The Phoenix Desert Pipes invites you to
The Water is Wide
with Anne Timberlake
Saturday, May 2-Sunday, May 3, 2026
Feeling landlocked? Set sail on a full-day voyage of exploration, playing the musical byways of Renaissance and Baroque Europe. We'll explore music about water in its many incarnations and investigate how ideas of flow can improve our playing. Works by Palestrina, Telemann, Lasso, and more.
Schedule & Location:
Workshop sessions with Anne Timberlake
Saturday, May 2, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sunday, May 3, 9:00 am-12:00 pm
Location
McDowell Center
16116 N. McDowell Mountain Ranch Rd
Scottsdale 85255
Workshop Fee: Early registration discount deadline is March 28, 2026.
Medieval Mondays runs from February to May in four sessions. Each class will focus on a particular medieval topic, composer, or musical source. The sessions include a brief overview of the composer and information about the music’s historical context then a selection of music to discover and play. Scores will be available for registered participants a week ahead of each class. Medieval Mondays will take place on the following dates, always from 12:30-2pm Eastern:
- Feb 9: Chansonnier Cordiforme - 15th Century Songs of Love
- Mar 16: O Fortuna! Songs from the Carmina Burana
- Apr 13: “Eye Music” - Music Written in Extraordinary Notation
- May 4: Composer’s Portrait: Gilles Binchois - A Musical Miniaturist Please note: If you miss a session, each Zoom meeting will be recorded and will stay available and on demand until one full month after the final class
This class will trace a tradition of composers crafting songs from symmetrical patterns, including numerical symmetries in numbers of pitches, melodic symmetries like palindromes and passages that are identical to their own retrograde inversion, contrapuntal symmetries in which a voice is consonant against its own retrograde or retrograde inversion, and even magic squares in which all four permutations of a melody can be played simultaneously to make consonant counterpoint. These devices are hidden in lovely songs and compositions by three generations of composers from Gilles Binchois to Johannes Ockeghem, Josquin Deprez, and Antoine Brumel. In Part 2 we will explore these devices in the songs of Binchois and anonymous composers, and ask ourselves whether their use of these devices can lead to our identifying the origins of the anonymous composers.
All are welcome! SATB Recorders, A=440hz
$25/class or $100 for each 4-week session. Classes are recorded and made available for one month.
Bach on the Bass: Two- and Three-Part Inventions
10:00 am - 11:15 am Pacific/11:00 am - 12:15 pm Mountain/12:00 pm - 1:15 pm Central/1:00 pm - 2:15 pm Eastern
Johann Sebastian Bach's two-part inventions and three-part sinfonias provide recorder players and other non-keyboard instrumentalists with a wonderful collection of pieces to play. Over these four weeks we'll work on two of the two-part inventions (new pieces for those who took this class in January) and two of the three-part sinfonias on our bass recorders. Part of our work will involve making decisions on how to deal with parts that go out of our range, learning how to make changes that retain the beauty of the line, and making decisions on articulation and phrasing based on an understanding of the melodic and harmonic underpinnings of the piece. We'll also exercise our skills on switching from bass clef to treble clef by playing all parts of the inventions. Along the way we'll continue to work on good bass technique.
Geared toward bass recorder players who are familiar with bass clef and fingerings for a chromatic scale from the low F to the F two octaves higher.
To register, email tishberlin@sbcglobal.net.
$25/class or $100 for each 4-week session. Classes are recorded and made available for one month.
An All-Zoom Practice Challenge: Developing Your Friendship with French Baroque Music
1:15 pm - 2:30 pm Pacific/2:15 pm - 3:30 pm Mountain/3:15 pm - 4:30 pm Central/4:15 pm - 5:30 pm Eastern
This class will build on my January Making Friends with French Baroque Music class. Familiarity with French Baroque ornaments as found in Hotteterre's ornament chart and as seen in music by Hotteterre will be helpful for new participants. Boismortier, Hotteterre, Dieupart, and others who were composing and performing in French aristocratic circles in the 18th century offer a wealth of beautiful music for us to discover. We'll continue our study of the French agréments - trills, the port de voix, battement, flattement, tour de chant, and tour de gosier - in context so they become second nature. We'll listen to recordings to hear the music that charmed Louis XIV and XV and their courts. We'll go deeper into learning how to adorn movements from suites by Boismortier and Hotteterre with beautiful ornaments! Geared toward upper intermediate to advanced alto recorder players.
To register, email tishberlin@sbcglobal.net.
The workshop will explore tunes from our French Fiddle Tunes for Two book. This collection of 37 traditional French tunes offer you the opportunity to play many different dance forms, including a couple of bourées, mazurkas, as well as a branle, a farandole, a galop, a schottische, and a tarantella. These charming pieces are from several regions of France, including Alsace, Auvergne, Brittany, Flanders, and Gascogne.
