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Compiled by Angela Fasick
Awards &
Appointments
Harpsichordist Matthew
Halls will replace founder
Helmuth
Rilling as
artistic director of the
Oregon Bach
Festival at
the end of
Halls
the 2013 season. A graduate of Oxford,
Halls is the founding director
of the Retrospect Ensemble,
an English period instrument
and choral group. Retrospect’s recent recording of
Bach’s Easter and Ascension
oratorios was a finalist in the
Baroque Vocal category
as the 2011 Gramophone
Record of the Year. In 2005,
Halls led the Portland Baroque Orchestra’s performances of Handel’s Messiah.
Rilling, who has led the 17day festival since its founding
in 1970, will remain with the
University of Oregon event
as director emeritus.
Peter Pastreich will retire
as executive director of Phil harmonia Baroque Orchestra
at the end of the year.
Moon Young Ha, Matt
McBane, and Lansing Mc Loskey have been announced
as the winners of Chatham
Baroque’s inaugural New
Works Competition. Each
will have about a year to
complete their work, which
the ensemble will then present in the fall of 2012 on its
Pittsburgh series and at other
concerts. The competition
was established to celebrate
Chatham Baroque’s 20th
anniversary by stimulating the
creation of new music for
Baroque instruments. Upon
winning, Matt McBane said,
“I am very excited about the
possibility of writing for your
ensemble using both counterpoint that is rooted in your
instruments’ time period and
the more modern influences
that make up my musical
language.”
Prizewinners in the West-
field International Fortepiano Competition, held at
Cornell University July 31-
La Donna Musicale’s
recording, Anna Bon: La
Virtuosa di Venezia, has been
chosen by The Society for the
Study of Early Modern Women
as its 2011 award winner in
the Arts and Media category.
August 6, were: first prize,
Anthony Romaniuk (Australia), $7,500; second prize,
Mike Cheng-Yu Lee (New
Zealand), $3,500; third prize,
Shin Hwang (USA), $2,500,
given by Ms Percy Browning.
Other winners: Herbert J.
Carlin Audience Prize, Mike
Cheng-Yu Lee, $1,000; and
honorable mentions to Assen
Boyadjiev (Bulgaria) and
David Hyun-Su Kim (USA).
Lee’s success in the competition was remarkable because
he had to deal with focal dystonia in his piano studies. The
Westfield Center for Histori-
cal Keyboard Studies recently
moved to Cornell thanks to
two grants totaling $470,000
from the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation.
Oberlin’s Steven Plank has
been named to the Andrew B.
Meldrum Professorship in
recognition of his distinguished work
in the area of
sacred music.
A specialist in
17th-century
Plank music, Plank
teaches
courses in the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods
Boston Baroque and Linn Records
Begin Series with Haydn’s Creation
Three-time Grammy-nominated Boston Baroque and Linn Records,
Gramophone’s “Label of the Year,” have announced a new partnership,
beginning their relationship this fall with a recording of Joseph Haydn’s
The Creation.
Recording sessions for the Haydn masterpiece took place October 1724 at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts, under the direction of
Boston Baroque music director Martin Pearlman. Soloists were Amanda
Forsythe, soprano, Keith Jameson, tenor, and Kevin Deas, bass-baritone.
Martin
During the week, Boston Baroque performed The Creation in Boston’s
Pearlman
Jordan Hall as part of their 2011-12 season. The Boston Phoenix called the
performance, “sparkly and spirited,“and noted that the recording “will
surely make a lovely souvenir for anyone who wants to hear it again and
a consolation for anyone who missed it.” The recording will be released by Linn, a firm based in Glasgow,
Scotland, in late spring 2012 and distributed by Naxos.
“I am excited that Boston Baroque will be working with Linn Records, a company that is known for its outstanding roster of artists and audiophile productions,” said Pearlman. “Our new relationship will give Boston
Baroque a higher profile in the European marketplace, and I am pleased that we are the first American
ensemble to join the Linn Records roster as they expand their distribution in America.”
“I have admired Martin Pearlman and Boston Baroque’s work for many years and am delighted to be able
to welcome this fantastic ensemble to the Linn family,” said Philip Hobbs, producer of Linn Records. “We have
an exciting program of projects planned over the next few years, and I am really looking forward to working
with them.”
Boston Baroque (www.bostonbaroque.org) is the resident professional ensemble for Boston University’s
Historical Performance Program, where it is helping to train a new generation of period-instrument performers.
Of the 20 recordings Boston Baroque made with Telarc over a span of two decades, three were Grammy finalists: Handel’s Messiah (1992), Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 (1998), and Bach’s Mass in B Minor (2000).
In announcing its “Label of the Year” award, James Jolly, Gramophone’s editor-in-chief, said of the company, “Linn is the very model of a modern record company, ensuring that the highest standards are maintained
from the studio right through the company’s very impressive digital store.” Linn albums and tracks are available
for download at studio master and CD quality; MP3 downloads are also available (www.linnrecords.com).
Early Music America Winter 2011
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and conducts the Collegium
Musicum.
