Salish Sea Early Music Festival celebrates rare instruments in 'A Broken Consort'


January 31, 2012 · Updated 4:52 PM 

The Salish Sea Early Music Festival presents “A Broken Consort,” the second of five 2012 Salish Sea Early Music Festival performances on the San Juans.

“A Broken Consort” can be heard 7 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 12 at St. David’s Church.

The show is a rare exploration of renaissance chamber music on period instruments featuring Jeffrey Cohan on renaissance tenor and bass transverse flutes, Shula Kleinerman on the off-the-shoulder renaissance violin and John Lenti on renaissance lute.

The musicians hope to recast the songs of love and passion from the years between 1500 and 1650 with instruments that are seldom heard in modern day.

The chamber music is largely made up of adaptions of vocal work, often with intricate instrumental lines added to or derived from vocal melodies, which require the utmost virtuosity from the performers.

The title “A Broken Consort” comes from the renaissance term “consort,” which refers to different sizes of instruments, such as lutes, stringed instruments, recorders, and others. The “consort” was considered “broken” when instruments from different families — in this case wind, string and plucked — were brought together.

The suggested donation for the upcoming show is $15- $20. For info, call 378-5360 or visit www.concertspirituel.org.

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