Hopelessly Devoted:
Baroque Scenes of Turmoil & Triumph

Gerrod Pagenkopf, Countertenor

Laurie Israel, Baroque ‘Cello
Mark Slawson, Harpsichord
featuring Cynthia Freivogel & Benjamin Shute, Baroque Violin
Emily Dahl, Baroque Violin and Baroque Viola
Janet Haas, Violone

La Chiacona Antonio Bertali (1605-69)

Stabat Mater, RV 621 Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

Sinfonia Alessandro Stradella (1639-82)

Si dolce è’l tormento Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

Intermission

Sonata per violino e continuo Domenico Zipoli (1688-1726)
[Largo] – Allegro – [Largo] – [Allegro]
Sonata 2, Book 4: detta La Luciminia contenta Marco Uccellini (1603 or 1610 – 1680)

Nisi Dominus (Ps. 127), RV 608 Vivaldi

Sunday, November 20, 2010, 8:00 p.m.
Friends Meeting at Cambridge
5 Longfellow Park
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Ensemble Suave, founded in 2003, is a Boston-based early-music group specializing in vibrant interpretations of seldom-performed Baroque music. In our 7 years, we have performed over 25 concerts, in music series and in historic houses, incorporating programs of Baroque music with cross-over into folk, world and classical musical (historic and modern). Please visit our website at www.ensemblesuave.com.

Countertenor Gerrod Pagenkopf has been touted by the Houston Chronicle as having ‘an elegant bearing and a sweet, even sound.’ Mr. Pagenkopf made his Amarillo Opera debut in October 2008 as Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus. Other opera credits include Rinaldo (Rinaldo), Oberon (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), the Refugee (Flight), Tolomeo (Giulio Cesare), Satirino (La Calisto), Arsamenes (Serse), L’Opinion Publique (Orphée aux enfers), the Sorceress, the Second Witch, and the Messenger (Dido & Aeneas), and Actéon (Actéon).

On the concert stage, Mr. Pagenkopf is a core artist with Ars Lyrica Houston, and has performed with the Mercury Baroque Ensemble, the Bach Society of Houston, the Houston Chamber Choir, the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater, Several Core Performance Dance Company, Ballet Florida, Orchestra X (Houston), and the Green Bay Symphony. He has performed as soloist in masterworks such as Handel’s Messiah and Israel in Egypt; Bach’s Passions, Magnificat and Mass in B Minor; Vivaldi’s Gloria and Dixit Dominus; as well as numerous cantatas, oratorios, and liturgical works of Scarlatti, Caldara, and Telemann.

A native of rural Wisconsin, Mr. Pagenkopf received his Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and his Master’s of Music in Voice Performance from the University of Houston, where he was a graduate fellow with Professor Katherine Ciesinski. He currently resides in Boston.

Ever since her first teacher used her as a guinea pig to develop the books Jazz Improvisation Made Easy, Emily Dahl has been eager to explore the diverse repertoire of the violin. She was introduced to period performance during her studies with Kenneth Goldsmith and played her debut baroque concert in 2004 with Lima Triumphante as part of their United States tour showcasing Peruvian Baroque music. Choosing to specialize in historical performance, Emily spent three years in London, studying and working with many acclaimed artists within the early music field. She has been privileged to play under Rachel Podger, Masaaki Suzuki, and John Eliot Gardiner, among others. As a member of The King’s Consort she has performed in some of the finest concert halls in Europe. She holds a Bachelor of Music magna cum laude from Rice University and a Master of Music from the Royal Academy of Music.

Cynthia Miller Freivogel performs regularly on period instruments and the modern violin. She received a B.A. in Musicology at Yale University and an M.M. in violin performance at the San Francisco Conservatory. In addition to being a member of Philharmonia Baroque, Ms. Freivogel is also the concertmaster and leader of the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, and the lead violinist with Brandywine Baroque in Delaware. She is second violinist with the Novello Quartet, which is dedicated to the performance of the string quartets of Haydn and his contemporaries on classical instruments.