The Handel and Haydn
Society has announced the
renewal of Harry Christophers’s contract as artistic
director for an additional
term of four years, extending
his leadership of the Society
through the 2015 bicentennial
year and into 2016. New
appointments at H&H have
included Judi DeJager as
director of
development
and Guy
Fishman, a
member of
the orchestra
since 2002,
Christophers as principal
cellist. In
addition, Sonja Tengblad and
Carrie Cheron will join
H&H’s Vocal Quartet, leading
the school visits that are an
integral part of the Karen S.
and George D. Levy Educational Outreach Program.
Juilliard Historical Performance has named two
new faculty, viola da gambist
Sarah Cunningham and
plucked strings specialist
Patrick O’Brien, and added
majors in each of these areas,
beginning in the fall 2012.
Going Places
In October and November, Apollo’s Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra,
toured “Handel and Vivaldi
Fireworks” with Philippe
Jaroussky, making stops in
North Carolina, California,
Michigan, and Massachusetts
as well as in Canada, France,
Spain, and Portugal.
Boston Camerata completed its fourth and final
European tour of 2011. Camerata’s November itinerary
6
Winter 2011 Early Music America
New Esterházy
Quartet
took them to Bruges for their
Belgian debut, as well as to
Rouen, Caen, and Strasbourg,
France. Under Anne Azéma’s
direction, Camerata performed two concerts of early
American religious music and
collaborated with the Tero
Saarinen Dance Company of
Helsinki, Finland, for the
dance-and-music production
“Borrowed Light.”
The Bay Area’s New Esterházy Quartet opened its fifth
season in September with the
fifth concert of its “Dedicated to Haydn” series featuring
quartets by Haydn, Bernard
Romberg, and Mozart. This
season, the quartet will also
play Beethoven (Op. 95 and
Op. 132) as well as Wranitzky
and Reicha as part of its
“Students of Haydn” series,
and present Haydn’s Seven
Last Words with homilies
by Alan Jones, former dean
of San Francisco’s Grace
Cathedral.
Parthenia took its King
James Bible 400th anniversary
concert program on tour this
fall with stops at Oxford and
Jackson, MS, and in Memphis,
TN, for Rhodes College’s
“1611 Symposium,” hosted
by the Pearce Shakespeare
Endowment. Baritone
Lawrence Albert joined the
ensemble for “King James
and His Bible: A Musical Portrait,” royal and devotional
music from the Stuart and
Tudor courts.
In October, The Byrd
Ensemble traveled from Seattle to New York to present a
program that included selections from the ensemble’s
world premiere recording, Our
Lady: Music from the Peterhouse
Partbooks, at the Church of St.
Mary the Virgin.
House Museum in Suffolk,
and at other venues in England. The ensemble’s 20112012 season also includes
concerts in New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ontario,
South Carolina, Georgia, and
Tennessee.
Celebrating
Anniversaries
Tempesta di Mare, the
Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra, will celebrate a decade of
music making with a dozen
concerts this season in Center
City and Chestnut Hill, PA. In
Ensemble Chaconne
October, the group kicked
(Peter H. Bloom, Baroque
things off with “Tempesta
flute; Carol Lewis, viola da
Turns 10,” performing Vivalgamba; Olav Chris Henriksen, di’s Concerto for Four Violins
Baroque lute and English gui- on the 300th anniversary of
tar) performed at the Nation- its publication, a birthday
al Gallery of Canada in
symphony by Boyce, a ballet
Ottawa in October. Its prosuite from Rameau’s Celebragram featured music from
tions of Polyhymnia, and a fesThomas Gainsborough’s cir- tive overture by Fasch in its
cle (works by Abel, Giardini,
modern premiere.
Straube, J.C. Bach, Fischer,
In November, Ensemble
Caprice (Matthias Maute,
and Ignatius Sancho, whose
portrait is part of the Nation- artistic director) is to perform
“The Witch and the Queen
al Gallery’s collection). In
May, Ensemble Chaconne will of the Night” at the Montreal
repeat the Gainsborough con- Museum of Fine Arts Bourgie
cert at the National Gallery in Concert Hall. The voice of
Aline Kutan is to serve two
London, at Gainsborough’s
masters, the power of light
and the power of darkness,
in works by Mozart, Handel,
and Rossini. Ensemble
Caprice is celebrating its
tenth anniversary this season;
the ensemble’s album Salsa
Baroque was recently nom inated for Album of the Year,
Classical Soloist and Small
Ensemble, at the ADISQ
(l’Association québécoise de
l’industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la video) Gala
2011.
Washington, D.C.-based
Armonia Nova began its 10th
anniversary season in September, traveling to Chattanooga,
Ensemble Chaconne
TN, as guest ensemble on St.
Paul’s Episcopal Church
San Francisco
Renaissance Voices
Todd Jolly, Music Director
Renaissance Myth & Legend
Season 2011-12
The deities of Greece & Rome re-emerged during the Renaissance
but not as part of any religion … they were reanimated in the arts.
Enjoy our season of music for gods, goddesses & epic heroes!
