2015 Events

“A Tale of Three Cathedrals” Latin American archives hold a treasure trove of sacred music written for the many holidays and feasts of the church year. Join us in our fourth annual celebration of this long-neglected repertoire, honoring the San Antonio Missions’ recent selection as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The performance will include music from Mexico City, Oaxaca, and Durango Cathedrals, with ornate baroque works by Sumaya and Salazar, pleasant galant music by Jerúsalem, Billoni, and the Classically-tinged compositions of Tollis de la Rocca and Juanas.

“A Tale of Three Cathedrals” Latin American archives hold a treasure trove of sacred music written for the many holidays and feasts of the church year. Join us in our fourth annual celebration of this long-neglected repertoire, honoring the San Antonio Missions’ recent selection as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The performance will include music from Mexico City, Oaxaca, and Durango Cathedrals, with ornate baroque works by Sumaya and Salazar, pleasant galant music by Jerúsalem, Billoni, and the Classically-tinged compositions of Tollis de la Rocca and Juanas.

La Follia’s director Keith Womer performs concertos for organ and strings on the historic 1862 Holbrook Organ, with the La Follia string ensemble. Sponsored by the Austin Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, the concert features concertos by Handel, Mozart, Haydn, JC Bach and CPE Bach, with the La Follia string ensemble gracing and filling out the organ’s vibrant color. In addition, concertmaster Stephen Redfield will join Mr. Womer to perform a Vivaldi concerto for organ and violin, and countertenor Nick Zammit will perform JS Bach arias for alto, obbligato organ, and strings.

La Follia’s director Keith Womer performs concertos for organ and strings on the historic 1862 Holbrook Organ, with the La Follia string ensemble. Sponsored by the Austin Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, the concert features concertos by Handel, Mozart, Haydn, JC Bach and CPE Bach, with the La Follia string ensemble gracing and filling out the organ’s vibrant color. In addition, concertmaster Stephen Redfield will join Mr. Womer to perform a Vivaldi concerto for organ and violin, and countertenor Nick Zammit will perform JS Bach arias for alto, obbligato organ, and strings.

American Roots: An evening concert at Jefferson’s Monticello. Commemorating July 4, La Follia recreates concerts where Thomas Jefferson himself would have played on violin at Monticello. Many works are from Jefferson’s musical library, catalogued by Jefferson himself, with some annotated in his own hand. Others are from operas and chamber music performances he attended in France and the United States.
Special guest is Jonathan Godfrey, violin, concertmaster of Mercury, Houston’s period instrument orchestra. Performing from La Follia are Joan Carlson, soprano, Marcus McGuff, Baroque flute, Scott Horton, Baroque guitar, and Keith Womer, harpsichord and fortepiano.

American Roots: An evening concert at Jefferson’s Monticello. Commemorating July 4, La Follia Austin Baroque recreates concerts where Thomas Jefferson himself would have played on violin at Monticello. Many works are from Jefferson’s musical library, catalogued by Jefferson himself, with some annotated in his own hand. Others are from operas and chamber music performances he attended in France and the United States.
Special guest is Jonathan Godfrey, violin, concertmaster of Mercury, Houston’s period instrument orchestra. Performing from La Follia are Joan Carlson, soprano, Marcus McGuff, Baroque flute, Scott Horton, Baroque guitar, and Keith Womer, harpsichord and fortepiano.

Handel’s operas were wildly popular in London. They were so popular that the immigrant Handel was soon the most famous musician in the English capital, and he had more than his share of friends, enemies, and frenemies. The English couldn’t get enough of his musical dramas, complete with all of the extremes of human emotion, not to mention the plethora off-stage personal drama that permeated the lives of his divas.

The industrious Saxon realized that Londoners might enjoy religious drama as much as they did operas about ancient heroes and gods. In 1732 he revised an earlier piece he had written, based on a libretto by Jean Racine and depicting the story of the Old Testament heroine Esther. His supporters found out, and begged him to reprise the work. There was one problem: the Bishop of London forbade any presentation of any Biblical story on stage. Handel’s solution was simple and brilliant: namely, to perform the work on stage as a concert, and not as a musical drama. It worked, and in the process he created a genre with which his name has been inexorably linked – the English oratorio.

We hope you’ll join us for our fourth season grand finale, Handel’s masterful Esther. Calling for a large, colorful orchestra that includes a full compliment of woodwinds, brass, strings and even harp, a full chorus, and soloists, you’ll experience some of Handel’s most powerful choral writing, as well as some of his most beautiful writing for solo voice. Come and learn how Esther, a Jewish orphan, becomes Queen of Persia and through cleverness, bravery, and more than just a little bit of her feminine charms, saves her people from a bloody fate. The best part? It’s sung in English, so you’ll know exactly what they’re saying!

Handel’s operas were wildly popular in London. They were so popular that the immigrant Handel was soon the most famous musician in the English capital, and he had more than his share of friends, enemies, and frenemies. The English couldn’t get enough of his musical dramas, complete with all of the extremes of human emotion, not to mention the plethora off-stage personal drama that permeated the lives of his divas.

