Over four decades of performance and a catalog of award-winning recordings, Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars have done more than any other group to establish sacred vocal music of the Renaissance as one of the great repertoires of western Classical music. Formed in 1973, their goal was to bring Renaissance works to a wider audience in churches, cathedrals and venues literally all over the world. In this episode, we listen to their 2016 Savannah Music Festival performance at the Trinity United Methodist Church.

The history of the mandolin goes back to 17th and 18th century Italy, when the instrument evolved from the lute family. Over time, the mandolin developed into primarily three types: the Neopolitan or round-backed mandolin, the carved top mandolin and the flat-backed mandolin. Whether it is used in western classical music, Brazilian music, bluegrass and modern American styles, the mandolin remains a wonderfully unique instrument. In this episode, we listen to a 2016 SMF concert called "The World of the Mandolin" featuring Associate Artistic Director Mike Marshall and Caterina Lichtenberg.

He calls it a machine, but it's actually a band -- a quintet to be precise, rooted in folk, country, blues and rock 'n' roll. Dave Rawlings' longtime musical partner is Gillian Welch, and she joins him along with Willie Watson, Brittany Haas and Paul Kowert on this Savannah debut performance. This is part two of two episodes.

While generally acknowledged as one of the finest jazz drummers in the world, Brian Blade is also a singer-songwriter, a session man for Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, and the son of a singing preacher man from Louisiana. In this episode, we listen to his signature group, Brian Blade & the Fellowship Band, in their SMF debut in 2012.

When you're born into a renowned musical family, there's generally a better chance of you understanding music not simply as a job, but as a way of life. Such was the case for Catherine Russell, whose father Luis Russell was Louis Armstrong's long-time musical director. Her mother was Carline Ray, a singer with degrees from both The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music who performed with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm during World War II. In this episode, we listen to Catherine Russell's 2016 performance at SMF, along with her outstanding trio.

The Persian Empire was any of a series of imperial dynasties centered in Persia, an area that is now modern-day Iran. One of the most famous instruments in traditional Persian music is the kamancheh, a four-stringed, upright fiddle. Kayhan Kalhor is a master of the kamancheh, and in this episode, we listen to his SMF debut with Brooklyn Rider.

In this episode, we listen to part two of a two-part show from SMF 2016 with the Time Jumpers featuring Vince Gill.

Though he's a guitarist, producer and singer, Dave Rawlings is probably best known as the longtime musical partner of singer-songwriter Gillian Welch. Together they have created an original body of work and an Americana roots sound whose beauty and brilliance is unique even ina city as musical as Nashville. In this episode, we listen to part one of a two-part series featuring the SMF debut of the Dave Rawlings Machine, an ensemble made up of Rawlings, Gillian Welch, Brittany Haas, Willie Watson and Paul Kowert.

SMF2018_GCASamples_audio by savannahmusicfestival

While American country music originated in the late 1920s in the southern United States, an important subgenre of the style was called western swing. As dance music, often with an uptempo beat, western swing attracted huge crowds to dance halls and clubs in Texas, Oklahoma and California during the 1930s and 40s, until a federal war-time nightclub tax in 1944 led to its decline. In this episode, we listen to the first half of a 2016 SMF performance given by one of the foremost western swing ensembles playing the music today: the Timejumpers out of Nashville, Tennessee.