The BOAR’S HEAD FESTIVAL
Our annual celebration to end the holiday season
this year includes more audience sing-a-long
January 7 & 8, 2012
PERIOD DANCE WORKSHOP
We are delighted to host the internationally-renowned
period dance scholar, performer & teacher, Philippa Waite
for a period dance workshop, lecture & demonstration
March 17, 2012
The LEGEND of HERCULES
Featuring Josquin’s “Missa Hercules dux Ferrariae”
& other Herculean music by Vivaldi, Handel & Caccini
March 18, 24 & 25, 2012
GODDESSES, GODDESSES, GODDESSES !!!
Our OPERA EARLY & ANCIENT series features
Thomas Arnes’ “Judgment of Paris”
August 11, 12, 18 & 19, 2012
Visit our website for details:
www.SFRV.org
“Best Classical Music 2010” – SFWeekly
Early Music America Winter 2011
7
A true mezzo soprano The New York Times
Hildegard of Bingen is reborn as mezzo Linn Maxwell
The Times of London
Hildegard of Bingen
and the Living Light
One-woman play with music
Written and Performed by
Linn Maxwell
Directed and Designed by
Erv Raible
In this one-woman play,
international mezzo soprano Linn Maxwell
embodies the extraordinary life of 12th century
German prophetess, healer, and composer,
Hildegard of Bingen. Way ahead of her time
and in a male-dominated world, Hildegard
challenged the established authority of the Church,
both philosophically and musically. Accompanying
herself on authentic medieval instruments including
psaltery, organistrum and harp, Linn performs
seven of Hildegard’s original songs, and through the
mystic’s actual letters and writings transports us to
the turbulent times of the Crusades in Western
Europe. Hildegard’s timeless universal message of
spiritual truth, holistic healing and caring for the
earth is more urgent today than ever.
For bookings, please visit
www.hildegardofbingen.net
Enter discount code: EMA
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Winter 2011 Early Music America
SOUNDbytes
Artist Series. Jacqueline
Horner-Kwiatek, mezzosoprano, Craig Resta, vielle,
Jay White, countertenor, and
Constance Whiteside, director
and harp, conducted instrumental and vocal workshops
on French Medieval performance practice and improvisation. Their concert “When
Love Was Art: Passionate
Music from the Age of Chi valry,” explored concepts of
secular love during the 12th
to 15th centuries.
In Mulieribus (Portland,
OR) celebrated its fifth anniversary with “Non Tacete:
Be Not Silent! Giving Voice
to Women Composers,” a
program of music spanning
the last millennium, including
works by Kassia, Hildegard,
Boulanger, Karen P. Thomas,
Joan Szymko, as well as the
world premiere of “The
Change of Color Is…” by
Kay Rhie.
Fresh from a celebration
of 10 years in residence at
Second Presbyterian Church
in New York, Empire Viols’
October program, “Rhine
Journey: German Music for
the Viols and Harpsichord,”
explored the Rhine and the
haunting music of German
composers before J.S. Bach.
countertenor Daniel Taylor,
performed “Arias and Love
Duets,” selections from Rinal do, Tolomeo, Cesare, and Rodelinda.
In September, New York’s
joined The Stephen Wise Free
Synagogue in recalling an era
of unprecedented civic harmony among the three Abrahamic faiths in pre-Expulsion
Spain. “The Ornament of the
World” featured Ensemble
Lipzodes with guest soloist
countertenor José Lemos in a
concert of music sung in
Hebrew, Castilian, and Arabic.
The performance, inspired by
the best-selling book The
Ornament of the World: How
Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in preExpulsion Spain, by Yale University Sterling Professor of
Humanities Maria Rosa
Menocal, included a preconcert lecture.
Salon/Sanctuary Concerts
Gotham Early Music
Scene’s annual showcase con-
certs are designed to introduce new audiences to early
music. This year’s edition,
the fifth, presented eight
New York City ensembles –
Parthenia, Lionheart, Sinfonia Players, Listening to History, REBEL, TENET, Alba Consort, and ARTEK – in three venues during late September and
Presenter News
early October: St. Ignatius of
Milwaukee’s Early Music
Antioch Church, the Abigail
Now celebrated the 25th
Adams Smith Auditorium,
anniversary of its founding on and the Jerome L. Greene
the actual date of that begin- Performance Space at
ning in 1986 (November 19)
WNYC.
Music at Morris-Jumel, an
with a concert featuring music
early music series in Morrisnew to its programming and
Jumel Mansion, Manhattan’s
with artists who are new to
oldest house, began its 12th
Milwaukee. The Chamber
season with two fall concerts:
Orchestra of the Theatre of
a program of French music
Early Music from Toronto,
with Brooklyn Baroque to
along with British soprano
Deborah York and Canadian celebrate the release of the
ensemble’s new Boismortier
CD and the annual holiday
concert, with guest performers Jonathan Woody, bassbaritone, and Gregory By num, recorder. Spring concerts will include a recital of
English lute songs by WellTuned Words (Amanda Sidebottom, soprano, and Erik
Ryding, lute) and a solo harpsichord recital by series codirector Rebecca Pechefsky.
2012 concert season. The
program highlighted some of
the first composers to integrate French and Italian
styles. In October, the Toronto Consort, the Canadian
Renaissance ensemble, performed “The Da Vinci
Codex” as part of the Seattle
series.
