UPDATE: This feature was corrected at 8:40 am on October 25 to remove an editing error about the Annie Haslam song 'Ananda' — with our sincere apologies to the artist.

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RIDGEFIELD — There were occasional hints of melancholy in Annie Haslam’s voice as she chatted with The Newtown Bee recently about what she hinted may be the final tour for her groundbreaking symphonic/progressive band Renaissance, which is set to perform with a full chamber orchestra at The Ridgefield Playhouse on October 28.

“It could be the last tour, really,” Haslam confessed. “We lost 2½ years and it was like a bad horror movie, wasn’t it? We spent so much time building the momentum over the prior years with the band, and it was just wiped out. And it’s a lot of hard work putting a tour together, especially if you don’t do it regularly ... mentally I’m just kind of worn down.”

The longest tenured member of the ensemble that broke through the bombast and technical noodling that defined so many of her peers’ groups in the early to mid-1970s was alternately energized, especially when discussing the fact that this possible final tour will also highlight slices from her eight solo album contributions over the years — and had never been performed with full orchestral backing, as they will at the Playhouse show.

“I am excited to be able to hear some of my solo work being played with the orchestra,” she said. “We’ll be doing ‘The Angels Cry,’ which I recorded with Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues; ‘Celestine,’ which is one I wrote with Larry Fast; ‘Ananda,’ that has kind of an Indian flavor to it; and ‘Reaching Out,’ which was from the Intergalactic Touring Band — a track I recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra.

“I haven’t heard any of the arrangements yet, so I can’t wait to hear them,” Haslam added.

The band — which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019 — is widely recognized for its integration of rock and classical music, the use of a full symphony orchestra, and Haslam’s still viable five-octave vocal range performing the masterful songwriting of the late Michael Dunford and Betty Thatcher, along with newer arrangements.

Renaissance secured its place on the world stage with a top ten hit “Northern Lights” and performed at some of the world’s most prestigious venues including the Royal Albert Hall in London and Carnegie Hall in New York, each with full orchestra live on stage. An album release from one of the Carnegie Hall concerts is considered a staple among fans of symphonic rock to this day.

Here's a sample of what you'll experience when Annie Haslam brings her band Renaissance into The Ridgefield Playhouse on October 28:

The Early Days

Rising from the ashes of the seminal UK rock band The Yardbirds, Renaissance was one of the first bands to uniquely blend progressive rock with classical influences and symphonic arrangements.

As mentioned, the tour will highlight Haslam’s career in celebration of her 75th birthday this June, and will include the Renaissance Chamber Orchestra — comprised of ten hand-picked orchestral musicians who made their debut with Renaissance in 2017. The group also plans to release a double CD in 2023 from recordings captured during the tour.

The current line-up includes Haslam, along with Rave Tesar, keyboards; Mark Lambert, guitar and vocals; Frank Pagano, drums, percussion and vocals; Leo Traversa, bass and vocals; and Geoffrey Langley, keyboards and vocals.

Along with looking forward to what is in store for audiences on the upcoming tour and the Playhouse stop, Haslam was prompted to think back to over a half-century ago when she was first hired on to add backing support to a band originally fronted by former Yardbird Keith Relf.

“My audition song was ‘Island,’ which we performed on our 50th Anniversary Tour. I got the job thanks to that song,” Haslam said. “And I remember that I wasn’t expecting there to be a male singer.”

Admitting she was naïve at the time and quite shy, Haslam said she didn’t ask any questions.

“It’s not that it bothered me — I mean, I was joining a band. It was amazing, really, because within a few weeks we were out on tour in Germany, and within four years we were playing and recording an album at Carnegie Hall,” she said. “It was destined for success.

“But when I joined I was a backup singer, and at first I only sang a song or two including ‘A Face of Yesterday.’ That’s an absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous song, and I wish we could have got that one together for this tour, but there’s only so much time and we’ve got so many songs to do, just trying to decide on the solo pieces nearly drove us crazy.”

After the first two Renaissance albums, the band was discovered by musician and producer Miles Copeland III (later of The Police fame). Copeland quickly took over managing the band, firing several members but keeping Haslam, John Tout, and Dunford and eventually transitioning Renaissance to his own newly-formed label.

Prior to his death in 2012, Dunford would work with Haslam on a number of projects under the Renaissance banner, and for a brief period, broke away touring with his own outfit using the name, sans Haslam. During that time, Haslam was touring with her own band — also somewhat awkwardly called Renaissance — before reuniting with Dunford in 2009.

At that point, the pair re-established Renaissance as a cohesive recording and touring act still producing symphonic themed material and featuring Tesar and Pagano, who remain with the group today.

Happy Just Singing

While Haslam eventually did take up songwriting more as an exercise to fortify her solo career, early on she admitted she was “just happy to be the lead singer.”

“I had no interest, I just loved what was being presented to me at the time. I felt rather blessed because I knew it was so different than what anyone else was doing,” she said. “It was satisfying to just sit back and watch the band grow. Although eventually, as we were recording and songwriting in the studio, I did begin offering ideas that ended up being part of the vocal arrangements and things like that.”

One of Haslam’s first forays into developing a full song was “The Race,” from the album Northern Lights.

“I really didn’t start writing a lot of music until my solo days,” she said.

Like a number of other progressive outfits of their day, Renaissance did not shy away from lengthy arrangements. Some spanned 10-20 minutes, taking up entire album sides. One of those epic pieces, “Mother Russia,” is still performed by the band in its current lineup. But Haslam recalled its humble beginnings as envisioned by Dunford.

“I remember Mickey coming to me saying he had a new song and would I listen to it,” Haslam said. “We were living just round the corner from Abby Road at the time. So I gave it a listen, and it was just guitar and he had some lyrics from Betty [Thatcher], and I thought to myself, what the heck is this, because he’d suddenly stop and change rhythms. But like any good songwriter, he knew exactly how the entire song fit together in his mind.

“So we did a demo of it on tape, the whole ‘Mother Russia’ with just a guitar and me singing. And I have no idea what ever happened to that,” Haslam confessed. “I remember telling Michael right before he passed away that we need to find that demo and put it out. It would really be priceless, wouldn’t it? But at the time, as I realized how the song was taking shape and there was eventually going to be an orchestra playing behind it, I felt it was going to be a really popular song for us — and it was.”

For more information or to purchase touchless print at home ticket ($50-$57.50) go to ridgefieldplayhouse.org or call the box office, 203-438-5795. The Playhouse is a non-profit performing arts center located at 80 East Ridge, parallel to Main Street, in Ridgefield. Tickets can also be purchased in person at the box office within the playhouse.

Editor John Voket can be reached at john@thebee.com.

Enjoy "A Song for All Seasons" from the Renaissance with Chamber Orchestra 2018 Tour: