Grants & AwardsWhile early music discs

took home no prizes at theGrammy Awards ceremonyon January 31, a number werenominated:

Best Choral Performance– Handel Coronation Anthems,The Sixteen conducted byHarry Christophers (CORO);and A Spotless Rose, GabrieliConsort conducted by PaulMcCreesh (Deutsche Gram-mophon).

Best Small Ensemble Per-formance – Song of Songs,Stile Antico (HarmoniaMundi); Orchestral Suites for aYoung Prince, Ensemble Son-nerie conducted by MonicaHuggett, with Gonzalo X.Ruiz (Avie); Josquin: Missa Mal-heur me bat, The Tallis Scholarsconducted by Peter Philllips(Gimell).

Best Classical Vocal Per-formance – Bach, AnneSophie von Otter, with Con-certo Copenhagen (DeutscheGrammophon).

In the latest round ofNEA grants for artistic excel-lence, several early musicgroups received funding:Apollo’s Fire ($15,000), EMA($20,000), Early Music Foun-dation ($10,000), Handel andHaydn Society ($12,500),Philharmonia BaroqueOrchestra ($15,000), Piffaro($7,500), Rose Ensemble($10,000), and Tempesta diMare ($8,000)

IndyBaroque, Inc., theumbrella non-profit artsorganization for the Indi-anapolis Baroque Orchestraand Ensemble Voltaire,received a $9,000 grant fromthe Allen Whitehill ClowesCharitable Foundation, Inc.,

to bring world-renownedBaroque flutist BartholdKuijken from Belgium toIndianapolis where he willconduct the IBO’s Februaryconcerts.

In December, Baroqueoboist Debra Nagy wasawarded a Creative WorkforceFellowship (a one-year,$20,000 award) from theCommunity Partnership forArts and Culture of Cleve-land, OH. Nagy will use theaward to support the produc-tion of several concerts onher Cleveland-based serieswith ensemble Les Délices,produce marketing materials,and subsidize out-of-statetouring.

William Hudson andMelanie Germond, co-direc-tors of LIBER: Ensemble forEarly Music (formerly LiberunUsualis) received the NoahGreenberg Award from theAmerican Musicological Soci-ety at a November ceremonyin Philadelphia. The annualaward of $2,000 will supportthe production of new edi-tions and a commercialrecording of previouslyunrecorded pieces of the tre-cento repertoire, based ontexts by identifiable poets.With the assistance of Indi-ana University distinguishedprofessor of musicologyThomas Mathiesen and pro-fessor Margaret Bent of AllSouls College, University ofOxford, Hudson will preparenew or revised transcriptionsfor the performance. H.Wayne Storey, IU professor of Italian and an expert onMedieval Italian poetry, will serve as a consultant on the texts.

AppointmentsThe Carmel Bach Festival

has appointed Paul Goodwinto be BrunoWeil’s suc -cessor asmusic dir -ec t or. Hewill beginhis tenurein 2011.Based in London, Goodwinserved as principal guest con-ductor of the English Cham-ber Orchestra for six yearsand as associate conductor ofthe Academy of Ancient

Music for a decade. He wasawarded the Handel Prizefrom the City of Halle in2007. Prior to dedicating him-self to conducting in 1996,Goodwin was known as anearly oboe specialist.

Two new staff membersjoin Piffaro, the RenaissanceBand: Carolyn Fitzgerald,most recently of the Philadel-phia Museum of Art and theSettlement Music School, willserve as operations manager,while new marketing managerHelen Carnavale will draw onyears of experience in arts

soundbytesCompiled by Angela Fasick

6 Spring 2010 Early Music America

High School Baroque Orchestra Debut

It’s finally happened. Whatis thought to be the firstBaroque orchestra in a highschool music progam hasbeen sighted in Davis,California. The man who’smaking it happen is a 37-year-old violinist and con-ductor named AngeloMoreno, who knows hisrigaudon from Brigadoon.

With the active supportof the community, Moreno has moved personal and professionalmountains. “We all jumped in head first,” he told me, “and are lovingevery minute of it. The students’ performance schedule and outreachefforts have made them visible in the community, fostering a very posi-tive relationship with our donors and volunteer supporters.”

