CHICAGO (May 28, 2008) - This fall the Newberry Consort presents its 2008-09 season, Musical Treasures of the Newberry Library, beginning in October with a performance titled Handel in Miniature and continuing with Renaissance music celebrating Fat Tuesday, the arrival of spring in Medieval Florence, and the English fantasy of Arcadia.
"Early music was the mass entertainment of its time, and remains accessible and enjoyable today," said David Douglass, director of the Consort.
This season the Consort puts on display some of the amazing musical treasures residing at the Library. Assets, which not only inform and enlighten, but entertain.
"The primary function of the Consort is to promote the Newberry's collections," Douglass explained. "The Newberry is an incredible storehouse of musical treasures that can be studied, and then brought to life through the Consort's performances."
Join the Consort in mid-October to hear how Handel's music was often heard during his lifetime - in the miniature.
"Almost all the music Handel wrote, and there is a lot of it, was published during his lifetime in arrangements for public consumption; whole operas, oratorios, orchestral works, were shrunk to small dimensions, a voice, a harpsichord, and another instrument, for instance," Douglass said. "The Newberry has an astounding number of these editions, which the program will be drawn from. It is a way Handel is never heard now, but was most heard then."
In February, in the first of what will be an annual tribute to the late, great musicologist Howard Mayer Brown, hear Venetian music for Fat Tuesday in the first half of the program, and penitential music for Ash Wednesday in the second half in a concert aptly titled What a Difference a Day Makes: Venetian Music for Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday.
The season continues with Ecco la Primavera, the Music of Francesco Landini in March. Local celebrity and world-renown violinist Rachel Barton-Pine will be joining the Consort in her debut on medieval instruments. The Friday performance at the Newberry Library on the first day of spring will be a special one; a multi-media performance with projected works of 14th-century Florentine artists will be shown while the Consort performs.
"The Newberry has the complete works of Landini, and copies of his original manuscripts in original notation, which the Consort will be working from," Douglass said.
In May, the 2008-09 concludes with a visit to Arcadia, a fictional utopia created by 17th-century English writers, composers, and artists, as a kind of escapist fantasy. The world famous lutenist Paul O'Dette will join the Newberry for this final concert of the season. And Shira Kammen, a folk fiddler and early music musician, will be making her Chicago debut.
The Newberry has 65 publications from John Playford's publishing house. These editions contain the bulk of the greatest English music published in the 17th century, but also in the collection are rare tracts published by Playford which document the horrors of the Civil War, including the speech made by Charles I on the scaffold just before he was executed.
"I will use these documents as a backdrop to the concert, to supply the perspective of a person from London weathering the problems of his day and finding solace in art," Douglass said.
For more details, see below or visit www.newberry.org/consort to purchase tickets.
THE NEWBERRY CONSORT'S 2008-09 SCHEDULE:
Handel in Miniature
The Newberry Consort will present some of Handel's greatest hits, in miniature, through the artistry of Dutch recorder virtuosa Marion Verbruggen, Baroque Diva Ellen Hargis, Handel specialist and Newberry audience favorite Drew Minter, harpsichord wizard David Schrader, and Consort Director and gambist David Douglass.
Thursday, October 16, 2008, 2:00 PM Open Rehearsal
Newberry Library Ruggles Hall, 60 West Walton Street, Chicago
Friday, October 17, 2008, 8:00 PM
Pre-Concert Lecture at 7:00 PM
Newberry Library Ruggles Hall, 60 West Walton Street, Chicago
Saturday, October 18, 2008, 8:00 PM
Pre-Concert Lecture at 7:00 PM
Khorsabad Gallery, Oriental Institute Museum, 1155 E. 58th Street, Chicago
Sunday, October 19, 2008, 3:00 PM
Northwestern University's Lutkin Hall, 700 University Place, Evanston
Special benefit concert: Fair Oriana-A Party for Queen Elizabeth I Upon the 450th Anniversary of Her Coronation
Support the Consort and enjoy a concert of English viol consort music with wine and light refreshments, concluding with the 1912 silent movie classic Queen Elizabeth, to which the Newberry Consort will provide the music.
