The Halfmoon
Emily Hale, artistic director, violin
Julia Connor, violin
Job Salazar Fonseca, violin
Nathaniel Cox, theorbo
John McKean, harpsichord

Program available here (pdf). Illustrated guide to at-home printing and engraving activities here (pdf). Visit the artists’ website for more information.

June 23 The Halfmoon

printworks

The Halfmoon presents a multimedia concert experience featuring works composed and printed in the 17-18th centuries with historic letterpress and engraving techniques. Video footage of the historic printmaking process along with original animations by Alex Jaehyun Kim will explore their origins and connections to the music. The program includes works by Gabrieli, Buonamente, Marini, Matteis, and Marais. In addition, The Halfmoon will perform a new work inspired by the music-printing process by rising composer Audrey Wu, co-commissioned with SoHIP for this debut. An illustrated PDF with information about the musical program, the history of music printing, and simple printing and engraving activities to try at home is available to viewers.

June 30 hunt-Berry duo

Chamber Music from the Berry-Munschy Salon

This program offers baroque and classical era chamber music selections organized around the unique collection of historical instruments housed in the Berry-Munschy Music Room at the home of fortepianist Sylvia Berry and historical keyboard restorer Dale Munschy in Weymouth, MA. Together, they've curated a beautiful collection of early keyboard instruments including a harpsichord, virginal, square piano, Viennese fortepiano, and a Broadwood grand. This winter the Hunt-Berry Duo spent an intensive period working together in this space, providing a glimpse into what it may have been like for 18th-century French keyboard doyenne Anne Louise Brillon de Jouy and her collaborators. Thanks to the virtual nature of this concert, you can experience the same intimate salon atmosphere created in the homes of keyboardists like Brillon de Jouy and Therese Jansen as you hear works by Bach, Beethoven, Ortiz, Sweelinck, and Mozart.

Hunt-Berry Duo
Shirley Hunt, baroque cello & viola da gamba
Sylvia Berry, virginal, harpsichord, fortepiano

Full program available here (pdf). Visit the artists’ websites for more information: Shirley Hunt / Sylvia Berry

Ourania
Clare McNamara, mezzo-soprano
Sarah Moyer, soprano
Janet Stone, soprano

Full program available here (pdf). Visit the artists’ websites for more information: Clare McNamara / Sarah Moyer / Janet Stone

july 7 Ourania

Renaissance n’ Chill

Are you that early music nut who blasts Monteverdi while on your morning jog? What about listening to Weelkes when you’re powering up some punches in your cardio kickboxing routine? You’re not alone--we do it too! And that’s why we’ve decided to stop hiding our nerdiness and just start embracing it. So when you need a break from real life and all you wanna do is Renaissance n’ Chill, we’ve come up with an excellent playlist for your every mood. Looking for a rom-com? When Amyntas met Phyllis is the category for you! Crazy in love and need some inspo? Mad About Thee can help. And if you just want some raunchy fun, check out Fa La La Land--it won’t disappoint. All of these stories are set by some of your favorite composers: vocal trios by Weelkes, Marenzio, Wilbye, Palestrina, and others offer the ultimate escape to your musical desires.

July 14 the cramer quartet

Touché! French String Quartets at the Dawn of Romanticism

The Cramer Quartet offers a performance of hauntingly beautiful string quartets by two oft-overlooked French composers who foreshadowed Romanticism at the end of the 18th Century: Hyacinthe Jadin (1776-1800) and Joseph Bologne (1745-1799). With period instruments and an invigorating historically informed approach, the quartet brings uncommon warmth, transparency, and texture to this repertoire. The Cramer Quartet is committed to centering the voices of underrepresented and marginalized communities.

The Cramer Quartet
Jessica Park, violin
Chiara Fasani Stauffer, violin
Keats Dieffenbach, viola
Shirley Hunt, cello

Program available here (pdf).
Visit the artists’ website for details.

Ensemble Altera
Janet Stone, Rachel Garrepy, soprano
Christopher Lowrey, alto, director Mark Garrepy, tenor
Michael Garrepy, Nicholas Laroche, bass

Program available here (pdf). Visit the artists’ website for details.

July 21 ensemble altera

Jewels of the English Renaissance

Ensemble Altera performs a splendid program of early English Renaissance choral repertoire. Six vocalists present stunning one-to-a-part works by Byrd, Tallis, Taverner, and others ranging from the intricacies of the Eton Choirbook to the elegant simplicity of the early Reformation. The program includes a mixture of forms such as the pitch spiral of a double perfect canon and cantus firmus settings as well as simpler homophonic language. Textual themes vary from Advent to Nativity, Lent to Easter, and liturgical contexts range from a mass setting to a penitential psalm to a Vespers responsory. Filmed at the majestic Aldrich Mansion in Warwick, RI.

july 28 emily O’brien, recorders

Bach's Organ Trio Sonatas for the Recorder

The organ trio sonatas of J.S. Bach are intimate, thrilling, sublime, touching, and uplifting. While they are brilliantly polyphonic, they are ultimately conceived for just a single player to perform on the organ. The recorder is capable of expressive subtleties of articulation and shaping tones that an organ is not, but a lone recorder player cannot hope to cover all three parts at once--or can she? In this brilliant multi-tracked video project, Emily O’Brien plays her own transcriptions of Bach’s amazing works using seven recorders ranging from soprano down to the sonorous contrabass. 

Emily O'Brien, recorders 

Full program available here (pdf). For more information, please visit the artist’s website.

Seven Times Salt
Elise Groves, soprano, percussion
Matthew Leese, baritone
Karen Burciaga, violin, guitar, alto
Dan Meyers, recorders, flutes, bagpipes, percussion, baritone
David H. Miller, bass viol, baritone
Matthew Wright, lute, cittern, tenor

For more information, please visit the artists’ website. Full program available here (pdf).

August 4 seven times salt

A Health to the Company

Seven Times Salt visits the 17th-century London pub scene in this convivial program of tunes for the tavern including jovial drinking songs, love ballads both naughty and nice, and rustic catches for carousing with friends. We imagine an evening in good company by the fireplace with a favorite beverage in hand. We share tales of pickpockets and punks, wise maids and goodfellows, the wonders of tobacco, the pitfalls of gambling, and the delights of good ale. Between toasts, we contemplate the meaning of life and reflect on unrequited love. Rounding out the evening’s merriment are works by Wilbye and Ravenscroft along with a generous helping of dance tunes. In the spirit of cheerful musical camaraderie, our program celebrates the joys of gathering with friends. Raise your glass and voice and sing along! Filmed in the pub at historic Aldworth Manor, Harrisville, NH.

August 11 berwick fiddle consort

Songs, Spoons and Strathspeys

Irish folk music, traditional Québécois music and Cape Breton fiddle music all have Celtic roots, yet these oral traditions have evolved in very different ways. Over many generations, specific geographical areas developed distinct performance practices resulting in unique, unmistakable sounds. The program presents historical folk music from these various traditions, exploring the common threads that connect them as well as their special characteristics. This lively, driving, foot-tapping repertoire springs to life with the consort’s signature gutsy sound of baroque fiddles, now joined with cello and spoons in this brand new program. 

Berwick Fiddle Consort
Lydia Becker, Julia Connor, Sarah Douglass, fiddles
Joella Becker, cello
Élise Paradis, spoons

Full program available here (pdf). For more information, please visit the artists’ website.