BELLINGHAM
FIRST
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
·
1031
North Garden Street
All
concerts at 7:00 PM
Suggested
Donation:
$20 to $30
(a free will offering - everyone
welcome)
•
18
and under FREE •
stined
glass at 1st Presbyterian
SSEMF presents outstanding
early chamber music in
Bellingham
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
First Presbyterian Church
|
2025 Salish Sea Early Music Festival in
Bellingham
~ Period Instrument
chamber music from six centuries in Bellingham and
around the Salish Sea ~
~ Presented in
collaboration with First Presbyterian Church ~
~
Please note that our next concert takes place on June
13 and not on June 6. ~
~
Mostly Fridays except April 10,
all at 7:00 PM
★ download
updated
flyer here ~
Friday, June 13
(not June 6), 2025 at 7:00 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 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:
 17th
CenturyNicolas
Vallet
Jacob
Van Eyck
18th
Century
James
Oswald
Francesco
Barsanti
Turlough
O'Carolan
19th
Century
Anton
Diabelli
I.T.
Norton
Late July: — THE
18TH-CENTURY HARPSICHORD IN
SPAIN
(Seattle,
Vancouver and Tacoma only - please
see those pages on our site)
· Irene
Roldàn, harpsichord
Step into the heart of 18th-century
Iberia, where the vibrant court of
Madrid stood as a focal point for
the flourishing of the rich keyboard
music of Domenico Scarlatti,
Sebastian de Albero, Jose de Nebra,
and the Portuguese Carlos
Seixas. [only in certain
locations]
Friday,
July 18 at 7:00 PM: — JOHANN SEBASTIAN
BACH
· Irene Roldàn,
harpsichord
· Jeffrey Cohan,
baroque flute
Spanish harpsichordist Irene Roldàn
from Basel and Jeffrey interpret
Bach's phenomenal music for flute and
harpsichord.
 
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
~
|
Friday,
January 17, 2025
at 7:00 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.
Friday,
February 21, 2025
at 7:00 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."
Friday,
March 7, 2025 at
7:00 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" by Georg
Philipp Telemann, written for
Telemann's 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.
Friday,
May 2 at 7:00 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 23 at 7 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.
|
~ updated
June 1, 2025 ~
Do you receive our
email announcements and flyers?!
Please sign our MAILING LIST (please specify Bellingham)
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. |
|
