Renaissance and Baroque Music Performance Workshop in Siena
Faculty
Valeria Indice, Michael Chance, Robert Eisenstein, Gian Luca Lastraioli, Giulia Nuti
SIENA, ITALY
June 21-28, 2008
With academic excellence as its starting point, the Siena School for Liberal Arts fosters international, multidisciplinary, and social awareness in each of its programs. The Department of Music has designed the intensive one-week performance workshop for June 2008, giving singers and instrumentalists a remarkable opportunity to benefit from the expertise of worldwide maestri in the field of Renaissance and Baroque Music.
The courses are open to single students (singers; lute, theorbo, guitar players; harpsichord; organ players; violin, cello, gamba players) and to already formed vocal, instrumental and mixed ensembles (choirs, madrigal groups, viol consorts, broken consorts) interested in the performance practices and in the technical and stylistic aspects of the interpretation of Renaissance and baroque repertoires.
Focusing on areas of study such as Italian monody of the seventeenth century, the English lute song, Italian concertato music, the madrigal, the villanella or canzonetta alla napoletana, one of the main aspects of the course is to explore the subtle and sophisticated interaction that should be established between singers and their instrumental accompanists. We will explore the different idiomatic peculiarities of each instrument or group of instruments accompanying a single voice or group of voices. Aspects of seventeenth-century performance practice such as the improvisation of diminutions on vocal lines, as well as the accompaniment of the voice on a melodic instrument such as the violin will also be discussed. Part of the course will be devoted specifically to the Sienese repertoire of the early baroque period; composers such as Pecci, Bianciardi, and Saracini will be studied alongside the theoretical works on basso continuo playing of Agazzari and Bianciardi, thereby providing a comprehensive introduction to monody as would have been heard in Siena in the early 1600s. Instrumentalists will also have an opportunity to study, prepare and perform early seventeenth-century sonatas and diminutions.
The courses are designed for amateur, semi-professional and professional musicians, and offer a high standard of instruction in a friendly and supportive context. The program culminates in a final concert, performed by the students and faculty, held in a historical venue.
The courses are small, so that everyone can get to know everyone else. The social aspect of the courses is important: maestri and students learn from each other as much in convivial restaurant conversations as in the music rooms, and it is definitely a two-way process.
Program Information
Arrival in Siena: June 21, 2008
Departure from Siena: June 28, 2008
Cost
€385.00 per person for the entire course;
€70.00 per day for each student wishing to attend only in part;
group prices available upon request for already established ensembles (vocal, instrumental, or mixed) with three or more members;
€35.00 for auditors.
The full balance to be paid upon arrival by cash or traveller cheques.
Contact
email: info@sienaschool.com
Phone: +39 0577 532001
Fax: +39 0577 227310
The organization shall have the right to cancel the course in case of insufficient enrollment by April 30th 2008
Music Performance Workshop Application Form
N.B.: FOR ALREADY FORMED GROUPS (INSTRUMENTAL, VOCAL OR MIXED) WITH THREE OR MORE MEMBERS, PLEASE SEND US A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF YOUR ENSEMBLE VIA E-MAIL.
How to get to Siena
by air:
Florence airport - 1 hour from Siena
Pisa airport - 1 ½ hour from Siena
Rome airport - 3 hours from Siena
Bologna airport - 2 ½ hours from Siena
by bus - for exact schedule check:
from Florence www.trainspa.it/en/home.html
from Pisa www.trainspa.it/sienapisa.html
from Rome www.sena.it/index_e.htm
from Bologna www.sena.it/index_e.htm
by train
www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html
Accomodations
Alma Domus
Via Camporegio, 31
53100 Siena
Ph +39 0577 44177
Fax +39 0577 47601
approximate cost: Single room €42.00 / Double room €65.00 + €6.00 for breakfast
Albergo Tre Donzelle
www.tredonzelle.carbonmade.com
approximate cost: Single room €38.00 / Double room €60.00 without breakfast
Albergo La Perla
www.hotellaperlasiena.com/hotel
Email: info@hotellaperlasiena.com
approximate cost: Single room €55.00 / Double room €80.00 without breakfast
Albergo Bernini
www.albergobernini.com
approximate cost: Single room €78.00 / Double room €85.00 + €7.50 breakfast
Hotel Villa Liberty
http://www.villaliberty.it/
Email: info@villaliberty.it
approximate cost: Single room €80.00 / Double room €130.00 with breakfast
Hostel Guidoriccio
Via Fiorentina, 89
Ph +39 0577 52212
approximate cost: Single room €14.45 + €1.73 with breakfast
Affittacamere La Primula
www.soggiornoprimula.com
Email: info@soggiornoprimula.com
approximate cost: Single room €50.00 + Double room €75.00 without breakfast
Meals
With Siena School membership card, discounted lunches and dinners in various restaurants and osterie (approximately €10.00)
Faculty
Valeria Indice
COORDINATOR AND INSTRUCTOR, DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC, SIENA SCHOOL FOR LIBERAL ARTS
An experienced singer in various genres (jazz, musicals, ethnic song), Valeria Indice has come to specialize in early and baroque music. Trained at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, she has worked with diverse groups including the ensemble L'Homme Armé, the "Cantori di Lorenzo," the "Opera Polifonica" in Florence, the Coro da Camera della Toscana, the Città Lirica Orchestra, and the Opera Festival of Fiesole. Under the baton of Europe's leading conductors, she has performed as soloist in works by Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Purcell, Britten, Charpentier, baroque Latin-American composers, and Sienese and Florentine composers of the 1500s and 1600s.
