2023 SALISH SEA EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL

2023 SALISH SEA EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL
~ early chamber music on period instruments on Whidbey Island ~


WHAT:     2023 Salish Sea Early Music Festival on Whidbey Island

WHEN:     Sunday, February 19 at 7:30 PM: The Biedermeier Serenade
                 for guitar, flute and viola

WHERE:   Unitarian Universalist Church
                 at 20103 State Route 525 in Freeland on Whidbey Island

ADMISSION:   suggested donation: $20 or $25 (a free will offering),
                  18 & under free.

MORE INFO: please see www.salishseafestival.org/whidbey
                   


The twelfth annual 2023 Salish Sea Early Music Festival presents the second of seven programs entitled The Biedermeier Serenade, featuring guitarist Oleg Timofeyev, flutist Jeffrey Cohan and violist Lindsey Strand-Polyak in a program of chamber music from the time of Beethoven performed on period instruments on Sunday evening, February 19 at 7:30 PM at the Unitarian Universalist Church at 20103 State Route 525 in Freeland on Whidbey Island.

Trios for flute, viola and guitar representative of the early 19th-century Biedermeier period by Austrian guitarist Matiegka, German flutist Kummer, Italian guitarist Molino and French flutist Devienne will be performed on a viola and bow of the period with a flute and guitar made in London and Russia in 1820.
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ADDITIONAL PROGRAM INFORMATION
Artistic styles of the early 19th-century Biedermeier period reflected the growing urbanization and industrialization of this period of political stability in central Europe which fostered an increased appreciation for the arts by the new urban middle class audience, alongside a hunger for furniture design, interior decorating and a flood of editions that fulfilled a burgeoning desire for in-home music making.


The program will include the Serenade for Flute, Viola and Guitar, Opus 83 published in Offenbach and Paris in 1835 by the German flutist and composer Gaspard Kummer (1795–1870), the Second Grand Trio Concertant, Opus 45 published in about 1830 by Francesco Molino (1768 – 1847), an Italian guitarist, violinist, and composer, and the Noturno for Flute, Viola and Guitar, opus 21 published in Vienna in about 1807, by Wenzel Thomas Matiegka (1773 – 19 January 1830), a prominent Viennese guitarist, composer and teacher of the piano. In 1814 this Matiegka Noturno caught the attention of Franz Schubert, who arranged it with the addition of cello and an additional movement for his family's use.

This combination of flute, viola and guitar that was so popular In Beethoven's day was picked up in the early 20th century by Debussy in his trio for flute and viola with harp as the plucked instrument, and around 1700 at the court of Louis XIV with viola da gamba and either guitar or lute with the flute of that day.
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Oleg Timofeyev’s instrument was made in Russia by an anonymous builder in about 1820. The seven-string guitar was born on Russian soil as a hybrid product of the Spanish guitar (the familiar one) and the cittern called "the English guitar" that was brought to the Russian Empire by the Czechs and Poles.  But the actual figure-eight-shaped instrument equipped with seven strings tuned to a G major chord has only been played in Russia, Poland, and various Soviet Republics, from Georgia to Estonia. Oleg Timofeyev is the 7-string guitar’s premier expert in North America.

Jeffrey Cohan will play an 8-keyed flute of cocuswood with silver keys and three ornamental silver rings at each joint, made in London in 1820 by George Rudall. Similar flutes have found their way into the hands of the most well-known Irish traditional music players, notably Matt Malloy of the Chieftans.

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The entire 2023 remaining festival program follows, with all concerts at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Freeland at 20103 State Route 525 in Freeland. Admission is by suggested donation of $20 or $25 (a free will offering), and those 18 & under are free. For additional information please see www.salishseafestival.org/whidbey.
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— Sunday, February 19, 2023 at 7:30 PM
• The Viennese Biedermeier Serenade (1815-1835) • with Oleg Timofeyev (guitar, Iowa City), Lindsey Strand-Polyak (viola) and Jeffrey Cohan (8-keyed flute)

— Sunday, March 12, 2023 at 7:30 PM
• Musica Alta Ripa (1695-1740) • with Bernward Lohr (harpsichord, Hannover, Germany), Anna Röhrig (violin, Hannover, Germany) and Jeffrey Cohan (baroque flute)

— Sunday, March 26, 2023 at 7:30 PM
• Obbligato Harpsichord and Flute (1720-1760) • with David Schrader (harpsichord, Chicago) and Jeffrey Cohan (baroque flute)

— Sunday, May 7, 2023 at 7:30 PM
• Bach I: Cantata "Ich habe genug" • with Maike Albrecht (soprano, Lübeck, Germany), Hans-Jürgen Schnoor (harpsichord, Lübeck, Germany) and Jeffrey Cohan (baroque flute)

— Sunday, May 21, 2023 at 7:30 PM
• Bach II: Concerti and Cantatas • with Maike Albrecht (soprano), Hans-Jürgen Schnoor (harpsichord), Jeffrey Cohan (baroque flute), Carrie Krause (violin), Elisabeth Phelps (violin), Lindsey Strand-Polyak (viola) and Annabeth Shirley (cello)

 — PLEASE NOTE NEW DATE: Thursday, June 8, 2023 at 7:30 PM
• Italian Three-Part Canzonas (1600-1640) • with John Lenti (theorbo) and Anna Marsh (renaissance bassoon) and Jeffrey Cohan (renaissance transverse flute)

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The Salish Sea Early Music Festival, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, is proud to be an affiliate organization of Early Music America, which develops, strengthens, and celebrates early music and historically informed performance in North America. SSEMF has presented countless first performances in modern times of period instrument renditions of early works.
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