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Texas Early Music Project

PO Box 301675

Austin, TX 78703

(512) 377-6961

For ticket and concert venue inquiries, email the Box Office

 

PO Box 301675
Austin, TX 78703
United States

(512) 377-6961

Founded in 1987 by Daniel Johnson, the Texas Early Music Project is dedicated to preserving and advancing the art of Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and early Classical music through performance, recordings, and educational outreach. 

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Explore more than 700 years of musical transformation

Filtering by Tag: Night and Day: Sephardic Songs of Love and Exile

A special bargain!

Danny Johnson

Available for only a short while, 3 for the price of 11...

Coming Soon!

Coming Soon! ☞

So you know how some blogs are really just like infomercials, designed to lull you into complacence, sort of like hypnosis, before they creatively entice you to buy something that you didn’t know that you needed? Or maybe it’s the other kind of informercial that’s swinging for the fence with every word, with every phrase designed to make you buy something that you didn’t know that you needed and you should buy it now, and you do, just so they’ll stop talking!?!??! Or maybe it’s the kind that is designed to confuse, as though they don’t really know what they’re selling, but it turns out to be a stealthomercial about something kinda different from what you thought it might might be.

Well, we would never do that, you know! We will just come right out and say that you really, really need to come to our Convivencia concert in May. (See the details below!)

And for the low, low price of whatever a ticket costs, we will throw in, absolutely free, a chance to win a CD in our post-intermission drawing.

This is one of our more cherished repertoires, with concerts from 2004, 2005, 2010, and 2015. We are eager to present the 2022 version to you, with special performers and a special guest lecturer. See? Not much stealth involved there at all!

If you wish to attend the Saturday, May 14, lecture and performance, you’ll need to buy your tickets in advance, either online or via phone at 512-377-6961. Due to the requirements of our venue, tickets cannot be sold at the door.

Please join us for our final program of the season!
–Danny


 
 

Convivencia: The Three Worlds of Renaissance Spain

with special guests
Julie Slim, singer
Mary Springfels, viols

Special Guest Scholar & Lecturer: Professor Edwin Seroussi,
Director of the Jewish Music Research Centre at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Pre-performance lecture one hour before the concert begins.

Saturday, May 14, 2022, at  7:30 pm; 6:30pm pre-concert lecture
Temple Beth Shalom, 7300 Hart Lane
Tickets for Saturday’s performance must be purchased in advance online or by phone: 512-377-6961
Admission $30 general; $25 seniors (60+); $5 students (with ID)
&
Sunday, May 15, 2022, at 3:00 pm; 2:00pm pre-concert lecture
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Avenue

Admission $30 general; $25 seniors (60+); $5 students (with ID)
Tickets available in advance online or by cash, check, or credit card at the door.

For more information, call 512-377-6961 and leave a message,
or email info@early-music.org.

Convivencia means coexistence.

In our season finale, we explore many of the cross-cultural ties and themes that connected the three great cultures of early Spain: Muslim, Jewish, and Christian. Convivencia illuminates the lives and emotions of the inhabitants of Spain in the early Renaissance musically and poetically.

The swirling and sensuous rhythms and intricate melodies of Arabo-Andalusian and Sephardic music alternate with courtly, sometimes boisterously exuberant works of the Spanish masters such as Juan del Encina, Cristóbal de Morales, and others from the Spanish courts. Glimpses of daily life and cultural interactions are lovingly presented through songs and dances from the 15th and 16th centuries, performed on reproductions of historical instruments.

TEMP is pleased to welcome popular Lebanese-American singer, songwriter, and recording artist, Julie Slim, in her first performance with us. She is well known to Austin audiences through her performances with the Threshold Choir, her own group Julie Slim & RendezVous, and Bereket (the UT Middle Eastern Ensemble). Julie is a multitalented musician, skilled in jazz, Middle-Eastern styles and languages, composition, percussion, and much more, with an eclectic background in performance and commitment to collaboration and connection.

We are also proud to present our Special Guest Scholar & Lecturer, Professor Edwin Seroussi, Director of the Jewish Music Research Centre at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A pioneer in the study of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern musical cultures and traditions, Professor Seroussi was awarded the 2018 Israel Prize in the music category. He has also won the Joel Engel Prize for Life Achievement in Jewish Music Research, Tel Aviv Municipality. Professor Seroussi received his PhD in Music from UCLA.

TEMP is always proud to present our core musicians, such as soloists Gitanjali Mathur, Cayla Cardiff, Jenny Houghton, Daniel Johnson, David Lopez, Ryland Angel, Tim O’Brien, and 9 more singers. Besides our guest instrumentalist, well-known local performers such as Elaine Barber, John Walters, Josh Peters, and others will perform on a variety of Medieval and Renaissance instruments such as oud, psaltery, harp, rebec, vihuela, viols, recorder, and sackbuts.

Click on the CD images below to listen to audio teasers!

