Bach Akademie Luzern

Last Friday saw the premiere professional performance of the Bach Akademie Luzern in a production of J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio at the Matthäuskirche in Lucerne. The first of three performances, the Orchestra, Choir, and Soloists will continue on to perform this week around Switzerland.

Rumorum performs for WDR 3

It's very easy to think of medieval music as a rather limited genre. Not so. In fact, medieval music encompasses nearly a millennia of musical output with an incredible array of styles and particularities, depending on the time and region. More startling still is the knowledge required to unlock countless forms of notation and numerous early European languages to breathe life once more into an ancient manuscript.

Lukas Henning: Rome 1623

A few days ago I had the chance to interview Lukas Henning, whose groundbreaking masterrezital was recently published on YouTube. After months of research, planning, and practicing, the performance was well received by all. Being in the audience myself, it was interesting to imagine the possibilities for such a "scenic production". 

A Paper Kite Might Best Reach You

This past July an up-and-coming early music ensemble, Paper Kite, soared through Italy in its first ever concert tour. The ensemble - a quintet of soprano, two violins, cello, and harpsichord specializing in the 17th and 18th century cantata repertoire - takes its name from a letter written by Dr. Samuel Johnson to Georg Friedrich Händel.

Paper Kite

After taking off only two years ago, Paper Kite has been tethered to success ever since. Finalists in both the Heinrich Schmelzer (Melk, Austria) and the Premio Selìfa (San Ginesino, Italy) competitions, the ensemble won 1st place at the Biagio Marini competition in Neuberg an der Donau (Germany). Further, they were an IYAP “Selected Promising Ensemble 2014” and performed in the Festival Oudemuziek Utrecht Fringe last year. As the group prepared for their first concert tour, I managed to sit down with them to discuss their successes and challenges.

The Next Step

“If all the musicians in Europe performed as you did today, there would be peace on Earth.” – Anonymous listener at NewBO’s premiere, 2/9/15

On September 2nd, my most important project to date came to fruition. As part of the Utrecht Oude Muziek Festival’s Fabulous Fringe series, NewBO (The New Baroque Orchestra) celebrated its premiere performance with a program of English music from the middle of the 18th century. As administrator and co-director of this project, a lot has rested on my shoulders over the past few months and I can’t tell you the feeling I had when we stepped onto that stage in the Hertz room at the TivoliVredenburg.

NewBO was conceived in the bar of the Hôtel des Ardennes in Echternach, Luxembourg, almost two years ago. After hours of discussion, as well as a few more weeks on tour, it was clear that a fire was lit. Following two seasons as EUBO, our desire to play together burned ever stronger. After our final tour to Malta I began preparing the materials for our Utrecht debut.

I saw the Angel in the Marble...

Pygmalion and Galatea by Jean-Léon Gérôme

New baroque opera company to present inaugural performance April 13 and 14, at the Rialto Theatre, Montreal.

...and carved until I set it free.


It seems Montreal is never short of enterprising artists. 

Next week, the Collectif Baroque Mont-Royal will present its first production, complete with baroque orchestra: Rameau's acte de ballet, Pygmalion. An ambitious undertaking for the two directors, David Menzies and Susan Toman, who have been chipping away since the summer; Pygmalion will be fully-staged and will be accompanied by its own baroque orchestra.

Prisme Dreaming in Technicolor

Support for artists in the province of Quebec has been strong for generations. With generous, though competitive, grant possibilities from agencies such as CALQ, SODEC, regional arts councils, and municipal governments, combined with the only government-administered regional conservatory system in the nation, it's no surprise some of Canada's best-known artists live and work there. Naturally, la petite Ville de Gatineau, just a stone's throw from downtown Ottawa, has drawn a musical establishment to rival its southern counterpart.

Sitting on the north shore of the Ottawa river, Gatineau, with population of just over 250,000, is home to four important musical institutions; Le Conservatoire de Gatineau, L'Orchestre symphonique de Gatineau, Plaisirs du Clavecin  and Ensemble Prisme. Interestingly, all apart from the Conservatoire are rather recent additions to the city. The orchestra and Prisme held their first subscription series' in 2006-2007 with Plaisirs du Clavecin following in 2009. Although their establishment has certainly been greatly aided by granting agencies and corporate sponsors, the ultimate challenge, as with all arts institutions these days, remains: attracting an audience.

