Third Annual Cincinnati Early Music Festival

The Cincinnati Early Music Festival is poised for launch!

 

February will once again resound to the music of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras. For the third straight year we have an impressive lineup of events large and small, with something for every interest.

The Festival kicks off February 1, with the return of Cantigium, the chamber choir whose concert last year was one of the most talked about of the month. They will perform some of the earliest surviving music we have, sacred and secular, and rumor has it that they will repeat some of the most popular music from last year. Don’t miss this exciting event.

From a strong beginning, the month unfolds with an emphasis on variety. Lute and baroque guitar, recorder, harp, viola da gamba, harpsichord and organ, all will be in play.
And lots and lots more singing!  Tiny groups, like

• Cantantes Camarae, singing Renaissance love songs, 
• Consort in the Egg with sacred German music, 
• the Vicars Choral's performance of an entire Spanish Renaissance Mass at Old St Mary’s.

 And larger groups, like 

• the popular concert of many choirs at St Peter in Chains, 
• the Knox Choir’s beautiful rendition of Heinrich Schütz.

And then there’s opera. If you discovered last summer how much you enjoyed Baroque opera, here’s your chance to sample quite a bit more. UC-CCM is staging two operas this month, one with their graduate students and one with their undergrads:  Monteverdi’s masterpiece L’incoronazione di Poppea, and Handel’s Alcina. And Cincinnati Chamber Opera is tackling Handel’s Ariodante.

 

We will wrap up on Feb 28 with an outstanding concert by Catacoustic Consort, the Festival’s sponsor. Truly rare sacred music by Jean-Joseph de Mondonville, one of the greatest French composers of the 18^th century. Toronto-based soprano Shannon Mercer will join harpsichord and pardessus for a candlelight concert you won’t forget.  

Full details of these events and more are available at  http://catacoustic.com/festival/

Light up your winter with music!