Courtesy of a $15,000 grant from the Davis Schools OrchestraMusic Association, Moreno’s 32-member Davis High School BaroqueOrchestra boasts 32 modern instruments modified into Baroque instru-ments, complete with gut strings and Baroque bows. They tune to A-415 and play only from original notation!

Although a lot of the students tried out “just to see what all thehype was about,” Moreno says, “many of them were convinced to joinbecause they fell in love with the excitement level and self-esteembuilding that took place at both the rehearsals and the concerts.”

Before beginning their regular rehearsals last fall, the ensemblemembers attended an all-day Baroque boot camp led by early musicnotables Michael Sand and Phoebe Craig from the city’s University ofCalifornia in Davis.

According to Moreno, the traditions of the Baroque can inspireyoung musicians to grow and become curious about “a vast area ofmusic that they would otherwise miss the opportunity to experience.Playing Baroque music is a huge part of why I am so passionate aboutwhat I do on a daily basis. I hope that my love for this music will influ-ence the ears of young musicians and bring joy to others.”

Moreno says that the period-style instruments attract students“looking for something new and different that they can try out in their own playing and sound.” He suggests starting with Baroque-stylebows and from there branching out to gut strings and instrument conversions.

At a time when schools throughout the country are searching for creative, new ideas, Moreno’s common-sense advice and practical guidelines have been picked up by the MENC web site(www.menc.org/v/orchestra/broke-is-out-baroque-is-in-part-1-1). The site includes links to a locally produced video showing the band in action at its December 18 debut.—Laurence Vittes

Goodwin

Early Music America Spring 2010 7

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marketing consultancy, non-profit board participation,business ownership, produc-tion, and performance.

Jane Ambrose, director ofthe University of VermontLane Series, will retire fromher position this June after 23years of service. As directorof the Lane Series, shebrought a number of high-profile early music performersto Burlington. She will remainas classical music consultantto the series.

Occasions & DebutsBoston’s Handel and

Haydn Society’s 156th annualperformance of Handel’s Mes-siah – and Harry Christophers’first appearance this season asconductor during his inaugu-ral year as artistic director –was recorded for broadcast inits entirety by WGBH. InNovember, the Society pre-sented Cambridge fortepianistRobert Levin and British con-ductor Jane Glover in“Returns and Farewell,” aprogram of Mozart andHaydn pieces.

London’s Tenebrae Choir(Nigel Short, artistic director)gave its New York debut per-formance by candlelight. TheSwiss Global Artistic Founda-tion presented the Octoberconcert of Medieval chant,Renaissance works, and con-temporary pieces at Manhat-tan’s Church of Saint Marythe Virgin.

Also in October, the earlymusic ensemble Musica Rari-tani and Opera at Rutgersperformed the U.S. premiereof Joseph Haydn’s 1770comic opera La Pescatrici (TheFisherwomen) under the direc-tion of Andrew Kirkman.Kirkman believes that LaPescatrici may have been aninfluence on the librettist ofMozart’s Cosi fan tutte.

Parthenia, the New York-based consort of viols, willopen Rockport Music’s newShalin Liu Performance Cen-ter in June 2010. The Massa-chusetts organization, former-ly known as the RockportChamber Music Festival, isone of the nation’s oldestclassical music presenters.

A digital version of My Ladye Nevells Booke, a 16th-century volumeof keyboard music by William Byrd, has been launched by theBritish Library along with highlights from Handel’s draft score ofMessiah. Users can leaf through the virtual manuscripts using theBritish Library’s Turning the Pages™ technology, play soundclips, and read about the music at www.bl.uk/turningthepages.

Musica Sonora made itsdebut as a professional cho-rus this past October in“Everything We Love AboutEarly Music,” a program ofworks from Ockeghem toMonteverdi. The ensemble,based in Tucson, AZ, is co-directed by Christina Jarvisand Jeffri Sanders.

Catherine Turocy, artisticdirector of the New YorkBaroque Dance Company,will lecture at Oxford in Aprilduring the 12th OxfordDance Symposium, this yeartitled “Celebrating Jean-Georges Noverre 1727-1810:His World, and Beyond.” Tur-ocy has been invited to speakabout her process as a chore-ographer/researcher and topresent and discuss her workon Noverre and her staging ofLes Petits Riens. Funded by aspecial grant in 2006 from theNational Endowment for theArts, The New York BaroqueDance Company documentedMozart’s only ballet as re-imagined by Turocy.

