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Alison Crum and Roy Marks in Concert

Alison Crum is one of the best-known British exponents of the viol. As teacher, performer, and moving spirit behind several well-known early music groups, she has travelled all over the world giving recitals and lectures and teaching on summer schools and workshops. Alison is President of the Viola da Gamba Society of Great Britain, Professor of Viol at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London, and a visiting teacher at several colleges and universities in both Europe and the USA. She is also the author of two highly acclaimed books on playing the viol, and has been called the doyenne of British viol teachers. 

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Miami Bach Society’s legacy to be continued by RK Cultural Productions, Inc.

With this message, I’d like to introduce you to RK Cultural Productions. Rise Kern, former Miami Bach Society board member, and Margie Lopez, former Executive Director of The Miami Bach Society, have joined their experiences and strengths to continue the legacy the Miami Bach Society began 35 years ago. Acknowledging South Florida’s great need to have outstanding cultural events, presented locally for our residents, students, and visitors, RK Cultural Productions will be presenting early music concerts as well as those featuring later repertoires.

Ms. Kern and Ms. Lopez share the same vision of enriching the lives of our residents and students with two outreach programs. They are proudly announcing the continuation of “Bach to School,” as well as initiating a new outreach program geared towards patients, doctors, and staff in local hospitals called “Bach to Health.” Both of these unique and outstanding programs will be funded by supporters and will be free to schools and hospitals.

Another important goal of RK Cultural Productions’ mission is to support local artists by offering a professional platform in which they can perform locally, as well as participate in the Outreach Programs.

The 2019 Season will consist of three concerts, at RK’s website.In addition, “Bach to School” and “Bach to Health” will be on-going with each visiting artist. All schools and hospitals wishing to participate should contact them at Info@RKCulturalProductions.org. Any individuals and corporations wishing to become a sponsor should visit their website to obtain further information.

Please see the attached flyer for information regarding their first concert at the FIU School of Music Concert Hall on Tuesday January 29, 2019 at 7pm. FIU students are admitted free with ID and RK Productions will honor FIU’s annual pass holders.

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Early Music at FIU Spring 2019 Update

We’re pleased to announce that the FIU Collegium Musicum has returned from its hiatus under the able direction of Juvenal Correa-Salas. Our concert will take place on Saturday March 23 at 7pm at the FIU School of Music Concert Hall. It will feature a variety of music exploring the influence of dance rhythms from the Medieval to Baroque eras.

Juvenal Correa-Salas and male soprano Robert Crowe at their recent performance in San Antonio for the American Musicological Society.

The Miami International Guitar Festival under the direction of Mezut Ozgen continues its tradition of including early music among its offerings. On Tuesday February 19, in Lutorama, David Dolata will  tour the audience through his lute collection explaining the differences among the instruments and will play a little bit on each one while displaying the tablature he reads from on the big screen.

David Dolata

On Thursday, February 21 flutist Sanna Rootveld will demonstrate performance practice techniques when playing ornaments in Baroque music.  Both events take place at 11 am at the FIU School of Music Instrumental Rehearsal Hall WPAC 157.

Sanna Rootveld

At 6 pm on Saturday April 13 soprano Orianna Gutierrez will include three lute songs accompanied by David Dolata on her senior recital. This event will take place at the FIU School of Music Recital Hall WPAC 150. 

Orianna Gutierrez
Michael O’Connor, Director of the Palm Beach Atlantic University Early Music Ensemble

Finally, at 7:30 pm on Friday, March 29 and Saturday, March 30 Palm Beach Atlantic University presents its Biennial Early Music Festival. Assisted by past and present members of FIU’s Collegium Musicum as well as David Dolata on lute, Friday’s concert presents early music selections from across Europe during the first half of the concert and Charpentier’s Te Deum for the second half. On Saturday join PBAU’s guest artists in a diverse program featuring predominantly woodwind repertoire with violin (Sandra Rubio) and harpsichord (Juvenal Correa-Salas) including works by Boismortier and Vivaldi. Both concerts take place at the DeSantis Family Chapel, 300 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401.

For detailed information on these events either click on the dates on the calendar in the right sidebar or go to the calendar in the menu.

Please return to the calendar periodically as there are other events in the offing that have not yet been scheduled.

We hope to see you soon,

David Dolata on behalf of Juvenal Correa-Salas and the FIU Collegium Musicum.

