6/11/2024 - 6/20/2024
ARS introduces a Free Online Beginners’ Course for soprano & tenor recorder, taught by Teresa Deskur! The recorder is a fantastic instrument for people who want the social experience of playing with others, wish to play a variety of repertoire, and can learn to do so at a basic level in a relatively short time. Whether you’ve never played recorder before, or if it has been eons ago since you have played, can or cannot read music, this is the course for you! This course will use the following method book which provides excellent methodical exercises to learn fingerings, while providing simple tunes to satisfy the soul!
The Sweet Pipes Recorder Book: A method for adults and older beginners by Gerald Burakoff and William E. Hettrick. Soprano, Book One.
Dates:
Tuesday, June 11, 8 p.m. EDT (7 p.m. CDT, 6 p.m. MDT, 5 p.m. PDT)
Thursday, June 13, 8 p.m. EDT (7 p.m. CDT, 6 p.m. MDT, 5 p.m. PDT)
Tuesday, June 18 8 p.m. EDT (7 p.m. CDT, 6 p.m. MDT, 5 p.m. PDT)
Thursday, June 20, 8 p.m. EDT (7 p.m. CDT, 6 p.m. MDT, 5 p.m. PDT)
Each session will comprise ~35 minutes of instructional time, followed by ~10 minutes for questions
Students will need to purchase a copy of the "Sweet Pipes" Recorder book (links below) for the class.
Do you need to purchase an instrument? You cannot go wrong with a good plastic recorder—they can actually sound better than a poor wooden one! Yamaha and Aulos make very good plastic sopranos. For tenors: Yamaha provides an exceptional tone, while Aulos is lighter-weight with a smaller reach. Consider purchasing an instrument from one of our business partners:
Von Huene Workshop (The Early Music Shop of New England), Boston, MA: (617) 277-8690
Honeysuckle Music, St. Paul, MN: (651) 644-8545
Lazar's Early Music, Carson City, NV: (866) 511-2981
Recorderforge.com, Happy Valley, OR: (503) 210-1643
The Von Huene Workshop & Honeysuckle Music also offer the Sweet Pipes Recorder book.
6/1/2024
Chapter representatives are invited to join us as we discuss best practices to help you run your respective chapters. This is an opportunity for you to meet your peers in chapters throughout the ARS. We believe that the people best qualified to help you with your chapter's challenges are your fellow chapter reps.6/2/2024
In this workshop, Debby will be sharing some of her favorite Irish tunes, scored for two recorders. You will get to experience the same fun that fiddlers and pennywhistle players and bagpipers have experienced for generations. Tapping your feet is mandatory and helps support the flow of the melodies. Many different kinds of tunes will be explored, such as jigs, waltzes, polkas, and hornpipes. Included will be some video clips of recorder players, and other instrumentalists (pennywhistles, bodhran, uilleann pipes, octave mandolin, fiddles, hammered dulcimer) playing and singing these captivating tunes.6/3/2024 - 6/22/2024
Sponsored by a generous donation from the North American Virtual Recorder Society (NAVRS)"Lost... and Found": Finding Your Way Back in the Music
In this series we will focus on continuing technique for the alto recorder, following up from our Alto Beginners lesson.
This class is available at no charge to ARS members, only. When registering, use the email address associated with your ARS membership. If you are not an ARS member, you may click HERE to join. These classes are limited in size to allow for more interaction between the teacher and students. If you have already taken two or more of our Second Level classes, please wait until one week prior to the start of class to sign up, in order to allow a larger number of people to take advantage of these opportunities.
Dates:
Monday, June 3 at 7:30 PM, ET
Saturday, June 8 at 4 PM, ET
Saturday, June 15 at 4 PM, ET
Saturday, June 22 at 4 PM, ET
About Lewis Baratz:
Lewis R. Baratz is a harpsichordist, recorder player, conductor, and music educator. He has performed with the Academy of Sacred Drama, Bethlehem Baroque, Brandywine Baroque, The Queens Consort, MidAtlantic Opera Company, Voices Chorale, Vox Ama Deus, and with La Fiocco, which he founded in 2009. He served on the boards of Early Music America, the Academy of Sacred Drama, and the Arts and Cultural Council of Bucks County. Lewis was the first person to earn the Ph.D. in musicology with concentration in historical performance practice at Case Western Reserve University and was a Fulbright Scholar and Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation. He has published several critical editions and over 20 articles on a wide range of topics, including 15th-century dance music, 17th-century keyboard music, biographical, archival, and manuscript studies, basso continuo, the choirboys of the Brussels Collegiate Church c. 1550 to 1793, and numerous entries in The New Grove Dictionary of Music. Lewis was music director of the Highland Park Recorder Society from 2020 to 2022 and presented a monthly online seminar series in early music performance for recorder players. He currently teaches harpsichord, recorder, and directs the chamber orchestra at Lafayette College in Easton, PA.
