Early Music News

Beyond the Baroque

Redefining, Reimagining, Reinventing Early Music Over the last two generations, the historical performance movement has given the world both a vast and growing body of rediscovered masterworks and whole new ways of understanding and hearing the...

Singing into the Future

Voices of Youth at BFX 2018 My introduction to early music came through singing in a children’s choir. This was in 1960, a time when the voice of classical music — live, broadcast, and recorded — was stronger in our national culture than it is...

Unsung Voices

In 1991, Concerto Amabile with soprano Nancy Zylstra gave a concert on the SFEMS series titled “Unsung Heroines,” a program of music by women: Barbara Strozzi, Isabella Leonarda, Maddalena Lombardini, Ana Bon, and Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la...

How to Play Expressively on the Recorder

A Gift from Frans Brüggen and Lee McRae by Peter Fisher On Saturday, September 23, 2017, Eva Legêne produced a memorial celebration at St. John’s Church in Berkeley for Lee McRae, a remarkably accomplished musician, teacher, worker for peace...

Lee Mennell (1946–2018)

We were saddened to learn of Lee Mennell’s sudden death last week. Lee was a former President of SFEMS (1985–86), a fine amateur recorder player, and a gentle spirit. We will miss him, and we extend our condolences to his family and friends...

Headlands in Berkeley?

The world-famous Headlands Workshop sponsored by the East Bay Recorder Society has moved to an every-other-year schedule, with the next full weekend event happening in May 2019. But we couldn’t go a whole year without some multi-faculty fun, so for...