Join us for our final concert of the season in Renaissance Spain when we say ¡Adiós, que tengáis un buen verano! and then prepare to attend our first concert of the 2022-2023 season in Renaissance Germany, with music from the court of Maximillian I, and we will say Hallo und hurra, es ist fast Herbst!

COVID PROTOCOLS

TEMP will be adhering to all State and City regulations, as well as guidelines from the CDC concerning masking and social distancing, as well as the requirements of our venue. We urge you to buy your tickets in advance, as the audience size will be limited so that the audience can be safely distanced. The audience is strongly requested to be masked at all times; we will have masks available for your use as well. Please feel welcome to contact us with questions or concerns.

Join us as we are gaderen: gathering again!

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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It's May, it's M..... August, the Pretty Darned Hot Month of August

Danny Johnson

Speaking of hot…

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And so, like all reasonable people, we are taking it easy, looking forward to the cooler season before we get busy! Ha. Not really. The “reasonable” part should have given it away. We are preparing for our season opener in September: “Oh Henry! The World of Purcell” (more on that in the next post) AND we’re also preparing for a special event during the same week as the Purcell concert! We are excited to announce a special FREE concert at UT on Sept. 18, from 3pm–5pm, in Bates Recital Hall. We’ve had the good fortune to collaborate with the renowned Sephardic music specialist, Dr. Edwin Seroussi, who will give a brief talk and then members of TEMP will perform, including Jenifer Thyssen, Cayla Cardiff, Gil Zilkha, harpist Therese Honey, and more. Enjoy these audio teasers from our La Rosa and Night & Day CDs and read the details below about this exciting event. Y’all come!

Hope you had a more reasonable summer! More soon!

-Danny

Click on the poster image to download! Please see the parking info below the poster.

Parking Information for Sephardic Songs

Parking is, unfortunately, not free, but the San Jacinto Parking Garage is right across the street from the Music building. The map below shows the location of the parking garage and Bates Recital Hall. Park in the garage and walk across the street. Enter the doors to MRH. Go straight through the hallway to the very end and you’ll see the big staircase leading to the entrance of Bates Recital Hall. See you there!

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Veni, Vidi, Mastercard!

Danny Johnson

 
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Ok, we dodged the worst of a couple of viruses (physical, not virtual) that threatened to make last week even more interesting than it was going to be anyway! Whew, because I would have hated to have missed the party that Meredith put together last Saturday at Wally Workman Gallery! It was fun, a lot of folks donated (and bought) both goods and services (recorder lessons, for example) and good eats and drinks were had by all! Priceless!

Many thanks to those who came to the fundraiser and also to those who couldn't come but who made donations that were extremely helpful! Thanks! And thanks to the TEMP musicians & Board members who made it a fun late-afternoon soirée!

We're heading into preparations for the Sephardic concert (see info below!)  and the rest of the season! It's non-stop from now until May ... Calgon, anyone?

-Danny

 

 
 

Songs of the Sephardim: Love, Lament, and Loss

Saturday, October 29, 2016 at 8PM
Congregation Beth Israel, 3901 Shoal Creek Boulevard

Sunday, October 30, 2016 at 3PM
St. Martin's Lutheran Church, 606 West 15th Street

Admission $30 general; $25 seniors (60+); $5 students (at the door only)
Tickets available in advance online or by cash, check, or credit card at the door.

Take advantage of preferred seating by purchasing Season Tickets
through Oct. 28!

For more information, call 512-377-6961 and leave a message,
or email info@early-music.org.

Expelled from Iberia in 1492, the Sephardim created haunting music that reflected their longing for return to Iberia while adapting their traditions and music to their new homelands.

Sephardic music is at once beautiful and haunting, fun and poignant. TEMP’s performances of these songs of love, jealousy, loss, and comedy are one of Austin’s not-to-be-missed events. Most of us are familiar with the effects of love and its cousins, pain and jealousy, but to hear music from the last 500 years deal with this subject in simple, yet excruciating beauty, illustrates how our emotions aren’t so very different from those of the Sephardic exiles.

TEMP’s unique and creative arrangements, soulful vocal solos, and ensemble pieces explore this music, accompanied by the exotic textures of a hybrid Medieval/Middle Eastern instrumental ensemble. The program includes some favorites from the TEMP Sephardic repertoire (La serena, La rosa enflorece, Puncha, puncha, and the erotically charged song Noches, noches) and many newly-arranged songs and dances. Listen to these audio samples from our CD Night and Day: Sephardic Songs of Love and Exile:

International recorder player and world music specialist Nina Stern (New York) joins us for this concert, along with Bay Area’s Peter Maund, specialist in early and ethnic percussion. Houston’s Therese Honey (harp) joins oud player Josh Peters, Scott Horton, John Walters, Kit Robberson, Bruce Colson, and Stephanie Raby in the instrumental ensemble. Our singers are Gitanjali Mathur, Stephanie Prewitt, Jenifer Thyssen, Cayla Cardiff, Gil Zilkha, and Daniel Johnson.

From the passionate, tragic love songs to songs of fantasy and gaiety, this alluring musical genre will capture your imagination and captivate your heart.

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