Concerts of Note
The American Baroque
Orchestra, under the direcMusic Before 1800
launched an addition to its
tion of Mark Bailey, inauguregular series: Music Before
rated its second season with a
1800 Hell’s Kitchen will feaconcert of 17th-century
ture three March concerts at
music led by Baroque violinist
the ultramodern DiMenna
Jaap Schröder. The October
Center. The theme of this
program took place in New
year’s series is “ImprovisaHaven and featured works by
tion,” and programs include
Rosenmüller, Schmelzer,
soprano Anne Azéma and
Johann Bernard Bach, and
vielleist Shira Kammen perothers. In November, Bailey
forming 13th-century love
led an early version (1742) of
songs from France; Kiya and Handel’s Messiah, reconstructZiya Tabassian, on setar and
ed entirely from Handel’s
percussion, mixing Medieval
original handwritten manuand modern Mediterranean
script and conductor’s score.
Helios Early Opera has
and European music; and
Paul Leenhouts, recorder, and announced its inaugural seaGabriel Shuford, harpsichord, son in the Boston area. The
embellishing Spanish and Ital- first full production, Char pentier’s David et Jonathas, will
ian music from the 16th and
open in January at the First
17th centuries.
Church Congregational in
The Seattle Baroque
Orchestra performed “La
Cambridge. Founding dirPaix du Parnasse: The Italian ectors are Dylan Sauerwald
French Connection” to open and Zoe Weiss.
the Early Music Guild’s 2011In September, Ars Lyrica
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Gregorian Chant Remix Competition
This past June, New York Polyphony
joined forces with Indaba Music to host
Devices & Desires, an online Gregorian chant
remix competition. NYP made available three of
the genre’s “greatest hits” (“Victimae paschali
laudes,” “Gaudeamus in omnes Domino,” and
“Beati mundo corde”) recorded exclusively for the
competition. Over 200 entries were received, and
the winner, chosen by the NYP singers, was
Detroit’s David Minnick for his “VPL Cubist Remix
(it may be heard at www.indabamusic.com/opportunities/victimaepaschali-laudes-remix-opportunity). Minnick said, “I used no sound
sources other than New York Polyphony’s vocals to make this. I kept the
chant melody intact and went crazy with editing, filters, and effects. I
used very short segments of the vocals to make drums, bass, and other
sounds. This was more fun than anyone should be allowed to have!”
Minnick received $500 for his creation, and it was included on Devices &
Desires, a nine-track, digital-only release from Sony’s www.Ariama.com.
Early Music America Winter 2011
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Houston, under the direction
of Matthew Dirst, performed
“Paradise Found” in Bryan
and Houston, TX, and in
Alexandria, LA. The FrenchItalian soprano Céline Ricci
joined them on a journey
comparable to Milton’s mas-
terpiece, traveling from a
Scarlatti cantata through
Metastasio’s libretto for
“Pur nel sonno,” pieces by
Rameau, and Couperin’s “La
Sultane” before arriving at
Handel’s “Gloria.”
In October, Artists’ Vocal
Ensemble (AVE) began its
eighth season with “Wise and
Foolish Virgins,” a set of concerts in San Francisco, Oakland, Napa, Palo Alto, and
Davis, CA. The program
included the U.S. premiere of
a recently discovered Spanish
Renaissance mass by Alonso
Lobo as well as selections
from Praetorius, Guerrero,
Palestrina, Josquin, Hugo
Nobody Said You Had to Listen
Nobody meant any harm,
Years ago, I was invited to bring
several student ensembles to the and we actually played some
period music—mostly from the
Medieval fair at the Ringling
15th and 16th centuries, not
Museum in Sarasota. There is
really the Middle Ages (although
still such a fair in Sarasota, now
held at the fairgrounds (“Live the the Middle Ages, if you go to
majesty and madness of knights, the huge Medieval conference
at Kalamazoo, seems to stretch
jesters, minstrels, belly dancers,
well into the
wenches, and
“Live the majesty 17th century…).
sword swingers!”)
And such events are and madness of Although we did
held in many other
knights, jesters, play concerts in the
places, too; the
minstrels, belly charming little
Baroque Asolo
Renaissance fair
dancers, wenches, Theater on the
industry is now
and sword
grounds, mostly we
well-developed:
swingers!”
were regarded as
there is even a
curiosities; not
magazine that covmuch attention was paid to
ers Renaissance fairs along
us as musicians. We were not
with other period reenactors
(www.renaissancemagazine.com). used to being ignored, and we
weren’t ignored, exactly, but we
In Sarasota, we performed
concerts, played fanfares for the were apparently more interesting to see than to hear, given
human chess match, marched
that people were content to
around with shawms, and genpoint and talk while we played.
erally had a good time. People
gnawed on turkey legs and oth- The trumpet fanfares usually
got people’s attention, but as
er obviously Medieval fare.
Before the fair opened, we were for the rest….