The West HawaiiRecorders gave their debut

performance in north Kohalaon the Big Island of Hawaiiin 2009. Many in the audiencehad never heard a recorderbefore and were enthusiasticabout the Purcell, Handel,Dufay, Binchois, Japart, Hol-borne, Isaac, Tallis, Clemensnon Papa, and Palestrinaworks that comprised theevening. Performers includedGarrett Webb, Laurel Rain,Christian Veillet, Kelly Miles,and Anne Klimke.

The inaugural concert forthe newly-formed string duo,Black Marble (with violinistsJörg-Michael Schwarz andKaren Marie Marmer) tookplace in October on the Mid-town Concert Series in NewYork City.

FIMTE, the InternationalFestival of Spanish KeyboardMusic, is going to celebratethe 500th anniversary of thebirth of Antonio de Cabezón(1510-1566) with the project“The C@bezón500 Collec-tion,” an online performanceof the composer’s completeworks. Information aboutsubmitting performances for

8 Spring 2010 Early Music America

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Making a Mark on YouTube

The early music ensemble Voices of Music, directed by Hannekevan Proosdij and David Tayler, has reached the one million mark forworldwide viewers of its High Definition videos. More than 3,500people tune in every day to watch early music; each video can also be downloaded and played on HD-capable television sets. Check outthe YouTube channel.

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Education & Outreach

The Baroque ChamberOrchestra of Coloradolaunched a new educationaloutreach program: the forma-tion of Baroque con Brio, ayouth ensemble of highschool students from theDenver/Boulder area whouse borrowed Baroque bowsand play replica instrumentswith gut strings tuned to A-415. Directed by BCOC vio-linists Stacey Brady and CarlaSciaky and accompanied byBCOC artistic director andharpsichordist Frank Nowell,the group made its debut inJanuary 2009 and expanded tofour performances this sea-son. The ensemble’s nextconcert is in March.

The Saint PaulConservatory of Music, TheSchubert Club, and LyraBaroque Orchestra are pre-senting the third annual Early

Music Day on February 20.Professionals, amateurs, andenthusiasts will convene tocelebrate early music by par-ticipating in a performance ofLully’s Le Bourgeois Gentil -homme. Preceding Early MusicDay, flutist Barthold Kuijkenwill give a master class andrecital.

Philip Serna’s Viols in OurSchools has a robust slate ofresidencies and collaborationsscheduled for 2009-10; thegroup will work with AuroraUniversity (IL), NapervilleNorth High School, MeteaValley High School, ChicagoState Uni versity, College ofDuPage Chamber Orchestra,North western University,Butler University (Indiana -polis, IN), Judson University(Elgin, IL), L.C. Mohr HighSchool, and NortheasternIllinois University.

Concerts of NoteIn December, Milwaukee’s

Early Music Now seriespresented Anonymous 4

SOUNDbytes

10 Spring 2010 Early Music America

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G# and E � key Seven-year-old Jocelyn Nguyen, youngest member of the SanFrancisco Renaissance Voices audience (they made her a mask of her own), with her mother Tiffany (right) and SFRV executivedirector J. Jeff Badger after a staged performance of AdrianoBanchieri’s Festino. She really liked the song “where everyone felldown” (the drinking madrigal, “Vinata di brindesi, e ragioni”), butsaid that her particular favorite was “the one where the cats sang”(“Contrapunto bestiale alla mente”).

Youngest Fan of Renaissance Voices

Early Music America Spring 2010 11

performing its newest pro-gram, “The Cherry Tree,”named for the miracle balladof Joseph and Mary, the earli-est text of which dates backto a Coventry Play from 13th-century England. The CherryTree story persisted in manyforms, making its way intoMedieval British carols of themid-15th century, and muchlater became popular as a tra-ditional American ballad from

the Appalachian Mountains.Audiences in the Cleveland

area were treated to a five-concert run of Praetorius’sChristmas Vespers by Apollo’sFire. Those who missed theperformance can also hearJeannette Sorrell leading herforces in this repertoire on aCD of the same name.

