Category: Music

Posted on

Courtly Ayres and Dances concert with Consort 8 rescheduled to 19 September

Members of The Early Dance Consort will be appearing as guests with Consort 8 in
 SOLD OUT!
COURTLY AYRES AND DANCES
A fund-raising concert to support St Paul’s Pantry
*** New Concert date: Saturday 19 September 2020 ***
St Paul’s Anglican Church, 205-207 Burwood Rd, Burwood
Tickets online & at the door $35 (concession $30)
For more details see Concert Flyer and for any further updates see Consort 8 website Consort8.org

* In keeping with the COVID-19 Regulations, social distancing will be adhered to

Posted on

BACH CELLO SUITES and THE DANCE

F&J_R_hands_webWhat better way to deepen our appreciation of the dance movements of the Bach Suites than through dance itself?  Baroque cellists Rosanne Hunt and Josephine Vains and baroque violinist Shane Lestideau collaborate with Fiona Garlick and John Barnard of Sydney’s Early Dance Consort in an exquisite program of works by Bach, Lully, Couperin, Marais and Scottish composers of the eighteenth century.

Baroque dancers
Fiona Garlick  John Barnard

Cellists
Rosanne Hunt
Josephine Vains

Violinist
Shane Lestideau

Special guest violinist
Elizabeth Wallfisch

Melba Hall, Royal Parade, Parkville (Melbourne)
$35 Adult  $25 Concession
Children 12 and under FREE

Bookings  www.trybooking.com/LUFO

Enquiries phone 0412 957 510 or bachcelloseries@yahoo.com.au

Posted on

Baroque Dance Workshop

Menuet_baroque_danceSunday August 21, 2-5pm

Join Fiona Garlick and John Barnard of Sydney’s Early Dance Consort as they lead you into the elegant world of French baroque dance.

If you love Baroque music, you may have wondered what a
Minuet, Sarabande or Gavotte might look and feel like to dance.
This workshop is the perfect opportunity to step back to the baroque era for a taste of the French noble dances which graced European ballrooms and theatres for nearly a century, and gave the baroque suite its character.
Fiona Garlick and John Barnard will guide you in the technique and distinctive qualities of a selection of baroque dance types, and demonstrate excerpts from original choreographies of the era.

Sunday August 21, 2-5pm
Pleasance House
Level 4/178 Collins Street, Melbourne
Adult $65 / Concession $55
Earlybird discount $55 / $45 if booked before July 29
Bookings http://www.trybooking.com/MBBD
enquiries@earlydanceconsort or 0400 104 969
www.earlydanceconsort.com.au

No previous experience or partner required

Clothing: Loose & comfortable to allow freedom of movement
(avoid tight skirts or trousers) Shoes: Lightweight, secure, and
comfortable shoes with low heel or flat, preferably without a rubber
sole. These could be ballet flats, jazz or character shoes, or
lightweight street shoes.

Flyer PDF

Posted on

2016 Summer Course in Renaissance & Baroque Dance, 6-8 January, North Sydney

2016 Summer Course in Renaissance & Baroque Dance
The Early Dance Consort 2016 Summer Course in Renaissance & Baroque Dance, 6-8 January, North Sydney

Our 7th Summer Course in Renaissance & Baroque Dance is just one month away, 6-8 January, 2016. It’s a great introduction to early dance for musicians, dancers, actors and anyone passionate about social history or period drama. No previous experience or partner required. The course will be held during the daytime in North Sydney, Wednesday to Friday, with a Summer Ball on the evening of Friday 8 January (all welcome). For full details, brochure & enrolment form visit

Summer 2016 

Brochure

Enrolment form

Posted on

Free Concert – Sydney Baroque Music Festival, Friday 11 December 2015, 7:00pm at the Sydney Conservatorium

Sydney Baroque Music Festival Free Concert 11 Dec 2015
Free Concert, Sydney Baroque Music Festival, Friday 11 Dec, 7pm, Sydney Conservatorium

The Sydney Baroque Music Festival returns for its third year to the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2015. The festival is an entirely student-driven initiative bringing together young musicians from all over Australia who share a passion for early music. The musicians will be working intensively through the week of 7 to 11 December, to put on a concert of “Water Music”, in the beautiful Music Workshop. This year’s festival welcomes exciting young violinist Rafael Font, who will perform Vivaldi’s concerto “La Tempesta di Mare” with the festival orchestra. The other works being performed include Handel’s Water Music suite in F major, Marais’ “Tempete” from Alcione, Rebel’s stormy Les Elemens, and Telemann’s Divertimento in E-flat major – all on period instruments with gut-strung strings, harpsichords, baroque oboes, flutes and horns, and baroque bassoon and guitar!

