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A town noted for its oldtime, bluegrass, and traditional music is about to get a dose of some really old-time music, in the form of the new seven-day Echo Early Music Festival, a festival presenting a diverse mix of performances featuring the music of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods and earlier. This year’s festival, running from Jan. 26 through Feb. 1, will consist of a week of exceptional events presented by ensembles and performers from throughout the region, and guest artists from across the continent and around the globe.The festival is one of the few events of its kind in the Southeast, and perhaps the only one in the Southern mountains, despite the rapidly growing popularity and success of early music events and ensembles worldwide over the past several decades. Four evening concerts will be held in the historical Cathedral of All Souls in Biltmore Village (Jan. 26, 28, 30, Feb. 1), an afternoon concert will be held at the Porter Center in Brevard (Jan. 27), a dinner/concert will be given at the Laughing Seed Café in Downtown Asheville (Jan. 31), and two public lectures will be given by internationally noted authorities in the field (Jan. 26, 29). 2008 Festival Events — Jan. 26, 7:30 p.m., Cathedral of All Souls, at Biltmore Village Benjamin Bagby, worldrenowned medieval music specialist, acclaimed cofounder of the Grammy nominated medieval ensemble Sequentia (known for their interpretations of the music of Hildegard von Bingen), and Professor at the Sorbonne University in Paris, presents the medieval epic Beowulf (basis for the recent feature film), in the original bardic style, accompanying himself on a medieval lyre. See www.bagbybeowulf.com for more info. “Mr. Bagby comes as close to holding hundreds of people in a spell as ever a man has ... That is much too rare an experience in theater,” says The New York Times.— Jan. 27, 3 p.m., Porter Center, Brevard College Boone, N.C., based period instrument ensemble Harmonia Baroque will be performing music of Janitsch, Monteverdi , Bach, Handel, Lully and Jacques Morel as part of the “Brevard College Presents” series. Artists: Michael Bell: harpsichords, Alicia Chapman: baroque oboe, Barbara Blaker Krumdieck: baroque cello, Priscilla Porterfield: mezzosoprano, Nancy Schneeloch-Bingham: (recorders and) flute — Jan. 28, 7:30 p.m., Cathedral of All Souls Acclaimed historical keyboardist Henry Lebedinsky will be joined by the Asheville based quintet, the Biltmore Brass, for a night of French and German music at the Cathedral of All Souls. Lebedinsky and the Biltmore Brass will perform independently, and then join forces for the finale. The Biltmore Brass: Bill Ross – Trumpet, Casey Coppenbarger – Trumpet, Judy Roper - French horn, Linda Davis – Trombone, Kermit Solesby – Tuba — Jan. 29, Afternoon, location TBA, likely UNCAsheville Dr. Tim Carter, Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Music at the U.N.C. Chapel Hill, and author of Music in Late Renaissance & Early Baroque Italy. (London: Batsford, 1992) and Monteverdi's Musical Theatre. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002) will present a lecture on Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo” in preparation for the following night’s performance.— Jan. 30, 7:30 p.m., Cathedral of All Souls Claudio Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo, Favola in Musica” with libretto by Alessandro Striggio, in semi-concert version, performed by the Echo Camerata Opera, with Aaron Schnurbusch, an Asheville based lyric tenor, in the title role, and Dr. Michael Porter, director of choral activities at Brevard College and associate conductor with the Asheville Lyric Opera, conducting. Orfeo is the first great opera, currently in its 400th year. — Jan. 31, seatings at 5:30 and 6:30 p.m., music throughout the evening, the Laughing Seed Café and Jack of the Wood Pub, Asheville, NC The Laughing Seed Café, and gourmet vegetarian chef Jason Sellers, will be hosting a Medieval Feast to benefit the festival, joined by harpist Lelia Lattimore and Soundings Choral Group, directed by Timothy Wilds. After dinner, a renaissance band will be performing dances and courtly musick of the olde world downstairs at the Jack of the Wood Pub. The “Car or the Carletti?” raffle will take place at 9:15 at the Jack of the Wood. — Feb. 1, 7:30 p.m., Cathedral of All Souls Aaron Schnurbusch (Orfeo) Ensemble Vermillian brings to audiences moving compositions from the Baroque period played in historical style on recorder, Baroque cello, viola da gamba and harpsichord. The program, Hidden Treasures: Italian Baroque Chamber Music 1650-1700, presents instrumental works by composers including Merula, Uccellini, Isabella Leonarda, Stradella, G. B. Vitali and his son, Tomaso Vitali, from the relatively unexplored later period of the 17th century. Performers: Frances Blaker, recorders, Barbara Krumdieck, baroque cello, Elisabeth Reed, viola da gamba, and Katherine Heater, keyboards“In all of the pieces, the outstanding quality was the engagement that the players had with the music and with each other — coupled with the interesting choice of, and approach to, the repertoire,” says the San Francisco Classical Voice. |