The industrious Saxon realized that Londoners might enjoy religious drama as much as they did operas about ancient heroes and gods. In 1732 he revised an earlier piece he had written, based on a libretto by Jean Racine and depicting the story of the Old Testament heroine Esther. His supporters found out, and begged him to reprise the work. There was one problem: the Bishop of London forbade any presentation of any Biblical story on stage. Handel’s solution was simple and brilliant: namely, to perform the work on stage as a concert, and not as a musical drama. It worked, and in the process he created a genre with which his name has been inexorably linked – the English oratorio.

We hope you’ll join us for our fourth season grand finale, Handel’s masterful Esther. Calling for a large, colorful orchestra that includes a full compliment of woodwinds, brass, strings and even harp, a full chorus, and soloists, you’ll experience some of Handel’s most powerful choral writing, as well as some of his most beautiful writing for solo voice. Come and learn how Esther, a Jewish orphan, becomes Queen of Persia and through cleverness, bravery, and more than just a little bit of her feminine charms, saves her people from a bloody fate. The best part? It’s sung in English, so you’ll know exactly what they’re saying!

J.S. Bach’s “The Art of Fugue”
In the last decade of his life, Bach undertook the composition of 18 studies based on a single theme, which he collectively titled Die Kunst der Fuge, or The Art of Fugue. Fourteen of these studies are so-called fugues, a compositional form employing imitative entrances of the theme under strict rules. Bach was (and still is) the undisputed master of fugal composition. However, the permutations of this theme that Bach conceived stretched even his mighty powers to the limit. The theme is turned upside down. It is played at the same time as the main theme. It is played with shorter and longer note durations simultaneously, and much more. The final fugue (apparently left unfinished at his death) combines three other themes with the main theme, one of those themes being a spelling of his name. Several composers have humbly attempted completions of this fugue, and La Follia will perform one of the most famous.

J.S. Bach’s “The Art of Fugue”
In the last decade of his life, Bach undertook the composition of 18 studies based on a single theme, which he collectively titled Die Kunst der Fuge, or The Art of Fugue. Fourteen of these studies are so-called fugues, a compositional form employing imitative entrances of the theme under strict rules. Bach was (and still is) the undisputed master of fugal composition. However, the permutations of this theme that Bach conceived stretched even his mighty powers to the limit. The theme is turned upside down. It is played at the same time as the main theme. It is played with shorter and longer note durations simultaneously, and much more. The final fugue (apparently left unfinished at his death) combines three other themes with the main theme, one of those themes being a spelling of his name. Several composers have humbly attempted completions of this fugue, and La Follia will perform one of the most famous.

“The Full Monteverdi, Part 2”
We end our love song to Italy with music by Monteverdi and by composers who were influenced by him and some who might even have influenced the master a bit!
There are few composers whose careers have spanned two musical eras, and even fewer who have excelled majestically in both eras. More than 50 years separated Claudio Monteverdi’s first book of madrigals (1587) from his final large sacred and secular works in 1642, a time period that witnessed the transition of the musical Renaissance into the Baroque. We take a cue from the comedic movie The Full Monty to “expose” Monteverdi’s artistic brilliance in his second career, that of the Baroque composer.
Singers include Jenifer Thyssen, Gitanjali Mathur, Meredith Ruduski, Cayla Cardiff, Jenny Houghton, Stephanie Prewitt, Jeffrey Jones Ragona, David Lopez, Paul D’Arcy, Brett Barnes, Steve Olivares, Thann Scoggin, and guest mezzo-soprano Erin Calata, from Seattle.
Guest violinists Anna Griffis (Boston) and Boel Gidholm (Rochester) lead our chamber orchestra of cellos (Jane Leggiero & John Walters), theorbo & Baroque guitar (Scott Horton), triple harp (Elaine Barber), and harpsichord (Billy Traylor).

“The Full Monteverdi, Part 2”
We end our love song to Italy with music by Monteverdi and by composers who were influenced by him and some who might even have influenced the master a bit!
There are few composers whose careers have spanned two musical eras, and even fewer who have excelled majestically in both eras. More than 50 years separated Claudio Monteverdi’s first book of madrigals (1587) from his final large sacred and secular works in 1642, a time period that witnessed the transition of the musical Renaissance into the Baroque. We take a cue from the comedic movie The Full Monty to “expose” Monteverdi’s artistic brilliance in his second career, that of the Baroque composer.
Singers include Jenifer Thyssen, Gitanjali Mathur, Meredith Ruduski, Cayla Cardiff, Jenny Houghton, Stephanie Prewitt, Jeffrey Jones Ragona, David Lopez, Paul D’Arcy, Brett Barnes, Steve Olivares, Thann Scoggin, and guest mezzo-soprano Erin Calata, from Seattle.
Guest violinists Anna Griffis (Boston) and Boel Gidholm (Rochester) lead our chamber orchestra of cellos (Jane Leggiero & John Walters), theorbo & Baroque guitar (Scott Horton), triple harp (Elaine Barber), and harpsichord (Billy Traylor).

