Wednesday, July 30, 2009

CONTACT: -OR-

Gwendolyn Toth, Director Email
Gene Murrow, Executive Director Email
ARTEK Gotham Early Music Scene, Inc.
(212) 967 – 9157 (212) 866 – 0468
http://www.artekearlymusic.org

ARTEK
Gwendolyn Toth, Director

“Twenty-fifth New York Season”

ARTEK announces its 25th season of seven concerts in New York City and Princeton, New Jersey. The season features the ensemble’s debut at Bargemusic and Lincoln Center’s “What Makes it Great” with Rob Kapilow on the “Great Performers” series, and a gala 400th anniversary performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 produced in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art. Acclaimed in the United States and in Europe for their innovative yet historically informed performances of 17th-century music, ARTEK’s ensemble of voices, strings, winds, percussion, and continuo features many of today’s leading interpreters of the repertoire:

Program 1: Graveyard Music

Music & poetry celebrating death, dying and the underworld from 17th century England and Italy. Bargemusic debut!

Date: Saturday, October 31, 2009

Time: 8 pm

Location: Bargemusic, Fulton Landing, Brooklyn

Tickets: (718) 624-2083 or (718) 624-4061, or email

Note: This concert will also be performed on Friday, October 30, 2009 at 8pm at All Saints Church, Princeton, NJ.

Program 2: Monteverdi’s “Vespers of 1610”

Gala 400th anniversary performance of Monetverdi’s masterpiece, featuring an historically accurate ensemble of 30 instrumentalists and singers composed of several of America’s most celebrated early music groups— ARTEK, Piffaro (Renaissance wind band), Parthenia (viol consort), and singers from the National Gallery of Art Vocal Ensemble.

Date: Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Time: 8 pm

Location: Church of St. Ignatius Loyola
Park Avenue at 74th Street
Manhattan

Tickets: Call (212) 288-2520 or online at http://www.smssconcerts.org/tickets.php

Note: This concert will also be performed on Sunday, January 17, 2010 at 6:30 pm at The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Program 3: Venice to Vienna

Violinist Robert Mealy in a program of virtuoso baroque violin repertoire, accompanied by ARTEK's sumptuous continuo section (theorbo, lute, harp, guitar, gamba, lirone, harpsichord & organ.

Date: Sunday, March 21, 2010

Time: 4 pm

Location: Immanuel Church
122 East 88th St (corner of Lexington Avenue)
Manhattan

Tickets: Call (212) 866-0468 or online at: http://www.gemsny.org/artek2010.html

Note: This concert will also be performed on Friday, March 19, 2010 at 8 pm, All Saints Church, Princeton, NJ

Program 4: Monteverdi Madrigals

ARTEK joins master commentator, composer, conductor Rob Kapilow on his celebrated “What Makes it Great” series at Lincoln Center.

Date: Monday, May 3, 2010

Time: 7:30 pm

Location: Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th Street
Lincoln Center
Manhattan

Tickets: Call Centercharge at (212) 721-6500 or online at: http://www.lincolncenter.org/show_events_list.asp?eventcode=20329

About the ensemble:
ARTEK, directed by Gwendolyn Toth, has earned a reputation as one of America's premier ensembles performing 17th-century Italian and German music. The ensemble gained international recognition for its recording of Monteverdi's opera L'Orfeo in 1995, and toured with the Mark Morris Dance Group throughout America, the United Kingdom, and Europe from 1997 to 2002. ARTEK created a special musical theater show I'll Never See the Stars Again, with madrigals by Monteverdi and postmodern staging, for performances in New York City in 2002 and 2003 and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005, receiving high acclaim for this innovative dramatic presentation.

“What reaches the ears is the aural equivalent of a fine aged brandy: warm, smooth, and seamlessly blended.” The New York Times

Jessica Tranzillo, soprano
Barbara Hollinshead, mezzo-soprano
Biraj Birkakaty and Drew Minter, countertenors
Philip Anderson and Michael Brown, tenors
Peter Becker, baritone
Robert Mealy, violin
Lisa Terry, viola da gamba
Motomi Igarashi, violone
Christa Patton, harp
Charles Weaver, lute
Grant Herreid, lute
Daniel Swenberg, theorbo
Danny Mallon, Percussion
Dongsok Shin, harpsichord
Gwendolyn Toth, harpsichord and director

For further information or to set up an interview:
Call (212) 967 – 9157 or Email Website: http://www.artekearlymusic.org

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Media services provided by: Gotham Early Music Scene, Inc. 340 Riverside Drive # 1-A, New York, NY 10025 www.gemsny.org

GEMS is a non-profit corporation that supports and promotes the artists and organizations in New York devoted to early music — playing repertoire from the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and early Classical periods.