EarlyMusicNews.Org

"Asteria (Sylvia Rhyne, soprano, and Eric Redlinger, tenor and lute) seeks to bring a narrative quality and emotional immediacy to their late-medieval vocal and instrumental music. Their historically informed settings are based on extensive archival research into original sources in Paris, The Hague, and Basel, Switzerland. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Aug 06, 2008 | Hits: 369

"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. ARTEK features some of America's finest singers: Laura Heimes, soprano; Barbara Hollinshead, mezzo-soprano; Ryland Angel, countertenor; Philip Anderson, tenor; Michael Brown, tenor; and Peter Becker, bass-baritone. ARTEK instrumentalists include Robert Mealy, 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. …

ARTEK toured from 1997 to 2002 with the Mark Morris Dance Group, visiting major venues in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Canada, as well as more than 50 of America's premier theaters: BAM, Cal Performances in Berkeley, The Schubert Theater in Boston, McCarter Theater in Princeton, and many more from California to the Northeast.  ARTEK has appeared in Europe previously at the Regensburg Tage Alter Musik festival; at the Utrecht Fringe Festival; and in Feldkirchen, Austria; Dolni Lukavice, Czech Republic; Beaulieu, France; Konstanz, Germany; and Kreuzlingen, Switzerland.

In New York City area ARTEK has appeared on the Music Before 1800 series and on the Princeton Friends of Music series; on First Night New York at St. Bartholomew's Church; as featured performers with the Bach-Schutz Society Conference; and on the Kaye Playhouse Chamber Music Series. ARTEK presents its own series of evening concerts each season at halls and churches in New York City and Princeton, NJ.  ARTEK also performs regularly throughout the concert season on the free midday concert series, Midtown Concerts, at St. Bartholomew's Church in midtown Manhattan.  In spring 2001, director Gwendolyn Toth was awarded the Newell Jenkins Prize for excellence in early music performance in recognition of her work with ARTEK."

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Added on: Aug 20, 2007 | Hits: 412

“Art's Delight is a duo that performs popular music of the 18th century, at historic sites, re-enactments and special events of every kind. It consists of Bobbie Wayne and Dan Mozell who have been performing together for the past 24 years. Their 18th century repertoire combines dance music and airs with revolutionary songs, love ballads, drinking songs and more.“

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Added on: May 16, 2009 | Hits: 269

“ArsAntiguaPresents.com, directed by Jerry Fuller, is a series of monthly, free audio web cast programs of music from the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical eras performed on period instruments with engaging and enlightening commentary by Peter Van De Graaff. Programs focus on one composition or a few short works.“

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Added on: Jul 14, 2009 | Hits: 479

“Ars Lyrica Houston (ALH) offers audiences a broad range of music from the 17th and 18th centuries, on period instruments and with careful attention to period style and context. Ars Lyrica, which means “lyric art,“ performs on period instruments because they produce a sweeter, more intimate sound than their modern equivalents and are better suited to the performance of Baroque music especially. Founded in 1998 by harpsichordist and conductor Matthew Dirst and incorporated in 2003 as a 501(c)(3) organization, this Grammy–nominated ensemble offers a yearly series of programs at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Houston and also performs regularly at other area and national venues.

Under Dirst’s leadership, ALH “set[s] the agenda for imaginative period–instrument programming in Houston“ (according to the Houston Chronicle) with a distinctive blend of chamber, dramatic, and sacred works from the late Renaissance through the Classical era in music history. Its recordings have garnered international acclaim: Gramophone, the leading journal of the classical recording industry, praised Ars Lyrica’s debut CD for its “exemplary skill and taste,“ the ensemble’s musicians for their “impassioned performance“ of never-before recorded works by Alessandro Scarlatti; while Ars Lyrica’s latest CD, the world première recording of Johann Adolf Hasse’s Marc Antonio e Cleopatra, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Opera 2011.

