Renaissance instruments featured in upcoming Salish Sea Early Music Festival performance

Saturday, June 8, 7 p.m., Orcas Adventist Fellowship Church

— from Jeffrey Cohan for Salish Sea Early Music Festival —

Anna Marsh (dulcian), Shulamit Kleinerman (renaissance violin), John Lenti (theorbo & baroque guitar) and Jeffrey Cohan (renaissance transverse flute} perform music from the early 17th century in the Salish Sea Early Music Festival’s 17th-Century Canzonas on Saturday, June 8 at 7 p.m. at the Orcas Adventist Fellowship Church at 107 Enchanted Forest Road in Eastsound.  

Renaissance transverse flute, renaissance violin, held against the upper chest as fiddlers sometimes do today, and dulcian or renaissance bassoon along with both theorbo, a very long-necked lute and baroque guitar will be heard in this exploration of a unique language of expressive nuance from a transitional period which bridged renaissance and baroque styles. These instruments are radically different in tone and technique from those used just half a century later and bring this music to life. Among the composers to be represented are organist and violinist Tarquinio Merula, violinists Marco Uccellini and Giovanni Battista Buonamente and the dulcian virtuoso Bartholome de Selma y Salaverde, all from the early 17th century.

Please see www.salishseafestival.org/orcas for additional information. Admission is by suggested donation: $15, $20 or $25 (a free will offering), and those 18 & under are free.

In 2019 the Salish Sea Early Music Festival presents 8 performances on Orcas Island and 84 performances all around the Salish Sea of early chamber music performed on period instruments. The festival has presented countless first performances in modern times of period instrument renditions of early works, and is proud to be an affiliate organization of Early Music America, which develops, strengthens, and celebrates early music and historically informed performance in North America. Flutist Jeffrey Cohan is the festival’s artistic director. Additional information is available at  www.salishseafestival.org/orcas.