PORT
TOWNSEND
ST. PAUL'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH
1020 Jefferson Street
Port Townsend · (360) 385-0770
Suggested
Donation:
$20 to $30
(a free will offering - everyone
welcome)
•
18
and under FREE •
SSEMF presents outstanding early chamber music in Port
Townsend thanks to your support.
The
Salish Sea Early Music Festival is a
501(c)3 organization and all donations are
fully tax deductible in accordance with
the law. Your donations are welcomed at
https://www.salishseafestival.org/donate .
✣
With special thanks
✣ to
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
2025
Salish Sea Early Music Festival in Port Townsend ~
Period Instrument chamber music from six centuries
in Port Townsend and around the Salish Sea ~
~ Presented in
collaboration with St. Paul's Episcopal Church ~
~
Mostly Sundays at 2:00 PM
except May 16
★ download updated
flyer here ~
Sunday
afternoon, July 13,
2025 at 2:00 PM:
—
JOHANN
SEBASTIAN BACH &
DOMENICO SCARLATTI
· Irene
Roldàn,
harpsichord
· Jeffrey
Cohan, baroque
flute
Irene Roldàn and Jeffrey
interpret Bach's phenomenal
music for flute and
harpsichord alongside works
by Domenico Scarlatti
including works both for
solo harpsichord and with
flute.
Award-winning
harpsichordist Irene
Roldán (www.ireneroldan.com)
was born in southern Spain in
1997. Described by the press
as one of the most prominent
Spanish harpsichordists on the
international scene (ABC
Sevilla), Irene currently
lives and works in Basel,
Switzerland. She gained
international recognition in
2021, when she won first
prize, never previously
awarded in this competition,
as well as the audience prize
at the III. International
Harpsichord Competition «Città
di Milano». In the same year,
her ensemble Flor Galante
secured the first prize at the
IV. International Bach
Competition in Berlin. One
year later, Irene was honored
with the prestigious Bach
Prize and an additional
special award at the XXXIII.
International Bach Competition
held in Leipzig, Germany.
Irene
Roldàn’s
participation
in these
performances
has been made
possible with
help from the
Honorary
Consulate of
Spain in
Seattle and
from to the
Programme for
the
Internationalisation
of Spanish
Culture (PICE)
of Acción
Cultural
Española
(AC/E), which
seeks to
promote
Spanish
culture
through the
inclusion of
Spanish
artists and
creators
residing in
Spain in the
programming of
cultural
events outside
of Spain.
~
2026 next season
~
UKRAINE
Olena
Zhukova
It is a great honor to
feature Ukrainian
harpsichordist Olena
Zhukova of Kyiv,
Ukraine, a leading
harpsichordist and a
tireless ambassador of
early music in her
country and abroad
during this difficult
period. She has performed
since the outbreak of
full-scale war in
prominent performances
sponsored by distinguished
institutions all around
Ukraine, Poland, Austria,
France, Switzerland and
Czech Republic for
international festivals
and in collaboration with
major artists, orchestras
and opera productions. Ms.
Zhukova is also an
accomplished scholar who
published and presented
more than 20 articles,
while devoting herself to
her harpsichord class and
chamber music students as
Associate Professor at
both the National
Music Academy of Ukraine
and the Gliére Academy
of Music (Kiev),
where she founded the
harpsichord class. Recent
engagements during the
past few months alone
include Bach's Goldberg
Variations in the
prestigious Organ Hall
in Lviv, Ukraine; the
first major classical
performance for the public
in Chernihiv,
Ukraine since
the outbreak of war
entitled French
Music in Times of
War
and sponsored by the
Ambassador of France, in a
newly rebuilt performance
hall in Chernihiv that had
previously been
extensively damaged by a
Russian strike at the
beginning of the conflict;
and an involved program,
consisting exclusively of
new music in part composed
for her by today's
Ukrainian composers, for
Columbia University’s Global
Center in Paris and
its Institute for
Ideas and Imagination.
Ms.
