2010 - 2011 Series

Midtown Concerts: 
September 2010  | October 2010  |  November 2010   |  December 2010  |  January 2011
February 2011   |  March 2011  |  April 2011   |  May 2011

FALL 2010 - 2011 Series

SEPTEMBER 8
Anima: Music of the Spanish Baroque

The concert explores the rich, rhythmically complex and evocative music of the Spanish Baroque including tonos humanos (secular songs) by Hidalgo, Serqueira and Durón, plus two solutions to the enigmatic canons of Juan del Vado.

Anima (Beth Anne Hatton, soprano; Vita Wallace, baroque violin; Motomi Igarashi, viola da gamba; Christa Patton, harp) specializes in music for small ensemble and voice from the Baroque and late Renaissance, played on period instruments. The players have performed with period instrument
ensembles throughout the US and internationally. Anima's engaging, intimate programs blend music and poetry with exemplary musicianship, making virtuosity approachable – playful, expressive and provocative.


SEPTEMBER 15
Grenser Trio: 18th-Century Music for Clarinet, Cello, and Fortepiano

A program of chamber music by Beethoven and Haydn, as well as a movement from an early clarinet sonata by Johann Baptist Vanhal.

The Grenser Trio (Ed Matthew, classical clarinet; Carlene Stober, cello; Dongsok Shin, fortepiano) explores classical and early romantic chamber music on historical instruments. Audiences have heard the Trio at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, SUNY Stony Brook, Midtown Concerts, Times Center, St. Francis College, Holy Trinity Church, Interchurch Center, and Morris-Jumel Mansion.


SEPTEMBER 22
Gwendolyn Toth: Music of the French Baroque

ARTEK director Gwendolyn Toth plays harpsichord music by Jean-Henri D'Anglebert, Louis Couperin, Francois Couperin, and Jean-Philippe Rameau.

Renowned harpsichordist Gwendolyn Toth is the founder and director of ARTEK.

SEPTEMBER 29
Ensemble Solaire: French Baroque Vocal Music

The trio performs French Baroque masterpieces, including the humorous cantata Amour piqué par une abeille by Louis-Nicholas Clérambault.

Ensemble Solaire is an group dedicated to historically informed performance of Baroque music. The young artists, active both as soloists and chamber musicians, bring fresh and exciting approach to Early Music. Ensemble Solaire has appeared on prominent concert series and venues, such as Boston Early Music Festival Fringe, The New York Early Music Series, Midtown Concerts, Trinity Church's Concerts at One, Amherst Early Music Festival, NY Historical Society and others. The members of the ensemble are Sofia Dimitrova, Soprano, Zheng Jenny Huang, harpsichord and James Waldo, viola da gamba.


OCTOBER 6
Cynthia Freivogel and Gwendolyn Toth: Bach Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord

Acclaimed Baroque violinist Cynthia Freivogel and harpsichordist Gwendolyn Toth join forces to perform sonatas by J.S. Bach.

Ms. Freivogel is a member of Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco, concertmaster and leader of the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, and lead violinist with Brandywine Baroque in Delaware.


OCTOBER 13
The Soul's Delight: Music from the Court of Frederick the Great

The ensemble (Sang Joon Park, traverso; Beth Wenstrom, violin; Stephanie Corwin, bassoon; Hsuan-Wen Chen, harpsichord) performs instrumental music from Prussia's extravagant court including sonatas by J.J. Quantz, C.P.E. Bach, and Christoph Schaffrath.

Founded by harpsichordist Hsuan-Wen Chen and bassoonist Stephanie Corwin, The Soul's Delight explores repertoire for various combinations of strings, winds and voice. Having performed with many of the country's leading ensembles, these spirited musicians join forces to promote historical performance by presenting a fresh yet informed approach to early music.


OCTOBER 20
Bach Collegium San Diego: Ciaccone & Arie

A program of Italian Baroque vocal and instrumental chamber music featuring works by Caccini, Monteverdi, Corelli, Storace, and Vivaldi.

