2023 Concert Series
Concerts are at 7:30pm Tuesdays in Lincoln / Wednesdays in Andover / Thursdays in Boston
This season’s concerts remain available to watch free of charge on our YouTube channel.
Please consider donating to support SoHIP’s musicians!
Tutti Bassi
Sarah Freiberg and Colleen McGary-Smith, cellos
June 20-22 tutti bassi
the road less traveled
We welcome back Handel and Haydn Society cellists Sarah Freiberg and Colleen McGary-Smith, who formed the duo Tutti Bassi in 2012 to explore the rich repertoire of baroque cello sonatas and duos on original instruments. The duo chose some favorites to record on their 2022 album "Have Cellos, Will Travel" and is excited to share these 18th-c. musical gems with SoHIP audiences. The program includes works by Johann Ernst Galliard, Giovanni Batista Cirri, Stephen Paxton, Willem De Fesch, Francesco Barsanti, the slightly better-known Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689-1755) and the very popular Anonymous–-in the form of cello duos of popular 18th-century French tunes published in Paris. Learn More
June 27-29 boston recorder orchestra
many voices
The Boston Recorder Orchestra, the nation’s only Renaissance recorder orchestra, brings together professional and community players performing on a handmade, matched set of instruments ranging from garklein to contrabass by Italian master craftsman Francesco LiVirghi. This program presents the many voices of the orchestra in intertwining conversations of Renaissance polyphony, madrigals of women and black composers, grand works for antiphonal choirs, Ukrainian traditional music, sparkling dances, and a few crickets. Ten sizes of Renaissance recorders highlight the magnificent works of Josquin des Prés, John Dunstable, Vittoria Aleotti, Vicente Lusitano, Claude Gervaise and more. Learn More
Boston Recorder Orchestra
John Tyson, Director
Miyuki Tsurutani, Assistant Director
Hesperus
Tina Chancey, Renaissance violin, viol, recorders
Julie Bosworth, soprano, percussion
Dan Meyers, baritone, recorders, flute. bagpipe, douçaine, percussion
Cameron Welke, lute
July 4-6 hesperus
The three musketeers
Hesperus brings their famous “cine-concert” to Boston and accompanies the classic silent film “The Three Musketeers” starring Douglas Fairbanks. The year is 1625, and swashbuckling swordsman D’Artagnan joins forces with the Three Musketeers to save the French Queen’s honor from the machinations of the cruel Cardinal Richelieu. This 1921 melodrama, an adaptation of Alexander Dumas’ 1844 novel, comes alive with a real-time soundtrack of French renaissance dances, folk songs, and theatrical chansons by Gervaise, Compère, Sermisy and others performed on period instruments. Learn More
July 11-13 mystic river baroque
canzoni da sonar
The early Baroque was a time of experimentation, when stylistic elements of Renaissance polyphony met and mingled with the developing practice of basso continuo. England and Italy saw a blossoming interest in virtuosic instrumental music which later became 18th-c. suite and sonata forms. Contrasting moods and tempi of these early works would later develop into standardized Baroque sonatas with their own florid style of melodrama. Loosely-organized instrumental suites have one foot in the older world of consort music and familiar dance forms, and the other in the new, filling out the harmonies with a continuo section. Mystic River Baroque employs a broad palette of timbres and characters to highlight the colorful, mercurial music of Castello, Cima, Locke and others.
Mystic River Baroque
Emily O’Brien, recorders
Rebecca Shaw, viola da gamba
Kelly Savage, harpsichord
ARDENZA
Emily Hale and Karen Burciaga, violins
Bodie Pfost, sackbut
Allen Hamrick, dulcian
John McKean, organ
July 25-27 ardenza
Two schools of 17th-c. chamber music
Virtuosic chamber music with specified instrumental parts flourished in Italy in the early 1600s, especially in the cities of Venice and Rome, as shown in the dramatic works of Cavalli, Marini, and Castello among others. This was echoed later in the century in the Germanic lands to the north, especially in the Habsburg Empire and the Hanseatic League, in the strange and intriguing sonatas of Schmelzer, Bertali, Legrenzi, and their contemporaries. Bridging these northern and southern schools is ARDENZA, a new ensemble passionate about the 17th century. In addition to the delightful, built-in tempo and dynamic contrasts that define this repertoire, the full instrumentation is contrasted with solos and duets featuring all members of the ensemble.
August 1-3 the pandora consort
the witching hour
The Pandora Consort presents a musical exploration of the role of women and witchcraft throughout history. This performance features vocal works ranging from Hildegard von Bingen to New England folk songs to ensemble works by living composers Amy Beth Kirsten and Kerry Andrews. The music is accompanied by poetry and art that embodies the spirit of rebellious women, and it draws from historical accounts of accused witches and witchcraft with a modern interpretation of creating one’s own feminine power. The Pandora Consort and guest vocalists Gina Marie Falk and Lea Peterson weave a musical spell you’ll not soon forget. Learn More
The Pandora Consort
Kendra Comstock, Angie Tyler, Lea Peterson, Gina Marie Falk, voices and harmonium
Suore Project
Kelly Savage, harpsichord
Anneke Schaul-Yoder, baroque cello
Brett Umlauf, soprano
August 8-10 suore project
the ecstatic and the divine: Music from convents
This newly researched program celebrates the virtuosic repertory of nun composers. The music stretches across several eras and empires, from the convents of 17th-century Italy, forward to contemporary Ethiopia with music by Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, and all the way back to the 9th-century Eastern Roman Empire with the works of Kassia of Byzantium. This program ignites the heart with Rosa Giacinta Badalla’s exuberant Alleluias, delights the mind with Kassia’s meditative chants, animates the body with Chiara Margarita Cozzolani’s passionate depictions, and sweetens the soul with Hildegard von Bingen’s soaring melodies. Suore Project takes inspiration from these composers’ cloistered lives and their valiant efforts to perform and publish amidst restrictions on musical expression. Learn More