2025 SALISH SEA EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL

Reviews & Information

Seattle

Vancouver

Bellingham

Tacoma

Lopez Island

Orcas Island

San Juan Island

Vashon Island

2025 Salish Sea Early Music Festival
~ 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 2025 dates for each concert location, to the left ~

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transverse flute by the king’s court music librarian André Danican Philidor L'Aisné in a relatively unknown and as yet unpublished manuscript which was prepared in 1695 by Philidor himself as a present from Louis XIV for the Duke of Bavaria.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: — 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.

July 9-11: — 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. [only in Seattle, Vancouver and Tacoma]

July 12-20: — 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
· 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 ~

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!

LISTEN: Les Voix Humaines plays Sieur de Sainte-Colombe's Les Pleurs - Chaconne Le rapporté

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.

~ Last Season ~

✣ ✣ ✣ JANUARY 19 - 26, 2024 around the Salish Sea ✣ ✣ ✣

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.

✣ ✣ ✣ February 22 - March 3, 2024 around the Salish Sea ✣ ✣ ✣ Renaissance flute and lute

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

"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."

✣ ✣ ✣ MARCH 19 - March 25, 2024 around the Salish Sea ✣ ✣ ✣ Haydn

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN

TRIOS

Jeffrey Cohan

~ 8-keyed flute ~

Lindsey Strand-Polyak

~ baroque violin ~

Martin Bonham

~ baroque 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.

✣ ✣ ✣ APRIL 6 - 13, 2024 around the Salish Sea ✣ ✣ ✣

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)

Francois Couperin

Les Fauvétes Plaintives & La Linote-éfarouchée

(harpsichord solo)

✣ ✣ ✣ APRIL 30 - May 10, 2024 around the Salish Sea ✣ ✣ ✣

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.

✣ ✣ ✣ May 22 - 28, 2024 around the Salish Sea ✣ ✣ ✣ Renaissance flute and lute

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

✣ ✣ ✣ JUNE 27 - July 11, 2024 around Washington State ✣ ✣ ✣

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.

• • • ONLINE PERFORMANCES • • •
— To be released —
Anna%20John%20Jeff%20Feb22%20cropsm.jpg

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 by Girolamo Dalla Casa on Petit Jacquet after the chanson by jean Courtois for flute and lute, a Sonata 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 March 22, 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.
baroque flute

SSEMF presents outstanding
early chamber music thanks to your support.

Early Music Ammerica

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 .