Country Dance and Song Society Early Music Week at Pinewoods July 18 - 25, 1998

Early Music Week at Pinewoods July 18 - 25, 1998 Program Director: Chris Rua Staff: Sheila Beardslee Martha Bishop Kathleen Campbell Michael Cicone Barbara Finney Frances Conover Fitch Brad Foster Grant Herreid Lydia Heather Knutson Lisle Kulbach Sarah Mead* Rosamund Morley Dorothy Olsson Mack Ramsey Alice Robbins Roy Sansom Jennifer Barron Southcott Rosalind Brooks Stowe Ellen Tepper Larry Wallach Tom Zajac *Advisor plus: Julian Cole Steve Howe

Program Description [Back to Top]
Dancers, singers, instrumentalists, all are invited to travel East and West, North and South around the world of Pinewoods Camp, recreating and reliving the experiences of musical travelers of this millennium, encountering different geographies, different cultures, exchanging music, sounds, dances and perhaps most important of all, ideas. With a staff of professional performerteachers and a varied offering of classes, there is something for everyone from the relative beginner to the highly experienced.

The daily schedule includes a morning class in instrumental or vocal technique followed by a choice of dance classes in English Country Dance or Historical Dance. Two afternoon classes offer a variety of music and dance options. Classes range from beginner to advanced, some with instruments available for those who wish to try something new. Experienced players can choose from ensemble classes in winds (recorder, reeds, brass), strings (viola da gamba, violin), plucked strings (lute, harp) and harpsichord, as well as mixed ensembles, from broken consorts to baroque ensembles to dance band classes. Singers may work on solo and ensemble repertoire, in chorus and mixed ensembles. Each evening offers a community dance party. To meet your need for music and instrumental supplies and perhaps to pique your curiosity, the Early Music Shop of New England will be present and open every day.

This summer's theme, "East Meets West, North Meets South: Journeys, Encounters and Explorations," presents an expansive palette of musical experiences. The Crusaders brought the shawm, the lute, the rebec and new danceforms back from their travels. Pilgrimages were frequently a musical as well as a religious journey. The Hundred Years War yielded a marvelous crossfertilization between the music of France and England, setting the scene for the transition to the Renaissance, when, around 1500 AD, the Italian dukes and princes were hiring northern musicians from Burgundy, France and the Low Countries to grace their newly wealthy courts. The result of this musical influence was reversed over the next few generations, as first the Italian Madrigal, then Opera and finally the Sonata traveled outside Italy to take on other national characteristics and establish the musical norms of the Baroque period. In the new world, the Spanish settlers met with Aztec musicians to produce a particularly Mexican music. The history of music continues into the present as a history of journeys and encounters between cultures foreign to each other.

Special activities through the week will illustrate the theme of travel and cultural exchange through occasional lectures, staff presentations, informal camper singing and playing, afternoon tea and, of course, parties. The week culminates with an allcamp performance, banquet and gala ball.

So set your compass towards Pinewoods Camp this July -- your music and dance will complement each other in a memorable celebration!

Early Music Week at Pinewoods Daily Schedule
7:45 - 8:15	Breakfast
8:45 - 9:05	Morning warm-ups for all
9:15 - 10:45	First Morning Class
11:15 - 12:15	Dance Classes
12:15 - 1:00	Break, swimming, etc
12:45 - 1:30	Lunch served cafeteria style
2:00 - 3:15	First Afternoon Class
3:30 - 4:45	Second Afternoon Class
5:00 - 5:30	Teatime
5:30 - 6:30	Free time, with faculty rehearsals and informal camper readings
6:30	Dinner
7:45	Mini-lectures
8:15	Community Dance Party
9:45 - 11:00	Special Events

Staff Biographies: [Back to Top]
Sheila Beardslee (Recorder), a popular teacher for the Boston Recorder Society and workshops throughout the East Coast, has developed an innovative and successful performance program for amateurs. Trained in early music performance at New England Conservatory, she has taught recorder, historical flutes, viola da gamba and historical dance and has led two study-performance trips to Italy. She is editor/publisher of Boston Early Music News and directs the Tuesday Noon Hour Recitals at historic King's Chapel in downtown Boston.