Cappella Romana present-ed “A Byzantine Christmas”in Portland, OR, and Seattle,

WA, in January. The program,directed by Dr. AchilleasChaldaiakis (professor at thedepartment of music studiesof the University of Athens,Greece, director of the psalticchoir Masters of Psaltic Art,and general secretary of theSynodal Institution of Byzan-tine Musicology), was per-formed entirely from Byzan-tine notation, a system thatindicates musical intervals by

neumes, along with additionalsigns to designate rhythmicdivisions and ornamental fig-ures. Late in January, CappellaRomana appeared in a human-itarian aid concert to assistthe people of Haiti throughInternational OrthodoxChristian Charities (IOCC).

Chatham Baroque per-formed “Fresh Ayre,” a seriesof memorial concerts forEmily Norman Davidson that

A substantial part of the activityof the modern early music move-ment is an effort to evoke thatexcitement, the one-time, you-were-there effect of music beingmade now. Part of the recaptur-ing is done by reviving musicthat has not been heardbefore—at least by us, now—and part of it is by recapturingthe performing styles—includingimprovisation, ornamentation,and other expressive effect—thathave been lost in the modernperformers’ training to be anexact reproducer of the notes onthe page.

How successfully the earlymusic revival succeeds in theseaims is subject to ongoingdebate, but the impetus for itsexistence is grounded in the ideaof spontaneity, of excitement,and of recapturing experiencesotherwise lost to us.

There are not many ways topass music on to the future.Until the late 19th century, if youwanted to hear music, you hadto know how to perform it, oryou had to be physically presentin the place and at the time thatit was performed. The perform-ance of music had a value that itnow has lost, even though musicitself—defined differently byevery listener—has enormousvalue to almost everybody.Now with recording and play-

back devices we can hear anymusic, from any place, from anytime in history, and at anymoment we wish. We can havean enormous orchestra in our liv-ing room, and we can commandit to stop while we step out tothe kitchen for a moment—andthen command the Mahler sym-phony to continue. It is quiteremarkable.

And with a century of record-ings behind us we have a back-log of recorded performancesthat grant usamazing access toperformanceevents that tookplace in the past,and to a widevariety of reperto-ries and styles. Wecan also tell, by lis-tening to perform-ance styles change over time,that there is no one way that anyparticular piece gets performed,at least not over the last centu-ry’s recorded documentation.

There may still be those whoclaim that they play a particularpiece of music the way Bach did,because they play it the way theirteacher does, who studied withso-and-so in Vienna, who stud-ied with so-and-so, who studiedwith Czerny, who studied withBeethoven, and so on back toBach. These players have proba-

bly not listened to the changesthat the piece in question hasundergone in a century ofrecorded music; if they had, theywould probably doubt the fixityof tradition and the unity of performing style.

Even if we believed in unbro-ken and unwavering tradition,early music advocates wouldargue that there are certain per-formance traditions that are bro-ken beyond recovery. At theFrench Revolution, when, as leg-

end goes,harpsichordsfrom theancienrégime wereburned forfirewood,and real pro-fessionalmusic teach-

ing was begun in the Paris Con-servatoire after the revolution,there was an unbridgeable gapbetween what had gone beforein the 18th century—essentiallylate-Baroque music and before—and what was now being taughtat the Conservatoire. Even if webelieved in the stern tradition ofmethod, passed down fromteacher to pupil, we could not trace it much farther backthan the early part of the 19thcentury.

And so the music from

before that time, usually taughtand performed only as exercis-es—Bach preludes and fuguesfor pianists, Italian Baroque ariasas exercises and recital-openersfor singers, all performed in a“modern,” 19th-century style—was thought to be lost to us,both as a regularly performedrepertory and as a style that weknew how to perform.

The early music movementseeks to re-examine that music;its repertory is the music beforethe common-practice, canonicalmusic of the concert hall, themodern chamber-music concert,the current opera house; it seeksto understand the context inwhich that older music, thatnow seems so odd, was not onlyperfectly normal but thought tobe ravishingly beautiful.

Thomas Forrest Kelly is a professor of music at HarvardUniversity and a board memberand past president of Early MusicAmerica.

by Thomas Forrest Kelly

EARLYMUSIC

MUSINGS

Were You There?

