 12 Aug, 9.00p.m. Seated ticket €38. Promenade ticket €33 BOOK NOW
Wed 13 Aug, 6.30p.m. Seated ticket €38. Promenade ticket €33 BOOK NOW
Wed 13 Aug, 9.00p.m. Seated ticket €38. Promenade ticket €33 BOOK NOW
Organisers Website

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