BELLINGHAM
FIRST
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
·
1031
North Garden Street
All
concerts at 7:00 PM
Suggested
Donation:
$20 to $30
(a free will offering - everyone
welcome)
•
18
and under FREE •
stined
glass at 1st Presbyterian
SSEMF presents outstanding
early chamber music in
Bellingham
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
First Presbyterian Church
|
2026 Salish Sea Early
Music Festival in Bellingham
~ Period Instrument
chamber music from six centuries in Bellingham and
around the Salish Sea ~
~ Presented in
collaboration with First Presbyterian Church ~
~
All Fridays at 7:00 PM
★ download 2026 flyer here
~
 Friday,
June 12, 2026
at 7:00
PM
—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.
|
| Friday,
June
26, 2026
at 7:00
PM:
—THE TREBLE VIOL
· Annalisa
Pappano, treble
viol
· William Simms,
baroque guitar and theorbo
· Jeffrey Cohan,
baroque and renaissance flutes
The
Treble Viol, the smaller cousin of the
viola da gamba, will be showcased in a
diverse selection of 17th and early
18th-century Italian, English and
French and German music alongside both
renaissance and baroque transverse
flutes and lute. Composers to be
represented include Buonamente, Lawes,
Cima, Dornel, Lully and Cheron.
★
★ ★
|
~
Earlier concerts this 2026 season
~
|
Friday,
January 23, 2026 at 7:00 PM:
 —
A LITTLE
CONCERT FOR LOUIS XIV
· Y Hsuan (Ethan) Lin,
baroque violin
· Vicki Gunn,
baroque viola
· Jeffrey Cohan,
baroque flute
· Anna Marsh,
baroque bassoon
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.
★
★ ★
|
|
Friday,
February 13, 2026 at 7:00
PM:
— The ITALIAN
and FRENCH PERSPECTIVE
· Susie Napper
(Montreal), viola da gamba
· Olena Zhukova
(Kyiv, Ukraine), harpsichord
· Mélisande
Corriveau (Montreal),
treble viol
· Jeffrey Cohan,
renaissance & baroque flutes
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.
LISTEN:
Les Voix Humaines plays
|
 Friday,
February 20, 2026 at 7:00
PM:
— 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.
★ ★
★
|
Friday,
March
20, 2026
at 7:00
PM:
—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)
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:
★
★ ★
|
Friday,
May
1, 2026
at 7:00
PM:
—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."
|
Friday,
May
15, 2026
at 7:00
PM:
—BACH
& HANDEL
·
Maike Albrecht,
soprano
· Hans-Jürgen
Schnoor, harpsichord
·
Susie Napper
(Montreal), viola da gamba
· Jeffrey Cohan,
baroque flute
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.
|
Thursday,
May 21, 2026 in Seattle
only:
at 7:00 PM (not 7:30!) •
—GOLDBERG
VARIATIONS
· Hans-Jürgen
Schnoor, harpsichord
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.
|
|
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."
|
~
updated
May 30, 2026
~
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announcements and flyers?!
Please sign our MAILING LIST (please specify Bellingham)
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.
|