The Bach Collegium San Diego was founded with the purpose of enriching San Diego's music community with historically informed performances of the Renaissance, Baroque, and in particular the vocal works of J.S. Bach. Its members bring longstanding experience from such ensembles as the Academy of Ancient Music (UK), American Bach Soloists, Festival Ensemble Stuttgart, and the Philharmonia Chorale. During its first six seasons, the ensemble has earned an impressive reputation, captivating diverse audiences by their unique style and highly expressive and provocative approach to the Renaissance and Baroque repertoire and beyond. The ensemble regularly participates in an international tour to Mexico City with performances at the Festival Internacional del Órgano Barroco. The ensemble has brought many historically informed first performances to San Diego for the first time. Such works include Handel Theodora and Messiah, Bach St. John Passion and B minor Mass, and Monteverdi 1610 Vespers. Members of the Trio, Anne-Marie Dicce (soprano), Ruben Valenzuela (harpsichord), and Amy Wang (violin), perform recitals together often throughout Southern California and Mexico.


OCTOBER 27
Sinfonia Players: Music from 18th-Century France

The trio plays a cello sonata by Boismortier, a flute sonata by Leclair, and the Cinquieme Pièce de Clavecin en Concert by Rameau.

The Sinfonia Players (Sandra Miller, flute; Christine Gummere, baroque cello; John Scott, harpsichord) are a group comprised of musicians from Sinfonia New York, a period instrument orchestra led by John Scott and founded by Sandra Miller and Christine Gummere. The New York Times has praised them for performances full of "suppleness and warmth," that are "impeccable, dramatically taut" and "sizzling,"


NOVEMBER 3
Duanlied: The Sweet Sorrow

Drew Minter, countertenor and James Ruff, tenor bridge the early traditions of both Germany and Scotland, exploring the expressive worlds of the German Meistersingers and the Scottish Gaelic Bards with voice, medieval gut harp and early Gaelic wire harp.

NOVE
MBER 10
Barbara Hollinshead and Howard Bass: Songs from the 16th and 17th Century

Longtime duo partners Barbara Hollinshead, mezzo-soprano, and Howard Bass, lute, perform French airs de cour from the 16th and 17th century with lute solos by Attaingnant, Le Roy, Besard, and Ballard.

Mezzo-soprano Barbara Hollinshead (known to NY audiences through her work with ARTEK) and lutenist Howard Bass have worked together for nearly 2 decades. They have appeared on numerous concert series, have developed several thematic programs for voice and lute, and have a cd of English lute songs: Loves Lost...and Found.


NOVEMBER 17
The Western Wind: Early American Vocal Music

The acclaimed vocal sextet sings music of the New World, including New England Anthems, Folk Hymns, Shaker Songs, Southern Spirituals and
Revival Songs.

Since 1969, internationally acclaimed The Western Wind (Laura Christian and Michele Kennedy, sopranos; William Zukof, countertenor, Todd Frizzell and Richard Slade, tenors; Elliot Z. Levine, baritone) has devoted itself to the special beauty and variety of a cappella music. The ensemble's repertoire ranges from Renaissance motets to Fifties rock'n'roll; from medieval carols to jazz standards; and from complex works by living composers to simple folk melodies.


NOVEMBER 24
Duo Marchand: A 1770's Musicale

Marcia Young and Andy Rutherford survey the rich trove of Scots tunes, English ballads, and music by "Mr. Handel" in this program of music from the American colonies, featuring voice, a vintage 1770s "English guittar" and triple harp.

Duo Marchand takes its name from a family of court musicians that flourished in 17th-century France. In recent seasons the Duo has performed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Cloisters; CityMusic in Columbus (OH); the Great Falls (VA) Chamber Music Series; The Hudson (NY) Opera House; The Chapel of Our Lady Restoration in Cold Spring (NY); the Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments; The French Church on Historic Huguenot Street, New Paltz (NY); and the Yale Center for British Art. The Duo was also presented by the New York Botanical Garden in a series of performances ancillary to its special exhibition, "The New Renaissance Garden."


DECEMBER 1
Nell Snaidas and Dan Swenberg: Sehnsucht

Nell Snaidas, soprano and Dan Swenberg, guitar perform lieder about sleep, love, and longing from Schubert, Spohr, and Mertz as originally published for voice and 19th-century guitar.


