Lecture Recital at Verdier House, Beaufort, SC Nov. 6, 2023

Anne will be presenting a lecture recital at the historic John Marks Verdier House in Beaufort, SC at 3 pm on Nov. 6, 2023.  She will be playing the ca. 1826 Robert & William Nunns square piano she restored for Verdier House several years ago.  Music featured will be works by English and American composers that are period appropriate to the instrument and the house.

Sustaining Keyboards Conference Sept. 15-16, 2023

Anne was delighted to be an invited speaker at the amazing conference Sustaining Keyboards, Sept. 15-16, 2023 held at Cornell University, hosted by the Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards and the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboards Cornell.  She enjoyed being housed in the comfortable guest suite at Bethe House, a student dormitory. Anne’s topic was “It’s a Material World”. The talks were scintillating, the company amazing, and the music sublime, an event to remember!      

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Concert with Friends on Nantucket July 20, 2023

Anne was delighted to be invited to play a concert with friends and amazing viola da gamba players Marcy Brenner (fellow Savannah Baroque member) and Nantucket native and amazing Mollie Glazer.  The performance was held in the lovely sunporch of the Nantucket Community Music Center at 56 Centre St. in the heart of the old town at 7 pm. Works by Bach, Vivaldi, Jacquet, and Marais were played for an enthusiastic audience.

Concert on Nantucket Island, July 20, 2023

Anne was delighted to join with two viola da gamba professionals; Nantucket resident Mollie Glazer and fellow Savannah Baroque member Marcy Brenner in a concert at the Nantucket Community Music School in the lovely sunporch.  Works by Bach, Locke, Jacquet de la Guerre, Boismortier, and Marais were performed.  Mollie’s son Isaiah joined in with tambourin in the last couple variations of the Marais Folies d’Espagne.

Spring Concert with The Goliards: The Minstrels of Albion

Anne took great pleasure in playing positive organ and sinfonye in The Minstrels of Albion with The Goliards under the leadership of founder, artistic director, arranger, vielle and rebec player John Hillenbrand along with Marcy Brenner on the tenor viol and singers Emmy Burch and Cuffy Sullivan.  The performance was held Sunday, May 28, 3 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal church, Savannah, Georgia.

The ensemble performed  popular songs, dances, hymns and motets from thirteenth and early fourteenth century England.

 

Evensong at St. John’s Savannah May 7, 2023

Anne was invited to play Prelude music for Eastertide Choral Evensong by the highly esteemed music director Steven Branyon at the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church in beautiful downtown Savannah, Georgia on May 7, 2023.  She brought along her AMD French single manual harpsichord and fellow Savannah Baroque member Erika Andres with her baroque flute in solos and as a duo.

Anne Acker harpsichord joins Atlanta Baroque for Bach Ascending Concert April 23 2023

It was a treat to supply and tune a Flemish double I made some years ago (and is now one of my personal instruments) for the Atlanta Baroque concert under artistic director Julie Andrijeski and guest conductor and violin soloist Evan Few as a highlight of the Bach Ascending series at the beautiful Lutheran Church of the Ascension in downtown Savannah, Georgia on  April 23.

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Debut concert on commissioned Acker harpsichord with Savannah Baroque

Savannah Baroque presented “A Baroque Celebration” featuring the debut of a highly decorated new harpsichord by ensemble member and harpsichord builder Anne Acker on March 7, 2023, 7:30 p.m. in the fantastic acoustic of St. Francis of the Islands, 590 Walthour Rd, Savannah, 31410. The program included joyful, celebratory, and dance inspired works.  Along with more familiar names, the program continued the ensemble’s tradition of including works by long neglected brilliant women composers. The harpsichord was commissioned by a client in California so this will be the only chance to hear and see it before it leaves Savannah. Savannah Baroque members Marcy Brenner, viola da gamba and Ann Cafferty, baroque violin joined Anne playing the new harpsichord.

Reviving Nannette Streicher, Part 2: The 1816 piano replica project

The second part of the article about the process of my completing the replica of an 1816 Nannette Streicher fortepiano, begun by my friend and colleague Margaret Hood before her too early passing appeared in the March 22, 2022 issue of The Piano Technicians Journal. 

Reviving Nannette Streicher, Part 1: The 1816 Streicher piano replica project

Published in The Piano Technicians Journal (vol. 65, no. 2, Feb. 2022, pp 15-18):  The first half of an article I wrote about my journey in completing a replica of an 1816 fortepiano by the famed piano builder Nannette Streicher that was begun by a mentor and friend, Margaret Hood, but who sadly passed away too young before its completion.  Interestingly, the veneer of Cuban mahogany comes from a log, gifted to me by a Miami sculptor in my days there, that  I sent to Margaret and that she sawed herself for the veneer.  Now it has come back to me.  The instrument debuted at the Boston Early Music Festival in 2019 and is now part of my personal collection.  

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