EarlyMusicNews.Org

“As a singer and musician, Thor Ewing works with musician Anne Marie Summers in the duo Squeake’s Noyse, performing songs and music from a wide variety of historical periods on an equally wide variety of instruments (bagpipes, hurdy gurdy, harp, lyre, bone flutes, recorder, percussion etc.).  Thor also performs with the bands Misericordia and Gaïta.  Thor also works as a historical storyteller, telling tales appropriate to a variety of eras.

Research and performance are combined to produce performance sets on specific themes, such as the life of Admiral Lord Collingwood, General Wolfe, Scandinavia in British traditional music, wisdom poetry from medieval Wales and Ireland etc.  Thor Ewing is also available to lecture on subjects associated with his research.“

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Added on: May 11, 2009 | Hits: 607

"Altus Vocare is a project that initially started as an Early Music chamber ensemble. It underwent some drastic changes early on and transitioned into a strong a capella trio. The trio had almost immediate success. The trio went on hiatus while individual members worked on solo projects.

The trio has now reformed Altus Vocare and it is back in rehearsal. The trio performs public and private concerts is now available for hire for your private or corporate event. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Jul 25, 2008 | Hits: 279

“Amor Artis is a distinctive chamber chorus and orchestra, featuring dynamically balanced programs of well-known favorites together with important works rarely heard. The ensemble has achieved considerable rcognition internationally through its many concerts and extensive discography, encompassing more than fifty recordings. One of the first and foremost presenters in New York of lesser-known Baroque masterpieces, Amor Artis has distinguished itself through authentic versions in style and setting, paving the way for performances of these works given in the U.S. today.“

Added on: Jan 22, 2011 | Hits: 341

“Angela Malek received her Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from Baylor University and her Master of Music degree in vocal performance from Indiana University. In addition to singing operatic roles in the renowned Indiana University Opera Theatre, she was the assistant to the legendary Thomas Binkley in the Early Music Institute appearing frequently as soprano soloist in the baroque operas, cantatas, oratorios and ensembles at the school. Ms. Malek attended the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland on a Rotary Scholarship from Texas, sang in baroque opera productions at the Basel Theatre and recorded for Swiss National Radio. Ms. Malek was a soloist for the Dale Warland Singers, the Ex Macchina baroque opera, the Minnesota Chorale and The Schubert Club in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. She was also a teacher at the Minnesota School for the Performing Arts and the director and founder of both the inner-city music program, Musicapolis, and the chamber opera company, Opera Millennium. Between 1999 and 2007, Ms. Malek lived in northern Germany and France performing in baroque operas and chamber music.

Since returning to the States, she has been a regular soprano soloist in San Antonio, including a recent  performance with Houston's Mercury Baroque Orchestra. This May she will appear in the Rienzi Concert Series in Houston with harpsichordist Christina Edelen. Ms. Malek is the recipient of the 2009 George Cortes Award for Classical Singing from the Artist Foundation of San Antonio.“

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Added on: Apr 18, 2010 | Hits: 731

“French soprano Anne Azéma, is one of the world's leading interpreters of early vocal music. She has been acclaimed by critics on four continents for her original, passionate, and vivid approach to songs and texts of the Middle Ages. Anne Azéma has also been widely praised in many other repertoires, from Renaissance lute songs to Baroque sacred music to twentieth-century music theatre.

Since 1993, Anne Azéma has been not only the performer but also the creator of her recital programs. She researches and edits the repertoire, frequently transcribing the material herself from original sources. Her genuine and personal involvement with musical scholarship, combined with her performer's flair for immediacy of communication, give her recitals and recordings both a historical depth and an expressive "edge" that are unique in the field.  ..“

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Added on: May 04, 2010 | Hits: 384

“Inspired by, and dedicated to the music of William Byrd, AVIARIUM* was established in 2004 with the express purpose to revive the acapella choral tradition of the Church.   AVIARIUM is the only Southern California vocal ensemble entirely devoted to recreation of the High Anglican and Catholic musical life, from Medieval Chant to the repertoire of the Anglo-Catholic Revival.“

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Added on: Feb 18, 2012 | Hits: 182

"The CHORUS OF THE BACH COLLEGIUM SAN DIEGO was founded in early 2003 by Ruben Valenzuela with the purpose of enriching the music offerings of San Diego by presenting historically informed performances of the music of the Renaissance, Baroque, and in particular the music of J.S. Bach. The chorus consists of the finest singers in San Diego, many of whom have longstanding experience with such ensembles and performers as Chanticleer, The Waverly Consort, The Philharmonia Chorale, American Bach Soloists, James Bowman, Julianne Baird, Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra, and Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra." ...