How is a Pavane danced? What made the Branle such a popular dance during the Renaissance?
Why aren’t all the Sarabandes played at the same tempo? What makes dance music so present in
the repertoire of the Renaissance and Baroque eras? How can you use the recorder techniques
and extended techniques to add movement and energy to your playing? The members of Flûte
Alors! tackle these questions and more in an all-day workshop for recorders focused on the
intrinsic link between music and movement.
Recorderist, orchestra member, and conductor Marea Chernoff will lead this full-day workshop, guiding participants into the vibrant world of the recorder orchestra. The selected repertoire includes works by Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Satie and more, offering something for everyone.
Join us for a series of Consort Studio Workshops in central New Jersey, monthly sessions in ensemble playing for intermediate to advanced level recorder players to learn to play with one another and other instruments under a skilled conductor, with professional accompaniment.
These events will be led by conductor, recorder player, and harpsichordist, Steven Russell (see below). It is an opportunity to play a variety of Baroque literature for small ensembles, through rehearsal, instruction, and demonstration, in a supportive environment, with a focus on ensemble playing, and end with the option to play the lead alto part with a professional ensemble. We will have opportunities to warm up on Renaissance music with SATB recorders, so bring all sizes. Register early to receive the music well in advance. Auditors welcome to attend. Sessions culminate in a performance.
Dates: One Saturday of the month, 1:00 – 5:00 P.M. w/ a 15-min. break
Nov. 8, 2025 Open for General Registration. A Taste of Things to Come
Jan. 10, 2026 Feb. 28, 2026 March 14, 2026 April 25, 2026
May 9, 2026 Workshop-Rehearsal June 13 Oct. 10 Nov. 14, 2026
Location: Reformed Church of Highland Park, 19-21 South Second Avenue, Highland Park, NJ. There is plenty of parking at the location, which is a 30-minute walk or 5-minute taxi ride from the New Brunswick NJT train station.
To register, Visit https://hprecorder.org/events/2026-consort-studio/. For more information contact recorderdonna@gmail.com
Bring any size of soprano, alto, tenor, or bass recorder that you have. You will have a chance to explore more than one part of each piece. Both plastic and wooden instruments are welcome. Pitch is A=440.
Please bring a music stand. We recommend that you bring a stand light to supplement the ceiling light.
More info: https://www.nyrg.org/
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The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin at 145 West 46th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Manhattan. Meetings are held in St. Joseph’s Hall, a side chapel of St. Mary's. Located in a brick building to the left of the main church, the entranceway is distinguished by the street number 145 displayed on the door.
1:30-3:30 PM. Doors open at 1PM.
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Meeting Fees:
$20 per meeting for members
$30 per meeting for non-members
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FULL SEASON PREPAYMENT OPTION: $180. Includes annual membership dues and meeting fees for the entire 2025-26 season.
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Send payment using Zelle to NYRG treasurer Judith Wink at jwink@nyc.rr.com. Please put your email address in the Notes field. Alternatively, send checks to New York Recorder Guild, 145 West 93rd Street, Apt. 2, New York, NY 10025.
Please join the Mid-Peninsula Recorder Orchestra for its 2026 Spring Concert in Redwood City. Established in 1962, MPRO was the first recorder orchestra in the United States, and has been directed by Frederic Palmer since 1988. (NB: This performance will be conducted by assistant director, Greta Haug-Hryciw.)
Selections will include Vivaldi's Recorder Concerto in C (RV443), works by Schmelzer, Dufay, Josquin, Vejvanovsky, and more. Other instruments joining the recorders are bassoon, oboe, baroque rackett, krumhorns, and keyboard. The program also features a very special appearance by local recorder quartet DJLD performing J.S. Bach's Lobet den Herrn (BWV230)
Admission is FREE!
Families are welcome
Free-will donations are gratefully accepted
https://www.mpro-online.org/
MPRO is an Orchestra member of the American Recorder Society
and an affiliate of the San Francisco Early Music Society
“Murmurations” are snatches of speech in a low voice or the spectacular groupings of birds in flight. The brilliant Montreal recorder ensemble Flûte Alors! brings together some of the most beautiful vocal and instrumental works of the Renaissance, as well as baroque and contemporary pieces, referencing birds, to offer a concert where poetry and wonder come together.
Works by J. Arcadelt, C. Janequin, G. F. Händel, G. P. Telemann, A. Vivaldi, M. Maute, and others.
