(Click on the thumbnail photos for a larger version)
|
|
| ALBA - Journey the Ancient Seas! Music of Early Spain and Beyond...
Bridging
the ancient to the present with exotic songs, compelling dances and
virtuosic improvisations, Margo Gezairlian Grib (voice, vielle), Rex
Benincasa (percussion), Haig Manoukian (oud) and Christopher
Morrongiello (lute, guitarra española) perform early Mediterranean music
on traditional instruments. ALBA evokes the haunting melodies and
dynamic rhythms of the Iberian peninsula as well as music from its
Middle-Eastern and European neighbors. Through the time of La Convivencia when Christian, Jewish and Muslim cultures flourished together to the Golden Age of Spain, ALBA makes this passionate music contemporary.
|
ARTEK - Gwendolyn Toth, Director. ARTEK has gained an international reputation performing the music of Claudio Monteverdi, starting with its landmark staging and recording of Orfeo in 1993. From 1997 to 2003 ARTEK toured with the Mark Morris Dance Group performing madrigals of Monteverdi in a dance entitled “I Don’t Want to Love”. ARTEK’s most recent CD release is Monteverdi’s Madrigals, Book 5. Now, ARTEK’s concert presentation of madrigals from Book 5 is available in a special dramatic touring program, together with eloquent readings from the early 17th-century war of words between Monteverdi and his detractors. Audiences love ARTEK concerts for their exciting, dramatic performances of baroque music, with compelling musical settings of beautiful poetry and infectious dance rhythms that infuse the performances with vitality and spirit. Founded by director Gwendolyn Toth in 1986, ARTEK currently consists of 14 core performers: Laura Heimes, soprano; Barbara Hollinshead, mezzo-soprano; Ryland Angel, countertenor; Philip Anderson, tenor; Michael Brown, tenor; Peter Becker, bass-baritone; Cynthia Freivogel, violin; Vita Wallace, violin; Motomi Igarashi, viola da gamba & lirone; Daniel Swenberg, theorbo; Charles Weaver, lute and guitar; Grant Herreid, lute; Christa Patton, harp; and Gwendolyn Toth, harpsichord and organ.
|
|
|
| Asteria - Sylvia Rhyne, soprano and Eric Redlinger, tenor and lute. Winner of the 2004 Early Music America Competition for Medieval and Renaissance Performance, the New York Times has called their music "intimate and deeply communicative... meltingly beautiful." Asteria is known for its compelling and personal delivery of 15th century vocal and instrumental music from the courts of Burgundy, performed entirely from memory. Since winning the competition Sylvia and Eric have had a busy touring schedule in the US and have appeared in Mexico, France, Germany and Switzerland. They have released two CDs ('Le Souvenir de vous me tue' and 'Soyes Loyal') and are currently recording a third ('Un très doulx regard') . Two short videos on their website were filmed on-location in the only extant Burgundian chateau, Germolles.
|
East of the River - Recorder virtuosi Daphna Mor and Nina Stern collaborate with world renowned kanun player, Tamer Pinarbasi, Yo Yo Ma¹s "Silk Road Ensemble" percussionist Shane Shanahan and guest artist Jesse Kotansky, on violin and oud, to present a program exploring Medieval music of the Mediterranean and traveling eastward through the Balkans to Armenia and the Middle East. Haunting melodies, ancient songs, and brilliant dances are arranged and interpreted by musicians whose musical backgrounds come from Classical and World Music. Together they create the unique blend that is East of the River.
|
|
|
| Guido's Ear - The Birth of the Baroque: Treasures from 17th Century Italy
Young
Australian-born baroque violin virtuoso Aaron Brown leads this dynamic
quartet with Dongmyung Ahn, baroque violin, Grant Herreid, baroque lute
and guitar, theorbo, and voice and Gabriel Shuford, harpsichord in an
engaging program which takes the audience on a journey from rowdy
Renaissance dance and song to the dazzlingly sprezzatura sonatas and sublime melodies of the Baroque.
|
Listening to History - Galileo's Muse
This engaging
quintet, led by Benjamin Wolff on baroque cello with two violins and two
lutes, presents a compelling program exploring the delightful and
surprising relationship between Galileo and the music of late
Renaissance Italy. Wolff tells the story of how Galileo's love of music
and his experience as a lutenist held the key to one of his most
important scientific accomplishments, the Law of Falling Bodies.