Freivogel frequently performs at early music venues in the San Francisco Bay Area with such ensembles as Magnificat, Mirabile, and American Bach Soloists, and on concert series at Old First, San Francisco Early Music Society, and MusicSources. Freivogel spends summers playing violin in the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra in Boulder. She also has played with the Tanglewood Music Center Fellowship Orchestra, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, State Orchestra of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Apollo’s Fire, Portland Baroque, American Russian Young Artists Orchestra and Amerus Chamber Players. Freivogel studied principally with Camilla Wicks and Marylou Speaker Churchill. She is a dedicated teacher and is certified to teach Suzuki Book 3.

Violinist Benjamin Shute has appeared frequently as concerto soloist and recitalist on both sides of the Atlantic, performing on historical and modern instruments. After becoming fascinated with baroque music early in his teen years, he attended the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute, where studies with Marilyn McDonald, Cynthia Roberts and others encouraged him to pursue its possibilities further. Upon completing his undergraduate at the New England Conservatory under Masuko Ushioda, he relocated to the beautiful Black Forest of Germany to study at Musikhochschule Freiburg under Rainer Kussmaul, former first concertmaster of the Berliner Philharmoniker and founding director of the Berliner Barock Solisten. While there, he was also deeply enriched by collaborations with such early-music personalities as Robert Hill, Michael Behringer, Marieke Spaans, Gottfried von der Goltz, Bernhard Forck, Wolfram Christ, and others. As a teacher, he has served as Professor of Violin at the International Chamber Music Courses and Festival, Positano (Italy), faculty member of the Csehy Summer School of Music, guest clinician at Germany’s Black Forest Academy as well as several American schools, and teaching assistant in harmony, counterpoint, solfège, and various topics in music history at the New England Conservatory, where he is currently a doctoral candidate. Other activities include leading the period-instrument orchestra of the NEC Early Music Society, which he co-founded, and directing classical music for Citylife Church Boston, where he recently led a performance of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” When not engaged in performance-related activity, he enjoys musical composition and is a published essayist.

Janet Haas performs regularly throughout New England on viola da gamba and double bass. She studied gamba with Laura Jeppesen and John Hsu, and has performed with La Donna Musicale and El Dorado ensemble. She has recorded with La Donna and the Boston Camerata. Ms. Haas teaches strings and conducts three orchestras for the Lexington, MA Public Schools. She teaches in the Music Education department at the Berklee College of Music (Boston) and is a popular coach at workshops sponsored by the Viola da Gamba Society of America and the American String Teachers Association.

Laurie Israel studied music at Barnard College, University of California, and baroque performance practice at the Longy School of Music, the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute, International Baroque Institue at the Longy School of Music. She has performed solo baroque cello concerts at King’s Chapel, and Shirley-Eustis House, and in 2003 founded Ensemble Suave, a baroque performance group concentrating on seldom-performed baroque music. Ensemble Suave has performed in SoHIP, Boston Early Music Festival Fringe concerts, and in a number of performance venues, and concert series throughout Massachusetts and New England. Ensemble Suave plays regularly at Loring-Greenough House in Jamaica Plain, and Cambridge Friends Meetinghouse. Laurie plays on an anonymous English cello dating from the last half of the 1700s. She also plays harpsichord and violin. She combines her interest in musicology, music theory and analysis with performance practice. She has been playing cello for over 50 years. Laurie is also a writer, lawyer and visual artist.

Mark Slawson, harpsichord, received a Bachelor’s degree in composition from Union College and a Master’s degree in harpsichord from New England Conservatory. He has performed with Cantorum Baroque Ensemble, Boston Renaissance Ensemble, La Sonnerie de St. Bôtolphe, among other chamber ensembles. He is currently organist and music director at Second Parish, Hingham. Mark is on the board of trustees of the Cambridge Society for Early Music and the Society for Historically Informed Performance, and is Registrar for the Boston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

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