Read All of This! School has started!

There's gonna be a pop quiz on it all!

August, you are the cruelest month, are you not? On the other hand, we know straight away what you're going to bring us, so maybe that's the wrong adjective. Anyway, during August we performed for the Public Radio Content Conference and brought them some live medieval music to get their day off to a good start—and to celebrate KMFA's Sara Schneider: her Ancient Voices/Early Music Now program has gone national, with several stations broadcasting her excellent program! Congrats, Sara!

And the 20 for 20 Campaign is still percolating along: Thanks for the support!

And now it's finally September! I can almost smell the pumpkin stout, pumpkin soup, pumpkin pancakes...right? Any day now! It's all just around the corner! No more weeks on end of 100°F+, right!?!?!? Cool days, cooler nights, amiright? Please say yes...

Maestro Daniel Johnson explains ensaladas, pieces that are featured on our Alegría: The Spanish Renaissance program. See more videos on our Gallery page!

Ok, I might live in dreamlandia, but we'll finally have a concert in a few weeks to kick off the 20th Season Anniversary, and it's one of my favorite themes, topped by the incredible ensaladas by Mateo Flecha. These are little epics,  illustrated with music in many different styles to fit the different texts; Señor Flecha knew what he was doing. La Justa (The Joust) is new to us and maybe to you! It tells the story of a tournament—a joust between good and evil, the light and the dark. You'll have to come to the concert to find out if that means Gandalf vs. Sauron, or Dumbledore vs. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, or maybe some other featured jousters! And there is much alegría throughout the concert!

Enjoy these audio teasers from our 2013 performances:

Voldemort! There. I said it!
-Danny

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Alegría: The Spanish Renaissance

Saturday, September 22, 2018, at  7:30 pm
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Avenue, Austin, TX

Sunday, September 23, 2018, 3:00 pm,
St. Martin's Lutheran Church, 606 West 15th Street, Austin, TX

Admission $30 general; $25 seniors (60+); $5 students (at the door only)
Tickets available in advance online or by cash, check, or credit card at the door.

For more information, call 512-377-6961 and leave a message,
or email info@early-music.org.

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Seriously? There are ensaladas on this concert?!?
Usually, if you want an ensalada, you go to a restaurant, not a concert, AMIRIGHT?

Not so fast, my friend! These ensaladas are a treat for the ears and the spirit, but have nothing to do with the delectable edible! Like most salads, they are created from a little of this and little of that, but that’s where the similarity ends. Filled with drama, Biblical quotations, exhortations, lovely melodies, and lots of humor, the ensaladas are toe-tappers from beginning to end! They were extraordinarily popular in many of the Cathedrals of Renaissance Spain—and were even banned in a few!

For a more solemn contrast, our program will explore some of the glorious wealth of polyphonic sacred music from the cathedrals and monasteries of 16th-century Spain, a repertoire that has served as inspiration for fans of choral music everywhere, with selections by Morales, Ceballos, and Peñalosa.

Other pieces in the concert feature the viol consort, led by our guest artist and viola da gamba star Wendy Gillespie, guest percussionist Peter Maund, and 3 sackbut (early trombone) players, led by University of Texas trombone faculty member Nathaniel Brickens.

Soloists and featured singers include Jenifer Thyssen, Gitanjali Mathur, Laura Mercado-Wright, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones Ragona, David Lopez, Tim O’Brien, and featured countertenor, Ryland Angel.

¡Bailamos!

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

12 Days of TEMP Christmas: Days 1 & 2

Day 1 treat (Dec. 1, 2014):

This year’s Christmas concert will include an excerpt from the opening scenes of the 12th century “Play of Herod.” I can still recall the way I felt when I first performed it with the NY Ensemble for Early Music at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in 1988. The performance venue was a historically old church with little or no AC; it was a very hot day on our premiere, and with the stage lighting it was 109°F on stage. Add to that the layers of costuming we all had, and it was downright dangerously hot for the performers. They provided a little relief for subsequent performances. The other thing I recall is that, since we were supposed to perform the parts of shepherds as well as the ‘innocents’ to be massacred at the end of the show, I was instructed to shave my beard for the show, and so I did, for the first time in about 18 years. When I showed up in NY for the first rehearsal, they were all amazed that I had actually done it because—get this—I had to then wear a fake beard for the first part of the show when I was a shepherd.

TEMP audiences: don’t fear! We promise it won’t be 109°F in the venues for the concerts and we promise that no beards will be shaven for these performances.

Join us for An Early Christmas in Europe in 12 days!

Day 2 treat (Dec. 2, 2014):

TEMP audiences who attended our Madrigal Mystery Tour concert might recall that we assiduously avoided ‘fa-la-la’ sections. The upcoming TEMP Christmas concert includes a piece that is about as close to a ‘fa-la-la’ as we’ll get this year. Falalalanlera is a 16th-c. Spanish piece that comes in two versions: a secular one that is *maybe* by Mateo Flecha and a sacred one that is *probably* by Bartomeo Cárceres. Both versions were published in different collections a few years apart, in the mid-16th century. *BUT* that’s not the important part: I was introduced to it by Jordi Savall and Montserrat Figueras at the Hesperion XX workshop in Austin in 1984—holy cow, that was 30 years ago—and I still recall Montserrat dancing in her chair while we students rehearsed it for the concert. The refrain is infectious and fun and she was not shy about letting us know that it made her happy and it made Jordi happy and, man, did that make us happy! Let us try it out on you!

Texas Early Music Project: An Early Christmas in Europe.
In 11 days!