Includes rarely performed lute music by Galileo's father and brother,
spiraling 17th century Italian dances and sonatas, and a live
re-enactment of Galileo's experiment of the inclined plane.
|
|
|
| The New York Baroque Dance Company and Concert Royal - Pleasures of the Dance
Catherine
Turocy's dance company of five is accompanied by Concert Royal (James
Richman on harpsichord, Sandra Miller on Baroque flute, Cynthia Roberts
on Baroque violin and Brent Wissick on viola da gamba). This program is
a concert of dance and music from early 18th century Europe. Designed
to reach a broad audience, the program features dances of the stage, the
ballroom and the commedia dell'arte interspersed with the finest
instrumental chamber music. Fully costumed dancers, period instruments
and award winning artists of these two companies create an entertainment
of passion and beauty from the Baroque era.
|
New York Consort of Viols - Judith Davidoff, bass viol, Webster Williams, bass viol, Marie Dalby, treble viol and Lawrence Lipnik, tenor viol and voice. Since its founding in 1972, The New York Consort of Viols has championed the beauty and breadth of music written expressly for the viol. Their touring program, The Road from Valencia with guest narrator John Genke, follows the path of Sephardic musicians who, expelled from Spain in 1492, fled to Italy before being recruited for the English court.
|
|
|
| Parthenia: A Consort of Viols – Beverly Au, Lawrence Lipnik, Rosamund Morley, and Lisa Terry. Parthenia has been hailed by the New Yorker as "one of the brightest lights in New York's early-music scene". This dynamic ensemble explores the extraordinary repertory for viols of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centures from Tudor England to the court of Versailles and beyond. Parthenia has released two full CDs and a Sampler CD. Their newest touring program, When Music and Sweet Poetry Agree includes Paul Hecht, actor and Jacqueline Horner, soprano.
|
Pomerium - Alexander Blachly, Director. Inspired by the renowned chapel choirs of the Renaissance, Pomerium revives the golden age of a cappella singing. The ensemble, featuring some of the finest singers in the country and acclaimed for its luminous sound, performs frequently in New York—at such venues as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters, the Pierpont Morgan Library, the Frick Collection, and Music Before 1800—as well as across the USA and abroad. The New York Times noted that Pomerium is "the standard by which early music vocal groups are measured." The group of 12-14 singers is available for a variety of programs including Renaissance mannerism, the Vatican chapel, Josquin, and others. Distinguished scholar/conductor Alexander Blachly is also available for entertaining and enriching lectures before or after concerts.
|
|
Repast Baroque Ensemble - Amelia Roosevelt, baroque violin - Avi Stein, harpsichord - John Mark Rosendaal, viola da gamba and baroque 'cello. A collaboration of three period-instrument virtuosi, Repast presents vivid renditions of music of the baroque era. Each member of Repast has an active career in historical performance, and together they bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the trio’s programs. Repast enjoys frequent and fruitful collaborations with leading period instrument players and vocalists in order to explore the vast and varied repertoire of the baroque era. The group’s name, meaning a meal or a feast, is a double-entendre: out of the revival of past music comes a delectable, spiritually nourishing experience.
|
|
|
| Sinfonia New York - A new period-instrument orchestra organized by two of the country’s most respected instrumentalists to promote superior music-making in a collaborative environment, Sinfonia New York made its debut at New York’s Town Hall on October 1, 2007. Under the direction of renowned conductor and soloist John Scott (Music Director of St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue), the orchestra, ranging in size from 15 to 35 members, performs repertoire from the baroque to classical periods.
|
Trefoil - Drew Minter, countertenor/harp - Mark Rimple, countertenor/lute - Marcia Young, soprano/harp. Trefoil is a trio of singer-instrumentalists long active in early music, with experience in such ensembles as Concert Royal, Les Arts Florissants, New York's Ensemble for Early Music, Pomerium, Clarion Music society, Piffaro, My Lord Chamberlain's Consort, and other groups. The trio debuted in New York and Philadelphia early in 2000 with a program of 14th-century French ars subtilior song: Trefoil has recorded two CDs and offers five touring programs.
|
|
|
| The Western Wind - Sopranos Michele Kennedy and Linda Lee Jones, tenors Todd Frizzell and David
Vanderwal, baritone Elliot Z. Levine, and countertenor William Zukof. The Western Wind presents the special beauty and variety of a cappella--performing Medieval, Renaissance, Early American, Baroque and Romantic music as well as new works by contemporary composers, pop and jazz arrangements, and imaginative programs presenting holiday music from both Jewish and Christian traditions. The Western Wind has been acclaimed at many of the world’s finest halls--La Grand Théâtre de Genève, Teatro La Fenice, Rome Opera, Carnegie Hall, Tully Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art--and have collaborated with prestigious ensembles such as the Folger Consort, Hesperus and the St. Louis Symphony. The Western Wind has appeared on NBC's Today Show and can be heard annually on radio. Their holiday specials, which feature narrators Leonard Nimoy, Theodore Bikel, Roma Downey, Tovah Feldshuh, and Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee are distributed by Public Radio International, National Public Radio and the Public Radio Exchange.
|
|