Zhukova will appear in the
following two programs:
Dates
to be announced: —
HARPSICHORD
MYSTERY
(Seattle,
Vancouver and
Tacoma only)
· Elena
Zhukova,
harpsichord
The Ukrainian
harpsichordist deciphers
mysterious and elusive
rarities as well as
standards for solo
harpsichord by Byrd,
Couperin, Rameau and
Scarlatti alongside
Ukrainian gems including a
harpsichord sonata by
Dmitry Bortnyansky. [only
in Seattle,
Vancouver and Tacoma]
Dates
to be announced:
— EUROPEAN
TOUR 1690-1790
· Elena
Zhukova,
harpsichord
· Jeffrey
Cohan, baroque
flute
An excursion through a
century of transformation
and diversity by decade and
culture within the baroque
and classical periods,
through the perspective of
composers for harpsichord
and flute from France,
Italy, Scotland, Germany and
Ukraine.
~
Earlier concerts this 2025 season
~
Sunday,
January 19, 2025 at
2:00 PM: — THE
CANZONA
· Vicki
Boeckman, renaissance
recorders
· Tina Chancey,
tenor viol
· Jeffrey
Cohan, renaissance
transverse flutes
· Anna Marsh,
dulcian (renaissance bassoon)
Featuring
special guest renaissance
specialist and innovative
improviser Tina Chancey from
Hesperus in Washington, DC, this
in-depth exploration of the
Italian four-part canzona, which
blossomed in print from 1577
through the mid 1600’s, traces
its development from 1533, when
commercial music printing was in
its infancy in Europe, through
1636 at which point more
“baroque” stylistic forms such
as the sonata and the suite had
begun to emerged. Canzonas by
Florentino Maschera (1582),
Floriano Canale (1600), Giovanni
Dominico Rognoni Taegio (1605),
Antonio Troilo (1606), Giovanni
Gabrieli (1608), Girolamo
Frescobaldi (1608), Giovanni
Antonio Cangiasi (1614), Giacomo
Biumi (1624), Nicolo Corradini
(1624), Giovanni Buonamente
(1636) and others are to be
included in the program along
with examples of the earlier
French and Flemish songs of the
early 1500's that inspired them,
including well known chansons
published specifically for
instrumentalists in 1533, 1577
and 1588, among them Clement
Jannequin’s “Song of the Birds”.
Renaissance winds of three
distinct families along with the
fretted viols provide an
exciting blend and a distinct
character to each of the four
intertwining musical lines.
Sunday,
February 23,
2025 at 2:00 PM:
— THE
CHACONNE with LES VOIX
HUMAINES
· Susie Napper,
viola da gamba & treble
viol
· Mélisande
Corriveau, viola da
gamba & pardessus de viol
· Elisabeth
Wright, harpsichord
· Jeffrey
Cohan, baroque and
renaissance flutes
Les
Voix humaines,
the widely celebrated
prize-winning duo of viols
from Montreal joins us for a
program demonstrating the
chaconne at it's most
poignant, transporting three
important works by Johann
Sebastian Bach to an entirely
new level through their own
transcriptions, and presenting
other remarkable but rarely
heard repertoire for two viola
da gambas, pardessus de viol,
flute and harpsichord.
The
hypnotic French chaconne that
developed during the reign of
Louis XIV brings the listener
from one emotional realm to the
next in a regular procession of
episodes that transition gently
in an emotional direction or
leap suddenly with emotion and
stark contrast, now uplifting or
sad, majestic or introspective,
hopeful or questioning. The
pulse may feel broader, then
more angular, then running with
abandon or pregnant with poise,
always cleverly evolving in the
presentation of a musical
story. Bach
and Telemann succeed in bringing
this chaconne to a whole new
level, as we'll experience with
"Les Voix Humaines" in their
very own transcription of Bach's
Chaconne in D Minor for
2 viola da gambas, originally
for solo violin, and in the
chaconne entitled Modéré
from Telemann's Paris
Quartet No. 12 in E Minor
for flute, pardessus de viole,
viola da gamba and harpischord.
Two outstanding quartets for two
viola da gambas, flute and
harpsichord celebrating this
unusual combination of
instruments will be heard
alongside two additional
transcriptions: for flute,
pardessus de viol and
harpsichord of Bach's Organ
Trio Sonata in D Minor,
and for solo harpsichord of the
Allemande from Bach's D
Major Suite No. 6 for
solo cello.
From
the standpoint of the
Salish Sea Early Music
Festival and
as Tobias Hume asserted in
1605, "Now to use a modest
shortness, and a brief
expression of my self to all
noble spirits": Les Voix
Humaines is simply
phenomenal!
In
1676, Thomas Mace accurately
expressed their sentiments: "I
have been more Sensibly,
Fervently, and Zealously
Captivated, and drawn into
Divine Raptures, and
Contemplations, by Those
Unexpressible Rhetorical,
Uncontroulable Perswasions, and
Instructions of Musicks Divine
Language."
