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2009 - 2010 Series
Midtown Concerts:
September 2009 | October 2009 | November 2009 | December 2009 | January 2010
February 2010 | March 2010 | April 2010 | May 2010
March 2010
M A R C H 3
Sarah Pillow and Friends: A Matinee of Theatre Music by Mr. Henry Purcell
Soprano Sarah Pillow (Galileo's Daughters) will be joined by John Mark Rozendaal (Repast) and Webster Williams (founding member of Parthenia) to present The Treat is Only Sound: A Matinee of Theatre Music by Mr. Henry Purcell--a lively afternoon of dramatic interpretations of songs by Mr. Henry Purcell, accompanied by two viols. Also included in the program will be instrumental works of Tobias Hume, the Stuart era musical amateur known to theater audiences as the model of Sir Toby Belch in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The New York Times calls Sarah Pillow, a versatile artist who moves fluidly from early to modern musical styles, “splendid” and praises her “lovely, natural-sounding tone and…gift for interpretation.”
M A R C H 10
Gavin Black & David Black: Cello Music of Gabrielli, Lanzetti, and Berteau
Cellist, David Black and harpsichordist, Gavin Black will present a concert of music for cello and continuo. The duo will perform works by Domenico Gabrielli, Salvatore Lanzetti, and Martin Berteau. David Black studied cello with Joyce Lawrence in New Haven, and with Jane Cowan at the International Cello Centre (UK). His repertoire includes unaccompanied cello works spanning 300 years, as well as a variety of chamber music. David is a frequent guest artist with the Practitioners of Musick, Mostly Motets, and other area ensembles. Gavin Black, a graduate of Princeton University and Westminster Choir College, is a founding member of several chamber ensembles including the Princeton Baroque Ensemble, Whitechapel Baroque, and Channel Crossings. He is currently the continuo player for the ensemble Col Legno, and the principal continuo player for The Practitioners of Musick.
M A R C H 17
Daniel Swenberg and Nell Snaidas: Music of Schubert, Spohr, and Sor
New York-based Lutenist Daniel Swenberg plays a variety of Renaissance and Baroque Lutes, Theorbos, and early Guitars. As a soloist, Mr. Swenberg concentrates on the repertoires of the Baroque Lute in 18th-century Germany, Austria, and Italy and the Baroque Guitar in Spain and New Spain/Latin America. His principal devotion is to Basso-Continuo playing (the Baroque practice of semi-improvised accompaniment from the bass). Among the ensembles with whom he works regularly are: ARTEK, REBEL, Visceral Reaction, 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.
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 including Lincoln Center Summerfest, Alice Tully, Town Hall, Regensburg Tage/Alter Musik Fest, Internacional Festival de la Zarzuela in Mexico, and L’Internazionale Festivale di Scarlatti in Sicily. Operatic performances include “Lisetta” in Gli Equivoci nel Sembiante at the Teatro Garibaldi in Palermo, “Despina” in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte at Caramoor with the Orchestra of St. Luke and “Valletto” in Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea with Festival Vancouver under the direction of Stephen Stubbs/Paul O’Dette.
M A R C H 24
Lyra Consort: Chamber Music with Lyra Viol
The Lyra Consort (Beverly Au, viola da gamba; Lisa Terry, viola da gamba; Vita Wallace, violin) will present two Consorts for violin, lyra viol and continuo by Renaissance viol player and composer Christopher Simpson—each using a different lyra tuning. Rounding out the program will be a selection of lyra viol solos by John Jenkins and an anonymous composer, and a duo for violin and bass viol by Matthew Locke. The Lyra Consort specializes in performing rarely-heard pieces featuring the lyra viol. Beverly Au has performed with many notable early music ensembles and series, including Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity, NY's Ensemble for Early Music, Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concerts, and The Americal Classical Orchestra. Lisa Terry practices, performs and teaches viola da gamba and violoncello in New York City, where she is a long-time member of Parthenia and the Dryden Ensemble, and a new member of BaroQue Across the River. She was a founding member of ARTEK, and has performed with the New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera, Juilliard Opera Orchestra, Opera Lafayette, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Concert Royal, New York Collegium, American Classical Orchestra, Four Nations Ensemble, Santa Fe Pro Musica and Chicago Opera Theatre. Vita Wallace is a member of Anima, ARTEK, the Dryden Ensemble, and Foundling Baroque Orchestra and Women’s Advocacy Project. In these groups Vita plays music of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries on a Baroque violin with replicas of early bows.
