In honor of the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate and Pope Francis' visit to the United States, Salon/Sanctuary Concerts explores the cross-fertilization of Jewish and Catholic musical cultures that enriched the music of both Synagogue and Sanctuary.
A rich schedule of events featuring discussion, education, and performance with guest artists and educators from Italy, Croatia, and Israel.
From Ghetto to Cappella is co-produced by Salon/Sanctuary Concerts and Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, with assistance from the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di New York, and originated with support from the Archdiocese of Florence, Italy.
Program of Events:
Lecture and opening reception 9/30 6:15pm Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, 24 W. 12th St., Free Admission
Lute Master Class 10/3 4pm Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Free Admission, Reservations Required. Click here for reservations
Concert 10/11 4pm The Fabbri Library, 7 East 95th Street, Tickets $25+ Click here to purchase tickets.
Photography Exhibition 9/30 - 10/9 Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò lower gallery, Free Admission
Lecture: Cracks in the Walls
Piergabriele Mancuso, Director of the Eugene Grant Research Program on Jewish History and Culture in Early Modern Europe of the Medici Archive Research Project of Florence, Italy.
Wednesday, September 30th 6:15pm
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, 24 West 12th Street
Free Admission, Season Opener Reception to Follow
Dr. Mancuso discusses the historical and sociological background of the world's first ghetto, constructed in Venice in 1516, how this new physical segregation was traversed by numerous exchanges and cross-religious interactions, and compelling musical developments within both Jewish and Catholic sacred repertoire that developed from the fascination of one religious culture with the Other.
Concert: From Ghetto to Cappella
Tickets $25 / $35 / $50 / $125
1 888 718-4253
Sunday, October 11th 4:00pm
The Fabbri Library of the House of the Redeemer
7 East 95th Street
Jessica Gould, soprano & Noa Frenkel, contralto
Diego Cantalupi & Diego Leveri?, lutes
James Waldo, viola da gamba
Pedro d'Aquino, harpsichord and organ
While the Inquisition raged throughout Counter-Reformation Italy, the ghetto walls that separated Gentile from Jew were more porous than impenetrable. Works of Benedetto Marcello, Francesco Durante, Barbara Strozzi, Salomone Rossi, and unaccompanied Hebrew chants attest to a lively conversation, as do selections from the 1759 Hebrew libretto of Handel's Esther, commissioned by the Jewish community of Amsterdam in the year of the composer's death.
The exquisite 1607 library of the Fabbri Mansion, transported from Urbania, Italy during World War I, sets the stage for an international ensemble who come together to perform a unique program of unexamined treasures.
Jessica Gould, soprano
Noa Frenkel, contralto
Diego Cantalupi, lute
Diego Leveri, lute
James Waldo, viola da gamba
PEdro d'Aquino, organ and harpsichord
Master Class in Lute, Theorbo, and Baroque Guitar
Master continuo player, Artistic Director of L'Aura Soave Cremona, and faculty member of the Conservatorio di Bari, Lutenist Diego Cantalupi guides four musicians in Baroque repertoire for plucked strings.
Admission is free but reservations are required. For tickets, call 1 888 718-4253 or go to www.salonsanctuary.org
Saturday, October 3rd 4:00pm
The auditorium of Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò
24 West 12th Street
Photography Exhibition: Immagini Musicali
Artists' Biographies:
Soprano and Salon/Sanctuary Founder and Artistic Director Jessica Gould has been noted for "a dramatic intensity that honored the texts" (The New York Times), for "expansive range, coloratura facility, and multi-hued, powerful sound" (Seen and Heard International), and for having "reached the heart of an enrapturEd English audience" (Traditional Music Maker, UK). With actor Roger Rees and the Paul Dresher Ensemble she can be heard on the New World Records CD Tell the Birds, featuring works of Eve Beglarian. Chamber music performances include The Guggenheim Works & Process Series with The Cassatt Quartet, The Beinecke Library at Yale University, The Clarion Society, Sinfonia New York, The Four Nations Ensemble, The Virginia Arts Festival, The American Philosophical Society, and as well as guest soloist appearances with numerous ensembles. Presenters abroad include Martedì in Arte at the Palazzo Davanzati, Casa Martelli, the Church of Santissima Annunziata, the Museo di Arte Sacra in Tuscany, Scandicci Cultura, and the Library of the Museo di San Marco (Florence), the Chiesa di Santa Barbara dei Librari, Primavera in Musica (Rome), the UK Lute Society (London) and Hengrave Hall (Bury St. Edmunds, UK). Operatic roles include Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Madame Herz in The Impresario, the title roles of Handel's Semele and Agrippina. As Founder and Artistic Director of Salon/Sanctuary Concerts, her original programming featuring repertoire from the 8th to 18th centuries has been praised as "impeccably curated" by Time Out New York, "highly original" by The New York Times, and "imaginative" by New York Magazine. Upcoming recitals of early music abroad include Florence, Milan, Rome, Sofia, Bulgaria and Zagreb, Croatia with lutenist Diego Cantalupi. Upcoming recording projects with Mr. Cantalupi include recently discovered baroque Italian repertoire from the Biblioteca di Modena for the Tactus label.
