Berkeley Festival Announces Early Music Program, 6/1-8

The San Francisco Early Music Society, in association with Early Music America, has announced the program for its biennial Berkeley Festival & Exhibition, June 1 - 8, 2014. Since its inauguration in 1990, the Festival has been recognized worldwide as one of the foremost events of its kind, bringing together early music performers, scholars, instrument makers, publishers and enthusiasts for a week of concerts, lectures, conferences and master classes centered in and around First Congregational Church and St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Berkeley.

The 2014 Berkeley Festival & Exhibition features 14 MAIN STAGE PERFORMANCES including the U.S. debut of the Belgian vocal ensemble Vox Luminis and the West Coast debut of fortepianist and harpsichordist Kristian Bezuidenhout. Founded in 2004, Vox Luminis has earned numerous accolades and awards including Gramophone's "Recording of the Year" for its most recent CD, an interpretation of Heinrich Schütz's Musicalische Exequien. For the Berkeley Festival, Vox Luminis will perform two concerts: a program of music by Schütz and the Bach family on Wednesday, June 4, and on June 5 a program including Scarlatti's Stabat Mater. Preceding their concert on June 5, Bezuidenhout will perform a pianoforte recital of Mozart and other works. Generally ranked among the leading period-instrument keyboard players of his generation, Bezuidenhout will also perform a program of Bach family keyboard concerti with the Philharmonia Chamber Players, alongside director and harpsichordist Nicholas McGegan. That concert takes place on Saturday, June 7.

The Festival also features the Berkeley Festival debuts of Ars Lyrica Houston and The Choir of Trinity Wall Street. Ars Lyrica, directed by Matthew Dirst, will perform one concert of works by Telemann, Couperin, Scarlatti and others on Tuesday, June 3. Nominated for a 2011 Grammy Award, Ars Lyrica has been praised for its "exemplary skill and taste" (Gramophone).Under the direction of Julian Wachner,Trinity Wall Street has been described by the New York Times as "the top of musical life in New York." Trinity will give two concerts, including a program of the complete Bach motets for double choir on June 5 and a program of Franco-Flemish masterpieces on Friday, June 6.

Other performance highlights of this year's Festival include concerts by the celebrated Flanders Recorder Quartet; a newly formed ensemble, House of Time, which includes oboist Gonzalo X. Ruiz and keyboardist Avi Stein; Southern California-based Ciaramella, an ensemble founded on a core of winds; and three Bay Area groups: Cantainbanchi, Sex Chordae Consort of Viols with guest artist Julianne Baird, and to close the Festival on Sunday, June 8, Magnificat and The Whole Noyse performing a Vespers for the feast of St. Mark under the direction of Warren Stewart.

"A spirit of collaboration has animated the Berkeley Festival since its first year in 1990," saysFestival Artistic Director Robert Cole. "The San Francisco Early Music Society and our longtime partner, Early Music America, share an enthusiasm for and commitment to the study and performance of music composed before 1800. I am delighted to report that in the years since the first Berkeley Festival we have witnessed a marked growth in university music programs devoted to early music -- and with its Young Performers Festival program the Berkeley Festival remains a staunch supporter of the next generation of scholars and performers."

Presented by Early Music America, the YOUNG PERFORMERS FESTIVAL runs Wednesday throughFriday, June 4 to 6. Recognizing that the future of early music rests in the hands of today's young artists and the institutions that shape them, Early Music America will organize a series of six one-hour daytime concerts by major university and conservatory early music ensembles.

Early Music America will also sponsor the Berkeley Festival's EXHIBITION & MUSIC MARKETPLACE, Thursday through Saturday, June 5 to 7. This much anticipated emporium showcases a trove of handcrafted musical instruments, sheet music, accessories, recordings and books. In addition, Festival attendees will enjoy a number of "mini-concert" demonstrations of instruments on display.