Bourbon Baroque Drinking the Kool-Aid?

Louisville Baroque ensemble to perform one act Entrée in collaboration with local puppet troupe.

Louisville, Kentucky - a town whose has been holding its breath recently when it comes to its classical music scene can breath easy next weekend. Its first 18th century French opera experience in quite some time, Louisville will be in for quite a show.


If puppets and music excite you, read on.

Across Sea and Land Walk the Wayward Sisters, Violin in Hand

If the Wayward Sisters are linked with a kind of mythical being, their audiences would undoubtably agree that they share more in common with sirens than the three witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth, from whom the ensemble takes its name.

Anne Timberlake, recorders; Anna Steinhoff, cello;
Beth Wenstrom, violin; John Lenti, theorbo and guitar

Making waves recently, the Wayward Sisters won Early Music America's Naxos Recording Competition of 2011 not long after snatching the Newberry Consort's title of Emerging Artist for 2010-2011. The quartet, formed in 2009, is made up of violinist Beth Wenstrom, flute-à-bec-ist Anne Timberlake, cellist Anna Steinhoff, and lutenist John Lenti.

With a name that rather cogently hints at an unfortunate reality, the Wayward Sisters have been living in separate cities since they began. With busy freelance schedules in Seattle, WA; New York, NY; Chicago, IL; and Richmond, VA; it's almost miraculous they've managed to find the time to rehearse and perform together. Luckily, I managed to talk to them in New York while they took a break from rehearsing some of the material for their upcoming CD, Musick for Severall Friends.

Breaking Trail (and Wind) for Classical Music in the 21st Century

Every year, the Internet takes a larger role in our lives.  This 'series of tubes', as then-United States Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) once called it, has had an incalculable influence over the general public's taste in the past decade, as well as the marketing strategy of arts organizations. These days, many online businesses build their brand in the hopes to go 'viral', a very recent development in the history of marketing. This week, we meet one of the first classical music ensembles to have gone viral in North American social media, The Breaking Winds Bassoon Quartet.

(From left to right)
Yuki Katayama
Brittany Harrington
Kara LaMoure
Lauren Yu

Though they had planned to put it on their YouTube channel, as they had done with a previous concert, BWBQ never thought the video would catch so much attention. Two weeks after publishing the Lady Gaga Saga, over 100,000 people had viewed it. The next few weeks saw news websites, blogs, radio and television stations carrying the story. "We had hoped for 1,000 views," explains Brittany, "after the first night we had a few thousand."

Since their rise to stardom, the four girls have taken their roles very seriously, each taking a particular task in the administration. Today, they operate a website, Facebook page, twitter feed, and a YouTube channel, which are regularly updated. For an ensemble with an average age of 23, this is quite extraordinary. The girls have been steadily posting new videos on their YouTube channel, keeping up with their fans. "It's nice to think that people might be watching our progress who aren't able to see us live [yet]," says Kara, "though [putting videos up] was more for our friends at first." Though their other videos haven't had as many views as the Gaga video, they still have a few thousand each.

An ensemble with a clear understanding of modern marketing techniques, the Breaking Winds have had their fingers in the digital pie for years. Formed in 2008 by four young bassoonists (Eryn Bauer, Brittany Harrington, Kara LaMoure, and Lauren Yu), the quartet called the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, home. Originally conceived as more of a social activity, the girls took much enjoyment out of the few performances they had together, while focusing on their studies. By their senior year the membership had regularized (Yuki Katayama replaced Eryn) and the group began looking towards new, 'out there', programming ideas, when it dawned on Kara to do a Lady Gaga tribute. "We had all wanted pop music in our next show," explains Kara, "the other girls seem to remember me as being super enthusiastic about [Lady Gaga], I don't think I was... but getting them to warm to the idea was like pulling teeth... Maybe it was a bit odd at the time, but she was everywhere." Fortunately, the other three jumped on board with what had the potential to be quite an embarrassing affair.