Please join our musical friends supporting early music in Sydney, for this free concert on Friday 11 December in Music Workshop at 7pm. http://music.sydney.edu.au/events/scm-baroque-music-festival-concert

You can visit the Facebook page for behind the scenes images, updates, and more: www.facebook.com/SydneyBaroqueMusicFestival

Posted on

English Masque “Cupid and Death” update & bookings

Cupid-Poster-ImageB

What is a Masque?
A Masque is a theatrical spectacle combining music, drama, song and dance.  Once performed in the royal courts in the 16th and 17th centuries, masques were lavish affairs that combined artistic performance with aristocratic socialising and participation.

Today masques are very seldom performed, so we are delighted to be able to announce that “Cupid and Death”, written by James Shirley in 1653, will be presented at the Glebe Cafe Church on 30th and 31st May, 2014.  With music composed by Matthew Locke and Christopher Gibbons performed on early instruments, with drama and dance to match, this will be a rare opportunity to experience one of the few entertainments to emerge from the turbulent era of Commonwealth England.

Shirley’s “Cupid and Death” is loosely based on the fable by Aesop.  By chance, both Cupid and Death come to stay at the same Inn, but when they depart the next day, they unwittingly carry the wrong weaponry.  What chaos will ensue?  Can order be restored?  A cast of intriguing and unexpected characters bring this wise and witty tale to life for modern audiences, while satirising the high and mighty of their day.
Not to be missed!

When and Where?
Friday 30th May 7pm, 2014
Saturday 31st May 2pm and 7pm, 2014
Glebe Café Church, 37 St Johns Road, Glebe (Sydney)
Bookings: Tickets through ClassikON www.classikon.com
(choose date first) or go to direct links at http://www.cupidanddeath.com/cupidanddeath.com/Concert_Information.html
Poster PDF  Enquiries contact info

About the production:  (see www.cupidanddeath.com)
Words by James Shirley
Music by Matthew Locke and Christopher Gibbons
Produced by Imogen Granwal & Tara Hashambhoy
Directed by Nadia Piave
Choreography by Fiona Garlick
Cast:
Chamberlain – Owen Elsley
Nature – Hester Wright
Mercury – Neil Kirkby
Host/Despair – Peter Williams
Cupid – Vanilla Tupu
Death – John Barnard/cast members
Chorus – Elli Bortolotti, Jenny Duck-Chong, Richard Black, Richard Bell

Dancing by The Early Dance Consort
Fiona Garlick – John Barnard – Raffaele Arcamone – cast

Instrumentalists
Raymond Harvey – Harpsichord
Samantha Cohen – Theorbo
Bridget Crouch and Tara Hashambhoy – Violins
Imogen Granwal – Cello

 

Posted on

Baroque Dance Music CD “Les Matelots”

This Baroque Dance Music CD by the Leipzig-based ensemble Les
Matelots is a crowd-sourced project on https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cd-les-matelots#home
It will run only until April 30, 2014. They write:

After years of performing early music with connections to period dance we decided as ensemble Les Matelots to produce CD of French and English Baroque-dance music. Our goal is not just to please the listener’s ears, but to bring you music which fits the dance perfectly.
We chose a colourful collection of 18 dances and contredanses and made our own arrangements… and we have invited other musicians to participate. You will find up to 10 instruments playing on our CD.
As you can imagine, such a project wouldn’t be possible without support. Therefore we have started a crowd funding campaign, in which you can support us financially or pre-order our CD.
It would be very helpful for us, if you could pass the message on to friends and colleagues possibly interested in our project. In summer 2014 you get a CD,  which hopefully pleases every dancer and lover of Baroque music as a reward.