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David Dolata and Juvenal Correa-Salas earn glowing review from Early Music America for their latest CD

Robert Crowe in concert at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with Concerto d’Amsterdam and Elizabeth Wallfisch.

Handel: The Complete Amen, Alleluia Arias
Robert Crowe, soprano, and Il Furioso
Toccata Classics TOCC0337

By Andrew J. Sammut

CD REVIEW — Nearly half of this disc is made up of Handel’s settings of the words “Amen” and/or “Hallelujah,” likely intended for performance in private homes and deliberately light on lyrical content. Yet Handel makes these spiritual declarations by turns reflective (HWV 271), resigned (HWV 274), joyous but refined (HWV 276), virtuosic (HWV 277), and, of course, triumphant (HWV 275). The album also includes three vocal works from the Harmonia Sacra, a collection of sacred solo songs published in various editions during the late 17th century and also aimed at home use: William Croft’s bright, heavily ornamented hymn to music, an anonymous composer’s graphic vision of Christ’s crucifixion, and John Church’s emotionally ranging “A Divine Hymn,” which soprano Robert Crowe calls “a truly under-appreciated masterpiece.”

This music was intended for “amateur” musicians, meaning “non-professional” rather than “unskilled, dilettante” and certainly not “student,” according to Crowe. These works are technically involved and expressive, and the musicians approach them with obvious knowledge and affection. Crowe explained over email that “the limited word choice [in the Amen and Hallelujah arias] and those two words both containing relatively broad, powerful meanings meant that the affect had to be gleaned not from text but from the music written to undergird it.” Crowe’s musical instincts are spot-on throughout as he explores each work’s unique character. He tosses off some impressive sudden register shifts, including an unexpected dip into chest voice following chiming, upper-register melismas at the end of Croft’s “A Hymn On Divine Music.” Even during the most ornate line of the three Harmonia Sacra pieces, Crowe demonstrates fine diction and consistency of tone.

Robert Crowe

The American-Canadian ensemble Il Furioso partners Crowe with chamber organ and one or two theorbos on each track. The liner notes explain the historical precedent for the double theorbos, but the warm, undulating wash underneath and around Crowe justifies itself on purely sonic terms. The first, unornamented performance of HWV 270 (as opposed to the ornamented version closing the disc) is a great example of the simple but powerful effect of one theorbo doubling the organ’s bass line while another plucks the harmonies. HWV 269 is a superb example of the whole ensemble — singer and instrumentalists — breathing together and feeling the pulse as one. Theorbo sonatas by the obscure Ferraranese composer and theorbo virtuoso Giovanni Pittoni spotlight Il Furioso co-directors Victor Coehlo and David Dolata. Charming excerpts composed by Handel for mechanical musical clock showcase organist Juvenal Correa-Salas.

This reviewer had difficulty with the recording’s audio engineering, such as rumbling on Crowe’s highest notes and some muddiness in the instruments’ lower ranges (even after trying the disc on three sound systems). Those strictly technological issues aside, the origins of these works in private musicking, the spare accompaniment, and the musicians’ sensitive interplay make this a thoroughly intimate affair.

Andrew J. Sammut has written about European classical music as well as American classical music for All About Jazz, The Boston Musical Intelligencer, Early Music America, the IAJRC Journal and his own blog.

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Review of FIU Soprano Adriana Ruiz at Early Music America Emerging Artists Concert at Bloomington Early Music Festival

Excerpt from festival review by Peter Jacobi:

Soprano Adriana Ruiz, in collaboration with harpsichordist Benjamin Katz, next on the program, apparently for reason of time, cut down their set of songs by the 17th-century female composer Barbara Strozzi; the pace of the music made recognizing the cuts difficult.

Ruiz proved, however, that she has the natural and trained soprano voice to focus on Strozzi’s heart-gripping songs. And she joined, with impact, the chorus of musicians seeking to prove that Strozzi, though now increasingly recognized, is still not sufficiently regarded as a composer of importance. Strozzi’s songs about love endured, love longed for, love betrayed and love glorified are potently expressed in songs that echo the sentiments embedded in their ardent words. Soprano Ruiz proved herself an equally ardent disciple.

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2018 Early Music America Emerging Artists Showcase: Adriana Ruiz

Soprano Adriana Ruiz will perform in Early Music America’s Emerging Artists Showcase, May 24-26, 2018, as part of the Bloomington Early Music Festival.

