Seattle Baroque Orchestra

Seattle Baroque Orchestra's 15th Season
October 18, 2008 - April 19, 2009

Prominent Guest Artists to Lead Each of SBO’s Five Concerts

Stephen Stubbs
David Greenberg
Marion Verbruggen
Monica Huggett
Stanley Ritchie

For 14 years, Seattle Baroque Orchestra has been exploring the magnificent repertoire of Handel and Bach, Monteverdi and Purcell, Corelli and Vivaldi (not to mention Biber, Castello, Schmelzer and Zelenka!). As Music Director, it has been a joy and a privilege to bring you these concerts, and to do so with such wonderful colleagues, Board and staff. As SBO has matured, many changes and challenges have been weathered, and I am proud of the organization we have built.

It is my pleasure to introduce to you our 2008-09 season. Joining our outstanding Seattle-based core as guest soloists and directors will be an array of some of the most eminent names in early music. I was so pleased with the enthusiastic response I received from each director when I invited them to lead an SBO concert. They know they’ll be performing for a great audience. Without you the music would remain silent on the page. I look forward to coming together with you in the Nordstrom Recital Hall to hear great works, to support old friends and new ones, and to celebrate this timeless human endeavor, the art and the craft of making music.

Ingrid Matthews
Co-founder
Seattle Baroque Orchestra

TO SUBSCRIBE NOW OR FIND OUT MORE ABOUT SBO’S 2008/09 SEASON CALL 206.322.3118

DOWNLOAD A SUBSCRIPTION ORDER FORM
CLICK HERE

Portrait of a Baroque Diva
Saturday, October 18, 2008 -- 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, October 19, 2008 -- 3:00 p.m.
Director: Stephen Stubbs

Francesca Cuzzoni was THE diva of Baroque opera and the great composers of her day, most famously Handel, competed to create starring roles for her. Cyndia Sieden could be described in the same terms, with unparalleled coloratura facility and numerous opera debuts to her credit. With guest director Stephen Stubbs, our Northwest diva will channel the Baroque diva in some of Handel’s greatest soprano arias, next to a stunning variety of styles and composers including Porpora, Hasse and the virtuoso violinist Veracini. This SBO season kick-off will include violinist Carrie Krause, Baroque harpist Maxine Eilander and Baroque flutist Janet See along with Stubbs on lute and guitar in colorful overtures from the operas and a rarely heard orchestral piece by Handel.

A Cape Breton Christmas
Saturday, December 13, 2008 -- 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, December 14, 2008 -- 3:00 p.m.
Director: David Greenberg

David Greenberg is one of the most exciting and versatile musicians in North Armerica. He’s a sought-after Baroque soloist and renowned Cape Breton-style fiddler, and has been a featured artist with Baroque and modern groups all over the US, Canada, and Scotland. He’ll join us for a program featuring music of Purcell and Muffat, along with Scottish composers James Oswald and Robert Mackintosh and traditional music from Scotland and Canada. Likely no one is better equipped than David to bridge the gap between Baroque music and the Scottish/Cape Breton fiddling with which it shares some history, and we're privileged to welcome this old friend back as guest director in what promises to be an ear-opening experience for everyone.

Verbruggen! Virtuoso! Vivaldi!
Saturday, February 14, 2009 -- 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, February 15, 2009 -- 3:00 p.m.
Director: Marion Verbruggen

The Baroque era was the time when our modern notion of virtuosity first took hold, and the solo concerto gave a new breed of pyrotechnical instrumentalists a platform to display their prowess. Vivaldi and Telemann wrote more spectacular concertos than anyone, and we’re presenting a true virtuoso and superstar of the recorder, Dutch artist Marion Verbruggen, in a concert featuring some of Vivaldi’s and Telemann’s magnificent works for recorder and strings. We’ll also feature Tekla Cunningham and James Garlick in Vivaldi’s transcendental Folia d’Espagna variations. It will be an evening to remember, with the kind of crackling energy that can only come from the admixture of such an exciting soloist and the irrepressible exuberance of the SBO.

Stile Fantastico
Saturday, March 28, 2009 -- 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 29, 2009 -- 3:00 p.m.
Director: Monica Huggett

The thrill of presenting violinist Monica Huggett in her SBO debut is matched only by her choice of partner for the program: international cornetto phenom Bruce Dickey. These two luminaries will join us in a program of seventeenth-century Italian music in the so-called Stile Fantastico. It’s the first truly Baroque music, and the composers in this brazen style took quite a reactionary tack to cast off the fetters of the Renaissance. The improvisatory nature of the music, along with the chance to hear two of the greatest performers in Baroque music and the vibrant, spontaneous players of the SBO will make this one of the most exciting musical events of the year!

Back to Bach
Saturday, April 18, 2009 -- 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 19, 2009 -- 3:00 p.m.
Director: Stanley Ritchie

Stanley Ritchie will grace us with his inimitable charm and mastery to lead the SBO in a program featuring the full forces of the orchestra in music of the Bach family: an orchestral suite by Johann Bernhard Bach, a sinfonia by C.P.E., and of course, a generous helping of Johann Sebastian. In his third SBO appearance, Mahan Esfahani will dazzle in the E-major harpsichord concerto, and we’re delighted to welcome Courtney Westcott on baroque flute for a performance of the beloved b-minor orchestral suite. Maestro Ritchie, one of the finest violinists of our time, will lead from the fiddle. Come be reminded of why you listen to baroque music.

TO SUBSCRIBE NOW OR FIND OUT MORE ABOUT SBO’S 2008/09 SEASON CALL 206.322.3118

DOWNLOAD A SUBSCRIPTION ORDER FORM
CLICK HERE