Finally, as a testament to the Festival's success in making Berkeley, California a hub for early music, dozens of FRINGE events run concurrently with the Festival. The Fringe is a series of lively, self-produced concerts by soloists and ensembles from around the world. These events take place in easy walking distance of each other in the vicinity of First Congregational Church and St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Berkeley. Tickets for the Festival's main stage concerts go on sale February 24, 2014. For up-to-date information, visit berkeleyfestival.org.

PERFORMANCES:

WHO: Ciaramella
WHEN: Sunday, June 1, at 4:00 p.m.
WHERE: St. Mark's Episcopal Church @ 2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley
Program: Burgundian alta capella ensembles piped across Renaissance Europe, from Antwerp to Zaragosa, improvising florid polyphony over songs, dances, and sacred chant. Ciaramella takes shawms, recorders, bagpipes and sackbuts in hand, bringing their joyful noise to life.

Adam Gilbert, shawm/recorder/bagpipe
Rotem Gilbert, shawm/recorder/bagpipe
Doug Milliken, shawm/recorder/bagpipe
Greg Ingles, slide trumpet/sackbut/recorder
Erik Schmalz, slide trumpet/sackbut/recorder
Jason Yoshida, lute/guitar/percussion

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WHO: Cantainbanchi
WHEN: Monday, June 2, at 8:00 p.m.
WHERE: St. Mark's Episcopal Church @ 2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley

Program: Songs and dances of the Middle Ages, featuring music from 13th- and 14th-century Spain, France, and Italy, including selections from the Cantigas de Santa Maria and Cantigas de Amigo, Las Huelgas and Montpellier.

Susan Rode Morris, voice
Allison Zelles Lloyd, voice
Margriet Tindemans, vielle
Shira Kammen, vielle
Kit Higginson, recorders and psaltery
Cheryl Ann Fulton, harp
Peter Maund, percussion

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WHO: Sex Chordae Consort of Viols with Julianne Baird, soprano
WHEN: Tuesday, June 3, at 5:00 p.m.
WHERE: St. Mark's Episcopal Church @ 2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley

Program: Elizabethan and Jacobean love songs, laments, pastorals, and sometimes bawdy songs can all be found in the consort song for solo voice and four viols. This program will present a broad survey of this indigenous English genre by William Byrd and his contemporaries. Acclaimed soprano Julianne Baird makes her Berkeley Festival debut in a rare program of Renaissance delights with the Bay Area's most celebrated viol consort.

John Dornenburg, viola da gamba
Julie Jeffrey, viola da gamba
David Morris, viola da gamba/cello
Farley Pearce, viola da gamba/violone

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WHO: Ars Lyrica Houston
WHEN: Tuesday, June 3, at 8:00 p.m.
WHERE: First Congregational Church @ 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley
Program: Works of Telemann, Couperin, Alessandro Scarlatti and others.

Céline Ricci, soprano
Kathryn Montoya, recorder/oboes
Adam LaMotte and Yung-Hsiang Wang, violins
Mary Springfels, viola da gamba
Barrett Sills, cello/viola da gamba
Matthew Dirst, harpsichord
Richard Savino, theorbo/guitar

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WHO: Early Music America's Young Performers Festival - Concerts I and II
WHEN: Wednesday, June 4, at 11:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
WHERE: St. Mark's Episcopal Church @ 2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley

Program: Top college and conservatory-level early music ensembles from around the U.S. perform morning and early afternoon concerts.

Sponsored by Early Music America.

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WHO: Flanders Recorder Quartet
WHEN: Wednesday, June 4, at 5:00 p.m.
WHERE: St. Mark's Episcopal Church @ 2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley

Program: The Ultimate Recorder: Five centuries of masterpieces from across Europe.

Tom Beets
Joris Van Goethem
Peter Van Heyghen
Paul Van Loey

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WHO: Ensemble Vox Luminis (U.S. debut)
WHEN: Wednesday, June 4, at 8:00 p.m.
WHERE: First Congregational Church @ 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley

Program: Schütz's Musikalische Exequien and works by three generations of the Bach family.

