BELLADONNA Margaret Humphrey, violin;  Rebecca Humphrey, cello; Clea Galhano, recorder;  Barbara Weiss, harpsichord with special guests Matthias Maute, recorder,  Brent Wissick, viola da gamba, Paul Boehnke, harpsichord/organ and Emlyn Ngai, Baroque violin Saturday, November 24, 2007 at 8 P.M.

Program Notes

We are excited to be celebrating The Schubert Club's 125th anniversary by doubling our forces.  We are joined tonight by four friends who will both "oppose" and complement us.

In the first set, we all play together.  Some of you will recognize  Torn to Shreds as the opening of Monteverdi's opera Orfeo.  In Flaconiero's Battaglia, Belladonna may seem to be arguing with their guests, but in the Passamezzo Pavan of Phillips, cooperation returns as partners within each group - recorders, violins and basses - share motives in a  genteel conversational style.

As the program progresses, each subgroup is heard.  For example, Belladonna performs a Ciacconna by Sances, and the men answer with one by Merula.  Strings without winds, winds without strings, basses without trebles, trebles without basses - all combinations made possible by the addition of Men in Black.  Enjoy the oppositions!

Biographies

BELLADONNA

Margaret Humphrey, violin;  Rebecca Humphrey, cello;
Clea Galhano, recorder;  Barbara Weiss, harpsichord

Belladonna was formed in 1993 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and has since performed around the globe.  With its lively interpretation of early music, Belladonna creates an extraordinary chemistry on stage that the Boston Globe calls “as fresh as jazz,” “fantastically colored and just plain hot,” while the Mittlebayerische Zeitung describes them as “shimmering stars.”  Featured on the nationally syndicated radio programs Harmonia and Performance Today, the quartet also has been aired on the National Public Radio stations WHBH-Boston and KSJN-Saint Paul, as well as stations in Germany and Brazil.  In 1998 the ensemble was a finalist in the Early Music America-Dorian CD competition.

Belladonna has appeared to critical acclaim at distinguished American venues such as the Seattle Early Music Guild; The Schubert Club Early Music Series, Saint Paul; Indianapolis Early Music Series; the Renaissance and Baroque Society, Pittsburgh; Music in the Park Series, Saint Paul; The Arizona Early Music Series; the San Diego Early Music Society; the Shrine to Music Museum, South Dakota; Early Music Now, Milwaukee; and the Boston and Bloomington Early Music Festivals.

Belladonna has the honor of being the first and only ensemble in residence at The Schubert Club in St. Paul, Minnesota, whose support made possible a New York City debut at Merkin Hall.  Belladonna made its first appearance in Europe performing at the Alter Musik Festival in Regensburg, Germany and at the Château-Abbaye de Cassan in Bardou, France.  The quartet has also toured Brazil three times, always with acclaimed reviews, and has recorded for the Ten Thousand Lakes and Dorian Labels.  More information is available on their website, www.belladonna-baroque.com.

Guest artists

Matthias Maute has achieved an international reputation as a composer and as one of the finest recorder and baroque flute players of his generation.  In 1990, he won First Prize in the soloist category at the prestigious Early Music Competition in Bruges, Belgium. Mr. Maute is also esteemed for his artistic direction of Ensemble Caprice, for whom he produces ingenious and fascinating programs. The ensemble has appeared at several important venues in Europe, North America, Taiwan and Israel. In addition to his work with Ensemble Caprice, Mr. Maute is invited to appear as a soloist at important festivals in Europe and the United States, as well as with the baroque ensemble Rebel. In 2003 and 2005, he was the featured recorder virtuoso at the Boston Early Music Festival. His compositions are published by Breitkopf & Härtel, Amadeus, Moeck and Carus. Mr. Maute has made twenty recordings on the Analekta, Vanguard Classics, Bella Musica, Dorian, Bridge and Atma Classique labels. He is a professor at McGill University in Montreal.

Brent Wissick has taught cello and chamber music at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill since 1982.  He has a special interest in music, instruments and performance practices of the 17th and 18th centuries, but also gives regular performances of 20th century works such as the Britten Suites as well as 19th century variations on opera melodies by cellist composers.  A founder of the UNC-CH faculty group Ensemble Courant, he now performs with several different groups outside of North Carolina including the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Chanterelle in Boston, Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, American Bach Soloists in California, Folger Consort in Washington, DC, Dallas Bach Society, Concert Royal in New York, Portland Baroque Orchestra and Collegio di Musica Sacra in Poland. A graduate of the Crane School of Music at Potsdam College, NY and Penn State University he also studied with John Hsu at Cornell University and was an NEH Fellow at Harvard in the 1993 Beethoven Quartet Seminar. He has taught at the College of St. Scholastica in Minnesota, Chautauqua Institution and the 1997 Aston Magna Academy at Yale. He is currently President of the Viola da Gamba Society of America.  Mr. Wissick's concerts and teaching have taken him throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. He can be heard on several recording labels including Koch International, Albany and Titanic.

Paul Boehnke is the Artistic Director of the Bach Society of Minnesota and has appeared as a guest artist with the Newberry Consort, Second City Music, and The Lyra Baroque Orchestra. A frequent guest artist for the University of Minnesota’s Bach Festival Mr. Boehnke also has appeared at the Madison Early Music Festival, the national conclaves of the Viola da Gamba Society of America, on the Chamber Music Minnesota television program and in solo performances at the National Music Museum and the Chattanooga Chamber Music Series in San Francisco. Mr. Boehnke studied harpsichord with Jacques Ogg in Amsterdam and holds a Masters degree in organ from Arizona State University. He currently is Music Director and Organist at Olivet Congregational Church in St. Paul.

Emlyn Ngai leads a broad and distinguished career as both a modern and historical violinist.  As a member of the Adaskin String Trio, he has concertized extensively throughout Canada and the United States, including performances at Merkin Concert Hall, the Corcoran Gallery, Pittsburgh's Frick Art and Historical Center, and the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival. As a historical violinist, Mr. Ngai is Concertmaster of the Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra and chamber ensemble Tempest di Mare, with which he performs and tours regularly.  He is Associate Concertmaster for the Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra where he is also first violin of the Festival Quartet.  His historical violin skills have kept him in demand with various notable groups in North America, including Apollo's Fire, Boston Baroque, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, Tafelmusik and the Washington Bach Consort. His involvement with Joshua Rifkin's Bach Ensemble has taken him to Bermuda, Germany, Spain and the UK.  As first prize winner at the 1995 Locatelli Concours Amsterdam, Mr. Ngai recorded a solo CD of Corelli, Locatelli, and Tartini for Vanguard Classics. Together with harpsichordist Peter Watchorn, he has recorded J. S. Bach's Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord and with his trio, recorded the complete Beethoven string trios, all on Musica Omnia.  Mr. Ngai has also recorded for ATMA, Chandos, Centaur, Eclectra, Koch, New World Records, and Telarc.  Currently Mr. Ngai is on the faculty at the Hartt School in Connecticut where he teaches modern and baroque violin and co-directs the Hartt School Collegium Musicum.