John Kenny returns to Culmstock this year with his one man show, called The Mouthpiece of the Gods, a highly dramatic story in which he explores the long history of lip reed instruments: shells, animal horns, bronze horns, straying into the realms of zoomorphism, cultural diasporas, and eventual reassimilation. This might sound a bit like… Read More »Blackdowns Early Music Projects – The Mouthpiece of the Gods
The first Third Thursday of 2023 starts with a new sort of early music, blues and spirituals dating from around a century ago, sung by Julia Titus with Steve Graham on cornet and Mike Denham on keyboard. Both Steve and Mike are well known on the Jazz circuits in the South West and further afield,… Read More »Blackdowns Early Music Projects – Spirit of the Blues
Courtly and Country Music from Purcell’s England Post-Restoration music with a twist! From recorders and viols to shawms and bagpipes,three multi-instrumentalists turn the spotlight onto music from Purcell’s time,encompassing sonatas and country dances. *********************************** Jude Rees, David Jarratt-Knock and Mary Mohan are multi-instrumentalists with wide experience in a variety of genres including early music from… Read More »Blackdowns Early Music Projects – Enlightenment & Entertainment
Four hundred years after the death of William Byrd, we still delight in singing a huge number of his works. For him music was an entire language, telling of the religious changes through his lifetime as well as describing the lighter side of life. 1623 saw the passing of two other notable composers: Thomas Weelkes,… Read More »Blackdowns Early Music Projects – A Choral Feast from 1623
Double choir Vespers of 1623 by Ignatio Donati with accompanying sackbuts, violins, organ and maybe even a cornetto or two! MD Gawain Glenton, assistant director Emily White, continuo Masumi Yamamoto.
Professional series: We are delighted to welcome the international ensemble Phaedrus, as part of their UK tour following an appearance at the Cambridge Early Music Festival. Emma-Lisa Roux (voice & & lute) with Mara Winter, Charlotte Schneider and Luis Martinez Pueyo (renaissance flute consort) are bringing a programme entitled The King's Flutes, referring to the… Read More »Blackdowns Early Music Projects – The King’s Flutes
Professional series: We are delighted to welcome the international ensemble Phaedrus, as part of their UK tour following an appearance at the Cambridge Early Music Festival. Emma-Lisa Roux (voice & & lute) with Mara Winter, Charlotte Schneider and Luis Martinez Pueyo (renaissance flute consort) are bringing a programme entitled The King's Flutes, referring to the… Read More »Blackdowns Early Music Projects – The King’s Flutes
Gawain Glenton, cornetto and Silas Wollston, organo di legno The appointment of the Flemish composer Adrian Willaert at Venice’s Basilica San Marco in 1527 heralded the emergence of Venice as a cultural super-power. This recital explores the work of original composers who built the ‘myth of Venice' in sound. Reviews of the CD of the… Read More »Blackdowns Early Music Projects – The Myth of Venice – C16 music for Cornetto and Keyboards
Guest Director Andrea Brown, in a programme of early music for voices, sackbuts and cornetts. With some themes relating to Easter, the programme highlights two sections of Brumel's extraordinary Earthquake Mass. This is the earliest known Mass of its kind, having been written in the 1490s and surviving thanks to the interest of the musicians… Read More »Blackdowns Early Music Projects – The Earthquake Mass
BEMP have invited Dialogue Viols to present a programme celebrating, as its title suggests, the music of pre-Revolutionary France. In it, the audience will be introduced to the 'laptop' member of the viol family, the pardessus de viole or its cousin, the quinton. These will be played by Jacqui Robertson-Wade and Peter Wendland, supported by… Read More »Blackdowns Early Music Projects – Before the Guillotine