In one sense we were comgiven a sheet of instructions as
pletely authentic. We were
to how to address the cusattired as servants, playing music
tomers—various Elizabethansounding things to contribute to much of which was originally
the atmosphere. It was all rather intended to entertain, if not edify, the masters of those who
fun, but one of my colleagues
composed it. Nobody said the
said he couldn’t take any more
masters had to listen; only that
when an electric cart came up
behind him, disguised as, I dun- the musicians had to play. I like
no, a haystack with burlap on it, to think, however, that the music
we made contributed to the
and the driver, to get his attenenjoyment of those whom
tion, shouted, “Beepeth!”
10
Winter 2011 Early Music America
EARLY MUSIC
MUSINGS
by
Thomas Forrest Kelly
we were serving.
It is good to know that
Medieval fairs, madrigal dinners,
and other sorts of period-style
entertainments continue to
employ performers on early
instruments—and dancers, perhaps, and singers—to give an
auditory flavor to the attempt to
go back in time. I wonder
whether the musicians involved
make an effort to place themselves somehow in an imaginary
sound world that actually might
contribute to the atmosphere.
Hokey as this activity is, it serves
as a source of income and experience for musicians and a harmless and useful exposure of the
public to music that, over the
course of a day or two, might
actually begin to sound familiar
and even likeable.

Thomas Forrest Kelly is a
professor of music at Harvard
University and a board member
and past president of Early
Music America.
Distler, and Peter Hallock.
For the first concert of its
2011-12 season, Boston’s Blue
Heron welcomed England’s
Ensemble Plus Ultra, making
its U.S. debut, to share the
stage at St. Ignatius of Antioch Church in New York City
for a program of Renaissance
English and Spanish music.
Ensemble Plus Ultra sang
music by Victoria and other
Spanish composers; Blue
Heron performed a grand
“Salve Regina” by Richard
Pygott from the Peterhouse
Partbooks (c.1540). The two
groups joined forces for
music by John Browne from
the Eton Choirbook (c.1500)
and polychoral works by
Victoria and others.
This fall, the Four Nations
Ensemble presented a monthly series of Hudson River
Harvest Concerts at new
homes in the Hudson Valley.
The series included “Nature’s
Voice,” a program focused on
Baroque woodwinds, in Hillsdale, NY; “Criminal Intent,”
music of composers who
were incarcerated or murdered in Germantown, NY;
and “Fifty/50,” music of
C.P.E. Bach, Mondonville,
Benda, and Biber in
Hudson, NY.
The third season of Cleveland’s Les Délices opened in
November with “Age of Indulgence,” a program featuring two quartets by FrançoisAndré Philidor (the chess
master), a quartet by JeanJoseph Cassanea de Mon donville, excerpts from a Simphonie de Concert by Antoine
Dauvergne, and the Troisième
Concert from Rameau’s Pièces
de Clavecin en concert.
Musica Nuova performed
“The Lute in Love” at the
Cornelia Street Café in
November. Founded in 2008
in Boston, this was Musica
Nuova’s first concert in New
Musica Pacifica
11.12
Toronto
Concert Season
Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir
Jeanne Lamon, Music Director
Ivars Taurins, Director, Chamber Choir
Season highlights include:
York since moving operations
there this year. The program
included works by Thomas
Campion, John Eccles, and
Heinrich Albert as well as
hauntingly beautiful songs by
Hans Neusidler, a likely New
York premiere.
Musica Pacifica performed
at San Francisco’s Palace of
the Legion of Honor on September 11, offering a program of 17th-century Dutch
and Flemish music in conjunction with the Legion’s
exhibit “Dutch and Flemish
Masterworks from the van
Otterloo Collection.” The
musical program included
rarely heard works by Jacob
van Eyck, Nicolao a Kempis,
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck,
Philippus van Wichel, Carolus
Hacquart, Tarquinio Merula,
Johann Jakob Walther, and
the Johannes Schenk Chaconne in G Major for viol and
continuo, performed by the
new member of the ensemble, violist da gamba Shirley
Hunt.
At its annual fall concert,
hosted by New York’s Church
of Saint Luke in the Fields,
My Lord Chamberlain’s Consort presented “Songs for a
Cynical Age,” which featured
John Maynard’s unique 1611
collection XII Wonders of the
World.
In October, Baroque violinist Leah Gale Nelson performed selections from Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber’s
Rosary Sonatas with Daniel
Swenberg, theorbo, and
Dongsok Shin, organ, in
New York City.
Two countertenors, Terry
Barber and Chris Conley, and
Baroque oboist Marianne
Pfau, joined New Trinity
Baroque for “The Art of the
Countertenor,” a November
concert in Atlanta that included Purcell’s “Sound the
Trumpet,” oboe sonatas by
Handel and Vivaldi, Telemann’s cantatas from his
“Harmonischer Gottes dienst,” and arias from
Bach’s cantatas.
The New York Baroque
Dance Company performed a
short suite of dances for the
opening ceremonies of an
evening sponsored by The
French Heritage Society
(FHS) in honor of The Royal
Families of Fontainebleau.