ALH is proud to have represented Houston’s thriving early music community with programs at national meetings and conventions of the American Musicological Society, the American Bach Society, the American Guild of Organists, the Society for 17th–Century Music, and, this past summer, at the world–renowned Boston Early Music Festival. ALH also serves communities across Texas through frequent collaborations with other Texas–based arts organizations, including leading choral groups and early music sponsors. In addition to its concert and recording activities, ALH offers diverse educational and outreach programs, which focus on enriching the concert experience and on building new audiences.

Recent efforts in this area include two distinctive in–school programs for K–12 children in the Houston area, family concerts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, university-level workshops and collaborations, demonstrations of period instruments, performances at nontraditional venues, and lectures about upcoming programs.”

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Added on: Mar 01, 2012 | Hits: 211

"The seeds for ARS & AMICI — a 10- to 12-day travel, study and performance program in Italy for young professionals and highly talented amateur musicians — were planted in 1996 in Boston. Under the guidance of Sheila Beardslee, a well-known Boston-area teacher and performer in early music, the ARS & AMICI program has visited Rome, Florence, Orvieto, Siena, Cortona, Assisi, Bolzano, Padua and Venice. In addition to performances in churches, community centers and schools ARS & AMICI seeks to create connections between amateur musicians and rising young professionals in the U.S. and in Italy. ARS & AMICI participants frequently work with distinguished early music teachers and directors in cities which the program visits. Each year ARS & AMICI’s repertoire changes to reflect the musical creativity of the Renaissance masters from Italy and the continent over the period 1520-1620, including choral and consort music in both sacred and secular genres, as well as historical dance. " ...

Added on: Aug 17, 2007 | Hits: 415

“Armonia Nova is an ensemble of instruments and voices based in the Washington D.C. area. Its members perform medieval and Renaissance music of Europe on instruments that are re-creations of historical instruments, applying scholarship and informed historical performance practice. Members of Armonia Nova strive to achieve an historically authentic performance with the desire for the listener to hear this remote yet remarkably beautiful music as it might have sounded when it was newly created.

Armonia Nova has been frequently praised for its intelligent and creative programming. The performances of this ensemble capture the emotional content of the music, bringing an intensity and immediacy to the performance while maintaining the purity and clarity of tone so essential to music of these early periods.”

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Added on: Mar 02, 2012 | Hits: 185

“Delighting audiences around the country with their spirited performances, Armonia Celeste (ar-mo-NEE-ache-LES-tay) is an emerging ensemble specializing in rarely heard repertoire from the Italian Renaissance and early Baroque. The group is comprised of three distinct female voices accompanied by period instruments: lute, theorbo, guitar, and the rare arpa doppia (Baroque triple harp). Each of the five members of the ensemble is a highly experienced solo performer in their own right; together, the musicians create an unforgettable combination of varied vocal and instrumental colors, florid ornamentation, expressiveness, and a noticeable passion for this repertoire.

The idea for Armonia Celeste came about in 2008 when the musicians performed together at the Misiones de Chiquitos International American Renaissance and Baroque Music Festival in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Since then, the ensemble has been featured in a concert of Monteverdi’s Il settimo Libro di Madrigali with the Dallas Bach Society, performed at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth in conjunction with the museum’s exhibit, “Art and Love in Renaissance Italy,” and has offered many concerts throughout Texas and Oklahoma. At the 2009 Boston Early Music Festival, Armonia Celeste presented an extremely well-received fringe concert entitled “Love and Longing.” Early in 2010, the group appeared in, and provided music for, an educational PBS documentary presented by Early Music Television entitled “Culture Wars of Venice and the Birth of Public Opera.” Eugene Enrico, Early Music Television organizer and professor of Musicology at the Oklahoma School of Music, commented, “[The] new professional ensemble Armonia Celeste is the finest group I’ve heard performing early baroque Italian music.””

