Okay, I haven’t yet recovered from jet lag, but it’s now time to switch gears. From French music and organs, now I have to think “Spanish,” for the upcoming Early Music Hawaii concert, Saturday, September 24th. It’s a concert called Spain and the New World, and will feature the Early Music Hawaii choir and orchestra conducted by guest director, Dana Marsh, plus two visiting artists, Richard Savino and Hideki Yamaya on baroque guitar, vihuela and theorbo. The concert will be held at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu at 7:30 pm, and tickets may be purchased at the door or at www.earlymusichawaii.com.
Here’s a description of the concert from the postcard I designed: Experience the passion of sacred polyphony by Spain’s renaissance masters, Morales, Guerrero and Victoria, followed by the irresistible rhythmic joy of villancicos from its American colonies by Padilla, Salazar and Araujo.
As you may remember, Dana visited a year ago, and at that time, he was a “visiting professor” at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Now I’m happy to announce that he has obtained a permanent post, and his position is now “Associate Professor of Music (Early Music/Voice); Director, Historical Performance Institute.”
From a press release from Indiana University:
“Over the course of these past two years, as Dana has served the area of Historical Performance in a visiting capacity, he has garnered the admiration and respect of the faculty and students,” said Jacobs Dean Gwyn Richards. “It is with great anticipation that the Jacobs School looks forward to his permanent appointment and the inevitable impact of his presence, his personality, his vision and his knowledge.”
Marsh has directed a broad range of major ensemble performances for the Historical Performance Institute, including NPR broadcasts with modern premieres of Latin American Baroque music as well as Italian and Spanish polyphony of the 15th and 16th centuries and music ranging from the “Eton Choirbook” to Purcell and Boyce, and from the Bach cantata repertoire to late Haydn, with the IU Classical Orchestra. He teaches early notation and performance practice and coaches early music voice as an outside area or minor for aspiring opera singers. He oversees the strategic planning and development of the Historical Performance Institute and serves as editor of the Historical Performance series published by IU Press.
So my task ever since I returned home was to find some Spanish organ music to play! An even bigger challenge will be to make the Beckerath organ sound Spanish! For some inspiration, I found this YouTube video which shows off the fiery Spanish reeds and will give you a “foretaste of the feast to come.” I won’t be playing this exact same piece, but a similar “battle” work, featuring the reeds.
The stellar Early Music Hawaii Choir will feature the voices of Naomi Castro, Rachel Lentz, Georgine Stark (soprano), Karyn Castro, Diane Koshi, Sarah Lambert (alto), Todd Beckham (countertenor), Karol Nowicki, Bowe Souza (tenor), Scott Fikse, Keane Ishii, and Jeremy Wong (bass).
What a group!