Fanfare Consort To Present Final Event Of Residency Program June 7 At Meeting House

Fanfare Consort, New England’s premiere early music ensemble, will perform a public concert in The Alexandria Room of Edmond Town Hall Alexandria Room at 8 pm on Saturday, June 7.

Thom Freas, clarino (valveless baroque trumpet); Lisa Rautenberg and Ann-Marie Barker Schwartz, baroque violins (gut strings); Douglas Freundlich, chitarrone (fretted bass lute) and Christa Rakich, positive/harpsichord, will be the featured artists. The concert will be the concluding event of a residency program made possible through a 2007-08 Chamber Music America Residency Partnership Program Grant and a grant from Ronald McDonald House Charities, New York Tri-State Chapter.

Admission to the concert is a suggested donation of $15 for adults, while children ages 14 and under are admitted free of charge.

The program, in partnership with the Heritage Preservation Trust of Newtown and Monroe Historical Society, utilized the historical community resources of the society and trust with the Baroque musical resources of Fanfare Consort to provide a unique program for students in the Monroe and Newtown districts in May. The programs for students were performed at Newtown Meeting House and Monroe’s East Village Meetinghouse, buildings constructed during the 1700s and early 1800s.

The program is distinctive in the integration of historic elements — early music performed on historically accurate instruments in buildings constructed at the time of the music’s composition, with the additional instruction regarding the history of the buildings and their use at the time they were built.  Fanfare Consort presented programs of late Baroque music, intertwined with demonstration and discussion of the historically accurate instruments to the school children.

Representatives from the historic societies provided discussions of the respective buildings’ history and usage.

The upcoming concert at Newtown’s town hall, a longer version of the student programs, is open to the public and like the student program, will integrate the history and music through an activity the takes concert goers “back in time” both musically and historically.

Fanfare Consort is dedicated to the research, publication, performance and recording of literature composed prior to the 19th Century. The ensemble preserves this rich and unheard repertoire by performing modern-day premieres of manuscripts by composers who have been eclipsed by the great masters of music.

All concerts are presented on historically accurate instruments in order to heighten public awareness of an earlier style of performance.

For additional information about the concert or the group, contact Barbara Upton at 203-258-9103 or visit FanfareConsort.com.

Chamber Music America, the national service organization for the ensemble music profession, was founded in 1977 to promote artistic excellence and economic stability within the field, and to ensure that chamber music, in its broadest sense, is a vital part of American life. With a membership of over 8,000, including musicians, ensembles, presenter, artists’ managers, educators, music businesses, and advocates of ensemble music, CMA welcomes and represents a wide rage of musical styles and traditions. In addition to its funding programs, CMA provides its members with consulting services, access to health and instrument insurance, conferences, seminars and several publications.

Ronald McDonald House Charities of the New York Tri-State Area is working to better the lives of children and their families by creating and supporting programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children in the areas of health, education, the arts, civic and social issue. Since 1992, the organization has provided more that $10 million to local non-profit organizations whose programs improve the well-being of children and their families.