This preview has been provided by Baroque & Beyond.
Scintillating music of baroque-period Italy is on the docket for Sunday afternoon, March 12, as Baroque & Beyond performs its final concert of the current season.
Vivaldi is well represented with three works: a sonata for cello and bassoon (RV 46), a trio sonata for recorder, bassoon, and cello (plus basso continuo, RV 86), and a beloved selection from Il Pastor Fido.
Vivaldi’s works are balanced by those of less-known composers. The program opens with a short Sinfonie by Bassani. It includes a sylvan composition for recorder by Veracini; and a tour-de-force sonata for baroque bassoon by Besozzi.
California recorder player Frances Blaker and Indiana baroque bassoonist Keith Collins are the featured guest artists.
Since 1998, Keith Collins has performed, recorded, and taught baroque and classical bassoon, curtal, recorder, shawm, and harp with many ensembles in North and South America. He is a founding member of the award-winning shawm and curtal band Ensemble Lipzodes, which specializes in the music of colonial Latin America. Among the many groups he has performed or recorded with are Washington Bach Consort, Tafelmusik, National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra, Chicago Opera Theater, Opera Atelier, Arion Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, Mercury Baroque, Echoing Air, Newberry Consort, Folger Consort, Bach Ensemble, and the Grammy-nominated Musik Ekklesia. As a concerto soloist he has appeared with Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, and Bourbon Baroque (Louisville, KY). Keith is adjunct instructor in historical bassoon and recorder at Indiana University’s Historical Performance Institute, and also teaches baroque bassoon and curtal at the University of North Texas. He has taught at Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, Indiana University Recorder Academy, and has been guest lecturer at the Indiana Early Double Reed Workshop. He has been a writer for NPR’s early music program Harmonia.
Frances Blaker performs on recorders of all types and sizes as soloist and with Ensemble Vermillian, Farallon Recorder Quartet, Calextone and Tibia Recorder Duo. As a member of Ensemble Vermillian she explores, transcribes, performs and records chamber music of the 17th and 18th centuries. She has performed as soloist with the North Carolina H.I.P. Festival, the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Wild Rose Ensemble, and numerous other groups in the US, Denmark, England, France, Italy, and the Netherlands. She is conductor and music director of the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra. Ms. Blaker received her Music Pedagogical and Performance degrees in recorder from the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen where she studied with Eva Legêne. She also studied with Marion Verbruggen in the Netherlands. She teaches privately in person and long distance via Skype, and at workshops throughout the US. She has recorded with Ensemble Vermillian and the Farallon Recorder Quartet.
Baroque cellist Barbara Krumdieck from Davidson, and harpsichordist Beverly Biggs round out the ensemble. Biggs also serves as Artistic Director of Baroque & Beyond.
Tickets are $18, available through Friday (March 10) from Preservation Chapel Hill (919-942-7818, www.preservationchapelhill.org) and on Sunday at the door. Suggested parking in the Planetarium lot or the Rosemary Street parking deck. This performance takes place in the historic chapel at Chapel of the Cross.
Baroque & Beyond produces period music concerts on historical instruments. For more information visit www.baroqueandbeyond.org.