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Added on: Jan 21, 2012 | Hits: 202

“ArcoVoce is a chamber group made up of some of the East Coast’s most acclaimed performers on both modern and period instruments. ArcoVoce, whose name translates loosely from the Italian for strings and voice, may be unique in specializing in performances on both sets of instruments, as well as in including vocal chamber music as an integral part of its performances. ArcoVoce has performed in prestigious venues including Washington D.C.’s Phillips Collection and Corcoran Galleries, the German and Dutch Embassies, the Boston Early Music Festival, and Alexandria Virginia’s Lyceum. ArcoVoce’s repeated performances at the Phillips Collection have earned it status as a resident chamber ensemble of the gallery. Among the notable guest artists who have appeared with ArcoVoce are the celebrated baroque violinist Elisabeth Wallfisch, principal cellist of Musica Antique Koln Phoebe Carrai, and longtime principal clarinettist of the Cleveland Orchestra Franklin Cohen.“

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Added on: Mar 02, 2012 | Hits: 174

"The Arbor Consort is a semi-professional group of singers based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, performing both publicly and privately throughout the year. Formerly known as "Our Lady's Madrigal Singers", Arbor Consort was formed over 20 years ago as the official madrigal ensemble of the Michigan Renaissance Festival in Holly. Arbor Consort can also be seen as carolers during the holidays, and is the Victorian Caroling quartet for the State Street Area Association and for Kerrytown Market & Shops in Ann Arbor. " See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 03, 2008 | Hits: 373

"The Anitquarian Funks is a musical group specializing in authentic musical performances of rarely heard works from the Renaissance and Early Baroque periods. Based in Santa Cruz, California, The Antiquarian Funks were founded in 1971 by Head Funk William G. Mathews, and have been performing ever since in a wide variety of combinations and venues. The Funks perform with reproductions of original antique instruments.

Music of the 17th century and earlier was usually composed and performed for the church or European courts. A particular challenge in performing this early music is the absence of tempo and dynamic notation. Musicians of this time were expected to improvise embellishments on the original score, rather like modern jazz.

The aim of this website is to introduce you to both the Antiquarian Funks, as well as the amazing music, instruments and some of the composers we have featured over the years. Enjoy! " See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 23, 2008 | Hits: 302

"Renowned for their unearthly vocal blend and virtuosic ensemble singing, the four women of Anonymous 4 combine musical, literary, and historical scholarship with contemporary performance intuition as they create ingeniously designed programs, interweaving music with poetry and narrative.

In addition to their unmatched medieval repertoire, Anonymous 4 has often reached out into the realm of contemporary music, and has premiered works by Peter Maxwell Davies, John Tavener, Steve Reich, and Richard Einhorn. The group has most recently expanded their repertoire to include traditional music of the British Isles and America.

Anonymous 4 has performed in major venues and festivals throughout North America, Europe and the Far East. The ensemble has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, including Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion," "CBS Sunday Morning," A&E's "Breakfast With the Arts," and NPR’s “Weekend Edition.” Anonymous 4's award-winning recordings have attained unprecedented popularity, rising to the top of Billboard's classical chart, and selling almost 1.5 million copies worldwide. " ...

Added on: Aug 22, 2007 | Hits: 376

"Anima’s early music performances are fresh, sincere, joyous and powerful. Since 2005, Anima’s concerts have soothed and delighted audiences, with thematically-based programs that connect today’s listeners with the music of 400 years ago.

Soprano Beth Anne Hatton, violinist Vita Wallace, viola da gambist and lirone player Motomi Igarashi and harpsichordist Barbara Weiss form Anima’s heart, which expands to include such kindred spirits as harpist Christa Patton, violinists Marika Holmqvist, and Dongmyung Ahn, and reader R. Nemo Hill. Anima's approachable virtuosity is joyful, highly expressive and provocative. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Aug 06, 2008 | Hits: 334

"Founded in San Francisco in 1986, American Baroque brings together some of America's most accomplished and exciting baroque instrumentalists, with the purpose of defining a new, modern genre for historical instruments. The group's adventurous programs combine 18th-century music with new works, composed for the group through collaborations and commissions from American composers. An ensemble of eclectic, accomplished, and artful musicians, the performances bridge a gap between the edges of the new music frontier and the familiar roads to music of the past, and expands the repertoire and scope of historical instruments into the new millenium.

