~
Period Instrument chamber music from six centuries
around the Salish Sea ~ Please
sign our mailing
list for updated schedule announcements
(please specify preferred concert location)
~
Please see specific 2026 dates for each
concert location through links to the left ~
~ in Seattle and
Anacortes ~
Anacortes Early
Music presents Quantz it Up!
Vicki Boeckman - recorders
Jeffrey Cohan -
baroque flute
Jillon Stoppels
Dupree - harpsichord
Anna Marsh - baroque
bassoon
Quantz • Telemann
• Frederick the Great • J.S. Bach
— Friday, November
21, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Croatian Cultural Center
801 5th Street, Anacortes
$30 (cash or check at the door)
Students (18 and under): free
please see www.anacortesearlymusic.org
— Saturday,
November 22, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Maple Leaf Lutheran Church
10005 32nd AVE NE, Seattle
Suggested donation $20, $25 or $30
18 and under free
~
2025 (last season)
~
January
17-24, 2025: — THE
CANZONA
· Vicki Boeckman,
renaissance recorders
· Tina Chancey,
tenor & bass viol & renaissance
violin
· Jeffrey Cohan,
renaissance transverse flute
· 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.
February
21 - March 1. 2025: — 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."
March
7-17, 2025:
—
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.
May
1-8: — 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.
May
16-26: — 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.
June
8-15, 2025:
—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:
July
9-11, 2025: — THE
18TH-CENTURY HARPSICHORD IN SPAIN
· Irene
Roldàn, harpsichord
Sebastián
de Albero (1722-1756)
– Recercata prima – Fuga prima –
Sonata prima Domenico
Scarlatti (1685 – 1757)
– Sonata in G major K 144
– Sonata in C minor K 115 José
de Nebra (1702 – 1768)
– Sinfonia II in E minor Domenico
Scarlatti
– Sonata in D minor K 213
– Sonata in D major K 214 Antonio
Soler (1729 - 1783)
– Preludio III in C major José
de Nebra
– Sinfonia VIII in C major-minor Antonio
Soler
– Preludio I in D minor Félix
Máximo López (1742 - 1821)
– Variaciones del Fandango español
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.
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.
July
12-20, 2025: — 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.
★
★ ★
• Saturday
afternoon, July 12 in Friday
Harbor at 12:00
PM •
• Saturday
evening, July 12
on Lopez
Island at 4:30 PM
•
• Sunday
afternoon, July 13 in Port
Townsend at 2:00
PM• • Sunday
evening, July 13
onWhidbey
Island at 7:30 PM
•
•
Monday
noon, July 14
on Vashon
Island at 12:00
noon •
•
Monday
evening, July 14 in Tacoma
at 7:00 PM• •
Tuesday,
July 15 in the Skagit
Valleyat
7:00 PM •
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. 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
· 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.
•
•
•
ONLINE
PERFORMANCES • • • — To be
released one of
these days —
CANZONAS Trios,
Duos
and Solos Anna
Marsh
~ dulcian (renaissance bassoon)
John Lenti ~ theorbo
Jeffrey Cohan ~ renaissance flute
Yes,
still to come! ...an unusual and
extensive exploration of the
fabric of early 17th-century music
in Italy (mostly) through the
perspective of the
players of dulcian,
renaissance transverse flute, theorbo
and renaissance lute.
The
program includes a solo lute Fantasia
by Giovanni
Battista
Dalla Gostena (1540-1593),
a Canzona (1636) by Giovanni
Battista
Buonamente (c1595–1642), a
Sonata as well as Cantantibus
organis by Giovanni
Paolo Cima (c1570–1630)
from his Concerti Ecclesiastici
(Milan 1610), five wonderful
canzonas by Tarquinio
Merula (1594/5-1665) from
his Opus 12 (1637) and Opus 17
(1651), a Fantasia for
dulcian solo as well as divisions on
Vestiva e colli for flute
and dulcian, both published in 1638
by Bartolomé
de Selma y Salaverde
(~1595-1638), diminutions
byGirolamo
Dalla Casaon
Petit Jacquet after the
chanson by jean Courtois
for flute and lute, aSonata Concertante by Dario
Castello(1602-1631)
from 1631, and two duos for flute
and dulcian: Beaux yeux by
Jan
Pieterszoon Sweelinck
(1562-1621) and a setting of Le
rossignol plaisant & gratieux
by Didier
le blanc.
Fantasia
11 by Giovanni Bassano (1585)
January 11, 2021
Fantasia
3 (1585) by Giovanni Bassano
December 29, 2020
Please see
links in the left column above for specific dates
for each location. ~updated
June 19, 2025~ Suggested Donation for all
concerts:
$20 to $30
(a free will offering - everyone is most welcome)
• 18 and under FREE •
Do you receive our email announcements and flyers?!
Please sign our MAILING LIST (specify concert
location)
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 thanks to your support.
The
Salish
Sea Early Music Festival is proud to be
an affiliate organization of Early
Music America, which develops,
strengthens, and celebrates early music
and historically informed performance in
North America.
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
.
17th
Century
July
9-11, 2025: — THE
18TH-CENTURY HARPSICHORD IN SPAIN
