Christmas concerts featuring the popular King’s Singers and Lorenza Borrani and her string quartet will headline at Teatro della Pergola during the weekend of December 14-15.

Ushering in the holiday season in Florence is the highly anticipated performance by the King’s Singers on Saturday, December 14 at 4 pm. As an a cappella group that has earned international acclaim, the King’s Singers are back in Florence for an afternoon of guaranteed amusement.  In addition to Christmas songs, the program, entitled “A Spotless Rose” as a tribute to the Virgin Mary, covers a vast time period – from the Renaissance to today – to include compositions by Praetorius, Palestrina, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Poulenc, Chilcott, Howells and Warlock.

Winners of both the Grammy and Emmy awards, the ensemble was founded at King’s College in 1968, with a roster that has rotated and adapted to an ever expansive repertoire of music. The King’s Singers hold hundreds of concerts a year, are featured in a number of recordings and television broadcasts, and have worked with some of the most iconic musicians of this era, including the Boston Pops orchestra and Paul McCartney. Their arrangements, ranging from Gesualdo to Michael Bublé, are sung all over the world.

Although various members have come and gone over the years, the original combination of vocal ranges is unchanged: two countertenors; one tenor; two baritones; and one bass. The King’s Singers’ primary goal, to spread the joy of ensemble singing via performances, workshops, and courses, has remained the same since its establishment.

On Sunday, December 15 (9 pm), the Saloncino of Teatro della Pergola will host violinist Lorenza Borrani accompanied by her string quartet: Maia Cabeza (violin), Simone Jandl and Max Mandel (viola) and Luise Buchberger (cello), all on Baroque instruments for the third installment of  The Mozart Quintets Project. The group will play the dark and brooding String Quintet no. 3 in C major, which Mozart composed immediately after the opera “The Marriage of Figaro,” followed by an interpretation of the luminous String Quintet No. 3 in C Major.