About LIBER

Photo credit: Tall & Small Photography

For more than a decade, LIBER (formerly Liber unUsualis) has been the foremost interpreter of late medieval music in the United States.  LIBER’s artistic director and founding member, William Hudson, is doggedly devoted to rediscovering and performing this ancient repertoire.  His extensive research and meticulous preparation of the music of the late medieval period highlights the vitality of this music.  Audiences leave a LIBER performance entertained, enlightened, and energized by their new experience of this ancient art form.

It is LIBER’s passion and scrupulous detail to this art form that leads critics and scholars alike to praise this award-winning ensemble.  The San Francisco Classical Voice wrote: “It is difficult to imagine much better guides to this daunting yet uncannily captivating music than these musicians . . . Everything was brilliantly and sensitively sung, and was fashioned into a program that was a rare combination of ingenious design and seeming naturalness of progression from one piece to the next.”  In 2009 LIBER was awarded the prestigious Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society.  Other awards include First Prize at the International Young Artist’s Presentation–Early Music (Belgium, 2002), the Professional Development Award from Early Music America (2002), and semifinalist status at New York’s prestigious Concert Artists Guild Competition in 1999.

LIBER maintains an active concert schedule, performing extensively throughout the United States and abroad at many of the major European music festivals.  Past European performances include the Tage Alter Musik Regensburg (Germany), York Early Music Festival (England), Galway Early Music Festival (Ireland), Festival van Vlaanderen (Belgium), Latvia’s International Festival of Early Music, Viljandi Early Music Festival (Estonia), La Caixa Forum (Spain), and Rencontres de Musique Médiévale du Thoronet (France). In the U.S. the ensemble has been heard at the Madison and Amherst Early Music Festivals, Phoenix Early Music society, Cambridge Society for Early Music, San Francisco Early Music Society, Seattle Early Music Guild International Series, San Diego Early Music Society International Series, Milwaukee’s Early Music Now, and Early Music Columbus, among other engagements.

LIBER is committed to arts education and offers outreach programs for schools, colleges, and community groups. In addition to a Doctor of Music in Historical Performance, Dr. Hudson holds a Master of Music in Early Music Voice and a B.S. in Music Education. He is currently teaching voice and vocal pedagogy at Illinois Wesleyan University.