A versatile artist with an affinity for many musical styles, Noa Frenkel is a true contralto with an extensive vocal range. Her concert repertoire reaches from Renaissance to contemporary music. Recent concert appearances include a.o. Händel's Dixit Dominus with the Flemish Radio Choir, Donatoni's Abyss in Casa da Musica in Porto, Luigi Nono's Prometeo at La Scala-Milan, Holland Festival, Lucerne Festival, and the Berliner Philharmonie; Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with the Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse, Verdi's Requiem at the Ljubljana festival, Mahler's Symphony No 2 with the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon Lezion and and Nono's Guai ai gelidi Mostri at the Salzburg Festival. Most recent opera appearances include world premiere of the complete version of Stockhausen's Sontag aus Licht at Opera Köln, Pnima by Chaya Czernowin at Opera Stuttgart, Tod eines Bankers by Andreas Kersting in Theater Görlitz, Woman in Zaide/Adama by Mozart/Czernowin at the Salzburg Festival, Frau Ocholowska in world premiere of Johannes Kalitzke's Die Besessenen at Theater an der Wien, Third lady in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at the Opera of Nantes and Angers, Madame Flora in Menotti's The Medium with Opera Rotterdam, La Maestra delle novizie in Puccini's Suor Angelica with the Bochumer Symphoniker, Philip Glass's Akhnaten in Rotterdam, the Madrigal Opera La Barca with the Nationale Reisopera in Holland and Belgium and a new production of Zaide/Adama at Theater Bremen. Frenkel has appeared with Baroque ensembles such as Les Arts Florissants, Elyma Ensemble, Combattimento Amsterdam, and the Utrecht baroque Consort. Noa Frenkel had the pleasure to work with conductors such as Ivor Bolton, Reinbert de Leeuw, Ingo Metzmacher, Kenneth Weiss, Kenneth Montgomery, Dan Ettinger, Ilan Volkov, FriedemAnn Layer, Gabriel Garrido, Peter Dijkstra, Emilio Pomarico, Jos van Veldhoven and Steven Sloane.
One of Italy's leading lutenists with over 100 recordings to his name, Diego Cantalupi studyed classical guitar with Mauro Storti. Parallel interests in renaissance, baroque and pre-romantic music led him to study early performance techniques following courses in lute-playing at the Ancient Music Department of the Civica Scuola di Musica in Milano (Paul Beier) and at the Conservatorio in Parma (Andrea Damiani).?In 1996 he was awarded a degree with honours in Musicology from the Scuola di Paleografia e Filologia Musicale in Cremona. He performs regularly as soloist and continuo player with leading period instrument ensembles worldwide, such as 'La Venexiana', 'L'Arte dell'arco', 'La Verdi Barocca', 'Divino Sospiro', 'Accademia degli Astrusi', 'Il Capricio'.?He is the founder and the director of the 'Ensemble L'Aura Soave', whose repertory and instrumentarium is based exclusively on his research.?Equally at home working with modern instruments, Diego has performed with many leading orchestras including 'Solisti Filarmonici Italiani', 'I Solisti Veneti', 'Kammerakademie Potsdam', 'I Pomeriggi Musicali', 'Streicherakademie Bozen'.?His repertory spans many centuries, and his discography ranges from some of the earliest surviving lute works to the contemporary theorbo and lute works written for him. An experienced teacher at all levels, Diego Cantalupi teaches lute at the Conservatorio di Bari, and on many summer schools and courses; he is regularly invited to serve as specialist examiner by both universities and music conservatoires. He is currently preparing the first modern method for theorbo.
