Consortium Carissimi & The Italian Cultural Center

We are honored and pleased to be invited to perform during Opening Night of the 4th Annual Italian Film Festival sponsored by the Italian Cultural Center.  This year’s film festival is being held March 30th through April 1st, at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and brings prominent contemporary Italian feature films to the Twin Cities.

Opening Night:  Friday, March 30th - An Evening with Caravaggio
6:00 PM – Italian food and wine available for purchase
7:00 PM – Baroque music from Consortium Carissimi
7:40 PM – An introduction to the art and times of Caravaggio by Prof. Steven Ostrow, University of Minnesota
8:00 PM – The film “Caravaggio.”

Consortium Carissimi will perform sacred and secular music reflecting both the time of Caravaggio and the artwork he created such as La Maddalena.  These pieces will be by both female and male composers of the Early Italian Baroque, including Isabella Leonarda, Francesca Caccini, Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, Marco da Gagliano, and Domenico Mazzocchi.

Please join us on Friday, March 30th for a spectacular journey through the music, landscapes, and stories of Italy and its people.  And if you want, baroque costumes are encouraged!

For more information and tickets, click on Italian Culture Center.

The Magdalene Project: The Ecstasy in Music

Dates 2012:

*Thursday, April 5th – 4:00pm*
Friday, April 13th – 7:30pm-9:00pm
Sunday, April 15th – 2:00pm-3:30pm

Venue: Art Gallery of Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church
* Institute for Advanced Studies, (Thursdays at Four) University of Minnesota

Tickets: $15.00 Adults; $5.00 Students and Seniors
Tickets are available here on the website or at the door.

Mecenatismo (derived from the name of Gaio Cilnio Mecenate, 68 BCE – 8 CE) is best translated into English as patronage and indicates the general support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors.

In her book Echoes of Women’s Voices: Music, Art, and Female Patronage in Early Modern Florence, Kelley Harness suggests that patronage can be viewed then as a means of communication in which a variety of individuals, some in competition with one another, took part in the conversation. “Poets, composers, singers, instrumentalists, painters and architects as well as seamstresses, carpenters and masons, all participated in the overall product. …during the early modern period in Florence, the city resounded with the echoes of women’s voices and at least some of their messages were communicated by means of artistic patronage.”

The Archduchess Maria Magdalena was one such patron. As the Grand Duchess of Tuscany (beginning with her husband’s accession in 1609) and, after his death in 1621, as co-regent with her mother-in-law (Christine of Lorraine), the archduchess assumed an active role as a patron, commissioning and participating in artistic activities held in a wide variety of venues, including Medici palaces, private villas, and several of Florence’s female monasteries.

This spring production of Consortium Carissimi is entitled the Magdalene Project. Dr. Harness provides the historical framework within which we explore the name of Mary Magdalene, the role of women in early baroque Florentine culture, and, of course, ecstasy in music. Set for eight solo voices, and period instruments of figured bass accompaniment, this excursus to Florence will include artwork projections as well as monologues and dialogues from the prose of Ferdinando Saracinelli’s, Santa Maria Maddalena trionfante in cielo (1627) and from the anonymous work of La spelonca di Marsilia, 1628.

Consortium Carissimi will perform sacred music on the subject of the Magdalene as well as sacred and secular music expressing the ecstasy in music by male composers such Marco da Gagliano, his younger brother Giovanni Battista da Gagliano, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Domenico Mazzocchi and Andrea Falconieri. The authority of the feminine is well underscored in the delightful works of female composers such as Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, Barbara Strozzi, Francesca Caccini, and Isabella Leonarda. This production appropriately closes the fifth season of music making in the Twin Cities metro area, intentionally bringing to post-modern-day ears music that both communicates and invites the listener to “take part in the conversation.”

The Ensemble

Singers

Soprano

Kristi Bergland, Linh Kauffman

Alto

Susan Druck, KrisAnne Weiss

Tenor

Steve Staruch, Craig Lemming

Bass

Douglas Shambo II, Garrick Comeaux

Theorbo

Paul Berget

Archlute

Tom Walker

Viola da gamba

Mary Burke

Harpsichord

Donald Livingston

Carissimi singers bring a little hedonism to Lenten lessons

Here is a fun video clip from a young boy who created a Harpsichord made out of Legos – Enjoy!

