SEATTLE
FAITH LUTHERAN
CHURCH
· 8208 - 18th Avenue NE
(206) 523-9636
www.faithseattle.org
Thursdays at 7:00 PM (not 7:30)
Suggested
Donation:
$20 to $30
(a free will offering - everyone
welcome)
•
18
and under FREE •
 SSEMF
presents outstanding
early chamber music in
Seattle
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
Faith Lutheran Church
|
2026 Salish Sea Early Music Festival in Seattle
~
Period Instrument chamber music from six centuries in
Seattle and around the Salish Sea ~
~ Presented in
collaboration with Faith Lutheran Church ~
~
All Thursdays at 7:00 PM
(not 7:30) ★
download 2026 flyer here
~
| Thursday,
July
2,
2026
at 7:00
PM:
—BAROQUE
IN TRANSITION: THE
TREBLE VIOL
· Annalisa
Pappano,
treble viol
· William Simms,
baroque guitar and theorbo
· 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.
★
★ ★
|
~
Earlier concerts this 2026
season
~
|
Thursday,
January 22, 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.
★
★ ★
|
|
Thursday,
February 12, 2026 at 7:00
PM:
— The
ITALIAN and FRENCH
PERSPECTIVES
· 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
|
 Thursday,
February 26, 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.
★
★ ★
|
Thursday,
March
19, 2026
at 7:00
PM:
—FOLK
SONG FROM THREE
CENTURIES III
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:
★
★ ★
|
Thursday,
April
30, 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."
|
Thursday,
May
14, 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.
|
 Thursday,
June
11, 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.
|
|
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
June
21,
2026 ~
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email announcements and flyers?!
Please sign our MAILING LIST (please specify Seattle)
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. |
|