Added on: Jan 26, 2008 | Hits: 407

“Blue Heron is a professional vocal ensemble that combines a commitment to vivid live performance with the study of original source materials and historical performance practice. Blue Heron's principal repertoire interests are fifteenth-century English and Franco-Flemish polyphony, ranging from Dunstable and Du Fay through Ockeghem to Josquin; Spanish music between about 1500 and 1575; and neglected early sixteenth-century English music, especially the rich and unexplored repertory of the Peterhouse partbooks (c. 1540). Founded in 1999, Blue Heron presents its own series of concerts in Cambridge, Massachusetts and New York City; it has appeared as part of the Boston Early Music Festival, travelled all over the Northeast, and sung at the Festival Mozaic in San Luis Obispo, California. In 2009 Blue Heron presented the opening concert of the Boston Early Music Festival Concert Series and ended the season with a performance at the Connecticut Early Music Festival. Last season the ensemble performed with Piffaro in Philadelphia, at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC, and on the Music Before 1800 series in New York City. This season they will appear at the Cloisters in New York City and on the Renaissance and Baroque series in Pittsburgh, PA. …”

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Added on: Mar 28, 2012 | Hits: 102

“The liturgical choir Cantores in Ecclesia, established in 1983, began a long and happy residence at St. Patrick's Church in June, 1985, through an arrangement with its pastor, Fr. Frank Knusel, and Bishop Paul Waldschmidt of the Archdiocese of Portland. The choir's first sung Mass at the historic NW Portland Church was the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, for which it sang William Byrd's Mass for Five...

The principal service of Cantores in Ecclesia has been and will remain the task of combining music and liturgy. At its heart will always be the ancient sung prayer of Gregorian chant, surrounded and supported by the sacred music of great masters such as Palestrina, Victoria, and Byrd. In this respect, Cantores in Ecclesia has changed very little since its inception: a choir fully dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony in liturgical context within the Latin Mass of the Catholic Church.”

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Added on: Mar 28, 2012 | Hits: 111

“Carmina, directed by Vera Kochanowsky, is an early music vocal ensemble which has been presenting performances regularly in the Washington DC area since 1998. Carmina has been praised by both the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post and was featured in the Washingtonian magazine articles "Perfect Pitch" and "Good Arts Groups You Might Not Know About." Carmina's sister organization, the women's vocal ensemble Illuminare, formed in 2006, has also established a reputation in the Washington area for tastefully persuasive interpretations of early repetoire.

To learn more about Carmina and Illuminare programs, past and future, please click on History and Upcoming Performances. Many of our programs are free or by donation. We hope to see you at a concert in the near future!”

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Added on: Mar 02, 2012 | Hits: 147

“Since its founding in 2001, Chantry has enchanted audiences throughout the Washington area with what The Washington Post has called the "unfettered joy" of its singing, the "moving" quality of its performance, and the "acute stylistic awareness," "nuance and lyricism," and "gut-level understanding of the idiom" which it brings to early music. Ionarts Music called Chantry's performance with the world-renowned Renaissance wind band Piffaro for the 2005 Washington Early Music Festival "an evening of extraordinary singing, poised, with impeccable diction and intonation, and cleansingly pure in tone from Chantry."

Chantry's 10-16 professional early music voices are dedicated to fresh, vibrant, historically informed performance of neglected masterpieces of Renaissance polyphony and music of the Baroque era. Chantry was featured in the inaugural concert of the first Washington Early Music Festival in 2004. Chantry has performed with other major early music ensembles including Modern Musick, the Orchestra of the 17th Century, and the Washington Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble, and has appeared on a number of important Washington concert series, including the Church of the Epiphany's Tuesday Noon Concert Series and the concert series of the Cosmos Club, St. Patrick's Catholic Church (DC), Saint Luke Catholic Church (McLean), and Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church (Bethesda). Most of Chantry's members maintain active professional singing careers.

