Salish Sea Early Music Festival begins Jan. 7

Submitted by Jeffrey Cohan

The supple sounds of the elusive dulcian or renaissance bassoon, the rarely heard transverse flute of the renaissance and a small organ will be combined in an evening of 16- and early 17-century chamber music entitled “Renaissance Winds” at 7 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 7 at Brickworks at 150 Nichols Street in Friday Harbor. This is the first of seven programs of early music on period instruments on San Juan Island and around the Salish Sea to be featured in the 2017 Salish Sea Early Music Festival.

“Renaissance Winds” will include Canzonas, or songs for instruments, by Tarquinio Merula, Bartolomeo de Selma y Salaverde, Andrea Cima and Girolamo Frescobaldi, along with settings by Antonio Gardane and others of popular 16th-century art songs.

Anna Marsh, who grew up in Tacoma, is one of the premier players of the dulcian, which evolved into today’s bassoon but was softer, much sweeter and more supple. Jeffrey Cohan is one of the very few flutists who regularly perform solo music for the seldom heard renaissance transverse flute. The two wind players team up with harpsichordist Henry Lebedinsky in this first program in the music festival.

The 2017 Salish Sea Early Music Festival includes seven contrasting programs from January through June of renaissance, baroque and Beethoven-era chamber music on period instruments on San Juan Island, with special guests from Hannover and Lübeck, Germany, and from around the Northwest and the United States and Canada. The complete schedule follows and is soon to be posted with additional information at www.salishseafestival.org/sanjuan.

San Juan Island 2017 Salish Sea Early Music Festival performance schedule: (Each is performed at Brickworks in Friday Harbor).

7 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 7

Renaissance Winds: the lyrical wind instruments of the late renaissance, including chamber music from 1570 to 1630. Anna Marsh, dulcian (renaissance bassoon); Jeffrey Cohan, renaissance traverse flute; Henry Lebedinsky, organ and harpsichord

7 p.m., Friday, Jan. 20

A Little Concert for Louis XIV: A never-before-heard selection of suites prepared for evening performances for Louis XIV from a remarkable and unknown manuscript from 1713. Jeffrey Cohan, flute; Rom Pokorny, violin; Stephen Creswell, viola; Anna Marsh, baroque bassoon

7 p.m., Monday, Feb. 6

Johann Sebastian Bach: Sublime chamber music by Bach. Susie Napper, cello; Hans-Juergen Schnoor, harpsichord; Jeffrey Cohan, flute

7 p.m., Saturday, March 11

Celebrating 250 Years of Telemann: Honoring the Baroque’s most prolific composer.

Bernward Lohr, harpsichord; Anne Roehrig, violin; Jeffrey Cohan, baroque flute

7 p.m., Friday, April 14

The Art of Modulation II: A new set of selections from chess master Philidor’s “The Art of Modulation” and other late Baroque works. Linda Melsted, violin; Rom Pokorny, violin; Jeffrey Cohan, baroque flute; Jonathan Oddie, harpsichord

1 p.m., Sunday, May 14

A Century of New Perspective: 1600-1700: Chamber music in transition, including 17th-century trios on both late renaissance and early baroque instruments. Ingrid Matthews, violin; Elisabeth Wright, harpsichord; Jeffrey Cohan, baroque and renaissance flutes

7 p.m., Saturday, June 10

Giuliani’s Guitar: Virtuoso works from the early 19th-century golden age for flute and guitar. John Schneiderman, guitar; Jeffrey Cohan, eight-keyed flute