Flutist Emi Ferguson Re-Imagines Bach With Continuo Band Ruckus On New Album

Flutist Emi Ferguson re-imagines Bach with continuo band Ruckus on album, Fly the Coop: Bach Sonatas and Preludes, June 28th release on Arezzo Music.

Taking Bach out of the museum and infusing it with equal parts tradition, funk, whimsy, and fun, Emi Ferguson and Ruckus take you on a wild romp through some of Bach's most playful and transcendent works.

June 3rd, 2019

Emi Ferguson will release Fly the Coop: Bach Sonatas and Preludes, June 28th 2019 on Arezzo Music with continuo band Ruckus. The album features new arrangements of Bach's Flute Sonatas and Keyboard Preludes, orchestrated for baroque flute and the forces of Ruckus that include theorbos, baroque guitars, baroque bassoon, cello, viola da gamba, harpsichord, organ, bass, and even banjo.

"blindingly impressive...a fizzing, daring display of personality and imagination"

- The New York Times

Not one to shy away from updating and revitalizing music, as seen on her previous Billboard charting album, Amour Cruel ("How a classical musician turned 400-year French songs into a modern hit", Washington Post), Emi enlisted her friends in Ruckus to join her in giving Bach's music the jolt of energy and imagination that Bach himself would have been exhilarated by.

Ruckus, the super-powered baroque rhythm section, explodes Bach's single bass line into a rainbow of textures and colours, continually shifting like light over the landscape as Ferguson's flute lines dance above. Contrasting the three flute sonatas on the album are new arrangements of a variety of Bach's keyboard preludes, with selections ranging from the beloved Well Tempered Clavier, to alternate movements from keyboard suites that are rarely performed.

The album will be presented live in Los Angeles on June 16th at the iconic Wayfarer's Chapel as the final concerts of the DaCamera Society's 2019 season, and in New York on November 17th on the Music Before 1800 concert series.

Ruckus: Clay Zeller-Townson baroque bassoon | Shirley Hunt baroque cello and viola da gamba | Doug Balliett viola da gamba | Evan Premo baroque bass | Paul Holmes Morton theorbo, baroque guitar, and banjo | Adam Cockerham theorbo and baroque guitar | Elliot Figg harpsichord and organ.