Martha Bishop (Viol) teaches gamba and cello in Atlanta, GA and conducts a Renaissance collegium at her church. She is viola da gamba soloist with Vivace, Atlanta's Baroque Orchestra and cellist in the Westminster String Quartet. A frequent workshop clinician, she is Music Director of the Viola da Gamba Society's annual Conclave.

Kathleen Campbell (Special Events) teaches and sings in the New York City area. A former soprano soloist with the Wiener Kammeroper and the Ensemble Musica Antiqua of Vienna, she is also an active country dancer and body movement student. She is a frequent Pinewoods staff member and has formed a performance duet with Margaret Ann Martin, specializing in 19th-century and Edwardian songs.

Michael Cicone (English Country Dance) has been teaching English Country dancing around New England since 1980, when a six-month stint as a dancer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland gave him an intensive introduction to the form and changed his life forever. He also plays and teaches the hammered dulcimer and sings with the trio Kallet, Epstein and Cicone. He lives in Waltham, MA with his partner and two cats.

Barbara Finney (English Country Dance) has a dance background which includes a variety of styles, including Renaissance and Baroque court dance. She teaches at the weekly dance of the Country Dance Society, Boston Centre and over the last ten years has called at many other dances in the eastern U.S. and Canada and at Pinewoods Camp.

Frances Conover Fitch (Keyboard, Chorus) has more than twenty years experience as a church organist and choir director and has performed and recorded throughout Europe and North America on organ and harpsichord. On the faculty of Tufts University and Co-Chair of the Early Music Department at the Longy School of Music, she plays with ensembles including the Cantata Singers and the Boston Camerata and has appeared as a guest with Concerto Palatino and Les Filles de Ste. Colombe. Her solo disk "English Virginal Music" is on the Wild Boar label.

Brad Foster (English Country Dance) loves to dance and loves to share the joy of dance with others. He has been teaching for over 25 years. Brad has taught for over 17 years at Pinewoods Camp and at Buffalo Gap, Mendocino, Berea, Brasstown, Lady of the Lake, Augusta, as well as at weekends, festivals and dances across the U.S., Canada and in Europe. He is the Executive and Artistic Director of The Country Dance and Song Society and one of the founders of The Bay Area Country Dance Society as well as their Mendocino dance weeks.

Grant Herreid (Lute) is a versatile musician/actor/director on the early music scene. He is a founding member of the quartet Ex Umbris. As a multi-instrumentalist and singer he performs and records frequently with Hesperus, Piffaro, Artek, Live Oak and Co. and Music for a While. He is the director of the Historical Performance Program at Mannes College of Music in New York City, where he has written and directed productions for the Mannes Camerata, including "Il Caffe d'Amore." He has also written and directed theatrical productions for the Amherst Early Music Festival.

Lydia Heather Knutson (Voice), as a specialist in early vocal repertoires, has appeared at music festivals in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia and Europe. Since 1991, she has been a member of Sequentia's women's ensemble Vox Feminae. With them she has recorded eight CDs of medieval music. She is a founding member of the medieval group Fortune's Wheel.

Lisle Kulbach (Violin) is a founding member of Voice of the Turtle, a group which has specialized in the gathering together and performance of Sephardic music for 20 years. The group has ten recordings under the Titanic Label. Lisle is also a member of Phoenix, has played in many performances of the Revels, and teaches piano at the Powers Music School and Early Music at Concord Academy.

Sarah Mead (Viol) is Artist-in-Residence at Brandeis University and has taught at Tufts and Northeastern Universities and in many early music workshops in the U.S. and England. She is the author of the chapter on Renaissance Theory in A Performer's Guide to the Renaissance, published by G. Schirmer. In the Boston area, she has performed with Emmanuel Music, the Handel and Haydn Society and the Boston Viol Consortium among others.

Rosamond Morley (Viol) has toured all over the world playing viol, vielle and violone as a member of the Waverly Consort. She is a member of Parthenia and of The New York Consort of Viols with whom she also plays contemporary music. She studied in Holland and in her native Canada and teaches viol at Columbia University.

