April 9-11
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 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 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 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.