Valeria Indice has taught vocal technique to the Chorus of the Università degli Studi di Siena, and now teaches courses in Madrigals at the Siena School for Liberal Arts, working also as coordinator of the Department of Music.
Michael Chance
VOCAL DIRECTOR, ENSEMBLE
Michael Chance has established a worldwide reputation as one of the foremost exponents of the male alto voice in all areas of the classical repertoire, and is in equal demand as an opera, concert, and recording artist.
Educated at King's College, Cambridge, he made his operatic debut in the Buxton Festival, going on to perform in the Sydney Opera House, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, La Scala Milan, New York, Lisbon, Oviedo, Paris, Amsterdam and with Covent Garden, Glyndebourne, and English National Opera. His festival appearances include Edinburgh, Aix-en-Provence, BBC Proms in London, and Salzburg. His appearances in oratorio and recital have taken him to world-renowned concert halls including Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw, Musikverein, Neue Gewandhaus and Berlin's Philharmonie. He has given recitals in Frankfurt, Vienna, Amsterdam, Israel, New York, and London's Wigmore Hall with programmes ranging from Elizabethan lute songs to new works commissioned for him.
Michael Chance received a Grammy award for his participation in Handel's Semele for Deutsche Grammophon. He has recorded frequently with John Eliot Gardiner and other outstanding conductors including Trevor Pinnock and Ton Koopman.
Michael Chance is a visiting Professor at the Royal College of Music.
Robert Eisenstein
VIOLIN, GAMBA, IMPROVISATION, ENSEMBLE
Robert Eisenstein is the director of the Five College Early Music Program, for which he coaches and directs student ensembles including the Five College Early Music Collegium and Euridice Ensembles.
He is a founding member and co-artistic director of the Folger Consort, early music ensemble in residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, performing on medieval fiddle, violin, and viola da gamba.
He teaches music history at the University of Massachusetts as well as a course in Music and Technology at Mount Holyoke, and performs regularly with colleagues in the Mount Holyoke Baroque Ensemble. He has performed with many ensembles including the Washington Bach Consort, the Newberry Consort, the National Symphony, Western Wind, and recently at Tanglewood, Amherst Early Music, and other summer festivals. He studied viola da gamba with Judith Davidoff and Richard Taruskin.
Gian Luca Lastraioli
LUTE, THEORBO, BAROQUE GUITAR, CONTINUO, ENSEMBLE
Florence-born Gian Luca Lastraioli graduated in History of Music at the University of Bologna and specialized in Renaissance lute at the Conservatorio "Dall'Abaco" of Verona. In his career as lutenist and theorbist, he has performed in concerts and early music festivals in Italy, France, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Israel, Great Britain, New Zealand, Spain, and Brazil. He has played with or conducted well-known ensembles such as The Harp Consort, Modo Antiquo, Pro Cantione Antiqua, the Fitzwilliam String Quartet, and the ensemble L'Homme Armé in Europes most prestigious venues, and has recorded over forty CDs. In 2007 he was appointed conductor and artistic director of the Cappella di Santa Maria degli Angiolini (Florence).
Gian Luca Lastraioli is professor of Lute at the A. Scontrino Conservatory of Music (Trapani) and at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole (Florence).
Giulia Nuti
HARPSICHORD, ORGAN, CONTINUO, ENSEMBLE
Giulia Nuti grew up in Florence where she began playing the harpsichord when she was ten years old. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music and at the Royal College of Music. After working on Italian performance practice in early keyboard at King's College, Cambridge, she was appointed College Musician of Queens' College, Cambridge in 1997. In 2007 she published "The Performance of Italian Basso Continuo" (Ashgate).
She teaches harpsichord and basso continuo at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, and is organist of Santa Maria degli Angiolini, in Florence.
Giulia appears as a soloist, accompanist and ensemble player in concerts throughout Europe (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées; Concertgebouw Amsterdam; Printemps Baroque du Sablon; Wroclaw Festival, Polonia; Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Festival internacional de órgano Catedral de León; Göttingen Handel Festival; Alderburgh Festival).
She broadcasts and records for the BBC, RAI, WDR, Naïve and CPO.
Teacher: Valeria Indice, Michael Chance, Robert Eisenstein, Gian Luca Lastraioli, Giulia Nuti
