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Among Friends: English Consorts and Country Dances

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Midnight Viols collage

Midnight Viols, a renegade consort of viols, recorders, voices, and “air viol” (aka English concertina), returns with a repertoire of consort songs plus dances of the court and countryside from the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods in Great Britain. The program will include joyful English country dances from the 17th-century publications of John Playford, luscious pavans and sprightly galliards by William Brade and Anthony Holborne, and songs by John Dowland.

Arnie Tanamoto ~ treble viol
Lisa Terry ~ tenor viol
Charlie Reed ~ bass viol
Patricia Ann Neely ~ bass viol
Gene Murrow ~ English concertina (“air viol”) and recorders
Ruth Cunningham ~ soprano, flutes and recorders

The Midnight Viols includes some of the top viola da gamba artists working today and their friends: Arnie Tanamoto was the Gold Medalist of the 7th International Bach-Abel Competition and the recipient of a 2017 Frank Huntington Beebe Fund Fellowship. Lisa Terry is co-director of Parthenia and past President of the Viola da Gamba Society of America. Oliver Weston was selected an American Fellow of the English Concert in 2017, and recently completed a Master’s Degree in Historical Performance at Juilliard. Patricia Ann Neely, is director of Abendmusik, a teacher of music at numerous early music workshops and a member of the board of Early Music America. Soprano Ruth Cunningham was a member of the much-celebrated ensemble Anonymous 4 and remains an active performer of early music and improvisational music in both liturgical and concert settings, as well as devoting herself to music as a healing art. Gene Murrow, Executive Director of GEMS and internationally known teacher of English country dancing, has sat in with distinguished viol players for many years playing the treble parts on his English concertina, which noted viol player Martha Bishop dubbed the “air viol”.

 

1:15 – 2:00 pm
All concerts are free; no tickets or reservations are necessary.

In person at The Church of the Transfiguration, 1 E 29th St, New York City

Live stream details: You can watch it on your computer in any of two places by clicking on the name you wish: our website or YouTube.

GEMS is a non-profit corporation that supports and promotes the artists and organizations in New York devoted to early music — playing repertoire from the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and early Classical periods.