The event, FHS’s fourth an nual gala dinner dance, was
held at the Metropolitan Club
in New York City in November
Beethoven Eroica Symphony
Handel Hercules
Choral Anniversary with the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir
Handel Messiah and Tafelmusik’s
lively Sing-Along Messiah
and Fabulous Guest Artists including Rachel Podger, violin,
Marion Verbruggen, recorder and Alfredo Bernardini, oboe
Tafelmusik in Australia and New Zealand – March 2012
Season Presenting Sponsor
More info at tafelmusik.org
think beyond the score
HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE
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Baroque Violin, Baroque Dance
Peter Bennett
French Baroque Music,
Organ & Harpsichord
Francesca Brittan
19th-century Music, Fortepiano
Ross W. Duffin
Historical Performance Practices
Debra Nagy
Historical Double Reeds & Collegium
David Rothenberg
Medieval & Renaissance Music
2010-2011 Kulas
Visiting Artists
Ellen Hargis,
Rob Naim,
Catharina Meints,
and René Schiffer
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Early Music America Winter 2011
11
‘Tis the Season: A Sampling of Concert Series in 2011-12
Presenting Organizations
Baroque & Beyond (Chapel Hill, NC): artistic director Beverly Biggs
presents Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock with Jimmy Gilmore and
Florence Peacock; “Goddess in the Grove” with guests Florence Peacock, Alicia Chapman, and gambist Gail Schroder; and “Gulliver &
Gusto” with violinists Andrew Bonner and Leah Peroutka.
Houston Early Music (TX): season includes a Christmas program
by the Dufay Collective, Richard Egarr playing repertoire from the
harpsichord’s golden century, La Morra on the Hispanic Heritage
Series, and Trio Settecento performing “The Scottish Play—Scottish
Music of the Baroque Era.”
The Miami Bach Society (Coral Gables, FL): Jordi Savall and son
Ferran celebrate Spanish History Month; Donald Oglesby, the University of Miami Collegium Musicum, Frost Chamber Singers, and Bach
Society Chamber Orchestra perform Messe de Requiem and Bach
Cantata 131, “Aus Der Tiefen”; Tropical Baroque Music Festival XIII
with Anonymous Four, Hesperion XXI, and Lautten Compagney;
Frost School of Music’s Collegium Musicum and Chorale feature
the modern world premiere of the Laland Pange Lingua; South
Florida’s own Arcanum with a program of music from Bach’s Anna
Magdalena Notebook.
Miller Theatre (New York, NY): Early Music Series features The Tallis
Scholars with “Songs of Mary: A Christmas Celebration”; New York
Polyphony in “A Renaissance Valentine”; France’s Le Poème Harmonique performing Tenebrae for Holy Week; and Stile Antico
offering “Treasures of the Renaissance.” The Bach Series includes
a performance by the Baroque ensemble Repast.
San Diego Early Music Society (CA): On the international series:
Masques performs “From Biber to Bach”; the Dufay Collective celebrates the holidays with “To Drive the Cold Winter Away”; Dame
Emma Kirby, countertenor Daniel Taylor, and Musica Angelica perform a program of Handel and Bach; Ensemble Amarcord performs
“Music from the St. Thomas Boys Choir Library: From the Middle
Ages to Schutz”; La Reveuse will be joined by Jeffrey Thompson for
courtly songs by Lambert and Charpentier; Quatuor Mosaiques
returns with a program including Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart.
SDEMS recital series will host cellist Tanya Tomkins playing Bach cello
suites and Marcia Hadjimarkos in “The Fortepiano at the Time of
Louis XVI.”
Ensembles
Bach Sinfonia (Silver Spring, MD): 17th season includes “You
Decide: Bach’s Audition at Leipzig”; “Suoni Belli: Instrumental Wonders of the Italian Baroque”; and an annual chamber program.
Baroque Band (Chicago): “Adventures Through the Looking Glass”
takes its audience on a magical Baroque journey down the rabbit
hole in a series of performances featuring soprano Emma Kirkby and
conductor Harry Bicket and concerts of music by Vivaldi, Porpora,
Handel, Telemann, and REBEL.
Cappella Clausura (Newtonville, MA): Vittoria Aleotti’s Ghirlanda
de Madrigali a Quatro Voci, “Gloria, A Renaissance Christmas Pageant” for grown-ups and school-age children, and more in a season
of surprising and unheard works by women composers.
Cappella Romana (Portland, OR): 10th-anniversary season comprised of “Mt. Sinai: Frontier of Byzantium,” performed in Oregon
and on the East Coast; All Night Vigil by Rachmaninoff; and “Be
Radiant O Peoples,” the Easter Canon of St. John of Damascus.
12
Winter 2011 Early Music America
Chatham Baroque (Pittsburgh, PA): Programs include “Friendly
Rivals,” “Wintry Mix,” “Lawes of Attraction,” and “La Suave Melodia.” In the Peanut Butter & Jam Sessions for preschoolers and their
accompanying adults: “The Tortoise and the Hare,” “Goldilute and
the Three Viols,” “The Heavenly Harp,” and others.
Les Délices (Cleveland, OH): season includes “The Age of Indulgence,” “Caracteres de la danse,” and “Games and Diversions.” The
ensemble will also present concerts in New York, Ann Arbor, MI, and
Columbus, OH.
Early Music New York (NY): “Burgundian Renaissance: Sacred &
Salacious Polyphony,” “Cathedral Christmas: Medieval and Baroque
Treasury,” “Musical Geography: Baroque Suites and Concerti,”
“Musical Geography II: Classical Sinfonias & Nocturnes.” Also two
international debut concerts featuring harpsichordist Bertrand Cuiller
and Renaissance ensemble Anthonello.