Fiesta Concert: J. S. Bach ‘Magnificat’ with orchestra. Joseph Causby, conductor

By the eighteenth century, the term cantata generally referred to one or two specific musical genres, but before the word cantata had these distinct meanings, it simply referred to any piece meant to be sung, usually with instrumental accompaniment. In the spirit of that earlier and broader definition that we present a selection of Baroque works for choir and orchestra, including J.S. Bach’s cantata *Jesu, der du meine Seele*, Charpentier’s sumptuous and martial *Te Deum*, Jerúsalem’s ode *Al combate* (receiving its Texas and period-instrument premiere), and *Ad pedes* from Buxtehude’s moving *Membra Jesu nostri*. Though they’re not all cantatas in the strictest sense, we’ll show you that a “cantata” by any other name sounds just as sweet.

By the eighteenth century, the term cantata generally referred to one or two specific musical genres, but before the word cantata had these distinct meanings, it simply referred to any piece meant to be sung, usually with instrumental accompaniment. In the spirit of that earlier and broader definition that we present a selection of Baroque works for choir and orchestra, including J.S. Bach’s cantata *Jesu, der du meine Seele*, Charpentier’s sumptuous and martial *Te Deum*, Jerúsalem’s ode *Al combate* (receiving its Texas and period-instrument premiere), and *Ad pedes* from Buxtehude’s moving *Membra Jesu nostri*. Though they’re not all cantatas in the strictest sense, we’ll show you that a “cantata” by any other name sounds just as sweet.

Renaissance music for the 60th Anniversary of The McNay’s Oppenheimer Collection. Program includes music of Lassus, Byrd, and Palestrina and features selections with historic and thematic ties to various works in the collection.

Copperleaf is a group of five exceptional vocalists that seamlessly blends female and male voices to bring exquisite harmonies and the highest level of musical excellence to each performance. Musical selections for each concert are chosen to complement the architecture and time period of the specific performance setting.

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons- Music and More, with KMFA” La Follia performs KMFA listeners’ greatest Baroque hits, introduced by your favorite KMFA announcers…in person! They will talk about the music, the musicians, the instruments, and reflect on the Seasons themselves through essays and poetry.
Baroque violinists Go Yamamoto, Karen Clarke, Alan Austin, and Stephanie Raby will be soloists in the concerti, backed by the 15-piece La Follia chamber ensemble.
Featured KMFA guests are Jeffrey Blair, Chris Johnson, and Renee Beale, with special cameo by Dianne Donovan.

Fully staged opera presented by Opera Piccola of San Antonio.

Fully staged production presented by Opera Piccola of San Antonio.

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons- Music and More, with KMFA” La Follia performs KMFA listeners’ greatest Baroque hits, introduced by your favorite KMFA announcers…in person! They will talk about the music, the musicians, the instruments, and reflect on the Seasons themselves through essays and poetry.
Baroque violinists Go Yamamoto, Karen Clarke, Alan Austin, and Stephanie Raby will be soloists in the concerti, backed by the 15-piece La Follia chamber ensemble.
Featured KMFA guests are Jeffrey Blair, Chris Johnson, and Renee Beale, with special cameo by John Clare.

That’s Amore: An Early Valentine. TEMP’s opera troupe presents a pastiche of music from Italian operas by Cavalli, Cesti, Handel, and Vivaldi in a rom-com created just for our time. Austin sopranos Meredith Ruduski and Jenifer Thyssen and Peter Walker (bass) and Ryland Angel (countertenor), both of NYC, along with a small period orchestra, conspire to entertain you! The passion! The jealousy! The love! Will there be a happy ending?

That’s Amore: An Early Valentine. TEMP’s opera troupe presents a pastiche of music from Italian operas by Cavalli, Cesti, Handel, and Vivaldi in a rom-com created just for our time. Austin sopranos Meredith Ruduski and Jenifer Thyssen and Peter Walker (bass) and Ryland Angel (countertenor), both of NYC, along with a small period orchestra, conspire to entertain you! The passion! The jealousy! The love! Will there be a happy ending?

Bach’s Herd of Harpsichords V: Double Play! The Herd returns in the fifth installment of this most popular concert series, featuring concertos for two harpsichords with orchestra, composed by Vivaldi, Haydn, J.S. Bach, and his sons. Among the musical highlights are a concerto for two harpsichords and orchestra based on a Vivaldi concerto for two violins and strings, arranged by Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, and a concerto for 3 harpsichords and strings by Johann Sebastian Bach. The concert features harpsichordists Keith Womer, JiMin Kim, and Dr. Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, joined by the La Follia ensemble.

Bach’s Herd of Harpsichords V: Double Play! The Herd returns in the fifth installment of this most popular concert series, featuring concertos for two harpsichords with orchestra, composed by Vivaldi, Haydn, J.S. Bach, and his sons. Among the musical highlights are a concerto for two harpsichords and orchestra based on a Vivaldi concerto for two violins and strings, arranged by Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, and a concerto for 3 harpsichords and strings by Johann Sebastian Bach. The concert features harpsichordists Keith Womer, JiMin Kim, and Dr. Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, joined by the La Follia ensemble.