Suggested
Donation:
$20 to $30
(a free will offering - everyone
welcome)
•
18
and under FREE •
SSEMF presents outstanding early chamber music in
Tacoma 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
Mason United Methodist Church
2025
Salish Sea Early Music Festival in Tacoma ~
Period Instrument chamber music from six centuries
in Tacoma and around the Salish Sea ~ ~ Presented in
collaboration with Mason United Methodist Church ~
~
Concerts at 7:00 PM
★ download updatedflyer
here ~
Monday,
May 5 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unpublished manuscript which was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.
Tuesday,
May 13 at 7 PM (was
May 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.
Monday, June 9 at
7:00 PM: — FOLK
SONG FROM THREE
CENTURIES II
· Oleg Timofeyev,
renaissance lute, English
guitar & 7-string
guitar (made in 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 a new program
of highly experimental
renditions of popular
music from three centuries
performed on 5 transverse
flutes and three plucked
instruments.
Wednesday, July 9
at 7:00 PM: — THE
18TH-CENTURY HARPSICHORD IN SPAIN
· 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.
Monday, July 14 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
~
Monday,
January 20, 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.
Monday,
February 24,
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."
Monday,
March 10,
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"
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.
~
Last Season
~
✣
✣Monday, JANUARY 22,
2024 at 7:00 PM in Tacoma ✣
✣
THREE
CENTURIES:
GUITAR,
THEORBO & FLUTE
Michael
Freimuth
~
renaissance guitar & theorbo ~
Jeffrey Cohan
~
renaissance & baroque flutes ~
16th
Century
Diego
Ortiz • William Byrd
Giovanni
Bassano
Girolamo
Dalla Casa
17th
Century
Giovanni
Paulo Cima
Girolamo
Frescobaldi
Giovanni
Battista Fontana
Giovanni
Battista Buonamenti
Bartolomé
de Selma y Salaverde
18th
Century
Arcangelo
Corelli
• André Chéron
Robert
de Visée
Join
us for the opening 2024 Salish Sea Early
Music Festival and an unusual and
expansive journey through the music for
guitar, lute and flute of the 16th, 17th
and 18th centuries, including elaborate
jazzed-up versions of well known songs of
the time, published by the incredible wind
instrument virtuosi of the late 16th
century, along with canzonas, sonatas and
suites from Spain, Italy, England and
France. The instruments include the
renaissance guitar, which is considerably
smaller and more mellow-toned than its
modern descendant, theorbo (an extremely
long-necked lute), the one-piece
cylindrical renaissance flute along with
the bass renaissance flute, and the
one-keyed baroque flute.
✣
✣
✣Tuesday,
February 13, 2024 at 7:00 pm in
Tacoma ✣
✣
✣
SIMPHONIE
NOUVELLE:
LOUIS
XIV & J.S. BACH
Stephen
Stubbs
~ baroque
guitar ~
Susie
Napper
~
viola da gamba ~
Jeffrey
Cohan
~
baroque flute ~
guitarists
Diego
Francesco Corbetta (1615-1681) Robert
De Visée (c.1655-1733) viola
da gambists
Monsieur
de Sainte Colombe (c.1640-c.1700) Marin
Marais (1656-1728) Jacques
Morel (c.1680-c.1740) flutist
Michel
de la Barre (c.1675-1745) composers
Élisabeth
Claude Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729)
François Couperin (1668-1733) Johann
Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Louis
XIV gathered the finest musicians of France at
his court in Versailles and this program
features many of the late 17th and early 18th
-century
guitarists, viola da gambists,
flutists and other composers
associated with his illustrious
musical establishment, alongside the
Sonata in E Minor, BWV 1034 of Johann
Sebastian Bach.
✣
✣
✣Monday,
February 26, 2024 at 7:00 pm in
Tacoma ✣
✣
✣
GEORG
PHILIPP TELEMANN:
PARIS QUARTETS
David
Greenberg
~
baroque
violin ~
Elisabeth
Wright
~
harpsichord ~
Susie
Napper
~
viola da gamba ~
Jeffrey
Cohan
~
baroque flute ~
Quadri
a violino, flauto traversiere, viola da
gamba
o violoncello, e fondamento (1730):
Concerto
II in D Major
Sonata
II in G Minor
Nouveaux
quatuors en six suites (1738):
Premier
Quatuor in D Major 4e.
Quatuor in B Minor
Having been invited by several of
the most prominent French musicians
to visit Paris, Telemann composed
and published the first set of his
remarkable "Paris Quartets" in 1730,
and left Hamburg for Paris seven
years later, where all 12 of the
quartets were performed, almost
surely with Teleman himself on the
harpsichord. The second set of
quartets was published in Paris
during this visit in 1738. Two years
later Telemann related the
following:
"The admirable performances of these
quartets by Messrs Blavet
(transverse flute), Guignon
(violin), the younger Forcroy [i.e.
Forqueray] (viola da gamba) and
Edouard (cello) would be worth
describing were it possible for
words to be found to do them
justice. In short, they won the
attention of the ears of the court
and the town, and procured for me in
a very little time an almost
universal renown and increased
esteem."
