Restoration of Flemish single by Ferdinand Pointer for IPC Savannah
As soon as the server will let me update photos, you can see the restored Flemish Single by Ferdinand Pointer project completed this spring (2025).
The instrument had suffered greatly in high humidity and required substantial case and soundboard repairs, as well as cosmetics. The case had been bashed about a bit, and the soundboard had splits and movement requiring repairs as well as infilling the soundboard decor. The Flemish papers on the lid were compromised in sections, so replacement bits were carefully fit in and stained to match the rest (with tea!). Black filigree damaged on the original were filled in by hand.
Converted into a 415/550 transposer. Restrung with Birkett wire (yum!), regulations, etc. etc., the full works.
Ugly duckling into singing swan!
Annual Meeting of the American Musical Instrument Society, June 4-7, Savannah, GA
Anne served as Program Chair, thankfully with competent committee members to assist, especially the local arrangements people at Georgia Southern University, the Georgia Southern University Museum, and the Gretsch company!.
For more information: https://www.amis.org/2025-meeting
Savannah Baroque concert: “A Baroque Evening: European Travels”, March 21, 2025
Anne and other members of her ensemble, Savannah Baroque, were special guests performing at the Ford Plantation Club in Richmond Hill, Georgia. Tina Zenker Williams, soprano; Marcy Brenner, viola da gamba; Erika Andres, baroque flute. Works by Purcell, Marais, J.S Bach, Jacquet de la Guerre, and Loeillet were performed.
Concerts with The Goliards, February 8th and 9th, 2025, Les Trouveres
Anne performed on sinfonye and portativ with the Goliards in “Les Trouveres” under the leadership of John Hillenbrand, vielles along with Erika Andres, recorders, Marcy Brenner, viols, Cuffy Sullivan and Sheila Berg, vocals. The program was performed at St. Francis of the Islands Episcopal Church and St. George Episcopal Church, both in Savannah, Georgia.
Pictured here is my Wolkenstayn portativ acquired a few months before the concerts.
“Music for a While”, Savannah Baroque Concert, Feb. 28, 2025, St. Andrew’s Anglican Church
Anne; along with Erika Andres, baroque flute; Tina Zenker Williams, soprano; and Carver Blanchard, lute performed works by Purcell, Dowland, Campion, Byrd, Simpson, Handel, Oswald, J.C. Bach, Thomas Arne, and Mary Barthemon Young at the lovely and intimate venue of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, Savannah, Georgia. Ruckers style harpsichord by Anne Acker 1992.
WRUU, Savannah Music Local and Sustainable: Interview with Dave Lake
Kathleen Turner, Leah Dutton, and myself joined Dave Lake of WRUU about our Sept. 26th Concert for Bach Ascending. You can read about the concert here: https://wp.me/p5e5DG-13
and hear the interview: https://www.wruu.org/broadcasts/53386
Through the Looking Glass! Bach Ascending Concert Sept. 26, 2024, 7 p.m.
On September 26, 2024 I will join the amazing Kathleen Turner playing oboe and Leah Dutton on cello plus Michelle Meece, soprano. Michelle will embody Anna Magdalena Bach as we recreate the Bach household salon at the intimate performance space of 6 E. State St, Savannah, Georgia called Through the Looking Glass. We will play works inspired by or specifically named in Anna Magdalena’s Notebook of 1725 as well as other works that inspired J.S. Bach, or were inspired by him, including works by Vivaldi, Couperin, Moricone, and more.
Westfield Center Guest Presenter at Cornell CCHK Workshop
July 30-August 2, 2024: I was delighted to be invited to do a presentation at the Cornell Center for Historic Keyboards under the auspices of the Westfield Center for Keyboard Studies with my Hood Acker replica of an 1816 Nannette Streicher fortepiano. Attendees at the Workshop included many piano technicians wishing to learn about early pianos as well as students of and performers on early pianos. I gave a slide presentation and discussion of the place of a piano like my replica both within the Stein/Streicher piano building legacy and instruments of today, along with views into the process of construction. I then played 3 compositions by Nannette Streicher on my piano that demonstrated how it reflected well the Stein/Streicher touch and tonal aesthetic choices and design.
Hilton Head Symphony League Musicale Performance April 21, 2024
I was invited to give a private concert and talk as part of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra League’s Musicale Series so I a took my 2009 Anne Acker Flemish Double harpsichord to Hilton Head, SC into a lovely private home to give a presentation with talking and performing to a very appreciative and music-loving audience of about 60 members of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra League. A number of them showed up to help bring in the harpsichord, and then take it back to my van as rain started and storm clouds loomed!
Works included ranged from the earliest published, to variations on an Elizabethan bawdy song, to Elizabeth Jacquet, to Scarlatti and more.
While knowledgeable about music, like many such otherwise educated and curious people, they knew little about how harpsichords work and their history. They were most appreciative and we had a good time!
Pre-Concert Lecture for Concert by Jory Vinkour for Bach Ascending April 12, 2024
I was honored to give the pre-concert lecture for my dear friend’s Jory Vinikour’s brilliant performance at the dedicatory concert of the Richard Kingston double manual harpsichord acquired in 2023 for Bach Ascending programming.
