SEATTLE FAITH LUTHERAN
CHURCH
· 8208 - 18th Avenue NE
(206) 523-9636 www.faithseattle.org
Thursdays at 7:30 PM
Suggested
Donation:
$20 to $30
(a free will offering - everyone
welcome)
•
18
and under FREE • SSEMF
presents outstanding early chamber music in
Seattle 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
Faith Lutheran Church
2025 Salish Sea Early Music Festival in Seattle ~
Period Instrument chamber music from six centuries in
Seattle and around the Salish Sea ~
~ Presented in
collaboration with Faith Lutheran Church ~
~
Mostly Thursdays (except
March 30 and April 11) at
7:30 PM
★ download updated
flyer here ~
Sonata
in F minor –
Moderato
Minuet in F major
Sonata in F minor–
Allegro
José
de Nebra (1702 –
1768)
Sinfonia
II in E minor
Sinfonia
VIII in C
Major-minor
Félix
Máximo López
(1742 - 1821)
Variaciones
del Fandango
espanol
The
listener will step into the heart
of 18th-century Iberia, where the
vibrant court of Madrid stood as a
focal point for the flourishing of
rich keyboard music. Domenico
Scarlatti, with his masterful
keyboard sonatas, cast a
considerable shadow over
contemporaneous composers unfairly
labeled as mere imitators.
Sebastian de Albero, Jose de
Nebra, and the Portuguese Carlos
Seixas forged unique voices while
incorporating a wide range of
influences into their work, from
the Spanish Golden Age and Iberian
folklore to Italian virtuosity.
Hidden gems, like Nebra's
symphonies, await discovery. As
Scarlatti's sonatas remain iconic,
the listener will delve into the
overlooked brilliance of these
composers, poised for a deserved
spotlight in the keyboard
repertoire.
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.
Thursday,
July 17, 2025 at
7:30 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.
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
~
Thursday,
January 23, 2025 at 7:30 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.
Thursday,
February 27,
2025 at 7:30
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."
Thursday,
March 13,
2025 at 7:30 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.
Thursday,
May 8 at 7:30 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.
Thurs,
May 22 at
7:30 PM: — CONCERTI
from the COURT of
FREDERICK THE GREAT
· 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.
Thursday,
June 12 (not
June 5 as
originally
scheduled),
2025 at 7:30 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 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
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by sending your
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~ 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.
Thursday, July
10, 2025 at 7:30 PM:
Thurs,
May 22 at
7:30 PM: — CONCERTI
from the COURT of
FREDERICK THE GREAT
17th
Century