Stephen Roberts, an adjunct professor of organ and keyboards at WCSU, will be performing on a replica of a 16th and early 17th century Italian virginal, a gift to the university's music department from Mr Stephen Casella and his family of Melrose,
Stephen Roberts, an adjunct professor of organ and keyboards at WCSU, will be performing on a replica of a 16th and early 17th century Italian virginal, a gift to the universityâs music department from Mr Stephen Casella and his family of Melrose, N.H.
Joining Mr. Roberts in the eveningâs performance will be tenor Tracy Patrick Smith (WCSU â83), and several members of the Connecticut chapter of the American Recorder Society.
A virginal is a harpsichord, but unlike the wing-shaped grand it is single-strung and oblong, with the keys on the long front side and perpendicular to the strings, and the jacks projecting through the soundboard. Virginals were made in nearly every harpsichord-producing country of Europe as far back as the 15th Century and continued to be built through the 18th. They were most popular during the 16th and early 17th centuries.
Music will include selections from the Yale Osborne Manuscript, and works by Praetorius, Schein, Sandrin, Holborne, Dowland, Gibbons, Jones, Philips, Allergri, Erbach, and Morley.
The performance is open to the public free of charge. For more information contact the Haas Library Office of Communications and Special Events at 837-8628 or check events on the libraryâs website, www.wcsu.edu/library.