Salish Sea Early Music Festival Returns

— from Jeffrey Cohan —

The Salish Sea Early Music Festival presents Spring Baroque Festival, to include three contrasting performances of early orchestral and chamber music on period instruments at the Orcas Adventist Fellowship Church on Orcas Island.

— May 21: The Able Virtuoso
“The Able Virtuoso” on Monday, May 21 at 7 p.m. will feature violinist Carrie Krause from Bozeman, Montana, lutenist John Lenti and baroque flutist Jeffrey Cohan in a program of baroque trio sonatas from France, Italy and Germany for violin and flute with theorbo (a very long-necked lute) and baroque guitar by 18th-century French, Italian and German composers. Johann Mattheson’s The Able Virtuoso, published in Hamburg in 1720, sets the tone for this program of virtuoso trio sonatas inspired by Corelli and the fusion of Italian, French, and German styles, which were quite distinct in the 18th century. Music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Archangelo Corelli, Pietro Locatelli, Antoine Dornel and Joseph Bodin de Boismortier will be featured in this virtuoso survey of the great variety of musical styles of 18th century Europe.

— May 28: Bach and Vivaldi Concerti
“Bach and Vivaldi Concerti” on Monday, May 28 at 7 p.m. will feature Johann Sebastian Bach’s ebullient Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, one of the most well-loved orchestral works of the Baroque, with soloists Jonathan Oddie (harpsichord), Carrie Krause (violin) and Jeffrey Cohan (flute), along with the Salish Sea Early Music Festival Chamber Orchestra. Other works on this program of baroque concerti will include the “Pisendel” Violin Concerto by Antonio Vivaldi with soloist Carrie Krause, a Bassoon Concerto by Vivaldi with soloist Anna Marsh, and a Flute Concerto by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach with soloist Jeffrey Cohan.

— June 9: Silvius Leopold Weiss
In “Silvius Leopold Weiss” on Saturday, June 9, 2018 at 7 p.m. baroque lutenist Oleg TImofeyev from Iowa City, Iowa and Jeffrey Cohan, on the one-keyed baroque flute, will play music by Silvius Leopold Weiss, the most prolific and highly esteemed lutenist of the baroque, who worked frequently with flute virtuoso Gabriel Buffardin and wrote much music for obbligato, or fully written out, lute and flute.

Admission to all concerts will be by free will offering/suggested donation ($15, $20 or $25) with those 18 & under free. For more information please see www.salishseafestival.org/orcas.

Carrie Krause, baroque violinist, is concertmaster of the Bozeman Symphony (MT) and New Trinity Baroque in Portland. She performs regularly as soloist and ensemble member for many of the most important period instrument ensembles throughout the United States and has performed throughout Europe. Raised in Fairbanks, Alaska, she resides in Bozeman, MT, where she performs with the Meritage String Quartet and teaches a studio of 35 students. An avid adventurer, Carrie placed first in her age group in the Springfield Missouri Marathon and second in her age group in the Old Gabe 50k Trail race.

John Lenti performs on theorbo, lute, archlute, and baroque guitar throughout the United States with with groups like Apollo’s Fire, Haymarket Opera Company, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Opera, and Seraphic Fire, among many other orchestral and chamber groups. John studied lute with Nigel North, Jacob Heringman, and Elizabeth Kenny. His playing has been praised for its “nuanced beauty and character” (Gramophone).

Jeffrey Cohan has received international acclaim both as a modern flutist and as one of the foremost specialists on transverse flutes from the renaissance through the early 19th century. He won the Erwin Bodky Award in Boston, and first place in the Flanders Festival International Concours Musica Antiqua for Ensembles in Brugge, Belgium with lutenist Stephen Stubbs. First Prize winner of the Olga Koussevitzky Young Artist Competition in New York and recipient of grants from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music and the French Government, he has performed in more than 25 countries. The New York Times has heralded his ability to “play several superstar flutists one might name under the table”.

The Salish Sea Early Music Festival is proud to be a new affiliate organization of Early Music America, which develops, strengthens, and celebrates early music and historically informed performance in North America.

For the eighth year the festival features some of the finest period instrument specialists from North America and Europe, presenting seven contrasting performances on Orcas Island and all around the Salish Sea of chamber music from the Renaissance through the time of Beethoven on period instruments. The festival has presented countless first performances in modern times of period instrument renditions of early works. Additional information is available at www.salishseafestival.org/orcas.