Re: Baltimore Consort

[Richard Kamins <r.kamins...>]

The Baltimore Consort was founded in 1980 to perform the repertory for
Elizabethan consort, a specific instrumentation of treble viol, flute, lute,
cittern, bandora and bass viol. Familiarity with English music quickly led
to an interest in broadside ballads and in Scottish airs and dances. A
program of Scottish music was first presented in 1983, shortly after the
Consort's New York debut in the Music Before 1800 series. In 1985 a program
entitled The Ballad Monger explored the relationship between "folk" and
"art" music in England and incorporated a virginal into the ensemble. Since
that time, the Baltimore consort has concentrated on British, French, and
Italian music of the 16th and 17th centuries, with special attention to
improvising and creating arrangements in the style of that period.

Christmas concerts have expanded the instrumentarium to include consorts of
recorders, viols and crumhorns, together with a variety of plucked
instruments, organ and virginal.

The Baltimore Consort has released several compact discs on Dorian
Recordings, including On the Banks of Helicon (Early Music of Scotland),
Watkins Ale (Music of the English Renaissance) and La Rocque 'n Roll
(Popular Music of Renaissance France). A quartet of male singers, The Merry
Companions, was formed to assist the Baltimore Consort in a rollicking CD of
bawdy catches and ballads, The Art of the Bawdy Song, recorded in 1990. A
recording of music for the Yuletide season, Bright Day Star, was released
late in 1994, to great critical and popular acclaim.

The Baltimore Consort has toured extensively in the USA and, in 1992,
initiated European touring with appearances in Vienna and Regensburg (Tape
Alter Musik Festival). The Consort has held residencies at both the Walters
Art Gallery and the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. In the
Spring of 1994, the Consort toured in the U.S. and Europe (The Netherlands,
Spain and Austria), and in 1995-96 they will again travel to all parts of
the country.
  The Baltimore Consort is managed by:

Joanne Rile Management

Noble Plaza, Suite 212

Jenkintown, Pennsylvania 19046-1611

phone:  215/885-6400     fax:   215/885-9929

email:  artists (at) rilearts(dot)com     website:   www.rilearts.com

Mary Anne Ballard (viols, rebec) researches most of the Consort's programs.
She also plays with the Oberlin Consort of Viols, the Philadelphia Classical
Orchestra, and Fleur-de-lis, a Baroque ensemble. Formerly, she directed or
coached early music at the Peabody Conservatory, Princeton University, and
the University of Pennsylavania, where she founded the Collegium Musicum.

Mark Cudek (cittern, viols, Renaissance guitar) directs the Peabody
Renaissance Ensemble at Johns Hopkins University.  He is also Founder and
Director of the High School Early Music Program at the Interlochen Arts
Camp.

     Custer La Rue (soprano), an award-winning graduate of the Peabody
Conservatory has specialized in singing medieval and Renaissance music as
well as traditional ballads.  Her Dorian CDs, The Daemon Lover and The True
Lover's Farewell  have received wide acclaim in such publications as
Billboard Magazine and CD Review. She also tours as a ballad singer.

Larry Lipkis (viol, recorder) is Composer-in-Residence and Chair of the
Department of Music at Moravian College, where he also directs the early
music program. His cello concerto, Scaramouche, appears on the Koch label
and his bass trombone concerto, Harlequin, was premiered in 1997 by the Los
Angeles Philharmonic to rave reviews.

     Ronn McFarlane's (lute), "talent is comparable to James Galway's for
the flute or Yo-Yo Ma's for the cello" writes the Washington Post.  His solo
albums, A Distant Shore, Between Two Hearts, The Renaissance Lute, The Lute
Music of John Dowland, and The Scottish Lute have received international
acclaim, and his solo performances have won critical praise throughout North
America.
Chris Norman (woodern flutes, bagpipe), "the best traditional flute player
in the country," plays with the trio Helicon and with fiddler Alasdair
Fraser. His solo albums include Man with a Wooden Flute and The Beauty of
the North, the latter featuring traditional music of Quebec and Chris'
native Nova Scotia.  Chris has his own website---check it out by clicking on
the image to the right.





-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Cohen <rlcm17 (at) hotmail(dot)com>
To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Date: Tuesday, June 12, 2001 12:11 PM
Subject: Re: Baltimore Consort


>Does anyone have contact information--esp. an 800 (or NYC) phone #--for the
>Baltimore Consort?
>
>Thx -- Robert Cohen
>
>
>
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