2025 Concert Series
Concerts are at 7:30pm Tuesdays in Lincoln / Wednesdays in Andover / Thursdays in Boston
Ampersand
Madeline Apple Healey,
soprano & co-director
Timothy Parsons,
countertenor & co-director
Hannah Baslee, contralto
Jacob Perry, tenor
Andrew Padgett, bass-baritone
June 17-19 AMPERSAND
equal the stars in number: on the cusp of the 16th century
In their SoHIP debut, vocal ensemble Ampersand explores the astonishing creativity on display in the Chigi Codex and the Eton Choirbook, both compiled in the waning years of the 15th century. Their program highlights the floridity and inventiveness of the counterpoint found in these works as well as the curious style of combinative myth-making on display–many of the texts mix imagery from ancient Greek and Roman mythology with flowery exhortations to Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Eton Choirbook is represented by English composers William Horewud, Walter Lambe and William Cornysh; and the Chigi Codex by Franco-Flemish masters Johannes Regis, Gaspar van Weerbeke, and Loyset Compere. Learn More
June 24-26 Seven Times Salt
From Plimoth to Yorktown
This year marks the 250th anniversary of the “shot heard round the world." The historic events at Lexington and Concord on the morning of April 19, 1775 sparked the beginning of the Revolutionary War and the eventual creation of the United States. Seven Times Salt’s tour of early New England traces a musical lineage from the first settlers at Plimoth to their descendants on the eve of the Revolution and eventual victory at Yorktown. English catches and early shape note hymns lead to songs of liberty, rants against taxation and tyranny, wartime laments, and even some of George Washington's favorite dance tunes. The program includes works by Thomas Arne and William Billings, selections from the Ainsworth Psalter and the Bay Psalm Book, and a pleasing variety of dance tunes from 18th-c. American manuscripts. Learn More
Photo by Dave Jamrog
Seven Times Salt
Julia Soojin Cavallaro, mezzo-soprano
Karen Burciaga, violin, guitar, alto
Daniel Meyers, recorders, flute, percussion, baritone
Josh Schreiber, viol, cello, bass
Matthew Wright, lute, cittern, tenor
Chamber of the Muses at Crathes Castle, Banchory, Scotland
Long & Away
Karen Burciaga,
treble & tenor viol, vielle
Anne Legêne, treble & tenor viol
James Perretta, bass viol, vielle
July 1-3 Long & Away
Songs of Time: Music for the Muses
Viol consort Long & Away presents an eclectic program that travels with the Muses from the 1400s to the present day. Inspired by the time hopping “Song of Time” theme from The Legend of Zelda, the journey begins with a trove of early Renaissance music by Dufay, Binchois, and their contemporaries performed on the vielle, ancestor of the viol. The program then highlights the great 16th and 17th-c. English viol consort composers Gibbons, Jenkins, and Purcell. Moving ever forward in time, the musicians sample dance tunes of 18th-c. Scotland and choral writing of 20th-c. France, then make their way to the modern era with pieces by living composers Will Ayton and Larry Wallach. The consort bids farewell to the Muses and closes the Door of Time with James Perretta’s Consort Fantasy on The Song of Time. Learn More
July 8-10 Silentwoods Collective
Sicilian Fables & Legends of the South
Silentwoods Collective dives into the passionate and fiery music of Southern Italy, a region rich in Greek and Arab cultural heritage. Rituals of the early modern and pre-Christian eras reveal not only antiquity’s aesthetic influences in the area but also functional relations. Evolving and mutating with each passing generation, one example of such relationships is the lore surrounding the tarantella, a genre descending from ancient times. A reaction to emotional and or physical trauma, this program traces the lineage of the tarantella’s vigorous energy through the centuries to the ecstatic rituals involving music and dance surrounding the orphic and bacchic cults of antiquity. As the musicians explore these and other stories and rituals of Southern Italy, they illuminate gems of a seldom performed and understudied repertoire–works by Scarlatti, Coya, Caresana, Giulio de Ruvo, Provenzale, and more.