After graduating from Eastman, the quartet branched apart for grad school, and expect to be performing quite a --bit together in-between term-time. "We're sort of doing our own thing right now,"says Kara, "we all want to work on being the best bassoonists we can be before making a big commitment." Their heart looks to be in the right place, as the demand for the BWBQ has increased dramatically.

This past summer, the Breaking Winds tooted over to Texas and performed, to great success, in schools and retirement homes. The tour, their third geared towards schools, came into being thanks to Jennifer Auerbach, a popular bassoon teacher in Dallas, who acted as an intermediary with the local band teachers and principals, before handing off the legwork to Brittany. Ironically, it wasn't the Texas natives, Kara and Brittany, who got the ball rolling with Jennifer, it was Lauren."Lauren was a musical education major," says Kara, "and her [former] teachers go to conferences across the United States...They've been very good with connecting us with [music educators] all over." Lauren introduced the idea of touring school districts, which, in turn, targeted the quartet towards a niche market. What made the pitch to principles so successful, admits Kara, was their strong web presence. "Their reaction was usually a little hesitant [or skeptical], but once they saw [our videos] and their popularity, they immediately signed on."

Over three weeks the quartet performed 40 concerts, with 7(!) on the first day. Talk about a day's work. "It was a lot, but we work really well in schools," explains Kara, "we talk a lot with them [in between works], and most band kids think of us as heroes. It's very gratifyingto have fans." What made them so successful for the presenters (band teachers, school staff, etc.) was their flexibility in programming."Every concert was a little different," notes Kara, "because of the timetables, the age of the kids, or special requests from the teachers we had to adapt."

What makes the BWBQ stand out, as you can see in a few of their videos online, is the use of humour throughout their programs. When making the audience laugh, "we find that they become much more willing to listen to everything on the program," says Kara. "It's important for our audience to see that we're people too, and, so far, we're really getting a positive reaction from [the audience]." Unsurprisingly, most walk out of a BWBQ concert thoroughly entertained.

This coming March, the quartet will be performing their first 'concerti' with Lauren's old high school concert band, an interesting instrumentation, but one that looks to become familiar with them. They have commissioned a work from Scott Switzer, a friend of theirs from Eastman, for 4 bassoons and concert band to be performed with the Yale Concert Band next fall.

In another first for the group, Breaking Winds will be performing in the 'International Competition for Bassoon Ensemble' in Strasbourg, France organized by the French 'Association Bassons'. The competition, being held from the 20th-22nd of April, will focus on more 'serious' works, which will be a fresh turn for the group, whose repertoire has, until recently, focused more along 'classic' American bassoon quartet repertoire and arrangements of popular works.

Though what may have been more of a happy accident for the Breaking Winds, we see that viral marketing can be just as successful for classical music ensembles as for online businesses. With their massive exposure and clear online presence, it appears that they have gained a sort of credibility among concert presenters, who may not have taken a risk on them otherwise. Finally, thanks to social media, what was once looked upon by its members as more of a hobby, has transformed into a real career opportunity almost overnight.

1729 Reasons to Watch Out for this Ensemble

If you are ever faced with a problem which you feel that, having reviewed all the data, you cannot solve, one might tell you that the answer could be staring right at you. To a certain extent we have all had that experience, for example, my most recent excursion around the house to find my glasses ended up in their discovery upon my nose. 

Ensemble 1729 (From left to right)
Estelí Gomez, soprano
Mark Edwards, harpsichord and organ
Vincent Lauzer, recorder
Joanna Marsden, traverso

Meet Ensemble 1729, a dynamic new group "forged in the fire of Mount-Royal," which focuses on presenting music of the baroque and galant. 

As students of McGill's Schulich School of Music, Joanna Marsen, traverso; Mark Edwards, harpsichord and organ; Vincent Lauzer, recorder; Kate Bennett Haynes, baroque cello; and Estelí Gomez, soprano; began sharing their love for music in 2009. Since then, their performances of thoughtfully-crafted programs have been heard across North America and Europe. 


