NEWS
ALBUM RELEASE
October 4, 2019
Available for digital download on iTunes, Amazon
(pre-order: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WV6DY81)
Available on Spotify and all other streaming sites
for purchase wherever CDs are sold
Distributed by NAXOS of America
Recorded at Oktaven Studios
engineered, produced and mastered by Ryan Streber
Olde Focus Records
Scroll down to listen!
October 4, 2019
Available for digital download on iTunes, Amazon
(pre-order: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WV6DY81)
Available on Spotify and all other streaming sites
for purchase wherever CDs are sold
Distributed by NAXOS of America
Recorded at Oktaven Studios
engineered, produced and mastered by Ryan Streber
Olde Focus Records
Scroll down to listen!
Makar (pl: makaris): originally the name for the royal court bards of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Scotland,
later bestowed on the literary giants of the eighteenth-century Edinburgh Enlightenment,
today a term referring to a Scottish minstrel or poet.
During the late 1700's Edinburgh music collector and publisher George Thomson embarked on a mission to amass a body of repertoire from Scotland's rich folk song tradition and make it available to the wider public. With the help of his friend and colleague Robert Burns, whom he employed to tidy up the language of much of the poetry, Thomson sent hundreds of Scottish songs across the channel to Vienna, where they were arranged for string ensemble by composers such as Beethoven, Haydn, Weber, and Hummel, among others. This now little-performed repertoire enjoyed a moment in the sun for some thirty years in the early 1800s, as these arrangements were celebrated around the parlors and halls of Europe.
In honoring both the traditional roots of this music, and the Classical treatment it was accorded, we blended folk and art song practices to create an ancient yet fresh take on some of our favorites from this charming collection of airs, ballads, and pub songs.
Makaris recorded at Oktaven Audio in New York after a residency at Avaloch Music Institute,
and a premier performance on the Electric Earth Concert Series.
later bestowed on the literary giants of the eighteenth-century Edinburgh Enlightenment,
today a term referring to a Scottish minstrel or poet.
During the late 1700's Edinburgh music collector and publisher George Thomson embarked on a mission to amass a body of repertoire from Scotland's rich folk song tradition and make it available to the wider public. With the help of his friend and colleague Robert Burns, whom he employed to tidy up the language of much of the poetry, Thomson sent hundreds of Scottish songs across the channel to Vienna, where they were arranged for string ensemble by composers such as Beethoven, Haydn, Weber, and Hummel, among others. This now little-performed repertoire enjoyed a moment in the sun for some thirty years in the early 1800s, as these arrangements were celebrated around the parlors and halls of Europe.
In honoring both the traditional roots of this music, and the Classical treatment it was accorded, we blended folk and art song practices to create an ancient yet fresh take on some of our favorites from this charming collection of airs, ballads, and pub songs.
Makaris recorded at Oktaven Audio in New York after a residency at Avaloch Music Institute,
and a premier performance on the Electric Earth Concert Series.
Artists
Based in Manhattan, soprano Fiona Gillespie was raised in a family of Celtic folk musicians. She grew up competing internationally on the whistle and Irish flute before attending a performing arts high school for voice, which she pursued through her undergraduate and graduate degrees. She performs as a soloist, chamber musician, and professional chorister around the nation, as well as with her band, The Chivalrous Crickets, which explores traditional music from the British Isles, Celtic nations, Appalachia, and early music. Fiona teaches voice and directs opera at Muhlenberg College. www.fionagillespiesoprano.com
Since its foundation in 2001, Kivie Cahn-Lipman has been the cellist of the International Contemporary Ensemble with whom he toured the world for years. He served on the faculties of Smith College and Mount Holyoke College from 2005–2012 and The College of New Jersey from 2015-2017, and he’s now an Assistant Professor of Cello at Youngstown State University. He formed ACRONYM because he found a bunch of seventeenth-century music in old manuscripts and wanted to play it with his friends; they have eight CDs of modern premieres recorded and more on the way. Kivie's 2014 solo recording of J.S. Bach's cello suites got a nice blurb in a trade publication called The Strad, but he's way more proud of the warm personal letter praising the disc which he received from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Kivie also plays the viola da gamba and he performs and records with LeStrange Viols.
Elliot Figg is a keyboardist, conductor and composer from Dallas, Texas. He is a graduate of the Historical Performance Program at The Juilliard School. He has also studied with Arthur Haas at the Yale School of Music. Elliot is an active member of several New York based early music and contemporary ensembles, including ACRONYM, New York Baroque Incorporated, and New Vintage Baroque. Recent engagements include: Conductor and harpsichordist for L'Amant Anonyme with Little Opera Theatre of New York; assistant conductor and harpsichordist for Cavalli's Veremonda with Spoleto Festival USA; assistant conductor and harpsichordist for Dido and Aeneas with L.A. Opera; assistant conductor and harpsichordist for Alcina and Orlando with WhiteboxLab. His works combine baroque performance techniques with altered tuning systems and modern formal approaches.