For more info including track-list see http://www.lesmatelots.com/cd-english.html
YouTube clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzg4dpsQOng

So please consider supporting  this with a contribution towards a rarity – a new CD of music specifically for baroque dance choreographies and contredanses. And there is a bit of an Australian connection here, as harpsichordist Chris Berenson used to play for the ensemble for a while.

Posted on

British Birds, Beasts and Bards – The Renaissance Players

The Renaissance Players: British Birds, Beasts and Bards

25th & 26th March, 2014, at 7 pm
Great Hall, Sydney University
Tickets: $36 – via trybooking.com or at the door
Enquiries (02) 4751 4910

Popular traditions of British music & poetry c. 1300–1977 directed by Winsome Evans

Australia’s oldest and most famous early music group presents its latest eclectic feast (with a 20th century twist!) on Tuesday 25th & Wednesday 26th March at 7pm in the magnificent Great Hall of The University of Sydney.

A touch of mediæval song (ornamented with flourishes from later times) and music by the young, lusty King Henry VIII are ancient precursors to the concert’s main focus on popular rounds, traditional songs and country dances from Somerset, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Sussex and Wexford.

Newly arranged for a wide variety of renaissance and modern folk instruments, along with sets of labyrinthine variations on pop music of the 1970s, the whole is garnished with a spicy, eclectic assortment of 20th century British poetry.

A musical adventure across the centuries with jokes, mysteries and hidden references aplenty: all sung in traditional styles and played on exotic instruments.

Led by Associate Professor (and international doyen of early music) Winsome Evans BEM OAM, the line-up for this concert series includes Jessica O’Donoghue, Mitchell Riley, Susie Bishop (singers); Llew Kiek, Andrew Lambkin, Winsome Evans, James Wannan, Jane Duncan, Kirsty Vickers (multi-instrumentalists); Jessica Lim (organist); Geoff Sirmai (poetry) with cheeky readings and poems.

Gemshorn, recorders, douçaine, crumhorns, rackett, whistle, flutes, rebecs, violins, violas, baroque cello, ud, gittern, citole, guitar, Irish harp, ukuleles, piano, handbells, assortment of exotic percussion including nakkers, daireh, tabor and darabukka and the Great Hall organ.

Commemorating the outstanding cultural and intellectual contributions to humanity of Pete Seeger and Alan Turing (the Enigma code hero), the program also features a tribute to our embattled ABC. It includes works by the group’s late patron Emeritus Professor Sir Peter Platt and its legendary poet and original reader Professor Frederick May.

The Renaissance Players is Australia’s longest-running early music group. Debuting in 1966 in the Great Hall of Sydney University, its more than 200 alumni boast such eminent performers as Graham Pushee, Lyndon Terracini, Michael Atherton, Barbara Stackpool, Wayne Richmond and Jonathan Rubin. It has performed all over Australia and overseas and produced more than 20 internationally acclaimed CD recordings.

VENUE: The Great Hall Sydney University Camperdown, NSW 2006
CONTACT DETAILS:  Llew Kiek 0247514910 llew@maramusic.com.au

See https://www.facebook.com/events/627575770641658/

For bookings:  http://trybooking.com/  (choose the date first)

Posted on

Finding dance music

While we lament the shrinking number and size of classical music retail stores (and the annoyingly inapt classification of all music by “song” and “artist” rather than by “composer” and “work”), the online music business has provided some fringe benefits for early dancers. Instead of having to buy a whole CD just for the odd track used in class, now it is possible to be selective, preview individual tracks and be (almost) instantly gratified with a download.

Of course there’s nothing like the pleasure of browsing in a serious music shop, and buying real CDs for quality of recording and supporting information. So don’t forget to support our local music stores such as Fish Fine Music (http://www.fishfinemusic.com.au/) and the ABC Shops in Sydney, which in turn support local artists and the classical recording industry.

See http://www.naxos.com/buyonline.asp for an international list of retail and online suppliers.

For downloads we suggest:

Classics Online (http://www.classicsonline.com/)
Bigpond Music (http://bigpondmusic.com/) with unmetered downloads for its internet customers
iTunes

(Amazon sells physical CDs, but its music downloads are not available in Australia)