This summer has given me a little time to catch up on some of my favorite podcasts and radio shows. One I particularly enjoy is BBC Radio 3's 'The Early Music Show'. This hour-long program is broadcast every Saturday and Sunday at 7 a.m. (CST) and contains many interesting interviews and articles as well as much fine music. For those who wish to have a listen go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tn49

Choosing a name for a music ensemble is always a tricky business, with lots of strong opinions always thrown into the hat. People often ask me how I came up with the name Baroque Band and, to be frank, it just seemed like a good name.

Recently one of Europe's leading period-instrument groups, and a group with whom I used to perform, decided to rebrand itself, including a change of name. The group, "formerly known as" The King's Consort, will now be called...

The Retrospect Ensemble

Yes, that's right - The Retrospect Ensemble. There are several reasons behind the name change but, according to the group itself, the new name reflects its "main raison d'être - namely to bring the music of the past alive on the modern concert platform through extensive survey of the practices, styles and aesthetics of former ages."

CONGRATULATIONS MONICA!

Baroque Band would like to send its best wishes to Monica Huggett for her appointment, announced TODAY, as director of the Juilliard's Early-Music Graduate Program.

You can read all about it in today's New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/arts/music/24earl.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin

And here in Chicago you can be the first U.S. audience to hear Ms. Huggett since the announcement.  Next week Ms. Huggett performs Vivaldi's The Four Seasons with Baroque Band in three concerts, September 30, October 2 and October 3.

As well as the three concerts we are delighted that Ms. Huggett will give the inaugural master class in Baroque Band's new International Master Class Series. Come and hear her guide the period-instrument performers of the future in the class at the Music Institute of Chicago, Evanston on October 1^st.

Check our website for further details: www.baroqueband.org

On October 1st Baroque Band is presenting the first of our International Baroque Master class series. This is a new initiative that we have put together for this season and we are honored that Monica Huggett, one of the foremost exponents of the modern-day period-instrument movement, has agreed to inaugurate this series.

One of our objectives at Baroque Band is to encourage the music students of today to become more curious about the music, instruments, and techniques of the Classical, Baroque, and pre-Baroque periods, and to give them opportunities to explore these sounds through historically informed performance practice, or HIPP for short.

Much of the training of today’s young musicians revolves around the great 19th and 20th century concertos and sonatas and students rank themselves, and each other, as to which concerto they are playing; Mendelssohn or Sibelius, Tchaikovsky or Berg. While chamber music, particularly for string players, does have a good grounding in the Classical period it never seems to venture back from there and orchestral repertoire, despite occasional forays towards Mozart and Haydn, begins somewhere around Beethoven. Approaching the solo repertoire of Bach is often seen as a study of technical prowess rather than a musical adventure.

Even for those not going on to be ‘specialists’ we at Baroque Band feel that delving into the musical aesthetic of earlier periods can inform and enlighten a musicians approach to music from any era. Over the past twelve months, I, and other musicians from Baroque Band, have worked with students at the Music Institute of Chicago, Roosevelt University, and the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra all of whom have embraced the opportunity to consider another approach to music from the Baroque and Classical eras.

Many years ago, as a student of HIPP in London, I was lucky enough to gain much from performing in a master class for Monica and then from working with her as a colleague. She is an inspirational musician, a warm and generous person, a dedicated teacher, and she has a way of communicating her skill and enthusiasm with wit and meaningful insight. I know that today’s young musicians will gain as much inspiration from Ms. Huggett as I did and I invite everyone to come and support them on their musical adventure.

This master class, the first in a series of four classes, takes place at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Evanston Campus on Wednesday, October 1 at 6:30 p.m. and is free to observe.

Ms. Huggett will also be performing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Baroque Band on September 30, October 2, and October 3. For further information go to www.baroqueband.org or call (312) 235-2368

Hello, let me introduce myself. I am Garry Clarke, founder and director of Baroque Band, Chicago’s period-instrument orchestra. I thought today would be an ideal day to post my first blog on the CCM site as today, May 22, Baroque Band celebrates it’s first birthday. Yes, just twelve months ago the orchestra took to the stage for its very first concert and it has been a wild ride ever since. In our first year we have given more than 30 performances including regular subscription concerts at Symphony Center, the Music Institute of Chicago, and Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, many free performances, and a host of education programs. That we are here to tell the tale at the end of our first year is thanks to all the support we have received from you, our audience. Thank you! 

In June, at the final concerts of our first season, we will make our 2008-09 season announcement and it has been all go to get those details in place but I can promise some very exciting times ahead. Immediately following those concerts we head to the recording studio where we will be working with fellow blogger and Cedille Records President, Jim Ginsburg, to produce our first disc. We then round off our 2007-08 season with a Summer Institute where we’ll be hoping to discover some of the next generation of Baroque Band musicians, and finally a trip to Madison as guest artists at the Madison Early Music Festival. In the middle of all that the orchestra will be moving out of my home office and into its own dedicated space just a block from the Art Institute on East Adams.   

Over the coming months, through this blog space, I’ll be taking a look at the world of early music and our perceptions of it but I’d like to run a quick survey and want to leave you with a question: Other than Baroque Band, what is the name of the first period-instrument ensemble that comes into your head? You can send you answers to me, garry@baroqueband.org,  and all entries received before May 31 will be entered into a draw to receive a pair of FREE tickets to one of our June performances.