Welcome to our June Newsletter!
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Sarasa Ensemble’s 2022-23 Season: “Window of the Soul”
Peer through the “Window of the Soul” with Sarasa, and experience a myriad number of musical personalities, such as Händel, Strozzi, Bembo, Beethoven, Brahms, Fanny Mendelssohn, Dvořák, Gershwin, and many more whose works offer inspiration and reflection during trying times.
Women to watch for next season:
Antonia Bembo
Sarasa is excited to shine the limelight on several long-ignored female composers of the Baroque era in our opening September concert. A couple of the composers we will showcase, Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre and Antonia Bembo, were two of the most prolific female composers during Louis XIV’s reign as the Sun King in France. La Guerre’s emergence as a household name as a leading harpsichordist and composer was partially aided by her family’s rich musical background; she was even called “the marvel of the century.” However, the singer and composer Antonia Bembo’s story is much more obscure. Her family had no previous connections in music. She left Venice after a failed marriage to a nobleman, Lorenzo, who turned out to be a letch and lent no financial support to his wife and three children while he was on military duty in Crete for five years. In the winter of 1677, possibly with the aid of her longtime friend, Francesco Corbetta, the great Italian guitarist, Antonia sought refuge in a convent in Paris. Perhaps because it coincided with Venice’s Carnival season, Antonia escaped safely by wearing a mask. Establishing herself as a female musician in a foreign country was no mean feat. Turning to composition, her works reveal her abilities to adapt and create within her new surroundings. We will be performing an astonishing cantata, Lamento della Vergine, from her collection, Produzioni armoniche. Listen below!
Podcast Listening Suggestion!
Sarasa Co-Artistic Director Jennifer Morsches sat down with radio-meister Richard Macphail - whom you may have seen introducing our May concerts in person! - to chat about her favorite 20 tracks of music on his radio program, Radio Rich Pickings. Hear them in conversation by clicking below!
Final Concert of 2021-22 Still Streaming for Free
We hope you are all enjoying a good start to the summer! Although we have no scheduled performances in the summer months, please don’t forget you can still enjoy the final concert-set of our adventurous 2021-22 season, featuring Schubert’s beloved “Trout” Quintet, streaming for free on our website. https://www.sarasamusic.org/streaming-now Performed on period instruments, you will have the chance to hear a beautiful copy of a fortepiano by Rod Regier, played with great finesse by Maggie Cole.
After watching/listening to the streaming concert, one Sarasa supporter in California wrote: "And now, you’re performing the Trout, one of my very favorites. Loved what Jennifer had to say about Schubert in Vienna and the countryside that I easily visualize. I close my eyes and it feels like you’re playing just for me!"
We do hope to resume out outreach residencies this summer after a two-year hiatus. If we felt isolated during Covid-19 restrictions and lock-downs, imagine the teenagers in detention centers who had no visitors whatsoever. In a residency we typically meet with a unit for three visits of two hours each, playing and creating music together, often concluding with a composition by the teens.
Scènes pastorales ~ Pastoral scenes
Christina Day Martinson, violin; Jenny Stirling, viola; Timothy Merton, cello; John Feeney, bass; Maggie Cole, fortepiano
Program (performed on period instruments):
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber Pastorella in A major für Violine and Basso continuo
Erik Satie Gnossienne No. 1 & Gymnopédie No. 1
Jan Nepomuk Hummel String Trio No. 2 in G major, Op. WoO 4, S.46
Schubert Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 ‘Trout’
Summer is in full swing!
With the approach of summer comes bugs, and some bugs are more annoying than others (black flies, noseeums, mosquitoes and ticks come to mind). But insects are extremely important in the natural world. They come in an amazing array of colors. Does anyone know what kind of moths these pastel beauties are?
Have a safe and Happy Summer!
