February 2009

February 2009

February 4
Ensemble Viscera
Courtly Lute Ensembles from England

Multiple full-time lutenists were an obvious necessity at the courts of early 17th-century England. Ensemble Viscera recreates the golden years in history when the great lutenist-composers John Dowland, Philip Rosseter, Robert Johnson and Nicholas Lanier all performed together at the pleasure of King James I. Ensemble Viscera is Grant Herreid, Patrick O'Brien, Daniel Swenberg and Charles Weaver.

Ensemble Viscera, formed in 2002 as a plucked-string ensemble of lutes, early guitars, theorbo, bandora and cittern, forges an alloy of sounds and colors unique in the world of early music. Mining the manuscript and printed sources of Renaissance and baroque music for lute and guitar ensemble, Ensemble Viscera’s luscious, effervescent sonorities shine forth in pieces from surviving sources, the unwritten Renaissance and baroque traditions of improvisation, as well as arrangements of their own devising.

February 11
Nell Snaidas, soprano & Daniel Swenberg, guitar
Schubert and the 19th-Century Guitar

Many of Franz Schubert's well-beloved lieder were published with accompaniments for guitar as an alternative to the piano. Soprano Nell Snaidas and guitarist Daniel Swenberg explore this neglected side of Schubert.

Soprano Nell Snaidas's voice has been praised as “remarkably pure with glints of rich sensuality” (Vancouver Sun). The New York Times described her as having “a voice that can languish, cajole, laugh and pout,” while the Cleveland Plain Dealer praised her ability to “embellish melodies with virtuosity and project lyrics like a storyteller." Recent projects include the world premiere of the baroque opera Boris Goudenow at the Boston Early Music Festival and Tanglewood, a North American tour of "Three Singing Ladies of Rome" with lutenist Paul O’Dette and Tragicomedia, and debuts with the Seattle Baroque Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. A graduate of the Mannes College of Music, Nell began her career singing leading roles in zarzuelas at NYC's Repertorio Español and starred internationally as Christine in The Phantom of the Opera. Now an accomplished interpreter of baroque music, her renditions of Italian and Spanish music have taken her all over Europe and North America. Ms. Snaidas has recorded for Sony Classical, Koch International with Apollo’s Fire, and Dorian with Ex Umbris, as well as the Grammy-nominated Broadway-cast album of Hair on Razor & Tie, and various selections of operetta on Naxos with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra.
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 New York Collegium, 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, Stadtstheater Klagenfurt, The Four Nations Ensemble, The Grand Tour Orchestra, Clarion, Les Violons du Roy, Piffaro, Spiritus Collective, Les Voix Baroques, Musica Pacifica, the Sejong Soloists, Apollo's Fire, and Lizzy and the Theorboys. He has accompanied Renee Fleming at the Met, Carnegie Hall, the Aspen Music Festival, and at the Mostly Mozart Festival/Live from Lincoln Center. He has received awards from the Belgian American Educational Foundation (2000) for a study of 18th-century chamber music for the lute, and a Fulbright Scholarship (1997) to study in Bremen, Germany with Stephen Stubbs and Andrew Lawrence-King, at the Hochschule fuer Kuenste. He studied previously with Pat O'Brien at Mannes College of Music (New York City), receiving a Masters Degree in Historical Performance-Lute. Prior to his concentration on lutes, he studied Musicology at Washington University (St. Louis) and received a B.M. in classical guitar from the North Carolina School of the Arts.

February 18
Melissa Fogarty, soprano
Notes on a Scandal: Cantatas of Stradella

This program features the dramatic music of Alessandro Stradella, including the cantata Ferma il corso e torna al lido, whose scandalous subject matter is no more so than the life of the composer, which ended in an unsolved murder in 1682. Ms. Fogarty will be accompanied by Christine Gummere, baroque cello, and Jennifer Griesbach, harpsichord.

Soprano Melissa Fogarty has appeared in early music groups throughout the country and has won numerous awards for her work. Her dramatic intensity and extraordinary range have recently caught the attention of contemporary composers, most notably Pulitzer prize-winning composer David Del Tredici, together giving acclaimed performances throughout New York last season.

February 25
NO CONCERT
(Ash Wednesday)

Because of special services for Ash Wednesday at St. Bartholomew's Church, there will be no concert on this date.

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