Festival Central Program Week 1 Morning Classes

Early Morning Class Period: 9:00 - 10:30 a.m.

Recorder Early Notation Ensemble: Mensural Notation of the 15th and 16th Centuries with Wendy Powers

For recorder players familiar with clefs, ligatures, and triple notation

Class Description

Come to the sources of Renaissance polyphony! Class will explore manuscript and print sources that include both duple and triple mensuration, with an eye toward gorgeous music and fun notation problems. Students should be familiar with clefs, ligatures, and triple notation.

The Art of Consort Playing: Turning Notes into Music with Rainer Beckmann, Daphna Mor

For all levels of recorders

Class Description

Have you always wanted to be a more expressive and agile consort player? This class will work on the skills you need to not only be a better player yourself, but to inspire your fellow consort players to turn notes into music! We’ll play consort music by composers of the Renaissance, Baroque, and beyond, working on skills such as intonation, tone colors, articulation, rhythm, and ensemble precision. We’ll learn how to make decisions about tempo, ornaments, dynamics, and phrasing.

Recorder Master Class with Saskia Coolen

Perform in class with permission of the instructor, auditors welcome.

Class Description

Class meets with Baroque Academy. Suggested repertoire can include but is not restricted to: Locke, Handel, van Eyck, Babel, Woodcock, and divisions from the Division Flute or Division Violin. Please bring an extra five copies for class study. 415 and 440 instruments welcome.

Renaissance Recorder Consort with Letitia Berlin

For players familiar with Renaissance recorder fingering who own or can borrow Renaissance consort recorders

Class Description

One-on-a-part consort for accomplished players of Renaissance recorders. Blend and ensemble skills emphasized. Repertoire will include but not be limited to the works of English composers Byrd, Ashton, Parsons, and Tye. Performance a possibility. For players familiar with Renaissance recorder fingering who own or can borrow Renaissance consort recorders. We will not be sharing recorders in class, therefore all players must bring at least two sizes.

Baroque Flute Master Class with Gwyn Roberts

Perform in class with permission of the instructor, auditors welcome.

Class Description

This class meets with Baroque Academy flutes, and is open to Central Program players to perform by permission of instructor. Suggested repertoire: music written or published for the English or Dutch market, including but not limited to Abel, Babell, de Fesch, Geminiani, Handel, Locatelli, Loeillet, Mancini, Sammartini, Valentine. Pitch: A=415.

When Things Go Sideways: An English Miscellany for Renaissance Transverse Flute Consort, with Eric Haas

For flutes

Class Description

On the death of Henry VIII in 1547, Philip van Wilder presented an inventory that listed 69 flutes in sets of three, four, five, seven, ten, and fifteen, made of wood, ivory tipped with gold, and even glass. We will play madrigals, motets, fantasias, dances, and more in three to six parts by composers working during the reigns of the Tudors through the Stuarts.

Oboe Band with Meg Owens

For experienced oboes, tailles, and bassoons

Class Description

Queen Anne of England (1665-1714) employed an oboe band whose part books survive. We will play selections by James Paisible and Henry Purcell, including the latter’s Fairy-Queen (1692).. For experienced oboes, tailles, and bassoons. Pitch: A=415.

Consort Music in England with Larry Lipkis and Brent Wissick

For viol and string players (violins, violas, and cellos welcome)

Class Description

Consort music in England reached a peak of excellence in the late 16th and early 17th centuries and forms a staple repertoire for viol players today. This class will give you a chance to revel in the delights of the English consort with like-minded players–live and in person! Composers may include Jenkins, Lawes, Gibbons, Lupo, Ward, Ferrabosco, et al. We'll explore technical and musical opportunities (and challenges!) specific to each piece and the repertoire as a whole. Consorts will be carefully sorted according to level of technical and musical proficiency. iolins welcome. Pitch: A=415.

Baroque Cello Master Class with Phoebe Carrai

Perform in class with permission of the instructor, auditors welcome.

Class Description

Class meets with Baroque Academy cellos.
Performers should bring extra copies for class study. Pitch: A=415. Open to Central Program players to perform by permission of instructor.

Baroque Violin Master Class with Ingrid Matthews

Perform in class with permission of the instructor, auditors welcome.

Class Description

Class meets with Baroque Academy violins.
Performers should bring extra copies for class study. Pitch: A=415. Open to Central Program players to perform by permission of instructor.

Baroque Viol Master Class with Sarah Cunningham

Perform in class with permission of the instructor, auditors welcome.

Class Description

Class meets with Baroque Academy viols.
Performers should bring extra copies for class study. Pitch: A=415. Open to Central Program players to perform, by permission of instructor.

