Please join us for our Boston Early Music Festival Fringe Concert, on Monday, June 12, at 3:00 pm at the Beacon Hill Friends Meeting House (6 Chestnut St., Boston). Suggested donation: $20/$10 students and starving artists (give what you can.)
We will present our newest program, "Where Wit and Music Meet: The Songs of Henry Lawes," in a special BEMF Fringe edition! You can read more about the program here.
As long-time fans of the Boston Early Music Festival (I attended the exhibition for the first time as a young cellist at age 10 and have clear memories of trying a gamba for the first time!) we are pleased to be performing in the Fringe for the first time. It's not every day that early music fans from around the country and the globe flock to our very own city, and we can't wait to welcome them! Nathaniel will also be showing some of his lutes in the Exhibition, along with Baroque violins from the workshop of his father, Douglas Cox.
We were lucky enough to spend a whole week last fall at Avaloch Farm Music Institute, where we took a deep dive into the works of Henry Lawes, encountered a couple hundred of his songs, and emerged with a full program of our favorites. Alongside the dramatic "Ariadne's Lament," you'll hear light-hearted settings of works by Cavalier poets and Nathaniel's reworking of a harpsichord piece by Henry Lawes' better-known brother, William. To this undeservedly overlooked music, we bring our signature historical, yet modern style - engaging with the text on a deeper level through the use of historical pronunciation, we'll bring you into the world of seventeenth-century England before you know it.
For more information about the Boston Early Music Festival, visit their website. You can also find a full list of Fringe concerts here.
Here's a little look at the last performance of "Wit and Music," at Gateway City Arts in Holyoke, MA. Thank you to Greg Brown for these photos!