A perfect description of their
vision of music making, Sloane
wrote c.1794: "There must be an
Order and just Proportion,
Intricacy with Simplicity in the
Component parts, Variety in the
Mass, and Light and Shadow in
the whole, so as to produce the
varied sensations of gaiety and
melancholy, of wildness and even
surprise and wonder…"
And as Thomas Mace says in 1676:
"…When we come to be Masters… we
can command all manner of Time,
at our own Pleasures; we Then
take Liberty for Humour and good
Adornment-sake, to Break Time;
sometimes Faster, sometimes
Slower, as we perceive, the
Nature of the Thing Requires,
which…adds much Grace and Luster
to the Performance."
Sunday,
March 9, 2025
at 2:00 PM:
—
FRENCH
BAROQUE TRIO SONATAS
with MUSICA ALTA RIPA
· Anne
Röhrig,
violin
· Bernward
Lohr, harpsichord
· Susie
Napper, viola da
gamba
· Jeffrey
Cohan, baroque
flute
French
trio sonatas and quartets
spanning more than 60 years
through the reigns of Louis
XIV and Louis V, alongside a
"Paris Quartet" written by
Georg Philipp Telemann for his
visit to Paris in 1738.
Marin
Marais (1656 – 1728)
—
Trio
C major (1682)
Jean-Baptiste Quentin, the
young (before 1690 – ca.
1742)
—
Trio
in G minor Opus 8 No. 1
(after 1729)
Louis-Gabriel Guillemain
(1705 – 1770)
—
Trio
Sonata No. 3 in D Minor
(1743)
Jean-Marie Leclair l'aîné
(1697 – 1764)
—
Violin
Sonata in A Minor
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier
(1689 – 1755)
—
Trio
Sonata Opus 37 No. 2 in e
minor (1732)
MUSICA
ALTA RIPA
Harpsichordist BERNWARD LOHR
is director of Hanover's
Musica Alta Ripa, one of
Germany's most active and
extensively recorded period
instrument ensembles. Baroque
violinist ANNE RÖHRIG, leads
the Hannoversche Hofkapelle
(the "Hanover Court
Orchestra"), another of the
premier baroque orchestras
that contributes to the
vibrant early music scene in
Hannover and Northern Germany.
“Hannover” originally evolved
from "Hohes Ufer", meaning
"high riverbank" or "Alta
Ripa" in Latin. Bernward Lohr
and Anne Röhrig are professors
at music conservatories in
both Hannover and Nuremburg,
Germany. Their more than 30
recordings have garnered many
of the most important awards
in Europe for recordings
including the Diapason Dòr,
the Cannes Classical Award,
the German Recording Critics'
Prize, and several times the
coveted Echo Klassik Award.
Both were awarded the 2002
Music Award of Lower Saxony.
Sunday,
May 4 at 2:00 PM:
— The
MUSIQUE DE LA CHAMBRE of
LOUIS XIV
· Caroline
Nicolas, viola da
gamba
· William
Simms, baroque
guitar
· Jeffrey
Cohan, baroque
flute
The
MUSIQUE DE LA CHAMBRE of LOUIS
XIV features music by
prominent soloists, all
composers, who frequently
played for Louis XIV,
including the king’s guitar
instructor Robert De Visée and
his Italian predecessor
Francesco Corbetta, along with
a favorite viola da gambist at
the court, Marin Marais and
his teacher Monsieur de
Sainte-Colombe, as well as
Élisabeth Jacquet de La
Guerre, a young harpsichordist
and one of the few famous
female musicians of her time
whose playing and compositions
Louis deeply admired and
subsidized.
This program stands apart in a
variety of ways. Jeffrey Cohan
discovered the earliest known
French solo specifically for
the transverse flute by the
king’s court music librarian
André Danican Philidor L'Aisné
in a relatively unknown and as
yet unpublished manuscript
which was prepared in 1695 by
Philidor himself as a present
from Louis XIV for the Duke of
Bavaria. Marin Marais asserted
that his music for viola da
gamba might be played on the
transverse flute, as is to be
realized in a Suite from his
first book of pieces for viola
da gamba. Similarly a sonata
by Jacquet de La Guerre
assumes new resonance in our
realization for transverse
flute, gamba and guitar.
