Joanna’s Summer and Ground Bass

After a busy end of the school year at Indiana University (my eighth year on the Historical Performance faculty at the Jacobs School of Music), I geared up for my summer travel to Sweden and both coasts of the U.S. Many airline miles later, I want to share with you some monthly highlights from those trips.

The first trip was in early May when I traveled to Rochester, NY, to rehearse with Pegasus Early Music for concerts in Ithaca, Rochester, and Syracuse - all cities I had never visited before but would love to visit again. The program was French Baroque music for double reeds, theorbo, bass viol, and percussion. Unbelievably (and with some coercing on the part of my colleagues), I was the one wielding the drum and mallet, leading the concert processional and recessional pieces. There is a first time for everything.

Later in the month, I performed a program featuring the music of Portuguese Renaissance composer Vicente Lusitano with Alchemy Viols, along with wonderful guest vocalists at the Bloomington Early Music Festival. The only concert this summer where I did not need to pack a suitcase!

In June, my husband and I took a family trip to Sweden to visit my aunts, uncles, and cousins for 12 action-packed days. After recovering from the jet lag, my first musical business in July was teaching at the Port Townsend Early Music Workshop in Tacoma, WA at the University of Puget Sound. I spent most of a week coaching Renaissance consort music dear to my heart. Next, I performed on the San Francisco Early Music Society series with Wildcat Viols, collaborating with the English vocal ensemble Gesualdo Six on a program called Secret Byrd. We played by candlelight at the beautiful Grace Cathedral.

After two days of repacking and resting back in Bloomington, I flew back to Seattle to perform at the Tacoma Bach Festival, the Whidbey Island Music Festival, as well as the Seattle Bach Festival – the latter was complete with festive food and miniature horses!

August promises to be busy with the Montana Baroque Music Festival in Paradise, MT, featuring three consecutive nights of concerts alongside my fabulous PBO colleagues and guests. Then I head home to Bloomington to prepare for the start of the fall semester at IU and the upcoming PBO season. It will be an exciting concert season with many opportunities to collaborate with my dream continuo team in Portland! For me, playing bass lines in Baroque music is my “happy place” with ever-changing harmonies and the dynamic variances they require. This will be the focus of the first program of the season, called Ground Bass, named after one of the most iconic forms of music with a repeating bass line chosen by composers like Purcell, Albinoni, Vivaldi, and Handel. It will be up to us in the continuo section to give the maximum variance to these repetitions!

Excited to hear Joanna and the season opener, Ground Bass?

Dates:
October 18 | 7:00 PM | Sanctuary Hall at First Congregational
October 19 | 3:00 PM | Kaul Auditorium
Tickets are on sale now!

And, as always, season subscribers get the best deals and PBO exclusives, so if you aren’t a subscriber yet, there is still time to sign up!