New Orleans Musica da Camera (LA): 46th season includes
“A Distant Mirror: Music of the 14th Century,” “Natus Est: A Christmas Celebration,” and “Praise to the Nightingale: Early Motets and
Polyphony.”
NYS Baroque (Ithaca, NY): “Double Bach,” with the Concerto for
Two Violins in D Minor paired with the C Major Ouverture; “Dolce
Maria,” music devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary; “Songs of Love
and War.”
Opera Lafayette (Washington, DC): 17th season features the
modern world premiere of Le Roi et le fermier by composer PierreAlexandre Monsigny and librettist Michel-Jean Sedaine performed in
New York and Washington, DC, before it heads to France and the
Palace of Versailles to become the first American ensemble to stage a
French opera in the Palace. The season also includes a chamber concert of 17th- and 18th-century music from France and Italy and
concludes with Paisiello’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
Piffaro (Philadelphia, PA): events and concert performances include
a four-concert series, “Spanish Pipers in the New World,” the holiday
program “Coming Together in Light,” “Epiphany Vespers: The New
Renaissance,” and “Musical Sojourns in El Nuevo.”
Polyhymnia (NY): plans to perform three programs this season:
“My Soul Doth Magnify,” “A Feast in Bavaria,” and “Byrd in Flight.”
The Rose Ensemble (Saint Paul, MN): “Land of Three Faiths,”
“Il Poverello: Medieval and Renaissance Music for Saint Francis of
Assisi,” “Songs of Temperance and Temptation,” “Slavic Wonders,”
“Gothic Grandeur,” and “Spain in the New World.”
Sarasa (Cambridge, MA): back from a one-year sabbatical, Sarasa
and Les Sirenes perform cantatas and arias for two sopranos and
sonatas for two violins; Boccherini and Haydn quartets with Elizabeth
Blumenstock; and fortepiano trios with Maggie Cole.
Voices of Music (San Francisco, CA): “Fairest Isle: Music of Henry
Purcell” with tenor Thomas Cooley, “The Art of the Baroque Violin”
with violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock, and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater
with soprano Dominique Labelle and mezzo-soprano Meg Bragle.
Also on the calendar: “An Evening with the Stars,” a free concert featuring musicians from Voices of Music’s Young Artists competition.
Boon Early Music Feival
Paul O’Dette & Stephen Stubbs, Artistic Directors
Upcoming Concerts
Stile Antico
Sat, December 17, 2011 at 8pm
St. Paul Church, Cambridge, MA
Tragicomedia
Sat, January 28, 2012 at 8pm
The Washington Early Music Festival held a “mini-festival”
weekend of events in Washington D.C., on July 9-10, which included
“Passione,” a Gala concert with special guest Robert Aubry Davis and
featuring early music ensembles Arco Voce, Armonia Nova, Carmina,
Duo Hollinshead/Chancey, Ensemble Gaudior, Harmonious Blacksmith, Modern Musick, The Suspicious Cheese Lords, and The Vivaldi
Project performing their favorite passionate music. WEMF also
presented a Viol Petting Zoo and an art tour created for the Festival
by David Gariff, senior lecturer at the National Gallery of Art.
First Church in Cambridge, Congregational
under the high patronage of
His Excellency François
Delattre, Ambassador of
France to the U.S., Ambassador Gérard Araud, Permanent
Representative of France to
the United Nations, and Mr.
Philippe Lalliot, Consul General of France in New York.
Opera Lafayette opened
its 17th season with two
concerts in October at the
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater and at Weill Recital Hall
at Carnegie Hall. Tenor JeanPaul Fouchécourt and soprano Gaële Le Roi joined artistic director Ryan Brown and
First Church in Cambridge, Congregational
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principal players from the
Opera Lafayette Orchestra
for “Duetto/Duo,” an evening of 17th-century French
and Italian works, featuring
selections by Lully, Lambert,
Charpentier, Vittori, Melani,
Cavalli, and Monteverdi.
In November, Polyhymnia
performed “My Soul Doth
Magnify, 200 years of the
Canticle of Our Lady,” a program entirely devoted to the
Magnificat, beginning with
one the earliest surviving
settings by Guillaume Dufay,
followed by examples from
the Renaissance and early
Baroque, including Latin,
English, and German settings
by Robert Fayrfax, Cristobál
de Morales, Nicolas Gombert, Robert Parsons, Juan
de Lienas, Orlando di Lasso,
and Heinrich Schütz.
Sonoma Bach opened
its season with “Lachrimae
Antiquae,” a virtual pops
concert of 16th-century hits
that featured countertenor
Christopher Fritzsche and
Sonoma Bach’s Live Oak
Baroque Orchestra, co-directed by Elizabeth Blumenstock
Europa Galante
Sun, February 5, 2012 at 4pm
Sanders Theatre, Cambridge, MA
Richard Egarr, harpsichord
Fri, February 10, 2012 at 8pm
Plus concerts by Sequentia, The Tallis Scholars, and The Flanders Recorder Quartet.