✣
✣
✣Monday,
March 25, 2024 at 7:00 PM in
Tacoma ✣
✣
✣
FRANZ
JOSEPH HAYDN
TRIOS
Jeffrey
Cohan
~
8-keyed flute ~
Lindsey
Strand-Polyak
~
baroque
violin ~
Martin
Bonham
~
cello ~
Franz
Joseph Haydn
Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart
Franz
Anton Hoffmeister
François
Devienne
As
the most celebrated composer in all of Europe
for much of his career, Franz Joseph Haydn
(1732-1809) was Mozart’s mentor and friend as
well as Beethoven’s tutor. The program will
include three trios for flute, violin and
cello by Haydn, selections from a 1795
arrangement for these instruments of Mozart’s
opera “The Magic Flute”, and a trio by Franz
Anton Hoffmeister, a friend of Haydn, Mozart
and Beethoven who published music by all
three.
✣
✣
✣Monday,
April 8, 2024 at 7:00 PM at St.
Luke's ✣
✣
✣ Myers">
SPRINGTIME
BAROQUE:
AIRS for SPRING
Arwen
Myers
~
soprano
~
Elisabeth
Wright
~
harpsichord
~
Jeffrey
Cohan
~
baroque
flute ~
Johann
Sebastin Bach
Seele,
deine Spätzereien
(from
the Easter Oratorio)
Louis-Nicolas
Clérambault
Orphée
(Cantata)
George
Frideric Handel
Singe,
Seele & Flammende Rose
(from
9 German Arias)
Toussaint
Bordet
Recueil
D'Airs Avec Accompagnement de Flute
(selections)
Louis Couperin
Les
Fauvétes Plaintives & La
Linote-éfarouchée
(harpsichord
solo)
✣
✣
✣Monday, May
6, 2024 at 7:00 PM
at
St. Luke's✣
✣
✣
RENAISSANCE
PSALMS,
IRISH
BAROQUE & FOLK
Oleg
TImofeyev
renaissance
lute, English guitar
&
7-string guitar (1820)
Jeffrey Cohan
renaissance
& baroque flutes
&
8-keyed flute (1820)
17th
Century
Nicolas
Vallet
Jacob
Van Eyck
Girolamo
Dalla Casa
18th
Century
James
Oswald
Francesco
Barsanti
Turlough
O'Carolan
19th
Century
Mauro
Giuliani
Louis
Drouet
Charles
Nicholson
This
program, in
three parts,
opens with
settings of
Psalms and
variations on
folk melodies by
early
17th-century
flutist Jacob
Van Eyck,
lutenist Nicolas
Vallet and
others performed
on renaissance
descant, tenor
and bass
transverse
flutes
and lute. Then,
baroque flute
and the rare
but once quite
popular
wire-strung
English Guitar
of the 18th
century is to be
heard performing
the folk tunes
of Scotland and
Ireland as
interpreted and
varied by the
early
18th-century
composers
Francesco
Barsanti,
Turlough
O'Carolan, James
Oswald and
others. Finally,
an Eastern
European
7-string guitar
made in 1820 in
Russia alongside
an eight-keyed
flute made in
London in the
same year bring
to life
variations on
popular tunes by
Mauro Giuliani,
Louis Drouet,
Charles
Nicholson and
other virtuoso
flutists and
guitarists of
Beethoven’s day.
✣
✣
✣Monday, May
27, 2024 at 7 PM in
Tacoma ✣
✣
✣
BAROQUE
CONCERTI
Carrie
Krause
~
baroque
violin ~
Jonathan
Oddie
~
harpsichord ~
Jeffrey
Cohan
~
baroque flute ~ Elizabeth
Phelps & Courtney
Kuroda
~
baroque
violin
~
Victoria
Gunn
~
baroque
viola ~
Martin
Bonham
~
baroque cello
~
JACQUES
AUBERT
Concerto
in D Major, Opus 26
No. 3
ANTONIO
VIVALDI
Flute
Concerto "La
Notte", Opus 10
No. 2
CARL
PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH
Flute
Concerti in D
Minor, Wq 22a
JOHANN
SEBASTIAN BACH Triple
Concerto in A Minor
for Harpsichord,
Violin and Flute,
BWV 1044
✣
✣
✣Monday,
July 8,
2024 at 7:00
PM in
Tacoma ✣
✣
✣
Johann
Sebastian
BACH
Faythe
Vollrath
~
harpsichord ~
Jeffrey Cohan
~
baroque flute
~
Harpsichordist
Faythe
Vollrath from
Sacramento, CA
will join
baroque
flutist
Jeffrey Cohan
for this
mostly-Bach
extravaganza
in the eighth
and final 2024
Salish Sea
Early Music
Festival
performance
demonstrating
the
unparalleled
mystery and
emotional
intensity of
Bach’s
compositional
abilities,
featuring
transcriptions
of his works
originally for
viola da gamba
and another
for violin,
both with
obbligato (or
fully
written-out)
harpsichord in
addition to
sonatas
originally
written for
flute by Bach
both with
continuo (a
bass line with
numbers
denoting
harmonies from
which the
harpsichordist
improvises)
and with
obbligato
harpsichord.
Faythe
Vollrath will
play
variations for
solo
harpsichord by
Johann Adam
Reinken
(1643-1722) on
the popular
German folk
tune
“Schweiget mir
von
Weibernehmen”
(‘shush, no
more talk
about
womanizing”).
Reinken was
greatly
admired by
Bach, who made
arrangements
of several of
his works.
Fantasia
11 by Giovanni Bassano (1585)
January 11, 2021
~ updated
April 28, 2025 ~
Do you receive our email announcements and
flyers?!
Please sign our MAILING LIST (please specify Tacoma)
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.
Suggested
Donation:
Tuesday,
May 13 at 7 PM (was
May 26): — CONCERTI from
the COURT of FREDERICK THE GREAT
Myers">
