By the time the exhibition closes on 16 February 2007, 40 U.S. institutions will have hosted the exhibition of 100 books, manuscripts, paintings, maps and documents lent by U.S. libraries, the British Library and several private collectors.

“Institutions are required to present one free program related to the exhibit, but most present an average of ten,” explains Susan Brandehoff, program director of traveling exhibitions at the American Library Association. Not all of the institutions will include a musical element, although music, religious and secular, was an important part of Elizabeth’s life, as it was for her father Henry VIII.

In addition to workshops and lectures Renaissonics presented a concert of Elizabethan chamber and stage music. The second part of the concert during this particular weeklong Elizabethan symposium focused on the Italian dances by Fabritio Caroso and Cesare de’Negri, dances Elizabeth would have known.

“The most ambitious work of the concert is Thomas Morley’s Christ’s Cross, the ultimate in outrageous rhythmic proportions,” explains recorder player and director of Renaissonics, John Tyson. “It’s a trio with a cantus firmus in the treble. At times the cross rhythms bring two against three against nine. It’s very complicated, yet as all geniuses manage to do, Morley makes it beautiful as well,” Tyson adds.

The last concurrent stops of the exhibition are at Gardner, Massachusetts and Livonia, Michigan (13 December – 16 February).