Two Shout-Outs and a Third Vinaccesi

Vinaccesi Ensemble in Santa Rosa at CAS on June 2

Today's post is a quick one, two, three, four...two shout-outs for friends and colleagues who are performing in the Bay Area over the the next week plus a third Vinaccesi concert and yet another shout-out.

First, pianist John Boyajy will be playing Debussy, Chopin, Bach, and Callaway at Old First Concerts on Friday June 7 at 8 p.m. (that's tomorrow, folks, and today by time you read this post, in all likelihood!).  Ticket link: www.oldfirstconcerts.org/performances/530.

Second, on Thursday, June 13, at 7 p.m., mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich--who is in the Vinaccesi Ensemble with me--will be joined by violist Paul Yarborough (of the Alexander String Quartet) and pianist John Parr for "Songs of Voice and Viola," Lieder Alive's season closer, in a Liederabend of Brahms, Marx, Loeffler and more.  At Salle Pianos (1632C Market) in SF.  Three marvelous musicians performing seldom-heard gems. Ticket link: http://liederalivevoiceandviola.eventbrite.com/

And sandwiched between those two concerts, the Vinaccesi Ensemble returns to San Francisco on Tuesday, June 11 at 12:30, at Noontime Concerts (Old St. Mary's, 660 California St.), for the third our "Voices of Venice" series, this time a lunchtime version. Music by Vivaldi, Vinaccesi, Strozzi, Rossi, and Monteverdi. Read more about it in Classical Sonoma and see the program here.

Isn't the Bay Area great?!  Sooo many things to do, places to see, music to hear, people to be with...

What I'm reading: the second Andrea Camilleri book, The Terra-Cotta Dog, which arrived from the library last week. (The Berkeley Public Library is a jewel in the crown of the public library system.  I am a frequent visitor, a regular patron--and very grateful to my local librarians!)

What I'm listening to: Rossi, Vinaccesi, and more Italian Baroque music...can't shut off my internal sound track of these fabulous tunes.

What I'm working on: spurious Vivaldi, Rossi, Strozzi, and Hugo Wolf.

And...as a P.S., almost forgot about yet another colleague's concert(s) this weekend. The Vinaccesi Ensemble's own Adam Cockerham has a duo, Jarring Sounds.  You can hear them this weekend in Berkeley (Garden Gate Center at 8 on the 8th) and SF (Church of the Advent of Christ the King at 3 on the 9th).  Check out how they named their ensemble...

Vinaccesi Ensemble and Jewish Music & Poetry Project

Photo credit: German Consulate General in San Francisco

Even by my own occasional blog standards, it's been a shamefully long time since I've posted here, due primarily to a very busy performing year. The summer is looking to be a bit calmer, which will let me catch my breath, and--I promise--catch up here on my beyond-occasional blog.

In the meantime, above is a picture from the concert last month at the German Consulate General in San Francisco with Adaiha Macadam-Somer and Dale Tsang-Hall. Our new name is the Jewish Music & Poetry Project and we are performing in Berkeley in Aug. and Berlin in October. More on all that later, BUT as you can see, the concert was packed and overflowing, the audience was knowledgeable, generous, and appreciative, and the performance was a marvelous success.

Tiny plug: we are now a fiscally-sponsored affiliate of the SFFCM and are actively looking for donations (i.e., begging for your help) in raising funds to get us to Berlin this fall. Click HERE to make a tax-free donation, please!

Why post today, though, instead of any other random day in June...or May? Well, it's shameless plug time:

The Vinaccesi Ensemble, my Baroque chamber group will be performing at the Berkeley Fringe Fest this week: WEDNESDAY, June 6 at 12:30 p.m.

We have a great lineup and a great group...

Who: Nanette McGuinness, soprano, Kindra Scharich, mezzo-soprano, Jonathan Smucker, tenor, Kirk Eichelberger, bass, Sarge Gerbode, archlute, Farley Pearce, Baroque cello, and Yuko Tanaka, harpsichord

Where: Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana, Berkeley
How: For advance reservations, call 510-549-3864
How much: $15/ $10 Info: www.trinitychamberconcerts.com  No one turned away for lack of funds.

What: Musical treats from the north Italian Baroque: a seldom-heard but stunning Monteverdi madrigal from Book VIII, arias and duets by Monteverdi, Cavalli, and Barbara Strozzi, and two new-to-the Fringe Fest cantatas by the quirky and creative Benedetto Vinaccesi, fresh from our recording sessions for our Centaur Records CD. Hope you'll be able to come!

~~~ What I'm listening to: the Vinaccesis this week, also gorgeous music by Elena Ruehr for August. What I'm reading: Death Cloud, a fun prequel to the Sherlock Holmes stories for young readers (Young Sherlock Holmes: the Adventure Begins, by Andrew Lane). Who was he before he grew up? Also Between Shades of Gray (by Ruta Sepys) a mesmerizing, stark look at the seldom-told story of the genocide by the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union before, during, and after WWII. Beautifully written and researched, it is a multiple-hanky read that I'd delayed starting for weeks, as I knew it would be a horrendous tale. According to the notes at the end, some 20 million people were killed, including roughly 1/3 of the population of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. Man's inhumanity to man never ceases to astonish me. Will we never learn?

Added note: Dora Sorell, Holocaust survivor and author of To Tell the Story, about Jewish life in Romania before, during, and after the war, will appear at the North Branch of the Berkeley Public Library (1170 The Alameda) on Saturday June 9m, 2-4 p.m.

Back from Deutschland

This past spring, I did more than my normal share of crossing the Atlantic pond back and forth and then back again, in too short a time span, with meetings and auditions in Germany, Italy, and Austria. I made some great new friends, enjoyed visiting with some old ones, and got some positive results from the whole effort(more on those when contracts are firmly in hand...)

While I was in D-land, I started studying scores by some wonderful Jewish composers who perished in the Holocaust, in preparation for a program I'm putting together for 2012/13. Looking through these pieces evokes such unspeakable sadness. It's horrible when a life is cut short by human action, be it the life of a talented young artist, a mature composer, or "just" a normal person. The Kaleko/ Garner project, Chanson fuer Morgen--which we premiered in April--addresses this, too.

Now that I'm back, though, it's Vinaccesi time. Is that some kind of rare northern Italian vintage micro-brew? Not one bit, not even a sip.

Besides being devilishly difficult to spell, Benedetto Vinaccesi is the name of an obscure seventeenth century Italian composer, most of whose works didn't survive to the present. He's also the namesake for the Baroque chamber group I'm in, the Vinaccesi Ensemble. We are recording all 8 of his extant solo cantatas later this summer and we'll be performing 6 of them at the end of July in SF. They are quirky, expressive pieces, and well worth investigating.

Shameless plug: the Ensemble has some great players and singers: Jonathan Smucker (tenor), Kindra Scharich (mezzo-soprano), Kirk Eichelberger (bass), Amy Brodo (cello), Sarge Gerbode (archlute), and Jonathan Davis (harpsichord). Check us out at Old First Concerts on July 29! If you mention this blog when you say "hi" afterwards, you'll make me smile.


What I'm reading: I just finished Alyson Noel's fabulous Evermore YA series--a coming of age sextet that deals with transformation and spiritual growth. Noel takes the issues, characters, and voices she first began developing in Faking 19 and hones them to a high level.

What I'm listening to: The Ring, Das Rheingold! The SF Ring was all-around fab. Now it's my turn to learn Das Rheingold from the inside out, as I prepare to sing Freia this fall. Plus a fun jazz CD by a new friend from Berlin, Bettina Pohle.