Sharing the Gift of Music

Last Ensemble before Social Distancing 2020

By Chuck Smythe

As you know from my several posts about the Seicento Baroque Ensemble of Boulder, Colorado (most recently on January 12, 2015), I concertize with that ensemble, singing tenor. When we began “social distancing,” we had to take some time off from making music together. However, as Amanda, our artistic director, informed us by recorded statement, “While we cannot gather together in the concert hall, we can still share our love of music.” Here is a sample from the concert we recorded in an empty church prior to social distancing, two settings of “By the Waters of Babylon,” by Baroque composers Franz Tunder (North Germany) and Salamone Rossi (Northern Italy) [7:46]:

Copyright © 2020 by Chuck Smythe

Second Monday Music: Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610

Claudio Monteverdi
by Bernardo Strozzi, c. 1630

Performed by the Seicento Baroque Ensemble

By Chuck Smythe

Five years ago, Evanne Browne, the music director at Boulder’s First Methodist Church, made a great leap of faith. Her chancel choir, augmented by ringers such as myself, were occasionally performing major works. She decided, at that time, to do Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610. She is a specialist in early music and knew the piece to be fairly difficult, not least because it used musical styles strange to the modern singer. It also requires a full orchestra of 17th century instruments and a large corps of virtuoso vocal soloists. And it had never been done in Colorado before. Still, we did it, and it was a great hit.

Second Monday Music: Two reviews of Baroque performance

The Seicento Baroque Ensemble of Boulder, Colorado

By Chuck Smythe

The first Seicento Baroque Ensemble concert of the new, 2014-2015 concert season was titled “Dies Irae” (days of wrath). It was held on Halloween weekend, and featured some appropriate seasonal music: Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in d (you know, the one in all the movies!), and the Witches’ scenes from Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas,” Act II, Scene 1. There were also motets by Cannicciari, Bertulosi, Byrd, and Kuhnau.

Second Monday Music: Seicento Baroque Ensemble

In consort

By Chuck Smythe

The Seicento Baroque Ensemble, a semi-professional early-music group from Boulder, Colorado, recently ended its third season with a set of performances titled “Voices and Viols.”

Second Monday Music: Boulder’s fall concert of Baroque music

Suitable for church

By Chuck Smythe

The fall concert season has struck, and with it the latest offering from the Seicento Baroque Ensemble. This is a group formed by Evanne Browne, kappellmeister of Boulder’s First United Methodist Church. She is a noted scholar of early music, and seems to know everyone in the field.