M A R C H 31
Infiorare: Music from Medieval France
Grace Check, soprano and percussion; Holly Mentzer; early harp, flute, and vielle; Jim Miller, cornetto, cornetto muto
Blossoming from Jim Miller's New York cornetto recital in 2002 at the Church of St. Francis, and from collaborations as members of the New York Continuo Collective, Infiorare has appeared in numerous venues in New York, the Boston Early Music Festival, Historic Brass Symposia at Yale, and at the New York Brass Conference at SUNY Purchase. Recent performances include appearances on the New York Early Music Series, The Church of Saint Luke in the Fields, and a fringe concert at Boston Early Music Festival. The ensemble utilizes the unique colors of cornetto, harp, and voice, performing inventive arrangements of medieval and baroque repertoire.
Soprano-about-town Grace Check is a member of Infiorare, and the
medieval trio Machicoti with Amy Bartram and Beth Cullinane. She has
performed in New York and Boston with the New York Collegium under the
direction of Andrew Parrott and with the New York Continuo Collective
under the direction of Grant Herreid, Patrick O'Brien, Stephen Stubbs
and Erin Headley. She has performed symphonic choral works with the New
York Philharmonic and sacred polyphony in Anglican churches across
Manhattan. She sings high holidays at Westchester Reform Temple in
Scarsdale. Grace received her BA cum laude in music from Smith College
and her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Columbia University last
fall. She works for Burke Rehabilitation Hospital at United Hebrew in
New Rochelle, where she has been spotted singing and dancing with
patients, but only when it has demonstrable therapeutic value.
Holly Mentzer is a graduate of the Juilliard School and studied early flutes with Stephen Preston and with Nancy Hadden at the Edinburgh Flute Course. An interest in early harp drew her to the New York Continuo Collective and on to further studies with Maxine Eilander while participating in L’Accademia d’Amore in Bremen. Ms. Mentzer is a founding member of Infiorare, and appeared with Early Music New York, City of Ladies, Long Island Baroque, Polyhymnia, and ARTEK. She has appeared on many New York and Boston-based series including SOHIP, the New York Early Music Series, Music for the Spirit, and Music Before 1800. She recently received her M.A. degree in Music Therapy at New York University, and is currently practicing as a music therapist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
After a rewarding career on modern trumpet, which included nine seasons as Principal Trumpet of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, James Miller has shifted his performing interests to early music. As a soloist, Miller has recorded with the Washington Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble and performed with Artek, the Niew Amsterdam Consort, Spiritus Collective, the NY Cornett and Sackbutts Ensemble, and was a regularly featured soloist with the New York Continuo Collective. He brought the cornetto into the 21st century joining forces with the Cygnus to premiere Jonathan Dawe’s opera, Prometheus, at the Guggenheim Museum and Wendy Steiner’s opera, The Loathly Lady at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2005, his performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 was described by the Washington Post as “a beautiful display of virtuosity”. He recently was part of the highly- acclaimed ARTEK performances of the 400th anniversary of that work in Washington DC and New York. He can be heard playing and singing nearly every week at Immanuel Lutheran Church where he is also a section leader in the choir. Upcoming performances include several more performances of Monteverdi’s Vespers in New York and Washington. He has been invited to join Parthenia/A Consort of Viols in a special performance of 17th Century English sacred music at the Morgan Library on June 9.
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