Dorothy Olsson (Renaissance Dance) is Director of the New York Historical Dance Company and has performed and choreographed for Piffaro, Folger Consort, Parthenia and the Mannes Camerata. She wrote the chapter on dance in A Performer's Guide to Seventeenth-Century Music, published by G. Schirmer. She teaches at the Amherst Early Music Festival and at New York University where she received her Ph.D. in Performance Studies.

Mack Ramsey (Early Brass, Recorder) is a member of the Boston Shawm and Sackbut Ensemble and has performed with the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, the Boston Camerata, Ensemble for Early Music's Grande Bande, the Folger Consort, the Waverly Consort and Aston Magna. In London he has appeared with the Taverner Players under Andrew Parrott and in Canada with Société de Musique Ancienne de Montréal and Les Sonneurs de Montréal.

Alice Robbins (Viol) performs widely on baroque cello and viola da gamba with the Handel and Haydn Society, Arcadia Players, Oberlin Consort of Viols, the Early Music Ensemble of Boston, as well as with the Studio der Fruhen Musik, the Smithsonian Chamber Players and the Boston Camerata. A resident of Amherst, MA, she teaches in the Five College Early Music Program and the Historic Performance Department at Boston University.

Chris Rua (Recorder, Program Director) has performed a wide spectrum of music, from Medieval to Jazz, on instruments and voice. She has performed with the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Jadis, Phoenix and Ex Umbris. She also performs with Promised Land through Young Audiences and records regularly with Revels. She teaches at the Indian Hill School for the Arts and at numerous workshops throughout the Northeast as well as co-leading music/hiking workshops through the Sierra Club.

Roy Sansom (Recorder) has performed with Emmanuel Music, Boston Baroque, Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, the Opera Company of Boston, Greenwood Consort, Boston Lyric Opera and most recently with the New World Symphony in Miami. His recordings include Bach Brandenburg IV and Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers with Boston Baroque. He has composed numerous works for recorder duo and quartet which have been enthusiastically received by audiences and the press.

Jennifer Barron Southcott (Recorder) holds degrees from Sarah Lawrence College and New England Conservatory. She teaches at the Joy of Music Program in Worcester, MA, at ARS workshops throughout the Northeast and is President of Worcester Hills Recorder Society. Jennifer composes for and is Artistic Director of Phoenix, performing Renaissance and contemporary consort music. She has recorded on the CDSS and Playford Consort labels.

Rosalind Brooks Stowe (Viol) has been involved in early music since she began studying the viol at Brown University in 1976. She has a Master's Degree in Early Music Performance from New England Conservatory and has performed with the Boston and Washington, DC groups Voice of the Turtle, Much Ado, Telemann Ensemble and La Rondinella. She has recorded with La Rondinella on Dorian Records.

Ellen Tepper (Harp) began her study of classical harp at the age of eight. A childhood of being dragged through every available ruin in Europe led to a passion for early music and embroidery, and a back yard that looks like a ruin. Ellen teaches privately in the Philadelphia area and introduced the harp as a versatile instrument into the English country dance band.

Larry Wallach (Keyboard), a harpsichordist/pianist and composer from western Massachusetts, has been playing dance music since the mid-70s. He's been on the Pinewoods staff for English & American and Early Music weeks, appears regularly at the annual Fried Herman workshops and performs for numerous Playford Balls and at the Early Music Week at World Fellowship, NH. He is a devotee of Charles Ives, ragtime and morris dancing.

Tom Zajac (Recorder, Early Brass) is a member of Piffaro and Ex Umbris, a guest artist with Folger and Newberry Consorts, King's Noyse and others. He appears on over 20 CDs on Deutsche Grammophon, Angel EMI, Harmonia Mundi and others. He will be appearing on a Windham Hill Renaissance Crossover CD out this spring. Tom teaches at Mannes College.

For more information see the Program Director's web page

Program Description Daily Schedule & Staff Bios Top

413-268-7426 FAX: 413-268-7471

Country Dance and Song Society 132 Main St/PO Box 338 Haydenville, MA 01039-0338 Office Hours 9:30am - 5:00pm EST

http://www.cdss.org/