Friday, February 3
East Bay Chapter, ARS
Monthly playing session with guest conductor Frances Feldon. New members and guests welcome.
7:30–10 PM
Zion Lutheran Church
5201 Park Blvd., Oakland
http://www.symbolicsolutions.com/ebrs-web2015/index.html
Saturday, February 4
Marin Baroque presents Agave Baroque
“Peace in Our Time” Agave Baroque (Aaron Westman, Natalie Carducci, violins; William Skeen, cello and viola da gamba; Kevin Cooper, guitar and theorbo; Henry Lebedinsky, harpsichord and organ) with guest countertenor Reginald Mobley, perform music of the 17th and early 18th centuries. 2018 will mark the 400th anniversary of the beginning of the Thirty Years War—one of the longest and most destructive in European history. Yet, in the darkest shadows of war, and in the still unstable period following The Peace at Westphalia (1748), we see the immense power that music has to motivate, unite, comfort, heal, and lift people out of the depths of their grief. This program explores stylus fantasticus a new compositional emphasis on the range and depth of human emotion and its evocation in music that evolved and grew in the countries and territories ravaged by the Thirty Years War. From the heartwrenching sorrow of Johann Christoph Bach’s lament Ach, dass ich Wassers gnug hätte to the feelings of resignation and yearning for a better day to come in David Pohle’s Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe, we get a chance to share in the myriad emotions of these musicians, and the people at large, who were affected by terrible conflict. There is also music of hope for a brighter tomorrow, including the virtuosic and passionate ciaccona from Johann Christoph Bach’s cantata Meine Freundin, du bist schön, written for a Bach family wedding, and the barely-contained overflowing joy of Johann Pachelbel’s legendary Canon and Gigue.
Particularly noted for his crystalline diction and pure, evenly produced tone (Miami Herald), as well as an elaborate and inventive ornamentation (South Florida Classical Review), countertenor Reginald Mobley is highly sought after for baroque, classical and modern repertoire.
8 PM
St. John’s Episcopal Church
14 Lagunitas Rd, Ross
Tickets online $30/$25/$20
Santa Cruz Baroque Festival
The Festival’s 44th Season, “Alla Rustica,” opens with “Tour de France,” a program of music from the French provinces which elicits a sense of the Mediterranean breeze and the rolling fields of central France. Popular tunes and dances are performed by Alan Keith, musette Bechonnet (French bagpipe); Debra Dawson, vielle; Shelley Phillips, oboe d’ amore; Yueh Chou, bassoon; Linda Burman-Hall, harpsichord; and Sheila Willey, soprano.
7:30 PM
UC Santa Cruz Recital Hall
Meyer Drive, UCSC Campus, Santa Cruz
$35/$25/$22/$10
Tickets, 831-457-9693 or www.scbaroque.org
Continue reading next week’s calendar . . .