Order today at WWW.BEMF.ORG or 617-661-1812
Early Music America Winter 2011
13
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FACULTY
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14
Winter 2011 Early Music America
www.yale.edu/ism
SOUNDbytes
and Mary Springfels, playing
well-known music by Dowland, Simpson, Schein, and
others. The November concerts took place in Rohnert
Park and Windsor, CA.
Tafelmusik Baroque
Orchestra brought the music
of the Baroque courts of
Europe to life in its season
opener in September at
Toronto’s Trinity-St. Paul’s
Center: “Music Fit for a
King,” a program featuring
repertoire from Sweden, England, France, Spain, and Russia. In November, the orchestra played a program of music
by Fasch, Bach, Lully, and
Vivaldi at Carnegie Hall’s
Zankel Hall in New York City
and in Charlottesville and
Winchester, VA.
In September, the Vermilion Quartet began “Vespers,”
an ongoing monthly evening
service of contemplation at
the First Unitarian Society in
West Newton, MA.
Holiday Concerts
In November, the Orchestra of New Spain (Dallas,
TX) performed “All-HallowsEven to Halloween,” an
examination of four Baroque
composers’ treatments of
devils, phantoms, witches, and
death. On the program, Boccherini’s eerie Symphony in D
Minor, “La casa del diavolo”
(House of the Devil); excerpts from Purcell’s Dido and
Aeneas, including the Cave of
the Sorceress scene, with
witches, spells, and incantations, and a haunting Requiem
mass by Francisco Courcelle.
In observance of Thanksgiving, the Mockingbird Early
Music Ensemble performed
“Chaconne-ucopia,” a musical
feast of chaconnes and passacaglias by Purcell, Marais,
Falconieri and others at the
Paris-Yates Chapel on the
campus of the University of
Mississippi, Oxford, MS.
On Thanksgiving weekend, Jaap ter Linden returned
to Portland with “Violoncello
– Viola da Gamba,” a program of works featuring repertoire spanning almost 100
years. Chamber Soloists of
the Portland Baroque Orchestra will join him for music
by Gabrieli, Buxtehude, Telemann, Bach, and Boccherini.
In Memoriam
Charles Collier, a long
time resident of Berkeley,
CA, passed away on September 6, just days before his
76th birthday. Collier came to
Berkeley in 1964 with his first
family to work as a visual
artist, producing acrylics,
etchings, and prints. He later
became well-known for the
Renaissance woodwind
instruments (Collier Instruments) that he fashioned in
his shop at the back of his
house – recorders, shawms,
flutes, and cornetti. When the
instrument business waned,
he reinvented himself in the
printing and recording trades.
Collier advocated for handicapped accessibility on San
Francisco transport and for
many other issues. He himself
fought lifelong adversity and
disability to live independently in his own home until his
recent illness.

Mainstream Chamber Music Workshops
Offer Outreach Opportunities for Early Music
In July, a group of viol players attending a workshop
in Southern California was involved by chance in a
remarkably successful outreach effort. Viol teacher and
performer Lisa Terry had been invited by the University
of San Diego and Fanfaire Foundation to add a viol
consort component to their Sixth Annual Summer
Chamber Music Festival, a program for children and
adults who play instruments of the modern orchestra
and piano.
The four viol players (Vera Kalmijn, Helga Kaplan,
Elizabeth Rose, and Lee Talner), all local Californians,
enjoyed daily consort classes and master lessons with
Terry. The daily lunch hour concerts and end-of-week
all-festival concert were filled with chamber music
ensembles performing everything from Bach through
Offenbach to 21st-century composers, and this year,
for the first time ever, viols playing Lawes and Purcell.
“After our first lunch hour performance early in the week, we were swarmed by festival participants who
wanted to take a close look at our viols,” said Talner, a former member of the EMA board of directors. “Several
young string players excitedly asked to try the instruments, so we quickly found a quiet corner and gave these
young people their first chance to play the viol. In short order, the eager youngsters were making pleasing musical sounds on our instruments, much to their glee and our delight.”
Talner reported that the enthusiasm of the festival participants and faculty to see viols up close and learn
more about them continued throughout the week. After each concert, the four viol players took turns answering questions and showing the instruments to those interested. At the end-of-festival party, Terry sat in the
courtyard giving one mini-lesson after another to curious musicians, both young and old.
Talner imagined that a strong viol outreach effort could be made by adding a viol consort component to
other traditional chamber music festivals across the country: “All it would take is an open and curious workshop
director and a viol professional working together.” In the case of the San Diego festival, USD professor Angela
Yeung and viol teacher Terry have had a long professional friendship that allowed a natural partnership to develop. In a future festival, they hope to offer a beginning viol class for players of traditional instruments.
“Both EMA and VdGSA offer a
variety of grants to support outreach and workshops,” said Talner.
“Innovative approaches and new
ideas are welcomed by both
organizations.”
Top, Lisa Terry gives some
viol pointers to Veronika
Diederichs. Left, Terry (center)
and her festival viol class
(from left, Elizabeth
Rose,Vera Kalmijn, Helga
Kaplan, and Lee Talner).
Early Music America Winter 2011
15