Echoes of the Crescent: Music of the Ottoman World
At its peak in the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire encompassed a vast territory, from Southeast Europe to the gates of Vienna, across North Africa to Algeria, and throughout the Middle East and Arabian Peninsula. In this class, we will explore the incredibly rich musical tradition of Classical Ottoman music exploring instrumental forms as well as dances. While this incredibly detailed music was originally passed down through oral tradition, over the centuries scholars and enthusiasts have transcribed it into written form. We will work from these notated versions in class and play along with recorded tracks on traditional Turkish instruments created especially for this class. Open to players intermediate and up.$25/class or $100 for each 4-week session. Classes are recorded and made available for one month.
Bach on the Bass: Two- and Three-Part Inventions
10:00 am - 11:15 am Pacific/11:00 am - 12:15 pm Mountain/12:00 pm - 1:15 pm Central/1:00 pm - 2:15 pm Eastern
Johann Sebastian Bach's two-part inventions and three-part sinfonias provide recorder players and other non-keyboard instrumentalists with a wonderful collection of pieces to play. Over these four weeks we'll work on two of the two-part inventions (new pieces for those who took this class in January) and two of the three-part sinfonias on our bass recorders. Part of our work will involve making decisions on how to deal with parts that go out of our range, learning how to make changes that retain the beauty of the line, and making decisions on articulation and phrasing based on an understanding of the melodic and harmonic underpinnings of the piece. We'll also exercise our skills on switching from bass clef to treble clef by playing all parts of the inventions. Along the way we'll continue to work on good bass technique.
Geared toward bass recorder players who are familiar with bass clef and fingerings for a chromatic scale from the low F to the F two octaves higher.
To register, email tishberlin@sbcglobal.net.
$25/class or $100 for each 4-week session. Classes are recorded and made available for one month.
An All-Zoom Practice Challenge: Developing Your Friendship with French Baroque Music
1:15 pm - 2:30 pm Pacific/2:15 pm - 3:30 pm Mountain/3:15 pm - 4:30 pm Central/4:15 pm - 5:30 pm Eastern
This class will build on my January Making Friends with French Baroque Music class. Familiarity with French Baroque ornaments as found in Hotteterre's ornament chart and as seen in music by Hotteterre will be helpful for new participants. Boismortier, Hotteterre, Dieupart, and others who were composing and performing in French aristocratic circles in the 18th century offer a wealth of beautiful music for us to discover. We'll continue our study of the French agréments - trills, the port de voix, battement, flattement, tour de chant, and tour de gosier - in context so they become second nature. We'll listen to recordings to hear the music that charmed Louis XIV and XV and their courts. We'll go deeper into learning how to adorn movements from suites by Boismortier and Hotteterre with beautiful ornaments! Geared toward upper intermediate to advanced alto recorder players.
To register, email tishberlin@sbcglobal.net.
The dates and clinicians for our meetings this year will be:
September 12, 2025 - TBA
November 21, 2025 - Joan Kimball
January 16, 2026 - Gwyn Roberts
March 13, 2026 - Bob Wiemken
May 15, 2026 - TBA
Music, when provided by the clinician, will be available digitally before the meetings. If anyone requires or desires a print copy for the meeting, please let me know. I'm more than happy to make as many physical copies as needed, but don't want to waste paper on unneeded copies.
Our meetings will be held from 7:30-9:30 pm at:
New Ark UCC Church
300 East Main Street
Newark, DE 19711
The fee for our meetings will be $15 per meeting or $60 for an annual membership (covers all 5 meetings). Fees help support the chapter by providing honorariums to our guest clinicians as well as an honorarium for New Ark UCC for allowing us to use the space.
You can bring payment with you to the first meeting or send a check made to "Brandywine ARS" to our treasurer, Fred Litcofsky. Fred can be reached fredlitcofsky@gmail or 19 Savoy Rd., Newark, DE 19702
As always, guests are free on their first visit, so please feel free to invite a friend (or 2 or 3)!
3:00 pm - 4:15 pm Pacific/4:00 pm - 5:15 pm Mountain/5:00 pm - 6:15 pm Central/6:00 pm - 7:15 pm Eastern
Warm-Up for Workshops! Getting in Shape for the Summer
Whether you're new to a week-long workshop, or a bit rusty in your skills, this class will help you gain confidence in your ensemble playing and prepare you for whatever awaits you this summer in the music world. We'll drill changing sizes of recorder and clefs at the drop of a hat, playing alto and tenor up an octave, tenor in bass clef, and bass in treble clef. We'll practice counting (and feeling!) the half note, and even the whole note, as the beat. Our repertoire will include music from the late 15th century up to the end of the Renaissance. Bring your questions, banish your fears! You'll get more out of your summer workshop experience if you come prepared. Geared toward recorder players who are at the low intermediate level and others who need to polish their skills.
To register, email tishberlin@sbcglobal.net.