WHIDBEY
ISLAND
WHIDBEY ISLAND UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST
CONGREGATION
20103 State Route 525
in Freeland on Whidbey Island
Suggested
Donation:
$20 to $30
(a free will offering - everyone
welcome)
•
18
and under FREE •
SSEMF
presents outstanding early chamber music on
Whidbey 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 WI Unitarian Universalist Church
2025
Salish Sea Early Music Festival on Whidbey
Island ~
Period Instrument chamber music from six centuries
on Whidbey Island and around the Salish Sea ~
~ Presented in
collaboration with the Unitarian Universalist
Congregation of Whidbey Island ~
— 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unpublished manuscript which was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.
Thursday,
May 15 at 7:00pm
(was May 25): — CONCERTI from
the COURT of FREDERICK THE GREAT(please
note revised date, and 7:00
start time)
· 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.
Sunday, June 8 at
7:30 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.
Early July: — THE
18TH-CENTURY HARPSICHORD IN SPAIN
(only
in Seattle,
Vancouver and
Tacoma -
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]
Sunday, July 13 at
7:30 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
~
Sunday,
January 19, 2025 at
7:30 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.
Saturday,
March 1, 2025
at 3:00 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."
Sunday,
March 9,
2025 at 7:30 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.
~
Last Season
~
✣
✣
✣Sunday,
JANUARY 21, 2024 at 7:30 PM in Freeland in
Whidbey Island ✣
✣
✣
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.
✣
✣
✣Sunday,
February 18, 2024 at
7:30 pm on Whidbey
✣
✣
✣
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.
✣
✣
✣Sunday,
March 3, 2024 at
7:30 pm on
Whidbey ✣
✣
✣
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
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."
✣
✣
✣Sunday,
March 24, 2024 at
7:30 PM on Whidbey
Island ✣
✣
✣
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.
✣
✣
✣Sunday,
APRIL 7, 2024 at
7:30 in
Freeland ✣
✣
✣ 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)
✣
✣
✣Sunday,
May 5, 2024 at
7:30 PM in
Freeland
✣
✣
✣
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.
✣
✣
✣Sunday,
May 26, 2024
at 7:30 PM in
Freeland
✣
✣
✣
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
✣
✣Sunday
eve, June 30,
2024 at 7:30
PM at WIUUC in
Freeland ✣
✣
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.
Fantasia
11 by Giovanni Bassano (1585)
January 11, 2021
~ updated April 28,
2025 ~ Do you receive our email
announcements and flyers?!
Please sign our MAILING LIST and please specify Whidbey
Island
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.
WHIDBEY
ISLAND
Suggested
Donation:
Myers">
