Madison Early Music Festival Concert Series
July 11-18, 2009

Join us as MEMF celebrates its 10th anniversary and the International Year of Astronomy, a global celebration of astronomy and its contributions to society and culture.  Telescopic Vistas: MEMF X and Music of the Spheres will explore the works of music and the arts that were inspired by scientific discovery and its tremendous impact on culture and civilization.

The Festival Concert Series consists of seven concerts and features MEMF guest artists-in-residence The Newberry Consort, Quicksilver, Marion Verbruggen, Piffaro: The Renaissance Band, and The Venere Lute Quartet presenting the music of Vincenzo Galilei.In addition, Ensemble Galilei will present its “Universe of Dreams” project with NPR’s Neal Conan and projected images from the Hubble Space Telescope.A free MEMF Participant Concert showcases participant consorts that have been coached throughout the week by MEMF faculty. The week culminates in an All-Festival Concert of choral and instrumental music as participants, faculty, and guest artists perform large scale works together.

All concerts begin at 7:30 pm in Mills Concert Hall, Mosse Humanities Building, 455 N. Park St. All concerts include pre-concert lectures beginning at 6:30 pm (location TBA).  For information regarding the Madison Early Music Festival concert series, please call 608-263-6670 or e-mail music@dcs.wisc.edu.

Details on the pre-concert lectures will be posted as the information becomes available.

Saturday, July 11, 2009
Piffaro:  The Renaissance Band
Harmony of the Spheres
A Celebration of Celestial Inspiration
From the days of Pythagoras, the 6th century BCE Greek philosopher, mathematician and astronomer from Croton in southern Italy, through the Renaissance, music was allied with numbers as a guide to interpret the visible world and the larger cosmos. Terrestrial music, musica humana, was simply a reflection of the harmony that ordered the celestial realm, musica mundana or the harmony of the spheres. Italian composers, theorists and practitioners all paid homage to this worldview.

Our concert continues this homage in music, art and illustrations, as we explore one of history’s most profound and enduring musical notions that inspired great composers and great compositions. Piffaro will be joined by a quartet of singers.  Learn more.

Sunday, July 12, 2009
The Newberry Consort:
Ecco la Primavera: The Music of Francesco Landini
Francesco Landini, the blind Florentine composer, poet, organist, singer and instrument maker, was one of the musical giants of fourteenth century. His innovative work brought us a giant step toward the music of the Renaissance, but it also painted a picture of the Italian society of his day. His song Ecco la Primavera celebrates the arrival of Spring, and on the first weekend of Spring we travel back to Landini's Florence with songs and dances of love and lust. This concert features Ellen Hargis, soprano, Judith Malefronte, mezzo-soprano, and Aaron Sheehan, tenor, with instrumentalists David Douglass, Tom Zajac, and violin virtuosa Rachel Barton Pine making her Chicago debut on two of the violin's quirky ancestors: vielle and rebec.   Learn more. 

Monday, July 13, 2009
Ensemble Galilei with Neal Conan:
Universe of Dreams
An Annapolis, Maryland-based quintet: Liz Knowles on fiddle, Kathryn Montoya on oboe and recorder, Deborah Nuse on Scottish small pipes and fiddle, Sue Richards on celtic harp, and Carolyn Anderson Surrick on viola da gamba.  They have been performing an eclectic array of early music, Celctic music, and original compositions for 15 years.  Neal Conan, host of National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation, brings his earnest and erudite tone to the project as the evening's narrator.

Universe of Dreams, which debuted two years ago, is a multimedia collage merging music with large-format images from the Hubble Space Telescope and text that shares the celestial theme, ranging from Shakespeare to Navajo myths. Learn more.   

Thursday, July 16, 2009
Quicksilver with Marion Verbruggen
Program TBA
Quicksilver is an exciting new ensemble of some of the finest historically-informed performers in America today. Led by Robert Mealy and Julie Andrijeski, two of today's leading baroque violinists, this ensemble explores the rich chamber music repertoire of the early modern period, from the strange and extravagant trio sonatas of the Italian and German seventeenth century to the spectacular chamber music of the High Baroque.  The performers of Quicksilver are all longstanding members of some of America's most distinguished early music ensembles, including the King's Noyse, Musica Pacifica, Chatham Baroque, Fortune's Wheel, and the Newberry Consort: they all perform regularly in the Boston Early Music Festival, and between them have appeared on well over one hundred early music recordings.  Joining Quicksilver on this program is recorder virtuoso Marion Verbruggen, a member of the Royal Conservatory faculty and international performance artist.

Friday, July 17, 2009
Venere Lute Quartet
The Venere Lute Quartet, will bring the music of Vincenzo Galilei alive in a special performance designed especially for MEMF!  Vincenzo Galilei, the father of scientist Galileo Galilei, made his living as a lutenist, composer, theorist, singer, and teacher, and published a number of books of musical scores for the lute.  A member of the Florentine Camerata, his work combining the practice and theory of music with the mathematical discussion of harmony, influenced Galileo’s scientific experiments. 

Saturday, July 18, 2009
All-Festival Concert
The final concert of our series will feature Italian Renaissance vocal and instrumental music which accompanied the unveiling of the telescope in 1609.