Lenten Oratories: Music of Bonifazio Graziani & Giacomo Carissimi

Dates 2012:

Friday, February 24th – 8:00pm-9:30pm

*Saturday, February 25th – 7:30pm-9:00pm*

Sunday, February 26th – Intermezzo at 1:00, with Concert from 2:00pm-3:30pm

Venue – Friday & Sunday: Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, 1 Lourdes Place, Minneapolis, MN  55414-1062.  (Note:  Parking and Access information below.)

*Venue – Saturday:  Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church, 1900 Wellesley Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55105.

Once again, we bring you INTERMEZZO, a presentation by Don Livingston prior to the Sunday matinee.  These short presentations are designed to complement each concert of the season, with this one discussing and demonstrating the evolution of cantatas.  Your ticket for Friday, Saturday or Sunday is your admission for this special presentation.

INTERMEZZO Sunday, February 26th at 1:00pm

Concert Repertory:  Graziani’s only two existing oratories, based on the Old Testament story of Adam and Eve and the New Testament parable of The Prodigal Son.  Both are set with four Motets of Carissimi, which form the spiritual exercise for the 2012 Lenten Season. All transcriptions from manuscripts, these works demonstrate the similarities and unique differences in compositional style of these two composers of Marino Italy.

Parking – Our Lady of Lourdes  . . . Easiest place to park is in the underground parking structure next to the church.  Enter the structure off of SE 2nd Street.  Take the elevator to street level (3).  The church is across the street on the left.  Parking is self service, so you will need to pay with a credit card as you leave, using one of the automated kiosks.  So take your ticket with you.  As you leave the structure, you’ll need to use the gate on the right. (The one on the left is for contract parkers.)  Parking is $2/hour.  There is also limited street parking available, and the meters are free on Sunday.

Access – Our Lady of Lourdes – For Friday evening, enter door “Three” to the left of the main entrance at street level. We’ll wait in the Great Room until Stations of the Cross are finished at around 7:40 PM.  Sunday afternoon, use the main entrance.

Parking – Nativity of Our Lord – free parking in the church lot behind the adjacent school plus street parking.

The Ensemble

Singers

Soprano

Kristi Bergland, Heather Cogswell, Marta Daehn, Marita Link, Lisa Habeck, Margaret Weidner

Alto

Brian Link, Timothy Faatz, Lauren Vick, Christine Anameier

Tenor

Bill Pederson, Andrew Kane, Craig Lemming, Michael Schmidt

Bass

Douglas Shambo II, Garrick Comeaux

Theorbo

Paul Berget

Viola da gamba

Mary Burke

Harpsichord

Bruce Jacobs

Organ

Donald Livingston

To some, it came as no surprise to hear such splendid music from Consortium Carissimi this past weekend. However, many of our audience members were new to Consortium…and they are already asking when the next concert is! There has been a lovely buzz ever since!

Here are just a few photos from the Sunday, September 18th concert.

Tomas Luis de Victoria

Repertory:

Music for All Saints and All Souls of the two Spaniards in Rome: Tomás de Victoria’s Requiem and Cristóbal de Morales’ Dialogue Motets.

Dates 2011:
Friday, November 11th – 7:30pm-9pm
Sunday, November 13th – 2pm-3:30pm

Venue: The Chapel of St. Mary at The Saint Paul Seminary in St. Paul, MN

New with this concert: INTERMEZZO, a presentation prior to the Sunday matinee, designed to complement each concert of the season. Associate Artistic Director Don Livingston will moderate, and he invites you to “come and explore the historical period, musical styles, cultural settings, and performance context with the members of the Consortium Carissimi Ensemble and me!” Your ticket for either Friday or Sunday is your admission for this special presentation.

INTERMEZZO Sunday, November 13th at 1:00 p.m.

Tickets: $15 for Adults, $5 for Seniors & Students – BRING A FRIEND FOR FREE!

Musicians:

Kristi Bergland
Heather Cogswell
Marta Dehn
Lisa Habeck
Marita Link
Margaret Weidner

Christine Anameier
Timothy Faatz
Lauren Vick

Brian Link
Bill Pederson
Andrew Kane

Douglas Shambo II
Michael Schmidt
Garrick Comeaux

Donald Livingston