“The impetus for theearly music movementis grounded in the idea

of spontaneity, ofexcitement, and of

recapturing experiencesotherwise lost to us.”

included music by Purcell,Lawes, Matteis, and Handel.The October concerts tookplace in Pittsburgh.

Canadian soprano AnneHarley and Baroque cellistElisabeth LeGuin joined ConGioia early music ensemble(Preethi de Silva, director) for“Musical Sirens from Russiaand Europe” in October. TheLos Angeles concert featuredsongs by Russian princessesDashkova and Kurakina and

the Countess Golovina aswell as selections from Mar-gravine Wilhelmine vonBayreuth, Handel, Purcell,Paisiello, and C.P.E. Bach.

The Four Nations Ensem-ble (Charles Brink, KristaBennion Feeney, LorettaO’Sullivan, Andrew Appel)will present three programsduring its 2010 New YorkCity concert season at theNew York Historical Society:“The Paris Conservatory: The

Revolutionary Generation,”“The Naples Conservatory:Teaching Europe” (with guestartist Jennifer Lane, mezzo-soprano), and “Leipzig:Home-Schooling the Bachs.”

In Mulieribus performed“La Velata in Song: A MusicalPortrait of Italian RenaissanceWomen” in connection withthe Portland (OR) Art Muse-um’s exhibit Raphael: TheWoman with the Veil. Thefemale vocal ensemble(whose name means“amongst women”) offeredaudiences in the museum’s

Whitsell Auditorium a reper-toire of sacred and secularmusic from 16th-centuryItaly.

Music Before 1800 pre-sented Juilliard Baroque atNew York’s Corpus ChristiChurch in “Historical Per-formance Program Brings onBach.” Nine artist/facultymembers of the new Juilliardprogram in historical per-formance (Cynthia Roberts,Robert Mealy, Phoebe Carrai,Robert Nairn, Sandra Miller,Gonzalo Ruiz, Dominic Tere-si, Kenneth Weiss, and direc-tor Monica Huggett) werejoined by several of theirgraduate students for thisFebruary performance of theBrandenburg Concertos andother Bach works.

Two January MusicSources(Berkeley, CA) presentationsbear mention: “Les Sauvages:Hamburg’s Musical Brothel,”performed by countertenorClifton Massey, Baroque vio-linist David Sego, viola dagambist Josh Lee, and harpsi-chordist and organist GilbertMartinez, and “The Sword ofDurendal: Early MedievalStories and Epics” featuringTim Rayborn (hearpa, lyre,crwth, gusli, citole) and ShiraKammen (vielle).

“An Anatomy of Melan-choly” opened the Musiciansin Ordinary’s 2009-10 season

Send Us Your News!Sound Bytes Summer 2010Deadline: March 29

Sound Bytes tries to cover earlymusic news and newsmakers ascompletely as possible, but wecannot publish every news item.All materials must include aname, date, and contact number.Send news to Sound Bytes,EMAg, 2366 Eastlake Ave. East,#429, Seattle, WA 98102; e-mail: emag@earlymusic.org(include “Sound Bytes” in subjectline). Digital photos may be sentby e-mail as 300 dpi TIFF or JPEG images in color or b&w.

12 Spring 2010 Early Music America

SOUNDbytes

Using Internet2, Eastman School of Music andthe Royal College of Music conducted their firsttransatlantic early music class on November 12,2009. Students from the Royal College per-formed Bach organ trio sonatas on the Baroqueflute, Baroque violin, cello, and harpsichord.Eastman studentsperformed theworks on the pedalclavicord andorgan. Eastmanorgan professorsDavid Higgs andHans Davidssonand AshleySolomon, head ofhistorical performance at the Royal College, conducted the classes. The master class grew out of initial discussions between Solomon andEastman School of Music professor Paul O’Dette. This was the third master class that Eastman and the Royal College have conducted together;previous ones included a doctoral musicologyclass (see photo below).