After many accomplishments in the field of early music, in the early 1990s American Baroque began exploring the territory of performing new music written for historical instruments through its collaboration with composer, member and gambist Roy Whelden and his pieces Quartet After Abel and Gamba Quartet, which resulted in a CD release on the New Albion label in 1993. Intrigued by the unique timbres and subtlety of sounds inherent in their period instruments, the group continued to pursue projects and programming that involved combinations of new and old elements. Collaborations with such artists and composers as Rudy Rucker, Jonathan Berger, Carl Stone, and the Common Sense Composers Collective yielded an unprecented number of commissioned works written specifically for the group's instruments. " See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Mar 02, 2008 | Hits: 292

"Altramar, in the Occitan language of the troubadours, was the name given to the Near Eastern lands that lay "over the sea;" the lands where Crusade and trade resulted in the rich cultural interchange of East and West.

Altramar is an ensemble specializing in music of the Medieval Era, sharing historical repertory in the context of human experience, and evoking the vibrant tapestry of medieval culture. Altramar combines a process of collaborative partnership with a commitment to scholarship and expression. Since 1991, Altramar has been presenting their unique blend of song and story, drama and rhetoric, and voices and instruments to audiences throughout North America.

Altramar's members arrived at their medieval meeting place by way of diverse musical paths: Jann Cosart plays bowed string instruments from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries. Her varied performing and teaching experience has taken her throughout North America and the Orient. David Stattelman, a native Iowan, received his earliest musical training through participation in the Roman Catholic liturgy, in which he is still plays an active part. In addition to Altramar, he maintains interests in chant and medieval polyphony, and performs with Magnificat and Theatre of Voices. Chris Smith is a jazz guitarist and ethnomusicologist, specializing in performance traditions of the Near East and the African Diaspora. He is a faculty member at the Indiana University School of Music, and produces the program "One World" for National Public Radio affiliate WFIU in Bloomington. Angela Mariani is a specialist in the performance practice of medieval music, whose career has included experience in rock, folk, and traditional styles. She produces the nationally-syndicated early music program Harmonia at WFIU in Bloomington, and has taught and performed in Boston, Bloomington, Amherst, and Vancouver. " See website for more details. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 18, 2008 | Hits: 257

"Albuquerque Baroque Players was formed in the summer of 1997 by six Albuquerque musicians who found that they had in common a desire to play Baroque music on the instruments of the period. They held a common belief that such performances would offer a greater understanding and depth of expression to music written over 250 years ago. After two years of infrequent performances, ABP was reborn with the current four members and has been performing a regular series of concerts at Los Altos Christian Church and the Historic Old San Ysidro Church in Corrales, along with appearances at the Cathedral Church of St. John, the Albuquerque Museum, and the Albuquerque Public Library. To date, ABP has been financial assisted by New Mexico Arts, the City of Albuquerque Urban Enhancement Trust Fund , the Garcia Automotive Group, Van Dyke Software and the Walter A. Brooks & Marilyn Gulley Brooks Foundation, as well as many private sponsors. " See website for more details. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 18, 2008 | Hits: 289

“ Agave Baroque is a period instrument ensemble dedicated to the diverse and compelling repertoire of the seventeenth Century. Founded in 2007, Agave Baroque delivers expressive, thoughtful interpretations colored with imagination, wit, and humor. In 2009, Agave Baroque was chosen through a competitive application process to represent Early Music America at the APAP Conference in New York City, where they performed twice. Members of this engaging young ensemble also perform with some of the nation's leading baroque orchestras and ensembles, including Philharmonica Baroque, American Bach Soloists, Musica Angelica, and Ensemble Mirable, as well as the New Century Chamber Orchestra and Los Angeles Master Chorale.“

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Added on: Jan 21, 2012 | Hits: 204