The name "Chantry" comes from the old French chanterie, meaning "to sing." In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, a chantry was a chapel (often a small chapel inside a large cathedral) dedicated to the singing of masses for someone's soul, or an endowment for the singing of such masses. …”

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Added on: Sep 26, 2011 | Hits: 309

"Charites is a trio committed to the works of early women composers and poets, bringing their music to life through bold, historically-informed performances and period gesture. The members of Charites are equally entrenched in scholarship and performance and seek to blur the lines between these two arenas. Founded in 2006, Charites has performed throughout the New York area, at venues like the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, St. Bartholemew's Church, Columbia University, and the CUNY Graduate Center. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Aug 06, 2008 | Hits: 540

“Noted for her radiant, crystalline voice and superb musicianship, soprano Christine Brandes brings her committed artistry to repertoire ranging from the 17th century to newly composed works and enjoys an active career in North America and abroad, performing at many of the world’s most distinguished festivals and concert series in programs spanning from recitals and chamber music to oratorio and opera. .. “

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Added on: Feb 14, 2011 | Hits: 245

“Collegium Cantorum is a concert choir, organized in 1986, specializing in "large forms for small choirs" and drawing most of its repertory from the great masterpieces of medieval and Renaissance Europe. The Latin name, loosely translated above, was chosen to suggest a concentration on "early music"; to us, this means music composed before 1600.

Our performances, held in Washington-area churches with acoustics appropriate to medieval and Renaissance "cathedral music", are open to the public without charge, though voluntary, tax-deductible donations are solicited.  …“

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Added on: Nov 12, 2012 | Hits: 98

"Regarded for over two decades as one of the world's finest countertenors, Drew Minter grew up as a boy treble in the Washington Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys. He continued his education at Indiana University and the Musik Hochschule of Vienna. Minter has appeared in leading roles with the opera companies of Brussels, Toulouse, Boston, Washington, Santa Fe, Wolf Trap, Glimmerglass, and Nice, among others. A recognized specialist in the works of Handel, he performed frequently at the Handel festivals of Göttingen, Halle, Karlsruhe, Maryland. He has sung with many of the world's leading baroque orchestras, including Les Arts Florissants, the Handel and Haydn Society, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Freiburger Barockorchester, and as a guest at festivals such as Tanglewood, Ravinia, Regensburg, BAM's Next Wave, Edinburgh, Spoleto, and Boston Early Music; other orchestra credits include the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Minter is a founding member of the Newberry Consort and sings and plays early harps regularly with TREFOIL, My Lord Chamberlain's Consort, ARTEK, and the Folger Consort. Mr. Minter has made over 50 recordings on Harmonia Mundi, Decca/London, Newport Classics, Hungaroton and others. He appears in two films as Tolomeo in Peter Sellars's "Giulio Cesare" and as the Devil in "In the Symphony of the World; a Portrait of Hildegard of Bingen". He writes regularly for Opera News.

Drew Minter is also a lauded stage director. He began as director of the operas at the Gottingen Handel Festival for five years, directing period baroque productions. Since then he has directed productions in many styles for the Opéra de Marseilles, Caramoor, the Boston Early Music Festival, Lake George Opera, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Handel and Haydn, Boston's Opera Aperta, the Manhattan School of Music, Mannes School of Music, Boston University’s Opera Institute, Amherst Early Music, the Folger Shakespeare Theatre, the Five Colleges in Northampton, Tempesta di Mare and Cleveland's Apollo's Fire. This past year he was named artistic director of Boston Midsummer Opera, which presented its first season in August 2006.

In addition to numerous workshops in the vocal and dramatic performance of baroque music, Mr. Minter teaches voice at Vassar College, where he also directs the Vassar Opera Workshop and conducts the Vassar Madrigal Singers. He has taught since 1989 at the Amherst Early Music Institute. He sings between thirty and fifty concerts each season with a variety of early music groups. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Aug 05, 2008 | Hits: 420

“The Stanford Early Music Singers specialize in the performance of choral literature from the Medieval and Renaissance eras. EMS typically numbers 25–30 members, with smaller groups occasionally drawn from the ensemble. EMS’s repertoire for the year includes a broad range of literature from England and the Continent presented in the glorious acoustic of Memorial Church.

• To audition, contact Bill Mahrt (mahrt-AT-stanford.edu)
• Early Music Singers meets Tuesdays: 7:30–9:30 p.m.
• Community members are welcome to join at no charge, upon a successful audition.”

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Added on: Jan 16, 2012 | Hits: 191

“Singer/whistler/performer Emily Eagen is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, an alum of Macalester College and The University of Madison-Wisconsin, and a former Fulbright scholar to the Hague, the Netherlands. Emily currently lives and works in New York City. She is an active performer of early music, contemporary music, and traditional American music, as well as an avid experimenter in musical genres of all kinds.

