The concert features Nathaniel Cox (lute), Agnes Coakley Cox, Sophie Michaux, Corey Dalton Hart and Adam Simon (voices), performing songs by seventeenth- century English composer John Dowland in an unusual way: all five musicians are seated around one table, reading from a facsimile of the original sheet music.

The concert’s title, “Stay, Time,” is taken from one of Dowland’s songs, and expresses a universal desire, explains Coakley Cox. “Since we last sang together pre-COVID, it feels like no time at all has passed, and yet it’s also been an eternity. Even as hard times feel endless, there’s a very human desire to slow down time, which we find expressed in many of Dowland’s songs. That’s what we wanted to explore in this concert.”

The program includes selections from all four of Dowland’s books of songs, with a particular focus on themes of timelessness, aging, darkness, and light. (NB: Proof of vaccination required at door.)