Until settling in California for a DMA program this January, Canadian-born violinist Edwin Huizinga, has spent years traveling the world playing baroque, folk, rock, contemporary, classical, improvisational, jazz, and Celtic music. Some recent and highlight projects include tours and recordings with his duo Fire and Grace, ACRONYM, the Carmel Bach Festival, Apollo's Fire Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Brandywine Baroque, The Wooden Sky, a recital at the Smithsonian Museum, and the world premier in Europe and North America of his composition The Angel Speaks with Opera Atelier. For more, www.bigredviolin.com
New York City-based Doug Balliett is a composer, instrumentalist, and poet with a constant stream of commissions, and weekly show on New York Public Radio. He has held composer in residence positions with the Lucerne Festival Academy, the Chelsea Music Festival, The Spoleto Festival, New Vintage Baroque, the Millennials, and the Colonials. His work has been performed at Carnegie Hall, Juilliard, the Stone, SubCulture, Le Poisson Rouge, Galapagos, ShapeshifterLab, and Spectrum. He has performed as principal or solo double bassist with Ensemble Modern, the San Antonio Symphony, Alarm Will Sound, Trinity Wall Street Baroque Orchestra, the Holy Trinity Lutheran Bach Orchestra, 17th-century string band ACRONYM, and has appeared as principal bass of Les Arts Florissants, Boston Baroque, the Handel and Haydn Society, and the Washington Cathedral. He is on faculty at The Juilliard School.
Emi Ferguson, flute, can be heard live in concerts and festivals around the world playing with groups including AMOC*, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Handel and Haydn Society, and the Manhattan Chamber Players. Her debut album, Amour Cruel, released by Arezzo Music, spent 4 weeks on the Billboard Charts, and Emi has spoken and performed at several TEDX events and has been featured on media outlets including the Discovery Channel, Vox, and TouchPress apps talking about how music relates to our world today. Emi is currently on the faculty of the Juilliard School teaching Ear Training in the Evening and Pre-College divisions. Born in Japan and raised in London and Boston, she now resides in New York City. For more information please visit www.emiferguson.com
Since its foundation in 2001, Kivie Cahn-Lipman has been the cellist of the International Contemporary Ensemble with whom he toured the world for years. He served on the faculties of Smith College and Mount Holyoke College from 2005–2012 and The College of New Jersey from 2015-2017, and he’s now an Assistant Professor of Cello at Youngstown State University. He formed ACRONYM because he found a bunch of seventeenth-century music in old manuscripts and wanted to play it with his friends; they have eight CDs of modern premieres recorded and more on the way. Kivie's 2014 solo recording of J.S. Bach's cello suites got a nice blurb in a trade publication called The Strad, but he's way more proud of the warm personal letter praising the disc which he received from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Kivie also plays the viola da gamba and he performs and records with LeStrange Viols.
Elliot Figg is a keyboardist, conductor and composer from Dallas, Texas. He is a graduate of the Historical Performance Program at The Juilliard School. He has also studied with Arthur Haas at the Yale School of Music. Elliot is an active member of several New York based early music and contemporary ensembles, including ACRONYM, New York Baroque Incorporated, and New Vintage Baroque. Recent engagements include: Conductor and harpsichordist for L'Amant Anonyme with Little Opera Theatre of New York; assistant conductor and harpsichordist for Cavalli's Veremonda with Spoleto Festival USA; assistant conductor and harpsichordist for Dido and Aeneas with L.A. Opera; assistant conductor and harpsichordist for Alcina and Orlando with WhiteboxLab. His works combine baroque performance techniques with altered tuning systems and modern formal approaches.
Until settling in California for a DMA program this January, Canadian-born violinist Edwin Huizinga, has spent years traveling the world playing baroque, folk, rock, contemporary, classical, improvisational, jazz, and Celtic music. Some recent and highlight projects include tours and recordings with his duo Fire and Grace, ACRONYM, the Carmel Bach Festival, Apollo's Fire Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Brandywine Baroque, The Wooden Sky, a recital at the Smithsonian Museum, and the world premier in Europe and North America of his composition The Angel Speaks with Opera Atelier. For more, www.bigredviolin.com
New York City-based Doug Balliett is a composer, instrumentalist, and poet with a constant stream of commissions, and weekly show on New York Public Radio. He has held composer in residence positions with the Lucerne Festival Academy, the Chelsea Music Festival, The Spoleto Festival, New Vintage Baroque, the Millennials, and the Colonials. His work has been performed at Carnegie Hall, Juilliard, the Stone, SubCulture, Le Poisson Rouge, Galapagos, ShapeshifterLab, and Spectrum. He has performed as principal or solo double bassist with Ensemble Modern, the San Antonio Symphony, Alarm Will Sound, Trinity Wall Street Baroque Orchestra, the Holy Trinity Lutheran Bach Orchestra, 17th-century string band ACRONYM, and has appeared as principal bass of Les Arts Florissants, Boston Baroque, the Handel and Haydn Society, and the Washington Cathedral. He is on faculty at The Juilliard School.
Emi Ferguson, flute, can be heard live in concerts and festivals around the world playing with groups including AMOC*, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Handel and Haydn Society, and the Manhattan Chamber Players. Her debut album, Amour Cruel, released by Arezzo Music, spent 4 weeks on the Billboard Charts, and Emi has spoken and performed at several TEDX events and has been featured on media outlets including the Discovery Channel, Vox, and TouchPress apps talking about how music relates to our world today. Emi is currently on the faculty of the Juilliard School teaching Ear Training in the Evening and Pre-College divisions. Born in Japan and raised in London and Boston, she now resides in New York City. For more information please visit www.emiferguson.com
Listen
|
Dermot & Shelah
arr. Beethoven |
Sunset
arr. Beethoven |
My Boy Tammy
arr. Haydn |
Pho! Pox o' this Nonsense
arr. Weber |
for inquiries: makarisensemble@gmail.com / / / gillespiefi@gmail.com