Emily is a member of The M6, an ensemble dedicated to exploring and  performing  the works of composer Meredith Monk. She currently performs with the Hesperus Ensemble, singing Sephardic and renaissance music for a live-film performance of the 1920s horror film The Golem. Emily  has performed regularly as a soloist with the mediterranean medieval ensemble Sendebar, and was the 2008 recipient of the Barbara Thornton Memorial Scholarship for medieval music from Early Music America. She can be heard singing harmony on the recently released debut album by singer-songwriter Guillaume Goussault, and sings, whistles, and plays the ukulele with the roots/old-time/early blues band The Whistlin’ Wolves.

A two-time International Whistling Champion, Emily has been known to whistle everything from opera to jazz, and regularly leads workshops in group and solo whistling. In a 2007 Carnegie Hall workshop led by soprano Dawn Upshaw and composer Osvaldo Golijov, Emily premiered The Wane of More, a piece for voice, whistling, and chamber ensemble by composer Gyan Riley. Her whistling has been featured on numerous recordings, was used as live accompaniment to an installation by artist Tony Luensman at the Cincinnati Art Museum for Frank Duveneck’s painting “The Whistling Boy”, and was recently the whistling “voice” of e-bay.

Emily teaches private and group voice lessons in classical, early, contemporary, and traditional American folk genres. She teaches in and around New York City, as well as at various summer festivals including The Amherst Early Music Festival (CT) and The Augusta Heritage Center (WV). She teaches a monthly bluegrass/old-time/gospel harmony class at the Jalopy Theatre and School of Music in Brooklyn with singer Don Friedman, and is a teaching artist in the New York City public schools through Carnegie Hall.“

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Added on: May 04, 2010 | Hits: 440

"Grayson is a soloist and member of various ensembles, holding degrees in vocal performance, 19th Century English Literature, Painting and Printmaking. Having studied at many institutions including Indiana University, University of Montevallo, International Baroque Institute at Longy and the Vancouver Early Music Programme at the School of Music, University of British Columbia, this brilliant musician has brought her skill and expertise in her performances to audiences in the United States and Canada. Plans are currently in progress to expand to venues in Scotland in the next year.

Although extremely versatile, Grayson specialises in the German repertoire of the Romantic and Early Music periods. Grayson's tone is lovely, deep, resonant, and round, with a very low range that extends up 3 octaves. The warmth and timbre of Grayson's voice is extremely well suited for instrumental chamber music with solo voice, cantatas, oratorios, and one-on-a-part vocal ensembles. Grayson has regularly performed Bach and various other cantatas and oratorios as a soloist. ... " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Jul 25, 2008 | Hits: 280

"Harmonia Vocal Quartet performs a wide range of music, with a repertoire that ranges from Gregorian chant and early polyphony to Baroque and classical works, madrigals, and contemporary sacred and liturgical music of merit. We are perhaps best known for our performance of Renaissance works by Palestrina, Lassus, Victoria, Tallis, and Byrd.

Formed in 2002, HVQ is based in Knoxville, Tenn., and has sung in Germany, Austria, New York, North Carolina, and throughout East Tennessee. Current members are soprano Maria Rist, mezzo-soprano Mary C. Weaver, tenor Keith Murray, and (depending on their availability) baritones Kenneth Parsons and David Ensley.

The quartet is available for weddings, concerts, special occasions, and religious services in Tennessee and surrounding states. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Aug 02, 2008 | Hits: 413

“Carmina, directed by Vera Kochanowsky, is an early music vocal ensemble which has been presenting performances regularly in the Washington DC area since 1998. Carmina has been praised by both the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post and was featured in the Washingtonian magazine articles "Perfect Pitch" and "Good Arts Groups You Might Not Know About." Carmina's sister organization, the women's vocal ensemble Illuminare, formed in 2006, has also established a reputation in the Washington area for tastefully persuasive interpretations of early repetoire.

To learn more about Carmina and Illuminare programs, past and future, please click on History and Upcoming Performances. Many of our programs are free or by donation. We hope to see you at a concert in the near future!”