6/8/2024
This hour-long free event will allow you to meet other members, provide an opportunity to ask questions about membership benefits, show you all everything the American Recorder Society website has to offer, and end with a virtual play-a-long! Hosted by Jody Miller and Phil Hollar.
This class is available at no charge to both ARS members and non-members. Click HERE to join the ARS.
6/9/2024 - 6/16/2024
Berkeley, CA and nearby Bay Area venues19 main stage concerts, as well as special events, a three-day exhibition, community workshops, and dozens of Fringe presentations.
Info and ticket information: San Francisco Early Music Society, berkeleyfestival.org
6/12/2024
Wednesday, June 12, 2024, 7:30 p.m.Organ Recital Hall, University Center of the Arts, Colorado state University, Fort Collins, CO
Maurice Steger, recorder with Joel Bacon, organ, and Jason Moy, harpsichord
Maurice Steger returns to Colorado State University for a recorder recital of Baroque music. Last time he performed at CSU the Organ Recital Hall was sold out.
The British press called Maurice Steger the 'Paganini' of the recorder. Together with the great keyboard players Joel Bacon and Jason Moy, they will perform solos, trio sonatas and other specialties from the 17th and 18th century, including works by Bach, Telemann, Haendel and Vivaldi.
Tickets: CSU University Center of the Arts box office,
https://csuartstickets.universitytickets.com/
Adults $14, Seniors $12.
It is highly recommended to order tickets well in advance.
Questions: Johannes Gessler, jgessler1036@gmail.com.
Maurice Steger: https://maurice-steger.com/solist/?lang=en
6/15/2024
Announcing the next Philadelphia Recorder Society In-person and Virtual Playing SessionSaturday, June 15, 2024
led by Music Director Rainer Beckmann
Cathedral Village, 600 East Cathedral Road, Philadelphia, PA
Playing begins at 10:00 AM.
We're gathering in Cathedral Hall, which is located across from the entrance to the main building. Please arrive in plenty of time to find suitable parking, greet friends, and set up your instruments so we can start playing promptly at 10 AM. Visitors are welcome.
For those who can't join in person, we'll be streaming our playing session over Zoom. The Zoom meeting will open at 9:30 AM and we'll start playing at 10 AM. Members will receive a Zoom link via email, usually one day before we meet.
From PRS President Dan Franceski:
At our June 15th playing session we will have a brief annual meeting (in accordance with our by-laws). I will report on membership attendance and the results of our board member election and Julie Senecoff will give a financial report. Rainer will comment on the upcoming 2024/2025 season, and, finally, your comments and input will be welcome!
From Music Director Rainer Beckmann:
Dear Friends,
This year's Consort Day meeting will feature performances of ten consorts ranging from duos to quintets. Made up of PRS members and friends, these groups have prepared a truly colorful program for us all to enjoy. A detailed program handout will be available at the meeting.
The playlist for the meetings's large group playing ("TUTTI") includes popular pieces with a local touch from earlier Consort Day editions, like the Schuylkill Navy Glee and the famous Liberty Bell March. Maybe most importantly, it also entails a number of pieces from the beloved Bernstein music books that we regularly took advantage of in the past.
I very much look forward to seeing you at Consort Day!
Rainer Beckmann
PRS Consort Day
"TUTTI" Playlist
America, The Beautiful, Samuel A. Ward (1847-1903), S.A.T.B & T.B.GB.Cb
Schuylkill Navy Glee (Philadelphia, 1883), John Ford, S.A.T.B
Fatal la parte, Juan del Encina (1468-1529), S.A.T.B, also in: Bernstein, The Consort Collection, Vol. I, no. 6, p. 8
De ser mal casada, Diego Fernandes (fl. 1500), S.A.T.B, also in: Bernstein, The Consort Collection, Vol. I, no. 7, p. 9
De la dulce mi enemiga, Gabriel Mena (1470-1528), also in: Bernstein, The Consort Collection, Vol. I, no. 8, p. 9
Two Allemandes, Valentin Haussmann (c.1565-1614), S.S.A.T.B & T.T.B.GB.Cb, also in: Bernstein, The Consort Collection Vol.II, nos. 30 & 32, pp. 49 & 51
Pavana "La Cornetta," Anonymous (c.1530), S.A.T.B & T.B.GB.Cb, also in: Bernstein, The Consort Collection, Vol. I, nos. 14, pp. 16
Gagliarda "La Rocha el Fuso," Anonymous (c.1530), S.A.T.B & T.B.GB.Cb, also in: Bernstein, The Consort Collection, Vol. I, nos. 15, pp. 17
Gilotte and Bransle de Villages, François Caroubel (1555-c.1611), S.S/A.A.T.B & T.T/B.B.GB.Cb
The Liberty Bell, John Philip Sousa (1854-1932), S.A.T.B&Cb
6/15/2024
The Barbary Coast Recorder Orchestra (BCRO), playing recorders from tiny to titan, presents a reprise of our annual concert of music from the Renaissance, Baroque, and today.
