~
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 infofor
each location throughlinks to
the left ~
June
25-July 2, 2026:
—BAROQUE IN
TRANSITION: THE TREBLE VIOL
· Annalisa
Pappano, treble viol
(Munich)
· William Simms, baroque
guitar and theorbo (Baltimore)
· Jeffrey Cohan, baroque
and renaissance flutes
In
Baroque in Transition: The Treble Viol,
our final 2026 program, the transition in
instrumental music as the Renaissance
flowered into the Baroque through the 17th
century will be explored through the
perspective the smaller fretted member of
the viola da gamba family in a diverse
selection of 17th and early 18th-century
Italian, English and French and German
music, alongside transverse flutes of both
the Renaissance and the Baroque, and the
17th-century guitar.
The canzona appeared in the 1570's as a
more vocally inspired instrumental form in
contrast to the ricercare of the
renaissance. It evolved into the familiar
sonata as it exhibited ever more
instrumentally virtosic colors into the
mid 1600’s. At this time diverging Italian
and French styles prompted intense
intellectual clashes between their
proponents.
To be represented are early 17th-century
Italian composers Tarquino Merula,
Bartolomé de Selma y Salaverde, Marco
Uccelini, Giovanni Paulo Cima and Giovanni
Battista Buonamente, followed by mid
17th-century English composer Matthew
Locke alongside virtuoso embellishments
for treble viol by mid-century German
composer Johannes Schop. Contrasting works
by Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Lully and
Italian violinist Archangelo Corelli
appeared in the same manuscript (!) at the
court of Louis XIV in 1695 and are to be
heard, performed with baroque transverse
flute, followed a Suite by early
18th-century French composer Louis-Antoine
Dornel from 1713, shortly before the death
of Louis XIV and representing the end of a
musical era, following which the Italian
and French styles were to be more commonly
integrated.
★
★ ★
~
The Treble
Viol: Baroque
in Transition
~
•
Thursday
evening, June
25
in Vancouver
at 7:00 PM •
André
Danican Philidor l'ainé, the
aging Louis XIV's long-time music
librarian, prepared the
king's favorite operas and ballets
alongside chamber music by Lully
and Philidor himself
for little evening concerts given
before his majesty, all reduced for a
smaller number of musicians who
presented these grand works in the
intimate setting greatly preferred
during this period by the king, at
least a quarter of a century after the
death of the composer of most of these
works, Jean-Baptiste Lully.
★
★ ★
~
Little Concert
for Louis ~
•
Monday
noon, January
19 on Vashon
Island
at 12:00 noon •
• Monday
evening, January 19 in Tacoma
at 7:00 PM•
•
Tuesday
evening, January
20
in Vancouver
at 7:00 PM •
•
Wednesday,
January
21
in the Skagit
Valley(Mount
Vernon) at 7:00
PM •
•
Thursday, January
22
in Seattle
at 7:00 PM (not 7:30!) •
Olena Zhukova from Kyiv and
Les Voix humaines, the widely
celebrated prize-winning duo
of viols from Montreal join us
for a program illuminating a
radically evolving musical
perspective through the 17th
century.
★
★ ★
~
Italy and
France ~
•
Monday
evening, February
9
onWhidbey
Island(Coupeville)
at
7:00 PM (not
7:30!) • •
Tuesday
early evening, February
10
on Orcas
Island at
5:00 PM •
•
Wednesday
evening, February
11
in the Skagit
Valley(Mount
Vernon) at
7:00 PM •
•
Thursday,
February
12
in Seattle
at 7:00 PM (not 7:30!) •
— EUROPEAN
TOUR 1690-1790
· Olena
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
Ukraine, France,
Italy, Scotland, Germany and
Austria with music by Berezofzkyj,
Boismortier, Corelli, Oswald,
Mozart and Bach.
Olena Zhukova of
Kyiv, Ukraine, a leading
harpsichordist and a
tireless ambassador for
early music in her
country and abroad,
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 for
harpsichord composed
in part for
her by today's Ukrainian
composers, for Columbia
University’s Global
Center in Paris and
its Institute for Ideas
and Imagination.
Innovative
renditions of renaissance
Psalms (~1620), Irish and
Scottish baroque (~1720) and
folk music as interpreted
during Beethoven's lifetime
(~1820) outlines this 100% new
program continuing Oleg and
Jeffrey's exploration of
settings from three centuries
of popular and folk music,
performed on 5 transverse
flutes and three plucked
instruments.
Two experiments in particular
are worth of mention. In the
early 17th century Flutist
Jacob Van Eyck and lutenist
Nicolas Vallet both wrote
settings of many of the Psalm
tunes from the Geneva Psalter
of the mid-16th century.
Timofreyev and Cohan juxtapose
these in a manner that sheds
new light on early
17th-century improvisational
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.