"Hailed as one of the most exciting period instrument ensembles on the New York scene, SYMPATICA has presented a dozen concerts over the last 18 months, to great critical acclaim. The ensemble comprises three exceptionally gifted musicians (Rachel Begley, recorders, Joëlle Morton, viola da gamba and Jennifer Griesbach, harpsichord), each an accomplished virtuosa in her own right. Sympatica's inventive programming draws on the standard repertoire as well as being dedicated to exploring contemporary music and adapting lesser-known music to the trio sonata medium. The ensemble's name (taken from the Italian term simpatia , meaning 'pleasantness') is reflective of the infectious chemistry and camaraderie that is evident among the group's members, and the delight with which its audiences receive the ensemble's whimsical and spirited performances. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Aug 06, 2008 | Hits: 388

"The Knoxville Early Music Project (KEMP), founded in 1991, is an ensemble devoted to performing Renaissance and Baroque music. The group's performances feature music from Italian monody and solo cantatas to English, Irish, and Scottish folk and art music. ... " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Aug 02, 2008 | Hits: 511

"Wynndebagge is one of England’s best known players of the hurdy gurdy and English bagpipes. Musician, comedian historian and raconteur, he is above all an entertainer. "

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Added on: Apr 17, 2008 | Hits: 404

"Wyldes Noyse is a group of two or three musicians drawn from King's Lynn Waites. Consisting of Chief Waite Chris Gutteridge, wind and string player Elizabeth Gutteridge, and other members of the Waites if required, the group is named after William Wylde, King's Lynn minstrel, and one of the first recorded Waites in the country. The group wears Renaissance dress and performs on a variety of early instruments as well as singing.

Wyldes Noyse is the ideal group for fêtes, garden parties, dinners, weddings, etc. where a smaller group is desired, or in a more intimate setting. The group has an extensive memorised repertoire and can play from a balcony or gallery, or in the corner of a room, or will roam about freely, playing as they go. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 17, 2008 | Hits: 305

"Trouvère bring medieval merriment to events of all kinds all around the country with a mix of performance and hands-on experience of medieval music-making.

Our medieval merriment show features a costumed band of medieval minstrels presenting songs, music, storytelling and dance. We regularly appear at castles and historic sites around the country, and at a wide variety of private and corporate functions. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 20, 2008 | Hits: 469

"TRIO GOYA play Classical chamber music on period instruments. Formed out of a collective fascination with the new colours and narratives that these instruments suggest, the group concentrates its repertoire on the trios by Haydn and Mozart and the Beethoven opus 1 set. A fortepiano by Paul McNulty after Anton Walter, Vienna 1795 is the centrepiece of this music and a later instrument can be supplied for Beethoven from opus 70 (including the "Archduke Trio") and Schubert. Programmes can also include the three fine trios by Mozart's friend, the English stage composer Stephen Storace, Mozart's two dramatic fortepiano quartets and solo works for each of the three instruments by the aforementioned composers as well as their lesser known contemporaries. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 12, 2008 | Hits: 245

"fter twenty-eight years of world-wide performance and recording, The Sixteen is recognised as one of the world’s greatest ensembles. Comprising both choir and period-instrument orchestra, The Sixteen's total commitment to the music it performs is its greatest distinction. Its special reputation for performing early English polyphony, masterpieces of the Renaissance, bringing fresh insights into Baroque and early Classical music and a diversity of 20th Century music, is drawn from the passions of conductor and founder, Harry Christophers. " See website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Feb 24, 2008 | Hits: 400

"The Parley crosses boundaries, from the recording studio, the concert platform, to the classroom or the humble village hall, the activities of members of the group focus on bringing their knowledge of historical style and techniques to the music they love, and enthusiastically communicating it to other players, and the audience.

Few groups harbour as much expertise in their chosen field. Long experience in the scholarship and performance of 17th and 18th century music are brought together in their specialist areas of string and continuo performance practice. The main focus of The Parley's activities has been in the repertoire of the early violin family, and their knowledge of 17th instrumental and vocal repertoire forms a solid background for the study and historical context of later composers such as J.S. Bach and his contemporaries.

Many years of working together have produced a 'house style' that is consistent and well thought-out through a combination of experimentation with historical techniques and experience. This style is as clearly communicated in the workshop situation as it is from the platform. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Added on: Apr 17, 2008 | Hits: 340