Co-Directors Greta Haug-Hryciw and Glen Shannon will lead sacred music by Tomas Luis de Victoria and Juan Gutierrez de Padilla, a dazzling concerto movement by Georg Philip Telemann, a beautiful Ukrainian lullaby, the "Love Theme" from Cinema Paradiso, the opening theme from the anime film Howl's Moving Castle, and an epic original piece by Shannon commissioned by the Los Angeles Recorder Orchestra that celebrates the ethnic neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Guest artists on "L.A. Triptych" are John Waller on doumbek and Tom Bickley on soprano recorder.
At-will donations gratefully accepted.
BCRO is an educational outreach program of Voices of Music
6/15/2024
The American Recorder Society’s (ARS) annual Recorder Relay returns to Berkeley at BFX! Two+ hours of continuous recorder performances by talented local ensembles will be presented in “relay” style immediately following the 1:00 PM performance of the Barbary Coast Recorder Orchestra.
Get your groove on with this noble instrument and the beautiful music that is made with it. Admission is FREE. Come and go as you wish - stay for the entire program or for just a few selections, as your time permits.
This event will be preceded at 1:45 PM by the bestowing of two prestigious awards from the American Recorder Society:
The 2024 Distinguished Achievement Award goes to Voices of Music's co-director Hanneke van Proosdij of El Cerrito, CA, for decades of high-profile work with the recorder and her significant influence on the recorder community in North America.
Peter Ballinger of Berkeley, CA will receive the ARS Presidential Special Honor Award for the early work he did with the Society as well as a lifetime of work publishing superb editions of music for recorders from the 1960s until his retirement in June 2023. You can read about Peter in this article by Berkeley musicians Nick and Sue Jones: PRB Productions article
6/18/2024 - 6/21/2024
The Old Avoca Schoolhouse in Avoca, Nebraska will be streaming three on line Classical Tunes for Two Workshops for violins, violas, cellos, basses, mandolins, soprano recorder, and alto recorder.The “Classical Tunes for Two, Volume 1” collection features 60 duets by more than 20 composers. You will experience some composers that may be familiar to you (Bach, Haydn, Moxart), and some that may not (Chedeville, Gumelzhaimer, Zipoli).
The brief biographies in the back of the book will help you get more acquainted with all of these composers.
The Workshops will be on Tuesday, June 18, 7 PM, Central Time, Wednesday, June 19, 10 AM, Central Time, and Friday, June 21, 7 PM, Central Time.
Different tunes will be played at each session.
We will read, play, and discuss various survival skills for these charming pieces. A treble clef version of the sheet music for the tunes being played will be displayed on the screen during the workshop.
There is limited enrollment, and pre-registration is required. The cost for each workshop is $10.00. The cost of each optional book is $15.00 (includes shipping if ordered with workshop registration).
For more information, and to register:
https://greenblattandseay.com/workshops_classical.shtml
6/22/2024
Tenor, Tenor: This line's a winner!Jody Miller will take NAVRS members through two uses of "tenor" as a musical concept. Starting in the 13th century, the cantus firmus, or melody, most frequently in the tenor line. We'll play several pieces with these melodies that are flanked by more ornate outer parts. Session participants will also be encouraged to bring out their tenor recorders for some newer music that makes use of this marvelous size of recorder. Don't worry, though--there will be parts for other sizes of instruments, too!
6/24/2024 - 6/30/2024
This summer, grab your best brocade jacket and come join director Lindsey Strand-Polyak and the SFEMS Baroque Workshop faculty as we become “Americans in Paris” for a weeklong exploration of French and French-influenced music. The court of Louis XIV was imitated all over Europe in architecture, design, fashion, art, language—and yes, music. Besides diving into composers such as Lully, Couperin and Rameau, we’ll look at those outside the Gallic lands who soaked up and reflected French style—yes, even Johann Sebastian Bach.The Baroque Workshop will be a full week of immersive musicking open to singers, keyboard and plucked continuo instrumentalists, as well as wind and string players. There will be classes on ornamentation and baroque dance (naturellement!), large ensembles such as orchestra and oboe band, chamber music, special talks and technique classes. Special events include Concerto Night, Faculty Concert, Chamber and Orchestra concerts, and new for 2024…Cantata Night!
The Baroque Workshop welcomes players of all levels of experience and ability who want a supportive and welcoming place to discover and develop new musical skills. Pitch for the workshop will be at A=415.