Lionel Meunier, artistic director

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WHO: Early Music America's Young Performers Festival - Concerts III and IV
WHEN: Thursday, June 5, at 11:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
WHERE: St. Mark's Episcopal Church @ 2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley

Program: Top college and conservatory-level early music ensembles from around the U.S. perform morning and early afternoon concerts.

Sponsored by Early Music America.

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WHO: Kristian Bezuidenhout, fortepiano, in recital (West Coast debut)
WHEN: Thursday, June 5, at 5:00 p.m.
WHERE: St. Mark's Episcopal Church @ 2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley

Program: Mozart and other works to be announced.

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WHO: Ensemble Vox Luminis
WHEN: Thursday, June 5, at 8:00 p.m.
WHERE: First Congregational Church @ 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley

Program: Domenico Scarlatti's Stabat Mater, Carissimi's Historia de Jepthe and other works of the Italian Baroque.

Lionel Meunier, artistic director

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WHO: The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
WHEN: Thursday, June 5, at 10:00 p.m.
WHERE: St. Mark's Episcopal Church @ 2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley

Program: The complete Bach motets for double choir.

Julian Wachner, conductor and music director

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WHO: Early Music America's Young Performers Festival - Concerts V and VI
WHEN: Friday, June 6, at 11:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
WHERE: St. Mark's Episcopal Church @ 2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley

Program: Top college and conservatory-level early music ensembles from around the U.S. perform morning and early afternoon concerts.

Sponsored by Early Music America.

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WHO: House of Time
WHEN: Friday, June 6, at 5:00 p.m.
WHERE: St. Mark's Episcopal Church @ 2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley

Program: Virtuosic sonatas and trios for violin and oboe from the Bach family.

Gonzalo X. Ruiz, oboe
Tatiana Daubek, violin
William Skeen, cello
Avi Stein, harpsichord

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WHO: The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
WHEN: Friday, June 6, at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: First Congregational Church @ 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley

Program: Franco-Flemish masterpieces by Josquin, Dufay, Gombert and others.

Julian Wachner, conductor and music director

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WHO: Hopkinson Smith, lute, in recital
WHEN: Saturday, June 7, at 5:00 p.m.
WHERE: St. Mark's Episcopal Church @ 2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley

Program: The first three cello suites of J.S. Bach performed on German theorbo.

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WHO: Philharmonia Chamber Players with Kristian Bezuidenhout, harpsichord, and
Nicholas McGegan, director and harpsichord
WHEN: Saturday, June 7, at 8:00 p.m.
WHERE: First Congregational Church @ 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley

Program: Bach family works and keyboard concerti, including a lively double concerto with acclaimed keyboardists Kristian Bezuidenhout and Nicholas McGegan, Philharmonia's artistic director.

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WHO: Magnificat and The Whole Noyse
WHEN: Sunday, June 8, at 4:00 p.m.
WHERE: First Congregational Church @ 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley

Program: Magnificat joins forces with the early wind ensemble The Whole Noyse to present a Vespers for the feast of St. Mark featuring music from Monteverdi's monumental collection Selva morale e spirituale from 1641. The program will also include instrumental canzoni from Francesco Cavalli's Musiche Sacre of 1656 as well as traditional Gregorian chant.

Warren Stewart, artistic director

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WHAT: Berkeley Festival Exhibition & Marketplace
WHEN: Thursday, June 5, noon-6:00 p.m.; Friday, June 6, 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.; and Saturday, June 7, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
WHERE: First Congregational Church @ 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley

The Exhibition and Marketplace showcase a trove of handcrafted musical instruments, sheet music, accessories, recordings, books, and other publications new and rare. In addition,festival attendees will enjoy a number of "mini-concert" demonstrations of instruments on display.

Tickets: Free

For more information: Contact Early Music America at 888.722.5288; info@earlymusic.org; or earlymusic.org.

Tickets for the Berkeley Festival & Exhibition will go on sale February 24, 2014. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit berkeleyfestival.org.

Pictured: Kristian Bezuidenhout

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