Salish Sea Early Music Festival- San Juan Island Winter Concerts
2026 SAN JUAN ISLAND SALISH SEA EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL:
— LITTLE EVENING CONCERTS for LOUIS XIV —
January 24
· Anna Marsh, baroque bassoon
· Ethan Lin (Seattle), baroque violin
· Vicki Gunn (Portland) , baroque viola
· Jeffrey Cohan, baroque flute
A remarkable and almost completely unknown manuscript of 770 pages discovered in Paris by Jeffrey Cohan was prepared in 1713 for the "little evening concerts" for the aging Louis XIV by his long-time music librarian André Danican Philidor l'ainé, who organized and transcribed some of Louis' favorite music from at least the previous 54 years, for performance by the king's favorite instrumentalists. Two years before his death in 1715, Louis XIV was anxious to revisit the music of his youth, and Philidor dates some of these selections as far back as 1659, when Louis XIV was 21 and had danced for eight years already in ballet performances at court, most famously as the sun god Apollo. A new selection of 5 of the 67 suites therein will be presented.
— BAROQUE IN TRANSITION: The ITALIAN and FRENCH PERSPECTIVE —
February 14
· Susie Napper (Montreal), viola da gamba
· Olena Zhukova (Kyiv, Ukraine), harpsichord
· Mélisande Corriveau (Montreal), treble viol & viola da gamba
· Jeffrey Cohan, renaissance & baroque flutes
Les Voix humaines, the widely celebrated prize-winning duo of viols from Montreal joins us for a program illuminating a radically evolving musical perspective through the 17th century. So-called "Renaissance" and "Baroque" instrumental colors were very much in flux and existed side by side, as did French and Italian stylistic currents, reflecting an evolving musical taste and striking stylistic contrast. Repertoire stemming from the Italian late renaissance canzona tradition contrasts greatly with music evolving at the courts of Louis XIII and XIV, as influenced by the Italian Jean-Baptiste Lully. Later in the century this progression towards the modern sonata brought forth the stunning works of Italian Arcangelo Corelli, which were admired by musicians at the center of the vast musical establishment surrounding Louis XIV.
— EUROPEAN TOUR: ITALY, SCOTLAND and UKRAINE —
February 21
· Olena Zhukova (Kyiv, Ukraine), harpsichord
· Jeffrey Cohan, baroque flute
Our welcomed guest from Kyiv, harpsichordist Olena Zhukova explores in depth with Jeffrey Cohan the wide stylistic European 18th century musical landscape, from Italy through France, Germany, Ukraine and England to Scotland in an excursion through this century of transformation and diversity by decade and culture within the baroque and early classical periods.
— FOLK, BAROQUE & BEYOND: HOLLAND (1630), SCOTLAND (1750) & FRANCE (1830) —
March 21
· Oleg Timofeyev, English guitar & lute
· Jeffrey Cohan, renaissance & baroque flutes
The popular psalm tunes of the renaissance, airs of the Scottish baroque and 19th-century opera tunes were all interpreted by prominent composers and performers as illustrated by this completely new and innovative program further traversing unexplored territory in the realm of folk-inspired art music from the Renaissance, Baroque and Romantic periods, performed on plucked instruments and transverse flutes from three centuries, and highlighting collaboration between prominent musicians of these periods.
Lute, a rare but once extremely popular wire-strung English Guitar (London, 1761), and an early 19th-century 7-string guitar (Russia, 1820) are to be heard alongside renaissance, baroque early romantic (London, 1820) flutes with music by flutist Jacob Van Eyck and lutenist Nicolas Vallet, Francesco Barsanti and Turlough O'Carolan, James Oswald, guitarist Louis-Ange Carpentras, flutist Benoit Tranquille Berbiguer, guitarist Ferdinando Carulli and flutist Jean-Louis Tulou.
Thank you so much for your donations which enable this project entirely ♥. Please see www.salishseafestival.org/donate.