"We think out our programs with a clear idea of who will be performing with us," says Joanna, whose deep investment in the group is clear from the instant I sat down with her, "once we know who is available, we find the music most suited to them [which fits with the theme of the program]." Though the group has a core of five members, 1729 has been performing this season with quite a variable instrumentation, from three to seven on stage in any given concert.

Agoraphobic? Try Opera da Camera!

Opera da Camera (from left to right)
Taylor White
Meagan Zantingh
 Kathrin Welte
 Benjamin Kwong

Though you and I may not realize it, operatic singers live an interesting dilemma. Their most fruitful work comes, of course, from playing a major role in an opera or appearing in front of an orchestra, interestingly enough but, once out of school, singers don't often get the chance to perform a blend of styles, both popular and classical, in recital. Four very talented graduates of McGill's Schulich School of Music have decided it's time for that to change.

Canada's only recorder quintet? Flute Alors!

photo by Pierre-Étienne Bergeron and Daniel-Jean Primeau
Flute Alors! (from left to right)
Marie-Laurence Primeau
Vincent Lauzer
Alexa Raine-Wright
Caroline Tremblay
Jean-Michel Leduc

Montreal, North America's most European city. A veritable oak of a city with a rich heritage and a deeply-rooted early music community supporting notable groups such as Arion, Ensemble Caprice, and Les Idees Heureuses. The city is also home to many prestigious music schools including Universite de Montreal, McGill University, Le Conservatoire de musique de Quebec a Montreal, and Concordia University.

A typical Saturday evening's choice of concerts include the Opera, the various orchestre (OSM, Arion, I Musici, Orchestre Metropolitaine, etc.), the universities' ensembles, and, occasionally, a bright group of recorder virtuosi named Flute Alors!

Liaison - San Francisco's Freshest Baroque Ensemble

Photo by Natalie Perez
(From right to left)
Susie Fong, harpsichord
Danielle Reutter-Harrah, mezzo
Hallie Pridham, cello/gamba
Katy Olsen, soprano

San Francisco, one of top tourist destinations in the world and the second most densely-populated city in the U.S. Home to the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, and Harry Callahan, the, sadly, fictional .44 Magnum-wielding policeman made famous by Clint Eastwood in Don Siegel's cult flick 'Dirty Harry'.

Some on this side of the continent may not be aware of this, but San Fran is also host to two(!) HIP (Historically Informed Performance) Orchestre, the American Bach Soloists and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra; and a thriving chamber music scene. The San Francisco Conservatory, one of the most important, if not the most; conservatories on the west coast, runs a baroque ensemble as well as a masterclass series with help from the American Bach Soloists, who also run an academy there in the summer.

Recently, the garden that is the Bay Area's music scene has become that much richer. Four fruits of the San Francisco Conservatory's labour have bunched together to become Liaison, an early-music ensemble which hopes to better engage local audiences. "We hope for our concerts to have a feel more accustomed to a local pop concert," says Susie, Liaison's harpsichordist; "where audiences there feel that they have a personal connection with the musicians more-so than at a concert of classical music."

Although there are challenges ahead, as with most brand new ensembles, Liaison has youth on its side. The four 20-somethings hope to cultivate an audience of both usual early-music concert-goers as well as under-35s by creating a more social atmosphere, presenting more dramatic material, and performing in 'non-traditional' venues. Although a perfect venue springs to mind, Danielle noted that, due to possible culture shock, "we couldn't just walk into a bar and play [baroque] music."

An encouraging prospect is the group's commitment to success. Before their first appearance in public, Liaison already had 3 engagements booked for the first half of 2012. What's their secret? Katy, enlightened me: "We're all responsible for networking, getting gigs and we split tasks among us. I organised the photo shoot, for example." Susie, responsible for creating the group's Facebook page, had a life in arts marketing before completing her masters this past spring, having worked with the San Francisco Symphony as well as the San Francisco Jazz Festival, and her skills have been put to good use. Interestingly enough, a top priority for the ensemble is the development of a press kit.

Liaison's main interest is the music of the French baroque, though they don't limit themselves to that. Displaying a range of styles in their inaugural concert, the quartet performed in a very intimate setting at the Starlite Vineyards, just north of San Pablo Bay.