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Added on: Mar 02, 2012 | Hits: 179

"American countertenor Jay Carter is quickly gaining recognition as one of the nation’s finest, lauded for his luminous tone and stylish interpretations especially in the music of Bach, Bernstein, Handel, Purcell and Vivaldi. Equally at home in the modern recital repertoire, he has gained acclaim for programs of modern classics typically outside the standard countertenor repertory by composers such as Quilter, Brahms, Britten, and Hahn. Carter is a featured soloist on recordings of Bach’s Magnificat in D, Mendelssohn’s Magnificat, and Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri, all of which will be released commercially in late 2008. ... " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Sep 14, 2008 | Hits: 372

"Hailed as "a golden soprano" by the New York Times, Jolle Greenleaf has established herself as a leading specialist in repertoire from the 17th and 18th centuries. She completed her Master’s degree at the Mannes College of Music, and soon after received the coveted Beebe Fellowship to study at The Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Netherlands. Upon returning to New York, Ms. Greenleaf has built a career performing with illustrious period instrument conductors such as Martin Gester, Bernard LaBadie, Ton Koopman, Andrew Parrott, John Scott, and Jeannette Sorrell. ... " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Aug 06, 2008 | Hits: 471

“Larksong is a troupe of harmonious voices that loves the sound and performance of fine a cappella music.

We are available for hire for social events, festivals, or other get-togethers in the Baltimore/Annapolis (Maryland) area.

We have a wide repertoire of a cappella music from 16th to 20th century, sacred to secular, and love songs to holiday favorites. We will perform in Renaissance style clothing, Victorian era costumes or formal wear for your occasion.”

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Added on: Nov 12, 2012 | Hits: 223

“Lionheart is one of America's leading ensembles in vocal chamber music. Acclaimed for its "smoothly blended and impeccably balanced sound" (Allan Kozinn, The New York Times), Lionheart (Jeffrey Johnson, Lawrence Lipnik, John Olund, Richard Porterfield, Kurt-Owen Richards, and Michael Ryan-Wenger) is best known for its interpretation of medieval and Renaissance a cappella music, with Gregorian Chant as the keystone of its repertoire. The ensemble also collaborates with instrumental ensembles, dance companies, and contemporary composers, and was recently selected for inclusion on the Star Spangled Touring Roster, the first year of an initiative by Early Music America.

Lionheart has released two CDs on the Nimbus label: "My Fayre Ladye: Tudor Songs and Chant: (1997), and "Paris 1200: Chant and Polyphony from 12th Century France" (1998). The ensemble is also heard on Sony Music's CD companion to A History of Western Music, and on NPR's "Christmas Around the Country II," a collection of favorites from NPR's Performance Today. The grpup recently recorded a new CD of the music of Palestrina and his contemporaries with Koch International which is due for release in October of 2001.  On radio, Lionheart has been featured on Performance Today, on PRI's Harmonia, on WGBH, and appears regularly on WNYC. Lionheart has also received significant air play on Radio Shanghai, which broadcasts Western music to a wide audience in China.”

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Added on: Mar 28, 2012 | Hits: 136

"Mark Crayton performs on concert stages and in opera houses throughout the United States and Europe, and his extensive repertoire includes a wide variety of works. Mark Crayton created the role of the First Minstrel in The Holland Festival’s production of Peter Onnes’ opera/theatre piece Pantagruel et Gargantua. This role was specifically written for Mark Crayton. In 2003, Mark Crayton was invited by the composer Philip Glass and the Tony Award director Mary Zimmerman to sing in the world premiere performances of Glass’ opera Galileo Galilei in Chicago, New York City and London. Soon thereafter, Mr Crayton was chosen by composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb to sing the role of Louis Perch in their new musical, The Visit, starring Chita Rivera, at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre; discussions are now under way for a possible New York production as well as a production in Washington, DC. The 2006-07 season began for Mark Crayton with a New York City appearance on The Phoenix Concert Series featuring new music for two countertenors and piano, with colleagues Daniel Gundlach and James Janssen. Subsequently, Mr Crayton was heard in concert with fortepianist James Janssen for Ars Musica Chicago at the DePaul University Art Museum. Later in the season, Mr Crayton made his debut with the Seattle Opera as Tolomeo in Handel’s Giulio Cesare - the same opera in which Mark Crayton made his San Diego Opera debut in 2006. Highlights of this season’s appearances include a return to the Phillips Collection in a recital of Italian secular cantatas, a return to Raleigh/Durham to sing G F Handel’s Messiah at the Duke Chapel, a recital/masterclass at Butler University, Messiah with the Chicago Chorale, Carmina Burana with the Fargo-Morehead Symphony, Chichester Psalms with the Sheboygan Symphony, as well as masterclasses in London. ... " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Jul 31, 2008 | Hits: 493