Born in Croatia, lutenist Diego Leveri? currently studies in the Musicology program in Cremona with the University of Pavia. Fascinated by the world of ancient music he has begun studying the Renaissance lute, the theory, and Baroque guitar with M° Maurizio Piantelli. He is currently pursuing a master of baroque lute in conservatoy of Bari with M° Diego Cantalupi. He has participated in masterclasses and private lessons with the greatest lute players of today: Hopkinson Smith, Paul O'Dette, Eduardo Eguez, Andrea Damiani, Massimo Lonardi and Xavier Diaz-Latorre. In 2011 he won third prize (first prize not awarded) in the first edition of the lute competition Maurizio Pratola, in L'Aquila, Italy. The following year, in the second edition of the same competition presided over by Paul O'Dette, performing on renaissance lute and theorbo he won first prize in the solo category and first prize in the overall category of "chamber music" with the duo Sursum Corda. He is one of the winners of the international competition „Concursos Internacionais de Jovens Interpretes de Musica Antiga" in Lisbon, Portugal. As an ensemble musician, he has performed under the direction of Claudio Scimone, Martin Gester, Marco Mencoboni, Federico Ferri, Andre de Carlo, Joachim Fontaine, and Diego Cantalupi. He performed as soloist and in ensembles thorughout Europe: Belgium, Croatia, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, and Switzerland. He has recorded for labels Arcana, Naive and Marcello Villa Cremona. He is also featured in a video recording is with singer Renato Dolcini in the realization of a documentary on Claudio Monteverdi which was filmed inside of the Ducal Palace of Mantua for the television station 3Sat.
This spring, cellist James Waldo served as principal cellist in an all-Beethoven program with Cecilia Chorus and Orchestra in Stearn Auditorium at Carnegie Hall. Originally from Minnesota, James now lives in New York City, where he works as a freelance chamber and orchestral musician. Recent noteworthy projects include appearing as solo cellist with the Atlanta Boy Choir on a tour to Poland and the Czech Republic, participating in the inaugural recording project of newly formed consort LeStrange Viols, touring the west coast with orchestral folk ensemble Spirits of the Red City, appearing as a guest cellist at Gramercy Theater with The Brilliance, performing in the dramatic production of "More Between Heaven And Earth" with the Salon/Sanctuary Chamber Orchestra at the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and joining the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra and Trinity Cathedral Choir in Columbia, SC for a performance of Handel's "Messiah." James is a merit scholarship graduate of the Master's of Music and Professional Studies Diploma programs at Mannes College in New York City, where he studied with Timothy Eddy, and served all four years as principal cellist for Mannes' Orchestra and Opera programs. James also received a Bachelor of Music with Academic Distinction at the University of Madison-Wisconsin under the tutelage of cellist and Feldenkrais practicioner Uri Vardi. As a child, he studied at the MacPhail Center for Music Suzuki Program with Brenda Villard in Minneapolis, MN. James' first and perhaps most formational award experience was auditioning for and winning a spot in a masterclass with Yo Yo Ma at age 11. Other awards and recognitions include the prestigious Gregory Award for Excellence in Performance, The Dale Gilbert Award for Outstanding String Players, first prizes in the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Menomonee Falls Concerto Competitions, and the rank of finalist in the Mannes Concerto Competition.
Organist Pedro D'Aquino is organist and choir director of Congregation B'nai Jeshurun of Short Hills, N.J. He also is cantor of Saint Luke's Lutheran Church in Manhattan's Theater District, and precentor and music director of the Traditional Latin Mass Community at the Church of the Holy Innocents in the Garment District. Prior to his appointment at B'nai Jeshurun, Pedro served as organist of Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York. In 2004 he joined the faculty of the School of Sacred Music of Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, where he is an accompanist/coach and instructor of music theory. A graduate of Stony Brook University, Pedro studied organ with Meredith Elaine Baker and Anne Wilson, conducting with Marguerite Brooks, liturgy and sacred music at the Royal School of Church Music in England, and Gregorian Chant at the Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes in France. His vocal and instrumental compositions and arrangements have been premiered by One World Symphony and the choirs of Temple Emanu-El; Temple B'nai Jeshurun; Temple Rodef Shalom of Falls Church, Va.; and the Church of the Holy Family (United Nations) in New York City, as well as at Syracuse University. He has been active in ecumenical and interfaith dialogue for many years, having worked on both Lutheran-Episcopal and Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogues, as well as the Interseminary Dialogue of New York City, an informal gathering of seminarians from eight different Jewish and Christian seminaries in the New York area, representing a variety of denominational traditions. In 2009 he was made a fellow and choir master of the American Guild of Organists and was awarded both the Choir Master Prize and the prestigious S. Lewis Elmer Award.
Photographs of Salon/Sanctuary's performances of Italian repertoire in both New York City and Florence, Italy by Stephen de las Heras and Nathan Smith will be on view at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò from September 30th to October 9th in the lower gallery. All purchases of framed prints support Salon/Sanctuary Concerts.
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