ORCAS
ISLAND
.
ORCAS ADVENTIST
FELLOWSHIP
CHURCH
107 Enchanted Forest Road
Eastsound · (360) 376-6683
please note:
Concerts at 5:00 PM
Suggested Donation:
$20 to $30
(a
free will offering - everyone welcome!)
•
18
and under FREE •
SSEMF presents outstanding
early chamber music on
Orcas Island
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
the Orcas Adventist Fellowship Church
|
2025 Salish Sea Early
Music Festival on Orcas Island
~
Period Instrument chamber music from six centuries
on Orcas Island and around the Salish Sea ~
~ Presented in
collaboration with the Orcas Adventist Fellowship
Church ~
~
All Wednesdays at 5:00 PM
★ download updated
flyer here ~
Wednesday,
May 7 at 5:00 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as yet unpublished manuscript which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.
 Wed., May
21 at 5 PM: — 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.
Wednesday, June 11 at 5:00
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.
Late
July: — THE
18TH-CENTURY HARPSICHORD
IN SPAIN
(Seattle,
Vancouver and Tacoma only - please
see those pages on our site)
· 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 certain locations]
Wednesday,
July 16 at 5:00 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
~
Wednesday,
January 22, 2025 at
5:00 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.
Wednesday,
February 26, 2025
at 5:00 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."
Wednesday,
March 12,
2025 at 5:00 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.
|
✣
✣
✣ Wednesday,
JANUARY 24, 2024 at 5:00 PM in
Eastsound ✣
✣
✣
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.
|
✣
✣
✣ Wednesday,
February 14, 2024 at 5:00 pm on
Orcas ✣
✣
✣
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.
✣
✣
✣ Wednesday,
February 28, 2024 at 5:00 pm on
Orcas ✣
✣
✣
GEORG
PHILIPP TELEMANN:
PARIS QUARTETS
David
Greenberg
~
baroque
violin ~
Elisabeth
Wright
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."
|
✣
✣
✣ Wednesday,
March 20, 2024 at 5:00 PM in
Eastsound ✣
✣
✣
FRANZ
JOSEPH HAYDN
TRIOS
Jeffrey
Cohan
~
8-keyed flute ~
Lindsey
Strand-Polyak
~
baroque
violin ~
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.
|
✣
✣
✣ Wednesday,
April 10, 2024 in
Eastsound ✣
✣
✣
 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)
Francois Couperin
Les
Fauvétes Plaintives & La
Linote-éfarouchée
(harpsichord
solo)
✣
✣
✣
Wednesday,
May 8, 2024 at 5:00
PM in
Eastsound ✣
✣
✣
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,
2024 at 5 PM in
Eastsound ✣
✣
✣
BAROQUE
CONCERTI
Jeffrey
Cohan
~
baroque flute ~
Elizabeth
Phelps
~
baroque
violin
~
Victoria
Gunn
~
baroque
viola
~
JACQUES
AUBERT
Concerto
in D Major, Opus
26 No. 3
ANTONIO
VIVALDI
Flute
Concerto "La
Notte", Opus
10 No. 2
GEORG
PHILIPP TELEMANN
Quatuor
in D Major
(1752)
JOHANN
MELCHIOR MOLTER
Concertino
in G Major
✣
✣
Wednesday,
July 3, 2024
at 5:00 PM in
Eastsound ✣
✣
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.
|
~ updated
April 28, 2025 ~
Do you receive our
email announcements and flyers?!
Please sign our MAILING LIST (please specify Orcas)
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. |
|