Eastman’s very first Internet2 class was con-ducted in November 2001 with the RoyalScottish Academy of Music. It was the firsttransatlantic videoconference staging betweentwo music schools and involved two live trumpetmaster classes. Since then, Eastman has partici-pated in more than 40 Internet2 classes withsuch institutions as the Norwegian Academy ofMusic, Manhattan School of Music, New World

Symphony, Mount Royal School in Calgary andmany others, as well as discussions with guestartists, such as John Adams and Steve Reich, andwith London Symphony Orchestra conductorsValery Gergiev and Sir Colin Davis.

“The November early music event was highly

successful,” said Dr. Tania Lisboa, videoconfer-ence projects manager for the Centre forPerformance Science at the Royal College ofMusic. “This was part of the series of events thatthe Royal College of Music has been sharing withEastman since 2003, when the RCM had its firstevent via videoconferencing—a Gamelan work-shop, also with Eastman. Since then, the RCMhas been running a series of master classes andresearch seminars, connecting with various insti-tutions around the world, including several withEastman. These events are a fantastic opportuni-ty for students and professors to exchange expe-riences with other musicians in their area ofstudy. It was the first RCM link in the area of historical performance.”

The Eastman School of Music transmits toInternet2 through the University of Rochester’sconnection via NYSERNet, New York State’s highbandwidth network for education and researchin science and the arts. Technology personnel atthe Eastman School used a Polycom ViewstationFX system, cameras, speakers, a TV monitor, anda variety of microphones, along with audio mix-ing to manage the complex requirements ofspeech, organ, pedal clavichord, and periodinstruments. RCM used a Tandberg system withtwo cameras and separate good-quality micro-phones attached to a mixing desk. They alsohave two plasma screens attached to the wall of the control room.

Eastman School and Royal College ConductTransatlantic Early Music Class on Internet2

Solomon Davidsson Higgs O’Dette

AVLA HARMONIÆAVLA HARMONIÆ

www.aulaharmoniae.org

Aula Harmoniae photo by Rod Goodman www.rodgoodmanphoto.com

by the invitation of Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú to perform in the VIII International Early Music Festival of Lima

Chilca - May 9, 2010 Lima - May 10, 2010

and

by the invitation of Universidad Católica San Pablo de Arequipa to perform in the historical Convento de Santa Catalina

with guest artist Alejandra Lopera, recorder

Arequipa - May 12. 2010

goes to goes to goes to PeruPeruPeru

14 Spring 2010 Early Music America

in October. The concert fea-tured readings from RichardBurton’s The Anatomy ofMelancholy with songs by JohnDowland portraying sufferersof that disease: crazy loverswho care not about theweather, ardent shepherdswho want nymphs to be theirloves, and even sadder sighers.Hallie Fishel sang, JohnEdwards played lute, andDavid Klausner portrayedRichard Burton.

The Boston Early MusicFestival presented Sequentia(Benjamin Bagby, director) in January at Harvard’sSanders Theatre in The Rhein-gold Curse: A Germanic Saga ofGreed and Revenge from theMedieval Icelandic Edda. BEMFalso presented Sequentia atGilder Lehrman Hall on itsseries at The Morgan Libraryand Museum in New YorkCity.

The period instrumentwoodwind quintet Circa 1800performed works by AntonioRosetti, Giuseppi Cambini,and Antoine-Joseph Reicha inthe Bach Sinfornia’s annualchamber music concert inWashington, DC. Membersof the group are Colin St.Martin, flute, Meg Owens,oboe, Richard Spece, clarinet,Anna Marsh, bassoon, andPaul Hopkins, horn.

A highlight of Early MusicVancouver’s 2009-10 winterconcert series was January’s A Mediæval Triptych, a three-concert series featuringSequentia and Dialogos.First up, Sequentia’s TheRheingold Curse, followed byDialogos’s Barlaam andJosaphat: Mediæval Wanderings ofa Cosmopolitan Legend, a 3rd or4th-century tale from India

that is a Christianized versionof one of the legends ofBuddha. The final concertwas Sequentia’s The Grail, theKnight and the Poet: TheMediæval Perceval Legend.

As part of the early musicfestival Grandezze e Merav-iglie – held in Modena, Italy,in October – period compos-er and Vox Saeculorum mem-ber Gianluca Bersanetti‘sConcerto for 4 Harpsichords andStrings in G Minor was per-formed by the ensembleL’Arte dell’Arco, directed byFederico Guglielmo, and theharpsichordists MicheleBarchi, Roberto Loreggian,Francesca Bacchetta, andFrancesco Baroni. The Asso-ciazione Musicale Estense,which commissioned thepiece, will also be producing alive recording of the concertto be published in an upcom-ing issue of The Classic Voicemagazine.