Cuban-born Adriana Ruiz started her studies of Piano at the age of seven. She completed her studies in Voice and Choral Conducting at the Cuban Conservatory of Music “Esteban Salas” and won the French Song Contest held in Havana, Cuba, in 2003, which gave her the opportunity to perform on several occasions in Paris.

Ruiz is currently furthering her vocal training at Florida International University, where she studies with Dr. Vindhya Khare and has performed with the Collegium Musicum, most notably in the lead role in John Blow’s Venus and Adonis. She has frequently performed with lutenist David Dolata at FIU and in the community on behalf of the Miami Bach Society. In addition to her performances of Renaissance and Baroque music to the accompaniment of the lute and harpsichord, Ruiz has performed Medieval music while accompanying herself on the Medieval harp.

Ruiz also studied with renowned early music soprano Julianne Baird and lutenist and Director of Tempesta di Mare, Richard Stone, at the Amherst Early Music Winter Workshop in Philadelphia, where she performed on the workshop concert.

Her interest in early music goes back to her childhood in Cuba when she discovered the madrigals of Palestrina, Janequin, and Vázquez at a very young age and fell completely in love with their melodies and harmonies. When she was 18, she started singing with the choir Orfeon Santiago in Cuba and learned that Renaissance and Baroque vocal music would be always her favorite musical styles to perform. “Now, I am delighted with the early Italian baroque music,” she says. “Composers like Merula, D’India and Strozzi interest me tremendously.”

2018 Showcase Program: “Di canto e lacrime”: four arias by the Italian composer Barbara Strozzi.

  • Amor dormiglione
  • Che si puo fare
  • Cosi non la voglio
  • Mi fa rider
  • Tradimento
  • Lagrime mie

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MIGF 2018: LECTURE BY DAVID DOLATA ON BAROQUE GUITAR TABLATURE AND ALFABETO

TUESDAY 2/20

The 2018 Miami International GuitART Festival presents a lecture by Dr. David Dolata at the WPAC Instrumental Hall. Dr. Dolata will tour the audience through the stunning variety of clever notational methods Spanish, Italian, and French guitarists created to convey rasqueado and/or punteado textures in both accompaniments and solo music for Baroque guitar.

The festival takes place from February 19th through 25th with daily concerts, master classes, lectures, competitions, and Luthiers Expo.

2018 MIGF FESTIVAL PASS is available to attend all festival events at a single reduced price. More info at MIGF website: migf.fiu.edu/tickets

PriceFREE

Time11:00am – 12:15pm

VenueHerbert & Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center

AddressModesto A. Maidique Campus, 10910 SW 17 St.
Miami, FL 33199GET DIRECTIONS

Phone Number305.348.0496

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Collegium Musicum Voice Major Adriana Ruiz named Early Music America Emerging Artist

FIU School of Music soprano Adriana Ruiz has been named an Early Music America (EMA) Emerging Artist. According to EMA, Ms. Ruiz was among six artists chosen to “represent the best of emerging early music talent from a very large pool of applicants.” Ms. Ruiz was the only singer chosen. As a result of her award, Ms. Ruiz will perform in the Emerging Artist Showcase at the prestigious Bloomington Early Music Festival at Indiana University, which houses one of the top early music programs in the country. Performances will take place in Auer Hall at the Jacobs School of Music on Friday, May 25 and Saturday, May 26 and will be live-streamed by IU Music and subsequently broadcast  by WFIU Public Radio. Click here to see the EMA announcement.

Ms. Ruiz recently studied with renowned early music soprano Julianne Baird and lutenist and Director of Tempesta di Mare Richard Stone at the Amherst Early Music Winter Workshop in Philadelphia where she also performed on the workshop concert.

At FIU Ms. Ruiz studies with Dr. Vindhya Khare and has performed with the Collegium Musicum, most notably in the lead role in John Blow’s Venus and Adonis. She has frequently performed with lutenist David Dolata at FIU and in the community on behalf of the Miami Bach Society. In addition to her performances of Renaissance and Baroque music to the accompaniment of the lute and harpsichord, Ms. Ruiz has performed Medieval music while accompanying herself on the Medieval harp.

Audio tracks of some of Ms. Ruiz’ Collegium Musicum performances can be found here.  The five tracks at the top of the list feature Ms. Ruiz.