CITY MUSIC SOCIETY
Free Winter Series

In addition to four concerts at Bishopsgate in the Free Winter Series (see Lunchtime Concerts)
the City Music Society is presenting three concerts in other venues in the City of London.

For full details of the Free Winter Series concerts pick up the special brochure at CMS concerts or visit www.colf.org.

Top

Wednesday 21 January 2000
St Giles Cripplegate, Fore Street EC2

VOCALESSENCE ENSEMBLE SINGERS
PHILLIP BRUNELLE conductor

Exaudi
American Choral Masterpieces, past, present and beyond
This outstanding Minnesota-based 32-voice ensemble presents a variety of popular choral pieces from the 18th-century William Billings to the 21st-century Eric Whitacre. Heralded by the London Times as "a superb American choir…an engaging group, polished, bright and brilliantly balanced" - the Grammy award-nominated and Gramophone award-winning chorus has previously performed in England at the Covent Garden Festival and the Aldeburgh Festival. Philip Brunelle (invested as an Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition for his service as an "ambassador for the United Kingdom within the music world" in 2005), artistic director and founder of VocalEssence, is a renowned conductor, choral scholar and performer. Believing that listeners and musicians alike must experience music of many genres and styles, he has worked enthusiastically-and tirelessly-to expand audiences for rarely heard works of the past and worthwhile new music.
Top
Wednesday 11 Februry 2009
St Lawrence Jewry, Gresham Street EC2

RACHEL BROWN baroque flute
JAMES JOHNSTONE harpsichord

Clara Sanabras 
Handel Sonata in D HWV378
Quantz Sonata in C minor No. 276
Quantz Sonata in F No. 356
Handel Sonata in B minor HWV368
Masterpieces of 18th-century chamber music are brought to life by the silvery sounds of a Quantz 2-keyed flute, marking Handel's death 250 years ago. Best known for her moving and virtuosic performances on a wide range of flutes and recorders, Rachel Brown is an acknowledged authority on historical performance practice. Recordings include French Baroque Music, works by Schubert and Boehm, Handel, Quantz and C.P.E. Bach. Her recording of Handel flute and recorder sonatas op.1 with the Academy of Ancient Music is due for release shortly. As a core member of Florilegium since 2001 James Johnstone has made 10 discs and toured Europe and the Americas. He recently joined the reformed Trio Sonnerie and also works regularly with London Baroque and Trinity Baroque. He has made 6 unanimously acclaimed solo discs of works by Blow, Gibbons, Bach, Pasquini, Cornet and Elizabethan Virginalists.
Top
Wednesday 11 March 2009
St Bride's, Fleet Street

PANTAGRUEL
HANNAH MORRISON voice
DOMINIK SCHNEIDER flutes, gittern & voice
MARK WHEELER lute, cittern & gittern

Nia Harris
Laydie Louthains Lilte
Pantagruel bring early 17th-century ballads, ayres and dances to modern audiences in bold and innovative ways, in this programme marking the synthesis of Scottish and English music after Union in 1603. Formed in 2002, Pantagruel have been delighting audiences across Europe with their semi-staged performances of renaissance music. Hannah Morrison's pure and sweet voice combined with citterns, gitterns, lutes and flutes played by Dominik Schneider & Mark Wheeler bring to life the passionate music of a distant age. Pantagruel, the hero of Francois Rabelais's 1532 Novel, with his motto "do what thou wilt" is the fitting name for an ensemble that is not afraid to explore innovative ideas of performance and presentation. Combining painstaking musicological research with their experience in classical music, rock music, jazz, theatre and dance, their performances expand classical concert conventions by using renaissance practices of medley, improvisation and gesture.
Top

For further information about these concerts please contact
Josephine Richardson, City Music Society Administrator, Tel. 020-8542 0950

Latest update: 31 December 2009