Nell Snaidas has been praised by the New York Times for her "beautiful soprano voice, superb sense of line" and "vocally ravishing" performances. Her voice has also been described as "remarkably pure with glints of rich sensuality" (Vancouver Sun); and she has been called "a model of luminous timbre and emotional intensity" (Cleveland Plain Dealer). A graduate of the Mannes College of Music Nell began her professional career while still in school, singing leading roles in zarzuelas at New York City's Repertorio Español. Now an accomplished interpreter of Baroque Music, her renditions of the music of the Italy and Spain have taken her all over Europe and North America, where she has been a featured soloist in numerous festivals, operas and concert halls.

New York-based Lutenist Daniel Swenberg plays a variety of Renaissance and Baroque Lutes, Theorbos, and early Guitars. Among the ensembles with whom he works regularly are: ARTEK, REBEL, Ensemble Viscera, the Mark Morris Dance Group, Tafelmusik, Opera Atelier, The Metropolitan Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, The Orchestra of St Luke's, Staatstheater Stuttgart, New York City Opera, The Four Nations Ensemble, The Grand Tour Orchestra, Apollo's Fire. He has accompanied Renee Fleming andKathleen Battle at Carnegie Hall. He has received awards from the Belgian American Educational Foundation (2000) and a Fulbright Scholarship (1997).


DECEMBER 8
Dongsok Shin: Masterful Mozart

Virtuoso fortepianist, Dongsok Shin performs a concerto by Mozart with the renowned Baroque ensemble, REBEL. An event not to be missed!

Dongsok Shin is a master... deftly articulating each note of the rapidly moving, highly ornamented lines and also realizing fully the expressive quality of the instrument" (Classical Voice of NC).


DECEMBER 15
Black Marble: The Italian Muse

Jörg-Michael Schwarz and Karen Marie Marmer, violins, explore the 18th-c. "Italian style" in music of three composers, all of them violinists: Georg Phillip Telemann, a German, Jean-Marie Leclair, a Frenchman, and the lesser-known Italian, Emanuele Barbella.

The violinists of Black Marbleare the co-directors of the internationally acclaimed ensemble, REBEL, with whom they record and concertize extensively in the U.S. and abroad. 'Black Marble' derives from the English translation of their last names: Schwarz (German, for black) and Marmer (Dutch, for marble). The ensemble aims to explore the rich, virtuosic and rarely-performed repertoire written for two violins by Leclair, Telemann, Reger, Spohr and Bartok, amongst others, on instruments and bows appropriate to the periods. The husband /wife team perform on equally well-matched Stainer violins dated 1660 and 1668, respectively.


DECEMBER 22
Sinfonia Praetorius: Music for Advent & Christmas

Musicians from Immanuel Lutheran Church's ensemble-in-residence, Sinfonia Praetorius, will entertain listeners with solos, duets, and trio works celebrating the beauty of the holiday season.


DECEMBER 29
My Lord Chamberlain's Consort: A Renaissance Christmas

In what has become a Midtown Concerts tradition, the Consort celebrates the warmth, beauty, and fellowship of Midwinter Solstice with Advent, Nativity, Epiphany, and good old pagan revelry.


JANUARY 5
Ensemble Viscera: The Grumbling Hive

A modern ballad-opera based on author Mandeville's "Fable of the Bees": a series of commentaries, stories, and scenes of private vice and vain virtue. "The paradox of thrift" is explained and our recession reflected in these humorous scenes of 18th-century England.


JANUARY 12
John Moran, cello

The outstanding cellist from Washington, DC presents a recital of music for baroque cello, accompanied by Dongsok Shin on the harpsichord.


JANUARY 19
Dodd Quartet: Variations in String Quartets by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven

This program follows the development of the variation movement as the emotional center of a string quartet and includes works by Haydn (Op. 20, #4), Mozart (Quartet K. 464, adagio), and Beethoven (Op. 18, #5).


JANUARY 26
Ensemble La Pantomime: Virtuoso 18th-Century Chamber Music

A program of music for violin, viola da gamba and harpsichord that pulls the gamba and harpsichord out of their traditional accompaniment role and into the spotlight in virtuoso works by Bach, Rameau, and Marais.