Sunday, January 18, 2009, 3:00 PM
Newberry Library Ruggles Hall, 60 West Walton Street, Chicago
What a Difference a Day Makes: Venetian Music for Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday
Party hearty with the shawms, bagpipes, and carnival songs of Renaissance Venice, and then bask in the exquisite beauty of penitential music for Lent. Join the musicians of the Renaissance wind band Piffarro, along with David Douglass and the Newberry Consort Singers (Ellen Hargis, Julia Bentley, Harold Brock, Jeffrey Strauss, and Wilbur Pauley), in our inaugural concert celebrating the life and work of musicologist and mentor Howard Mayer Brown in some of the most gorgeous and resonant spaces in the Chicago area.
Thursday, February 19, 2009, 2:00 PM Open Rehearsal
St. Clement Church, 642 West Deming Place, Chicago
Friday, February 20, 2009, 8:00 PM
Pre-Concert Lecture at 7:00 PM
St. Clement Church, 642 West Deming Place, Chicago
Saturday, February 21, 2009, 8:00 PM
Pre-Concert Lecture at 7:00 PM
Rockefeller Chapel, 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave., Chicago
Sunday, February 22, 2009, 3:00 PM
Northwestern University's Millar Chapel, 1870 Sheridan Road, Evanston
Ecco la Primavera: The Music of Francesco Landini
Francesco Landini, the blind Florentine composer, poet, organist, singer and instrument maker, was one of the musical giants of the fourteenth century. His innovative work brought us a giant step toward the music of the Renaissance, but it also painted a picture of the Italian society of his day. His song Ecco la Primavera celebrates the arrival of Spring, and on the first weekend of Spring we travel back to Landini's Florence with songs and dances of love and lust.
This concert features Ellen Hargis, soprano, Judith Malefronte, mezzo-soprano, and Aaron Sheehan, tenor, with instrumentalists David Douglass, Tom Zajac, and violin virtuosa Rachel Barton Pine making her Chicago debut on two of the violin's quirky ancestors: vielle and rebec.
Thursday, March 19, 2009, 2:00 PM Open Rehearsal
Newberry Library Ruggles Hall, 60 West Walton Street, Chicago
Friday, March 20, 2009, 8:00 PM
Pre-Concert Lecture at 7:00 PM
Newberry Library Ruggles Hall, 60 West Walton Street, Chicago
Saturday, March 21, 2009, 8:00 PM
Pre-Concert Lecture at 7:00 PM
Khorsabad Gallery, Oriental Institute Museum, 1155 E. 58th Street, Chicago
Sunday, March 22, 2009, 3:00 PM
Northwestern University's Lutkin Hall, 700 University Place, Evanston
Arcadia Revisited: A Garden of Earthly Delights
In the wake of fires, famine, war, and the beheading of their king, seventeenth-century Londoners sought solace in the utopian pastoral fantasy they called Arcadia. The beautiful music of Henry and William Lawes, Nicholas Lanier, John Wilson, and Henry Purcell spun stories of mythological drama and frolicking comedy that entertained nobles and commoner alike. Featuring David Douglass, violin, viola, and viol; Ellen Hargis, soprano; Grant Herreid, lute and guitar; Shira Kammen, violin, viola, and viol; and Craig Trompeter, viol and bass violin
Thursday, April 30, 2009, 2:00 PM Open Rehearsal
Newberry Library Ruggles Hall, 60 West Walton Street, Chicago
Friday, May 1, 2009, 8:00 PM
Pre-Concert Lecture at 7:00 PM
Saint Chrysostom's Church, 1424 N. Dearborn Street, Chicago
Saturday, May 2, 2009, 8:00 PM
Pre-Concert Lecture at 7:00 PM
Khorsabad Gallery, Oriental Institute Museum, 1155 E. 58th Street, Chicago
Sunday, May 3, 2009, 3:00 PM
Northwestern University's Lutkin Hall, 700 University Place, Evanston
ABOUT THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY
The Newberry Library, a preeminent humanities research and reference institution, is home to a world-class collection of books, manuscripts, maps, music, and other printed materials related to the history and culture of Western Europe and the Americas. The collections span many centuries and feature items such as illuminated medieval manuscripts, rare early maps, rich genealogical resources, and the personal papers of Midwest authors. The Newberry offers exhibits based on its collections, musical and theatrical performances, lectures and discussions with today's leading humanists, seminars and workshops, and teacher programs. Visit us online at www.newberry.org or in person at 60 W. Walton St., Chicago, IL