Caroline Nicolas and William
Simms will perform solos for
viola da gamba and guitar by
De Visée, Corbetta and
Sainte-Colombe.
The French musical perspective
emulated reason and
moderation, with sensory
perception serving
comprehension. French
musicians aspired to thrill
the senses via the intellect,
in a continual search for
grace and elegance. Dance was
viewed as the consummate
expression of the mastery of
body and mind and the epitome
of aristocratic art, as
evidenced by Louis XIV's daily
dance lessons for 20 years
alongside frequent guitar
lessons. Every French court
and church musician reflected
musically their determination
to depict refinement and true
sentiments, while dispensing
with excessive turbulence and
contrast. All of this
contrasted greatly with the
Italian focus on the direct
expression of emotions via
their virtuoso and flamboyant
approach, which was indeed
admired in some circles in
France.
Friday,
May 16 at 6:00
PM (not 7 PM, rescheduled from
May 25): — CONCERTI
from the COURT of FREDERICK
THE GREAT (please
note revised date,
and 6:00
start time)
· David Schrader,
harpsichord
· Jeffrey
Cohan, baroque
flute
· Elizabeth
Phelps, baroque
violin
· Courtney
Kuroda, baroque
violin
· Christine
Moran,
baroque viola
· Susie
Napper,
baroque cello
A concerto by Frederick
II, the monarch of Prussia
from 1740, will be
included alongside the
Suite in B Minor by Johann
Sebastian Bach, whose
visit to the king's court
in 1747 is legendary, and
concerti by Frederick's
keyboardist Carl Philipp
Emanuel Bach for both
harpsichord and flute.
Sunday,
June 8,
2025 at 2:00 PM:
—FOLK
SONG FROM THREE
CENTURIES II
Renaissance
Psalms, Scottish
Baroque & Folk
· Oleg
Timofeyev,
renaissance lute,
English guitar &
7-string guitar (1820)
· Jeffrey
Cohan,
renaissance, baroque
& 8-keyed flutes
(London, 1820)
Renaissance Psalms
(~1620), Irish and
Scottish baroque
(~1720) and folk music
as interpreted during
Beethoven's lifetime
(~1820) in part II, a
100% new program of
highly innovative
renditions of settings
from three centuries
based on popular and
folk music, performed
on 5 transverse flutes
and three plucked
instruments.
In the early 17th
century Flutist Jacob
Van Eyck and lutenist
Nicolas Vallet both
wrote settings of and
variations on many of
the Psalm tunes from
the Geneva Psalter of
the mid-16th century
that were widely sung
in churches 100 years
later. These are
juxtaposed
simultaneously in a
manner that sheds new
light on early
17th-century practice.
James Oswald's "Airs
for the Seasons"
consists of four
collections, one for
each season, of about
24 airs or
multi-movement suites,
each dedicated to a
particular flower of
the season and
radiating the charming
character of the folk
melodies of Oswald's
native Scotland. The
wire strung English
guitar, so rarely to
be heard today,
emerged around this
time as one of the
most prominent
instruments of home
life in England, and
Oswald's airs
beautifully suit
Oleg's instrument made
in 1767 alongside the
one-keyed baroque
flute. Likewise,
settings of the
popular tunes written
specifically for the
English guitar by
Scotsman Robert
Bremner and others are
to be heard, following
settings from several
decades earlier of
Irish and Scottish
popular melodies by
Burk Thumoth and
Francesco Barsanti on
baroque flute and
lute.
Finally, an Eastern
European 7-string
guitar made in 1820 in
Russia and an
eight-keyed flute made
in London in the same
year resonate to
variations on popular
tunes by Englishman
Charles Nicholson,
American Joseph
Kennedy, Austrian
Anton Diabelli and
other virtuoso
flutists and
guitarists of
Beethoven’s day.
LISTEN:
Oleg
Timofeyev and Jeffrey
Cohan play Drouet's God
Save the Queen
on SoundCloud:
Fantasia
11 by Giovanni
Bassano (1585)
January 11,
2021
~ updated
June 19, 2025 ~ Do you receive our
email announcements and flyers?!
Please sign our MAILING LIST and please specify Port
Townsend
by sending your
address and any other comments to salishseafestival@aol.com
~ thank you!
SSEMF
banner: detail from "The
Last Time it Reached Zero"
by James
C. Holl. SSEMF presents
outstanding early
chamber music
on period instruments thanks
to your support.
Friday,
May 16 at 
17th
Century