Learn More
Silentwoods Collective
Carley DeFranco, soprano
Danilo Bonina & Nelli Herskovitz-Jabotinsky, violins
Andrew Koutroubas, cello
John McKean, harpsichord
Luce Burrell, theorbo
Musica Maestrale
Barbara Allen Hill, soprano
Dan Meyers, recorders, Renaissance flute
Hideki Yamaya,
Renaissance lute, theorbo
July 15-17 Musica Maestrale
Airs de Cour: Court Songs of 17th-century France
Musica Maestrale makes their SoHIP debut with a program of music highlighting the charming courtly songs of 17th-century France. Dating from the reigns of the French kings Louis XIII (“the Just”) and XIV (“the Sun King”), these pieces were primarily meant for private consumption by the nobility, and they display a tender, intimate side of early- to mid-Baroque music. Airs by Moulinié, Lambert, Guedron and their contemporaries, as well as instrumental solos by Ballard, de Visée, and others express sentiments of loss, longing, and heartbreak—still very relatable subjects to us today, who are separated from the original intended audience through time and social status. Learn More
july 22-24 Meravelha
Golden Rule: Songs of Corruption and Justice
The quest for political power has changed little over the centuries. Kings and Presidents, popes and senators, all have their partisans, their detractors, their scandals, and their victories. Long before today's 24-hour news cycle, the propaganda machine ran on verse. Meravelha’s timely tour of Medieval political songs explores themes of nationalism, corruption, greed, propaganda, and justice for the common people. The program includes songs of the troubadours, works by Philip the Chancellor and Robert Morton, and selections from the Roman de Fauvel, the Trinity Carol Roll, the Notre Dame conductus repertoire, and the Carmina Burana. Between songs, the performers provide cultural and historical context for the music, and modern readings from social media and public commentary connect these works to our contemporary experiences. Learn More
Tax Payment to a Lord, Master of the Unicorn Hunt, ca. 1490
Meravelha
Teri Kowiak, artistic director, voice
Joy Grimes, bowed strings
Barbara Allen Hill, voice, percussion
Jaya Lakshminarayanan, voice, harp
Dan Meyers, voice, winds, percussion
Eric Miller, voice
Catherine Stein, voice, winds
Ad Libitum Ensemble
Na'ama Lion & Jesse Lepkoff, flutes
Carol Lewis, viola da gamba
Marina Minkin, harpsichord
July 29-31 Ad Libitum Ensemble
La mAgnifique: Music at Versailles
“La Magnifique” invites us into the realm of elegant and refined court music at the Palace of Versailles. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, France was governed by music-loving rulers who assigned great importance to the role of arts in society. They promoted not only grand genres such as the ballet de cour or tragedie lyrique but also intimate, sophisticated forms of instrumental chamber music written by the leading composer-performers of the day. In particular, the transverse flute repertoire reached great heights; solos, duets and trio sonatas were extremely popular at that time. Breathing new life into these petite masterpieces of the French Baroque, Ad Libitum Ensemble performs works by such masters as Couperin, Hotteterre, Marais, Clerambault, Rameau, and Dieupart, all featuring the luminescent colors of Baroque flutes, viola da gamba, and harpsichord.
The Aulos and the Kithara
Emily O'Brien, recorders
Michael O'Brien, guitar, harp guitar
Nathan Varga,
double bass, viola da gamba
August 5-7
The Aulos and the Kithara
Reimaginings
Throughout history, musicians have engaged with familiar and beloved music by reimagining it in their own new ways. They may use melodies as the cantus firmus for new compositions, reharmonize works, transform one style into another, ornament and embellish pieces, or arrange them for novel instrumentation, like modern cover songs. The Aulos and the Kithara explores the diverse ways that earlier composers reimagined well known material of their times, with their own creative twist. Some reimaginings involve only minor adaptations to the instrumentation, while others reshape the original material into something completely new. This unique trio of recorder, viola da gamba, and the rarely heard harp guitar performs music by Sermisy, Ortiz, Bach, Gounod, and multiple O’Briens that is sure to delight the ears and spark the imagination.
These programs are supported in part by grants from the Lincoln and Andover Cultural Councils, local agencies which are supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.