FEBRUARY 2
BaroQue Across the River: Love, Longing, and Triumph in the French Cantata

The ensemble offers a program of music from 18th-Century France, including instrumental works by Jacques Morel, and Jean-Phillippe Rameau and two cantatas for soprano Michele Eaton and instrumental ensemble by Michel Pignolet de Montéclair.


FEBRUARY 9
Jessica Gould and Dan Swenberg: Purcell Theatre Songs

Soprano Jessica Gould, and lutenist, Dan Swenberg explore Purcell's collection A Collection of Ayres, Compos'd for the Theatre, and upon other Occasions (London, 1697) in a duo concert featuring some of Purcell's most beautiful and beloved songs.


FEBRUARY 16
Waits Trio: Au goût français

The ensemble performs highlights from the French Baroque period including Francois Couperin's Concerts Royaux, a violin sonata of Élisabeth Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, and Marin Marais's Sonnerie de Ste Genevieve du mont de Paris.


FEBRUARY 23

ARTEK: Rosenmüller Cantatas I

Acclaimed counter-tenor, Ryland Angel, accompanied by instrumental ensemble, performs cantatas for alto by Johann Rosenmüller.


MARCH 2
ARTEK: Rosenmüller Cantatas II

In the second part of this series, counter-tenor Ryland Angel again appears in a program of rarely-heard cantatas for alto with instrumental accompaniment by the Baroque master, Johann Rosenmüller.

MARCH 9
No Concert (Ash Wednesday)

MARCH 16
Repast: Bach and Before

A program exploring the music of a generation of German composers who immediately preceded and influenced J.S. Bach, including works by Dietrich Buxtehude and Philipp Heinrich Erlebach.

MARCH 23
Ensemble Leonarda: La Belle France

This instrumental ensemble performs sonatas by French Baroque composers: Jacques-Martin Hotteterre, Jean Barrière, and Louis-Antoine Dornel.

MARCH 30
Lyra Consort: English Chamber Works

Returning after its debut at Midtown Concerts last season, The Lyra Consort will perform "Spring" and "Winter" from Christopher Simpson's The Seasons - brilliant and sublime divisions suites for violin, viols and continuo, and chamber works featuring lyra viol.


APRIL 6
Asteria: Medieval Love Songs from the Court of Charles the Bold

The voice/lute duo performs a selection of seldom-heard chansons, showcasing the work of Antoine Busnoys and Robert Morton, two of the most valued composers in the ducal court of Charles the Bold at the end of the 15th century, in a program featuring some of their finest and most intricately beautiful work.


APRIL 13
Charites: 17th-Century Female Perspectives on the Dissolution of Beauty

The ensemble presents a musical vanitas, staged with period gesture, investigating the transient nature of youth and beauty in virtuosic music and poetry by seventeenth-century women composers and writers.


APRIL 20
ARTEK: Pergolesi's Stabat Mater
Lauren Alfano, soprano, and Juli Borst, mezzo-soprano, accompanied by instrumental ensemble directed by Gwendolyn Toth, are featured in Pergolesi's profound and most beloved work.


APRIL 27
Ensemble Calandra: French Cantatas of the 1720s

Pairing the music of Boismortier and Monteclair, this program marries two cantatas published within four years of each other, in a study of similarity and difference in music, person, geography and time.


MAY 4
Musica Nuova: It's Complicated

A musical journey illustrating the twists and turns of unrequited love, illustrating the timelessness of love stories. The program includes songs and instrumental works by Monteverdi, Caccini, Strozzi, Merula, Frescobaldi and other masters of the early Italian Baroque.


MAY 11
Musica Fantasia: Songs of Courtly Love

Medieval ensemble from Montreal, Canada explores the theme of courtly love from Germany, Italy and France through the works of Walther von Vogelweide, Guillaume de Machaut and anonymous Italian ballate.


MAY 18
Michael Brown: Schubert Lieder

The highly praised ARTEK tenor performs selections from lieder by Franz Schubert, accompanied on fortepiano by ARTEK director Gwendolyn Toth.


MAY 25
Immanuel Davis, flute and members of ARTEK: French Baroque Music Acclaimed flautist Immanuel Davis is featured in an intimate concert of chamber music for baroque flute, viola da gamba, and basso continuo.