The Chatham Baroque

Program: #24-04   Air Date: Jan 22, 2024

NOTE: All of the music on this program comes from recordings featuring The Chatham Baroque and their self-produced recordings. For complete information: https://www.chathambaroque.org/

Founded in 1990, the ensemble Chatham Baroque consists of Artistic Directors Andrew Fouts (violin), Patricia Halverson (viola da gamba), and Scott Pauley (theorbo & baroque guitar) who invite an array of guest instrumentalists and vocalists for productions of world-class early music performed on period instruments. The group holds a concert series in Pittsburgh, collaborates frequently with opera, theater, and dance companies, and tours nationally and internationally.

Since 1969, the Renaissance & Baroque concert series has brought distinguished early music artists and ensembles from across the country and around the world to perform in Pittsburgh. This concert series spans approximately 1000 years of music from the Medieval period to the Classical period, and the performances range in size from solo recitals to baroque orchestras.

About the Chatham Baroque Ensemble

Since its founding in 1990, Chatham Baroque has become “One of the country’s most distinguished period ensembles” (Palisadian Post), and “One of Pittsburgh’s greatest treasures” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).

The ensemble has toured across the United States as well as in South America and Mexico, the Virgin Islands, and Canada. The New York Times praises their “colorful virtuosity”; the Washington Post calls them “musically impeccable”; the Chicago Tribune, “a splendid period-instruments ensemble”; and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazetteproclaims, “Pound for pound, you aren’t going to find a better ensemble … than Chatham Baroque,” and “in terms of quality of artistry, Chatham Baroque is comfortably on par with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Pittsburgh Opera.” Chatham Baroque’s productions have been repeatedly listed among Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s “Ten Best Classical Concerts” and the ensemble was called one of the “Top 50 Cultural Forces in Pittsburgh,” serving as ambassadors for early music in Pittsburgh both nationally and abroad.

Chatham Baroque prides itself on its commitment to the Pittsburgh region. It is Ensemble-in-Residence at WQED-FM and Calvary Episcopal Church, and its scope of work has been substantially broadened in recent years by exciting collaborations with Quantum Theatre, Pittsburgh Symphony, Pittsburgh Opera, Renaissance & Baroque, Pittsburgh Festival Opera, and Attack Theatre. Chatham Baroque also gives free family concerts at public libraries, presents its children’s series Peanut Butter & Jam Sessions, and participates in other various community and early childhood events.

The ensemble continues to thrive with a full calendar of concerts, tours, and musical collaborations, and has recorded ten critically acclaimed CDs, the latest of which is No Holds Barred: Stylus Fantasticus Sonatas and Suites of Biber, Schmelzer, Bertali & Schein (2017).

History of Renaissance & Baroque

Colin Sterne (Nov. 14, 1921 – July 23, 2008), taught music at the University of Pittsburgh for 38 years until his retirement in 1986. He was composer, founder and conductor of the Ars Antiqua Players, (an early music group). On August 20, 1969, Sterne and a group of professional and amateur musicians founded The Renaissance & Baroque Society of Pittsburgh.

In the half century since its founding, the Renaissance & Baroque concert series has become a legendary stop of the early music performance tour, and Pittsburgh audiences have enjoyed unforgettable programs of early music from Beowulf to Beethoven as interpreted by the very finest national and international groups and soloists.

I. Alla Luce: Music of Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger (CB-01)

II. Españoleta : Music of Baroque Spain (VCB-01)

III. No Holds Barred: Stylus Fantasticus Sonatas and Suites (CB-03)

Composer Info

Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger, Antonio Bertali, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Heinrich Biber

CD Info

CB-01, VCB-01, CB-03