April 7 at 6:00 PM
Elizabethan Theatre, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC

Folger Consort Early Music Seminar
A Musical Banquet: Songs for Lute, Voice, and Viol

For its final concert of the 2009/10 season, the Folger Consort returns to its English roots with music from a 1610 anthology of songs entitled A Musicall Banquet, published by Robert Dowland, the son of the great lutenist John Dowland. Robert Eisenstein will discuss the emergence of the violin in English music and the English lute ayres, French court airs, and Italian monodies found in Dowland's collection.

For more information, call (202) 675-0379.

April 9-11
Elizabethan Theatre, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC

Folger Consort
With tenor and multi-instrumentalists Charlie Weaver and Tom Zajac

A Musical Banquet: Songs for Lute, Voice, and Viol

The Consort returns to its English roots with music from a 1610 anthology of songs entitled A Musicall Banquet, published by Robert Dowland, the son of the great lutenist John Dowland. A feast of varied styles, the collection includes English lute ayres, French court airs, and some of the most famous Italian monodies. In 1610, the lute and viol still reigned as the most important English instruments, but the violin was beginning to make its presence felt as well. Our program features some of the first English pieces for violins and viols together by John Cooper, also known as Giovanni Coprario.

For more information, call (202) 675-0379.

April 9 at 8:00 PM
Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land, Washington, DC

The Ron Freeman Chorale
Good Friday Service

This season marks the 20th year the Chorale has performed the Good Friday service at the Church and Monastery of Mount St Sepulchre, a Franciscan monastery and Commissariat of the Holy Land in America, located in Washington, DC.

The Passiontide music consists mostly of Renaissance sacred motets and the spiritual Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? featuring soprano soloist Veronica Precup.

Drop, Drop, Slow Tears – Orlando Gibbons
O Vos Omnes – Pablo Casals
Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs – Antonio Lotti
Tenebrae Factae Sunt – Marco Antonio Ingegneri

For more information, call 703-750-1408.

April 10 at 3:00 PM
Pilgrim Lutheran Church, Bethesda, Maryland

The Vivaldi Project
with baroque dancer Paige Whitley-Bauguess
Family Concert

Come and be entertained by the commedia dell’arte characters of Harlequin and Pulcinella, learn the rhythms of castinets in the folies d’Espangne, and enjoy beautiful music of the 18th century performed on original instruments.

April 11 at 6:00 PM
Gadsby’s Tavern Museum, Alexandria, Virginia

The Vivaldi Project
with baroque dancer Paige Whitley-Bauguess
At Home with The Vivaldi Project

A truly special opportunity to enjoy fine music and dance performed on period instruments in an historic 18th-century setting.

Plan to come at 5:30, enjoy a glass of wine and a wander through the museum. Light refreshments will follow the performance.

This is a fund-raising event for The Vivaldi Project.

April 13 at 7:30 PM
The Mansion at Strathmore, North Bethesda, Maryland

Romeo & Julia Kören

The first act of this production features the madrigal comedy Zefiro Torna, based on the music of Claudio Monteverdi, with the second act comprising the non-narrative Renaissance burlesque Beauty and Burlesque, highlighting these talented musicians’ playful improvisation and Renaissance songs by Purcell, Dowland, Donne, di Lasso and more.

For more information, call (301) 581-5100.

April 20 at Noon
Tuesday Concert Series at the Church of the Epiphany, Washington, DC

Armonia Nova
L’amour et le Printemps

Spring arrives and the world awakens. Nowhere was this more appreciated than in centuries past when people lived close to earth, to nature. Winter could be a dark, cold and often dangerous experience. With spring the sun returned, the earth became green with new life, fields were planted, animals were born – the earth returned to life. And so did its people – celebrating with songs of nature and love.

Armonia Nova invites you to celebrate the spring and its promise of new beginnings with some gorgeous music of our past.

April 21 at Noon
Harman Center for the Arts, Washington, DC

The Washington Revels Madrigal Singers
with soloists
Rachel Carlson, soprano
Elisabeth Myers, soprano
Shauna Kreidler, mezzo soprano
Terry Johns, tenor

Carol Guglielm, piano

English Music from the time of Henry VIII
Elizabethan Madrigals from the time of Shakespeare
Music of John Dowland
Settings of Shakespeare by Roger Quilter
Plus
A Special Birthday Salute to William Shakespeare

For more information, call (202) 547-1122.

April 22 at 7:30 PM
April 23 at 7:30 PM
Leith Symington Griswold Hall, Peabody Institute, Baltimore, Maryland

Peabody Renaissance Ensemble

For more information, call (410) 234-4800.

April 25 at Noon
Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC

Shakespeare’s Birthday Open House

Celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday with jugglers and jesters, music and theater performances, birthday cake, and a tour of the Folger’s reading rooms!

For more information, call (202) 675-0395.

April 25 at 3:00 PM
McLean, Virginia

Carmina & Illuminare
CARMINAFEST

Members of Carmina and Illuminare will entertain with enchanting selections while guests enjoy a sumptuous feast of savories and sweets. Join us for a relaxing, convivial, music-filled afternoon.

For more information, call (703) 532-9356.

April 28 at 8:00 PM
Brodbeck Music Hall Auditorium, Hood College, Frederick, MD

Hood College Early Music Ensemble
Spring Concert

April 30 and May 1 at 7:30 PM
First English Lutheran Church, Baltimore, Maryland

The Handel Choir of Baltimore and American Opera Theater
Handel’s Jephtha

Staged performances of Handel’s final oratorio.

For more information, call (410) 366-6544.