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Renaissance ensemble Piffaro to perform at St. Olaf

Carl Schroeder '05
October 2, 2007

Philadelphia-based instrumental ensemble Piffaro will present a recital of Renaissance-era music at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5, at St. Olaf College's Boe Memorial Chapel. The performance, which is free and open to the public (and streamed live at stolaf.edu), is a chronological tour of Flemish musical innovations from the 15th and 16th centuries, focusing on composers Josquin des Prez, Nicholas Gombert and others.

In addition, members of the ensemble will present lecture/demonstrations, also free and open to the public, on Thursday evening, including: Bob Wiemken, "Renaissance Double Reeds" (8 p.m. in Christiansen Hall of Music, room 233), Joan Kimball, "The Recorder and its Music" (8 p.m. in CHM 138), and "The Sackbut and Renaissance Brass Music" (9 p.m. in CHM 233).

PiffaroLarge
Piffaro is known as one of America's leading Renaissance-focused chamber ensembles, having performed throughout the United States, Canada, South America and Europe.
"Our program celebrates Flemish composers who developed a new musical language around the turn of the 16th century," says Robert Wiemken, Piffaro's artistic co-director. The seven-member ensemble will perform a variety of works, including chansons, dances and mass movements, on traditional wind, string and percussion instruments.

The performance's first half explores the friendly rivalry between two of the period's most influential composers, Josquin des Prez and Heinrich Isaac, and also features works by Jacob Obrecht and Nicolas Gombert. Post-intermission highlights include a newly-prepared version of a late 16th century motet by Andreas Pevernage, courtesy of St. Olaf Professor of Music History Gerald Hoekstra, and a spirited suite of Flemish dances. Hoekstra's edition of the Pevernage work is scheduled for publication later this year in the anthology Recent Researches in the Music of the Renaissance.

Leading ensemble
Piffaro is known as one of America's leading Renaissance-focused chamber ensembles, having performed throughout the United States, Canada, South America and Europe. Since 1985 the group has presented a critically-acclaimed annual concert series in Philadelphia. This year's series features five programs of traditional Flemish, German and English music, as well as the world premiere of the consort's first major new music commission.

Although the Oct. 5 recital is Piffaro's first performance at St. Olaf, the group's co-conductor is already a familiar figure on campus. Last spring, Wiemken was a guest conductor for the St. Olaf Collegium Musicum, the college's instrumental early music ensemble, during the semester-long sabbatical of the group's conductor, Hoekstra.

Wiemken says he and Piffaro's other members enjoy breathing new life into music that might otherwise be confined to archives and scholarly study. "Much of this great repertoire is rarely shared in live performance," he says. "If we don't do it, it's not going to be heard."

Other upcoming early music events at St. Olaf include a performance by the Early Music Singers at Sunday Worship on Oct. 28 at 10:30 a.m. in Boe Memorial Chapel, and the annual fall concert of the Early Music Singers and Collegium Musicum on Friday, Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m., at the same location (both of which will be streamed).

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.