Past Events

The San Antonio Museum of Art presents an orchestral suite by composer Nathan Felix, featuring newly written music for four harpsichords, strings, and a choir. The music draws inspiration from the exhibition America’s Impressionism: Echoes of a Revolution. Local harpsichord builder Gerald Self will introduce the performance with a brief discussion on the history of harpsichords and give insight into his building process. The ensuing performance will be designed to create a surround-sound aural experience as each harpsichord will be strategically spaced within SAMA’s Great Hall to form a wide circle.

Though little-known today, Ferdinand VI was Spain’s most musical monarch. At their palaces at Aranjuez and Madrid, Ferdinand and his Portuguese-born wife Maria Bárbara de Bragança employed an army of Spanish and Italian musicians and artists that easily rivaled those at the equally music-obsessed courts of Louis XV or Frederick the Great. Among the king’s musical entourage was Farinelli, the famed castrato who had originally come to Spain to assuage Ferdinand’s father’s melancholy with his voice, and Domenico Scarlatti, who had been the Queen’s harpsichord tutor since the age of ten. This program, our first live performance since February 2020, will offer a glimpse into the public and private musical life of the royal couple, with operatic and orchestral music by Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian composers including Scarlatti, José de Nebra, Carlos de Seixas, Nicola Conforto, Luigi Boccherini, and others, presented by a full orchestra and featuring sopranos Julianna Emanski and Shari Wilson.

Dawn of the Baroque
*please note that face masks are required for all audience members*
This concert will feature works by Scheidt, Marais, Charpentier and others

One of music’s greatest powers is its ability to wordlessly express the extreme depths of human emotion. 2020 brought with it much loss, sadness, and destruction, but there remains for many of us a strong sense of hope for the future. Originally this concert was meant to be a collection of music from colonial South America, but we decided it would be more fitting to curate a program that would reflect upon the tumultuous year we are all experiencing. Through this collection of Spanish, Portuguese, Mexican, and Peruvian choral works with texts relating to lament and loss, hope and light, we seek to, in our own humble way, honor and remember those who’ve been lost, and to express hope for a brighter future. Recorded in high definition video and audio at historic Mission Concepcien in San Antonio, this program will include music by Lôbo, Victoria, Padilla, Morales, and others, and will include, as you’ve come to expect from our annual Hispanic program, two modern world premieres.

Since ancient times, musicians have used repeating patterns as a foundation for compositions and improvisations. One of the most common, the ground bass, involves a bass line that repeats itself while the voices above engage in melodic variation of increasing complexity. Later, dances based on repeating chord progressions, like the chaconne and passacaille, became popular, turning up in popular French operas and Italian concertos. Recorded at St. Theresa Catholic Church in Austin and live premiered in high-definition video and audio on YouTube, this program will include music by Handel, Vivaldi, Lully, Purcell, Marini, & Telemann.

After ticket purchase and before the premiere, patrons will be emailed with the YouTube address for the concert, which will premiere on Sept. 19 at 7:30pm. They will have access to the video for two weeks to watch at their leisure as many times as they like, after which the video will be removed.

In our first ever audience-participation concert, you’ll get to vote on the merits of four starry-eyed up-and-coming (read: little-known) Baroque composers to decide who gets to be the next Early Music Idol! We’ll have four local early music celebrity judges on hand, with each pleading the case of one of four composers you’ve probably never heard of, but should have! Will the winner be the suave and debonair Frenchman, the powdered-wigged Englishman, the practical, hardworking German, or the pious yet passionate Spaniard? You make the call!

In our first ever audience-participation concert, you’ll get to vote on the merits of four starry-eyed up-and-coming (read: little-known) Baroque composers to decide who gets to be the next Early Music Idol! We’ll have four local early music celebrity judges on hand, with each pleading the case of one of four composers you’ve probably never heard of, but should have! Will the winner be the suave and debonair Frenchman, the powdered-wigged Englishman, the practical, hardworking German, or the pious yet passionate Spaniard? You make the call!

In 1718, Antonio de Literes composed Spain’s first all-sung, Italianate opera for the birthday celebrations of the Duchess of Medina-Sedonia. In this one-act chamber opera, the four Classical elementsatFire, Air, Earth, and Wateratfind themselves alone in a garden in the pre-dawn hours arguing over who is the most important. As dawn breaks, they are interrupted by Time itself, who suggests that a better alternative is to work together, and to grace the new day with their combined beauty. Fully staged with costumes and sung in Spanish, with English supratitles.

In 1718, Antonio de Literes composed Spain’s first all-sung, Italianate opera for the birthday celebrations of the Duchess of Medina-Sedonia. In this one-act chamber opera, the four Classical elementsatFire, Air, Earth, and Wateratfind themselves alone in a garden in the pre-dawn hours arguing over who is the most important. As dawn breaks, they are interrupted by Time itself, who suggests that a better alternative is to work together, and to grace the new day with their combined beauty. Fully staged with costumes and sung in Spanish, with English supratitles.

Since their arrival in New Orleans in 1727, the Sisters of St. Ursula have taught and cared for the inhabitants of that most European of American cities without ceasing. A music manuscript in their library remains the only surviving example of music from Louisiana’s colonial period, and is a rare example of French baroque music from our nation’s past. This intimate, candle-lit evening of music will consist of selections from the Manuscrit des Ursulines de la Nouvelle-Orléans, interspersed with readings from the nuns’ diaries and other colonial-era documents.

Since their arrival in New Orleans in 1727, the Sisters of St. Ursula have taught and cared for the inhabitants of that most European of American cities without ceasing. A music manuscript in their library remains the only surviving example of music from Louisiana’s colonial period, and is a rare example of French baroque music from our nation’s past. This intimate, candle-lit evening of music will consist of selections from the Manuscrit des Ursulines de la Nouvelle-Orléans, interspersed with readings from the nuns’ diaries and other colonial-era documents.

De La Pluma De Ella – Early music by Female Composers