Baroque Academy Harpsichord Class with Peter Sykes

Perform in class with permission of the instructor, auditors welcome.

Class Description

Class meets with Baroque Academy harpsichordists. Open to Central Program players to perform by permission of instructor.
Performers should bring extra copies for class study. Pitch: A=415.

Central Program Harpsichord Master Class: Put On Your Dancing Shoes with Arthur Haas

Open to harpsichordists

Class Description

With Arthur as your guide and dance master, we will explore dance music of England from the late 16th through to the 18th-century High Baroque. Featured will be pavans and galliards from the virginalists such as William Byrd and John Bull, suites from the English Restoration composers such as Henry Purcell and John Blow, to dance movements of Handel and his contemporaries. Learn everything you always wanted to know! Is this music more French or Italian? How do you figure out the tempos or accent patterns? Why is Handel included since he was a German who studied in Italy? We will figure this all out during the week. Please let Arthur know what you plan to play for class, or ask him for advice by emailing Click here to show mail address.

Sing We Enchanted: Vocal Technique and English Song with Emily Eagen

Open to singers of all levels

Class Description

This weeklong version of Emily's popular AEM online class is a vocal technique and repertoire class–with a twist! Singers of all levels are welcome to participate in this daily vocal workout, and from the beginning we will be up and singing. Build confidence and versatility as we do exercises for resonance, breath, articulation, and phonation, and stretch our range and stamina. The twist? We will draw inspiration from ideas from 17th- and 18th-century vocal pedagogy as we sing. What imagery, wisdom, and science helped singers use their voices in these centuries? What is "news we can use" today to help us sing? We'll draw from historical ideas of the voice to gain inspiration as we do a full vocal workout, then sing solo and small ensemble repertoire from the Renaissance and early Baroque to try out the ideas. Gain new tools and tips for your voice, and leave with a stack of some of the most beautiful songs of the eras, as we sing our way back in time!.

Baroque Dance Technique with Dorothy Olsson and Peggy Murray

For dancers in the Historical Dance Program.

Class Description

Technique class in 18th-century dance focusing on steps and phrases from notated French choreographies by Pécour and Feuillet, including various dance types (menuet, bourée, passacaille, sarabande, etc.) *First-week dancers who wish to audition for the opera project must plan to arrive on Saturday, July 1st.

Coffee Break 10:30 - 11:00 a.m.

Late Morning Class Period: 11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

Baroque Orchestra: Beyond the Powers of Words to Express - Orchestral Music from England with Frances Blaker

Open to all Baroque instruments: winds, strings, and continuo, including but not limited to recorders, flutes, oboes, bassoons, violins, violas, cellos, basses, viols (all sizes), harpsichords, and lutes. Continuo players must be able to read figures.

Class Description

Elegant, colorful, theatrical, exotic, and just plain exciting works by Purcell, Handel, and Avison will feature every section of the orchestra. Pitch: A=415.

Collegium: “If Music Be the Food of Love…” Shakespeare and Music with Larry Lipkis

Open to all singers and instrumentalists, intermediate through advanced

Class Description

We will explore the rich treasure trove of music written for Shakespeare’s plays–Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, and others–including music inspired by the Bard’s characters and settings. We’ll put the music into the context of the plays by reading–and even acting–excerpts from selected scenes in which the music occurs..

Byrd and Weelkes, 1623/2023 with Priscilla Herreid

Open to upper intermediate shawm, sackbut, and dulcian players

Class Description

Two giants of the English Renaissance died 400 years ago, with that era reaching its pinnacle during their lifetimes. We will look at motets and madrigals by William Byrd and Thomas Weelkes, sacred and secular pieces that are well suited for loud band. .

English Virginal Keyboard Music with Peter Sykes

Open to harpsichordists

Class Description

The first cultivation of keyboard music anywhere happened in England, starting around 1580. Music for “a pair of virginalls” can be humble home music or the most exalted (and difficult!) keyboard music ever written, by composers like William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, John Bull, and the most prolific "Anonymous". We will delve into this repertoire, addressing issues of performance practice such as fingering, ornamentation, styles and forms, temperament, and the social mores surrounding this most primally wonderful manifestation of keyboard art.

Baroque Dance Topics with Peggy Murray

For dancers in the Historical Dance Program

Class Description

A survey of important English dance sources: phrases from Weaver, Tomlinson, Pemberton, Essex, etc. *First-week dancers who wish to audition for the opera project must plan to arrive on Saturday, July 1st.

*If you are in Baroque Academy there is no need to choose classes, your daily schedule is already set. Pitch for classes is A=440 unless otherwise noted.