Ars Lyrica Houston is presenting a staged perform-ance of Marc-AntoineCharpentier’s chamber opera,Les Plaisirs de Versailles, onFebruary 28 at the Museumof Fine Arts Rienzi Centerfor European DecorativeArts. Artistic directorMatthew Dirst will lead ArsLyrica’s instrumental ensem-ble and singers from theUniversity of HoustonMoores School of MusicCollegium Musicum.

In August 2010, coincidingwith the Historical Brass Soci-ety’s 26th Early Brass Festivalin Northfield, MN, the Vin-tage Band Music Festival willpresent over 15 bands (brass,historical, community, andchamber groups) in over 50performances in four days.

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Early Music America Spring 2010 15

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BACH!MARCH 21, 2010, 3PM | N A T I O N A L P R E S B Y T E R I A N C H U R C H

J.S. BACH

MAGNIFICAT!MAY 2, 2010, 3PM | N A T I O N A L P R E S B Y T E R I A N C H U R C H

, BWV 532, BWV 243

C.P.E. BACH , WQ 15

•T H E N A T I O N ’ S P R E M I E R E B A R O Q U E C H O R U S A N D O R C H E S T R A

W A S H I N G T O N B A C H C O N S O R T

In January, a concert of“Musical Gems of the PolishRenaissance and EarlyBaroque” was presented bythe Wessex Consort, withfriends from the HolborneConsort and soprano KrystaClose, in collaboration withthe Polish Music Center atUSC. The ten instrumentalistsperformed on 25 period windand string instruments at theChurch of the Good Shep-herd in Beverly Hills, CA.

On TourPiffaro, the Renaissance

Band, has christened its 2009-10 season All-Spanish, AllYear. In addition to concertsin its home base of Philadel-phia, the ensemble will tour inWashington, DC, New YorkCity, Baltimore, and Albu-querque, NM, before spend-ing a stretch of late April at afestival in Bolivia.

After performing Mon-

teverdi’s Vespro della BeataVergine throughout southFlorida with the WesternMichigan University Chorale,Miami’s professional chamberchoir Seraphic Fire willdepart for Mexico to givefour concerts of the samework in two cities, Montereyand Mexico City. This inaugu-ral international tour bySeraphic Fire (Patrick DupréQuigley, director) is support-ed in part by a grant from the American ExpressFoundation intended topreserve historic culturalworks.

Toronto’s TafelmusikBaroque Orchestra recentlyreturned from Mexico, whereit appeared at the CervantinoInternational Festival to per-form bassist Alison Mackay’s“The Galileo Project: Musicof the Spheres,” a multimediaevent that employs music,words, and images to suggest

the cultural and scientificworld in the 16th and 17thcenturies. For the Cervantinoperformances, Mackay’s origi-nal text was translated intoSpanish with Mario Iván Mar-tinez assuming the narrator’srole. The group also present-ed “Galileo” in Kansas City,MO, and Santa Barbara, LosAngeles, San Diego, and LaJolla, CA.

In its first appearance inEurope, Houston’s MercuryBaroque will reprise its pro-duction of Lully’s Armide withfive performances in Paris,France, in September 2010.Armide is a collaborationbetween Mercury Baroque’sartistic director AntoinePlante and stage director Pas-cal Rambert, whose Théâtrede Gennevilliers will host theproduction. Armide starsIsabelle Cals in the title role,Zachary Wilder as Renaud,and Tyler Duncan as Hidraot.

In memoriamThe noted Haydn and

Mozart scholar H.C. Robbins-Landon died in November atthe age of 83. Born in Bostonin 1926, Robbins-Landonstudied at Swarthmore andBoston University beforemoving to Europe, where hebegan working on critical edi-tions of the works of Haydn.He provided commentary forBBC orchestral broadcastsand documentaries, and hisbooks include The Symphoniesof Joseph Haydn, Haydn: Chronicle and Works, and1791: Mozart’s Last Year.

Robbins-Landon

Haydn