2015 SALISH SEA EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL ~ seven programs of early music on period instruments on Orcas Island and around the Salish Sea ~

— from Jeffrey Cohan —

Lydia+Brotherton+Photo+

Lydia Brotherton

The 2015 Salish Sea Early Music Festival commences with special guest soprano Lydia Brotherton from Berlin, Pacific MusicWorks director Stephen Stubbs on theorbo and Salish Sea Early Music Festival director and baroque flutist Jeffrey Cohan in LYDIA BROTHERTON: Airs of the Baroque on  Wednesday, January 7 at 7:00 PM at the Orcas Adventist Fellowship Church in Eastsound. Please see details above, and see below for additional Salish Sea Early Music Festival performances of this program and the rest of the series in Eastsound and elsewhere around the Salish Sea.

The program includes cantatas by Nicolas Bernier (Le triomphe d’amour) and Antonio Vivaldi (All’ombra di sospetto), airs by Le Sieur Bouvard including Chantez charmants oyseaux and Les Echos de ces bois, and German Arias by Georg Friedrich Händel including Meine Seele hört im Sehen and Singe Seele, Gott zum Preise.

This fifth annual 2015 Salish Sea Early Music Festival includes seven programs of 16th to 19th-century chamber music on period instruments in 54 performances in nine cities around the Salish Sea with special guests from Berlin and Lübeck, Germany, Montreal, and from around the Northwest and the United States.

Additional performances of LYDIA BROTHERTON: Airs of the Baroque: Lopez Island: Wednesday, January 7, 2015 at 1:00 PM in the afternoon, Grace Church · 70 Sunset Lane · (360) 468-3477

Complete Orcas Island 2015 SSEMF performance schedule. All evening performances at 7:00 PM at the Orcas Adventist Fellowship Church in Eastsound. ADMISSION: Suggested donation: $15, $20 or $25, series pass $90 for 5 concerts, 18 & under free. MORE INFO: www.salishseafestival.org, or call the church  at (360) 376-6683

Wednesday, January 7: Lydia Brotherton: Airs of the Baroque • Lydia Brotherton (soprano), Stephen Stubbs (theorbo) & Jeffrey Cohan (baroque flute)

Thursday, January 22: 1700: Baroque Winds • Sand Dalton (baroque oboe), Anna Marsh (baroque bassoon), Jeffrey Cohan (baroque flute) & Jonathan Oddie (harpsichord)

Sunday afternoon, March 8 at 1:30 PM: JS Bach Sonatas • Jeffrey Cohan (baroque flute), Susie Napper (viola da gamba) &  Hans-Jürgen Schnoor (harpsichord)

Monday, March 30: 1800: A Beethoven Band • Oleg Timofeyev (guitar), Jeffrey Cohan (flute) & Stephen Creswell (viola)

Monday, May 18: 1600: Renaissance Winds • John Lenti (renaissance lute), Anna Marsh (dulcian) & Jeffrey Cohan (renaissance transverse flute)

Monday, June 15: The Art of Modulation • Jeffrey Cohan (baroque flute), Linda Melsted (baroque violin), Stephen Creswell (baroque violin & viola), Natalie Mackie (baroque cello) & Jonathan Oddie (harpsichord)

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Special guest soprano Lydia Brotherton graduated magna cum laude from Brown University with a B.A., Honors in Music, and completed her Masters studies in Voice and Historical Performance at Boston University. As a winner of a U.S. Fulbright performing arts grant in 2010-2011, she studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland and now lives in Berlin.

She has performed as a member of Sequentia, with Berlin Baroque in the Berlin Philharmoniker; with Andrea Marcon and La Cetra Barockorchester Basel; Bach’s H-moll Messe with Académie baroque européene d’Ambronay under Sigiswald Kuijken; Bach’s Johannes-Passion at Aldeburgh Easter Weekend with Mark Padmore, and as a Britten-Pears Young Artist.  Lydia has also performed with the Grammy-nominated Boston Early Music Festival, with Tragicomedia under Stephen Stubbs,  with the Handel and Haydn Society Boston, with Ensemble Phoenix Munich, and she has toured internationally as soloist with the Boston Camerata.  She has recorded with Ensemble Phoenix Munich for Harmonia Mundi France, with the ensemble Candens Lilium for WDR/Raumklang, with the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra and Chorus, for CPO.

Please see www.lydiabrotherton.com for additional information.

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After a successful thirty-year career in Europe, Stephen Stubbs returned to his native Seattle in 2006 as one of the world’s most respected lutenists, conductors, and baroque opera specialists. Before his return, he was based in Bremen, Germany, where he was Professor of Lute and Performance Practices at the Hochschule für Künste. Stephen also spent a lot of time on the road as a guest conductor and performer. Together with Erin Headley he started the ensemble Tragicomedia in 1987, which toured throughout Europe, Japan and the US, as well as recording numerous CD’s for various recording companies.

Stephen is the Boston Early Music Festival’s permanent artistic co-director along with his long time colleague Paul O’Dette. Stephen and Paul are also the musical directors of all BEMF operas. BEMF’s recordings of Conradi’s Ariadne, Lully’s Thesee, and Psyché were nominated for Grammy awards in 2005, 2007, and 2009 respectively.

In 2013, Stephen Stubbs was appointed Senior Artist in Residence and faculty member of the School of Music at the University of Washington. Stephen has an extensive discography as conductor and as a solo lutenist of well over 100 CDs, many of which have received international acclaim and awards.

For more information please see www.stephenstubbs.com.