LISTEN:
Oleg
Timofeyev and Jeffrey Cohan
play Drouet's God Save the
Queen on SoundCloud:
•
Tuesday
evening, March24
in Vancouver
at 7:00 PM •
•
Thursday
evening, March26
in Spokane
at 7:00 PM •
•
Saturday
evening, March
28 in Colvilleat
6:00 PM•
April
23-May 1, 2026:
—TELEMANN
PARIS QUARTETS
· David Greenberg,
baroque violin
· Susie
Napper, viola
da gamba
· Elisabeth
Wright,
harpsichord
· Jeffrey
Cohan, baroque
flute
Six
quatuors
(1730):
Concerto
1 in G
Sonata
1 in A
Suite
1 in e
Nouveaux
quatuors en six
suites (1738): 2e.
Quatuor in A Minor
Telemann composed his 12
brilliant “Paris Quartets”
in Hamburg and then Paris
in response to a request
in 1730 from the most
famous Parisian flute,
violin and cello virtuosi
which resulted in his most
significant journey away
from home during his
lifetime. This year we
present four new quartets,
to include a selection
from each of his four sets
of quartets in sonata,
suite and concerto format.
"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."
★
★ ★
~
Telemann Paris
Quartets ~
•
Thursday
early evening,
April23
on Orcas
Island
at 5:00 PM •
Vocal masterworks to be
presented include 6 of
Handel's 9 exquisite
German Arias,
selected arias from
cantatas by Bach, his Italian
Concerto for solo
harpsichord, and flute
sonata by Handel and
Bach's cantata Ich
habe genug.
★
★ ★
~
Bach &
Handel ~
•
Tuesday
early evening,
May
5
on Orcas
Island
at 5:00 PM •
Hans-Jürgen Schnoor, often
organist at the St. Marien
Kirche to which Bach
walked for three days to
hear Dietrich Buxtehude,
has performed the Goldberg
Variations more than 125
times, possibly more than
any other living
harpsichordist.
★
★
★
•
Thursday,
May
21
in Seattle
only at 7:00
PM (not 7:30!)
•
June
6-17, 2026:
—BACH
& JACQUET
Johann Sebastian Bach &
Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la
Guerre
· Irene
Roldàn,
harpsichord
· Jeffrey Cohan,
baroque flute
Guest
Spanish harpsichordist Irene
Roldán from Basel, Switzerland and
baroque flutist Jeffrey Cohan
explore connections between Johann
Sebastian Bach and French
composers such as Élisabeth
Jacquet de La Guerre and Louis
Couperin, from whose innovations
Bach was to benefit. Harpsichord
solos including La Guerre’s
Prélude in D Minor, La Zaïde by
Pancrace Royer, and the Suite in F
Major by Louis Couperin will
complement flute sonatas in E
Major and G Minor by Johann
Sebastian Bach alongside the
performers’ transcriptions of
Bach’s violin sonata in C Minor
and the violin sonata in D Major
by É. Jacquet de La Guerre
Born 20 years before Johann
Sebastian Bach and a favorite
composer of Louis XIV, Élisabeth
Jacquet de La Guerre made many
important contributions in her
compositions both for solo
keyboard and in the development of
the cantata, all the while
juxtaposing and integrating the
distinct French and Italian
styles, setting the stage for
similar techniques and forms that
Bach was later to use extensively
and develop further.
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.
★
★
★
~
Roldan &
Cohan: Bach
& Jacquet
~
•
Saturday
noon-thirty,
June 6
in Friday
Harbor
at 12:30 PM •
•
Saturday,
June
6
on Lopez
Island
at 6:00 PM
(not 6:30!) •
•
Sunday
afternoon, June
7
in Port
Townsend
at 2:00 PM• • Sunday
evening, June
7
onWhidbey
Island(Freeland)
at
7:30 PM (not
7:00!) •
•
Monday
noon, June
8
on Vashon
Island
at 12:00 noon
•
•
Monday
evening, June
8
in Tacoma
at 7:00 PM• •
Tuesday
evening, June
9
in Vancouver
at 7:00 PM •
•
Wednesday
early evening,
June
10
on Orcas
Island
at 5:00 PM •
•
Thursday,
June
11
in Seattle
at 7:00 PM
(not 7:30!) •
•
Wednesday,
June
17
in the Skagit
Valley(Mount
Vernon) at
7:00 PM •
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.
★
★
★
★
★
★
★
★
★
★
★
★
★
★
★
In
1676, Thomas Mace expresses our
musical aspirations: "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."
Sloane
wrote in about 1794 that "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…"
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."
★
★
★ ★
★
★ ★
★
★ ★
★ ★
•
•
•
ONLINE
PERFORMANCES • • • — To be
released someday!
—
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 21, 2026~ 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
.
