Report in Harpsichord & Fortepiano on the 2019 Westfield Center for Historic Keyboard Studies 40th Anniversary Conference
“Collections and Collectors: a report on the 40th Anniversary meeting of the Westfield Center for Historic Keyboard Studies at Oberlin Conservatory of Music on 23-26 October 2019” published in Harpsichord & Fortepiano, vol. 25, no. (Autumn 2020), Peacock Press, West Yorkshire, UK, pp. 38-39.
Book Review: Hydraulic Musical Automata in Italian Villas and other Ingenia 1400-2000
Book Review published in the Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, vol. XLVI (2020), 228-232.
Patricio Barbieri. Hydraulic Musical Automata in Italian Villas and other Ingenia 1400-2000. Rome: Gangemi International, 2019, 544 pp. ISBN: 978-88-492-3813-6.
Hood/Acker Fortepiano after Nannette Streicher, 1816
I had the pleasure and duty to take on the completion of Margaret Hood’s unfinished last piano. After all, it is a design by a woman, Nannette Streicher, daughter of the famous piano Viennese maker Andreas Stein, the replica was begun by a woman, so, as I told Margaret’s husband after her too early passing, a woman needs to finish it. I had it playing for its debut at the 2019 Boston Early Music Festival, but have continued to refine it’s workings, and plan to restring it this coming summer with Stephen Birkett’s Historic Music Wire and releather it with historically made leather from Jason Leininger. then look out! I’m practicing my Schubert!
Publication: “Blending Past and Present: Collections and Collectors” in the Nema Newsletter
December 14, 2019: Handel’s Messiah at Wesley Monumental Methodist Church, Savannah
I am delighted to be playing harpsichord and organ continuo for Wesley Monumental Methodist Church’s presentation of Handel’s great work Messiah. Handel’s Messiah Wesley Monumental Methodist Church 429 Abercorn St. Savannah Georgia 31401 Saturday, December 14, 2019 7:30 PM Tickets: $35.00. Available at MessiahSavannah.eventbrite.com or the church office. Experience Handel’s magnificent masterpiece, Messiah, in one of Savannah’s beautiful historic churches: Performed by the Wesley Monumental Choir with Orchestra. Part I: Prophecy of the Coming of a Messiah and Christ’s Nativity Part II: Christ’s Suffering, Death, and Resurrection Part III: Affirmation of Christian Faith and Glimpses of Revelation Dr. Monica Harper Dekle, conductor. Tina William, soprano. Claire Watts, mezzo-soprano. Timothy Miller, tenor. Robert Cantrell, bass. Ticket-price is tax deductible, and all proceeds benefit Wesley’s music program. Tickets are also available from the church office or from any choir member. Reduced price tickets for students with a current ID are available from the church office. (above details clipped and edited from Wesley Monumental’s website)
Nov. 17, 2019: The Goliards Present Ten Unconventional Women of the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Featuring John Hillenbrand, vielle; Marcy Brenner, tenor viol; Cuffy Sullivan and Sheila Berg, vocals; and myself on organ, harpsichord and sinfonye. Sunday, November 17, at 3:00 P.M. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (34th & Abercorn) admission $10.00. For further information, please call (912) 604-8983. The performance will focus on ten women who lived from 1098-1603, whose influence in a phallocratic world was far greater than would normally be expected. Some were musicians and poets: St. Birgitta, St. Hildegard, Maddalena Casulana, Beatritz de Dia, and Christine de Pizan. Others wielded political power and were the inspiration for musical creation: Elizabeth I of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of Spain and Lucrezia Borgia. One (St. Joan of Arc) led her army to Orléans, where she defeated the besieging English and reversed, some might say however temporarily, the course of the Hundred Years’ War. The Goliards will present a rich tapestry of music from this 400 year span, sung in Latin, Occitan (Provençal), Old French, Middle English, Spanish and Italian, with accompaniments by players of replicas of period instruments. The Goliards, now in their 21st year (14th in Savannah) have specialized in the pre-1400 European repertory since their founding, and have now expanded their […]
Westfield Center for Historic Keyboard Studies 2019 Fall Meeting at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music: Blending Past & Present: Collections and Collectors
What a terrific meeting of music, minds, ideas and instruments as always at a Westfield Center meeting! I had the privilege of organizing and chairing a panel titled: Builder/Restorer/Technician and Performer/Player Roundtable. So thrilled to have a notable panel to set to discussions about the present state and future hopes and issues related to continuing progress with historic keyboards, replicas, and performers. A major concern discussed is how to pass on knowledge regarding care and maintenance as many of the groundbreaking builders are aging. With Stephen Birkett, David Breitman, Robert Murphy, John Phillips and Allan Winkler.
Conference at Mount Vernon celebrating the replica of Washington’s Harpsichord
I had the great pleasure of being invited to attend a marvelous two day conference at Mount Vernon where the replica of the harpsichord George Washington bought for his niece Nellie Custis made by John Watson. Presentations and concerts discussed the people, times and music from the world of George and Martha Washington and Nellie Custis and her family.
The Boston Early Music Festival Exhibition 2019
As part of the Boston Early Music Festival Exhibition, Anne rented the Charles Shubert ballroom at the Courtyard Marriot Downtown Boston with the dream of turning it into a unique display and performance space for keyboards, builders, and players. She included builders Doug Maple (clavichords), A. David Moore (organs), and Robert Hicks, as well as two early keyboard organizations, The Westfield Center for Historic Keyboard Studies and The Historical Keyboard Society of North America. The center of the room was set up for concerts which occurred daily. It turned out to be an amazing salon that went on all day every day of the exhibition! It was also the debut of the Hood/Acker replica of an 1816 Nannette Streicher piano.
Review of Stewart Pollens book for The Galpin Society Journal LXXII
Publication of solicited book review for The Galpin Society:
STEWART POLLENS: Bartolomeo Cristofori and the Invention of the Piano, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2017, xv, 384 pp. ISBN 978-1-107-09657-8, £74.99, $120.
appearing in GSJ Volume LXXII (March 2019)