Car 54, Where Are you?

We sort of feel like the guys in Car 54: We know exactly where we are, but it doesn’t feel like it’s where we’re supposed to be, which is on stage, performing in front of our audiences. And our audiences don’t know where we are, either, because…well, you know.

We have been releasing our weekly Musical Tacos, and it has been fun and will continue to be, although on less of a weekly basis, because we have serious bidness to take care of! We’ll be back to normal!! Well, except we can’t see you. You can be watching us from the coziness of your own home, which is great, except we can’t converse after the show, shake hands, and hug’n’stuff. But, we’ll be back to normal in the sense of providing some necessary artistic musical love for you. The program may not be exactly what we wanted to do in March for our live concert, but there is so much diversity in the repertoire from Medieval France that we quickly found even more wonderful music to offer.

Even though we won’t be able to see you during our video, it will wonderful knowing that you are there. And many won’t be left out due to geographical distance. Howdy, stranger!

See below for more info on our upcoming Ah, Sweet Lady Video Premiere, including our trailer!

À Bientôt!
-Danny

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AH, SWEET LADY: PASSION IN MEDIEVAL FRANCE
A Video premiere

Premiere for subscribers and prior ticket holders:
Thursday, September 10, 2020, at  7:30 pm

Premiere for the general public:
Saturday, September 12, 2020, 7:30 pm

After the Premiere for subscribers and prior ticket holders on Sept. 10, the video link will close and then will be available again from Sept. 12–17.
The video will be viewable until Thursday, Sept. 17 at 11:00 pm. Tickets must be purchased by 9:30 pm on Thursday, Sept. 17.

Admission: $5 Student/Supporter; $15 Fan; $25 Friend; $50 Patron

The general admission price is the Fan category, $15. If you're struggling due to the Coronavirus situation, take advantage of our lower-priced Student/Supporter offer. If you’re able to pay a little more, and can help someone else pay less, please do so with the Friend and Patron prices. 

Tickets available in advance online. After the purchase of a ticket an email with video access instructions will be sent to you on September 11.

Subscribers to the 2019-2020 Season and those who purchased individual tickets to the March concert will receive an email about your tickets; you will not need to purchase tickets to view the concert video.

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

TEMP returns from its pause after the onset of Covid-19 to present a pre-recorded video featuring music from the 13th–14th centuries in France. This music takes us back to days of yore with knights, monks, and poets, with songs of unrequited love, daily trials, melancholy, exuberance, and even blissful love.

The Montpellier Codex contains early polyphonic works in France and was likely compiled around 1300. While many of the texts deal with some truly tender variations on love themes as well as more jovial ones (“I love B. but C. loves me and I don’t know what to do because B. loves D. who loves C...”), there are others about country kids visiting the big city (Paris) with Medieval versions of the still popular trope. We also feature music by Guillaume de Machaut, the greatest and most important composer of the 14th century, who composed wonderful, whistle-able melodies as well as striking and complex polyphony.

Early Music Now Host and Producer, Sara Schneider will also present a personally crafted lecture during the video, interspersed between sets of music. The video will also contain art from the 14th and 15th centuries and evocative photography.

Sixteen of TEMP’s singers and players recorded this music live in Austin in late June and early July and remotely from New York. Our production team has worked since then to create a seamless video of music, speech, and art ever since, a path that would have seemed impossible just a few months ago, but is now the wave of the (temporary) present.

Please join us as we reconnect with you through the magic of music.

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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The Long and Winding Road: 2020-2021 Season Update

The long and winding road back to live concerts with our normal group of singers, instrumentalists, and guest artists seems to become longer and more winding, rather than closer.

Many of you would have already purchased season tickets for the 2020-2021 Season, but we are still finalizing (and changing and re-finalizing) our plans for the 2020-2021 season due to the COVID-19 impact on all of us: musicians, audience members, volunteers, venues, and everyone who makes our concerts possible. For this reason, we found it necessary in May to cancel spring ticket sales for our upcoming 2020-2021 Season. We are letting you know now because we finally have a little bit of good news!

We will release two video concerts, one in late August and one in late September. Stay tuned for details! The 2020-2021 season (and ticket sales) will launch with another video in early November and with a newly recorded video of our Christmas concert in early-ish December. Details to follow as soon as we have concrete information on completing the 2019-2020 season and presenting the 2020-2021 season.

The fine arts are in a difficult situation. Symphonies and opera companies with long and esteemed histories have had to shutter due to the Covid-19 impact. Smaller, more flexible ensembles like TEMP have their challenges as well, but rest assured, we will be offering a continuation, of sorts, of our unique repertoire that we love so much.

Stay safe. Stay caring. In the meantime, we hope you are enjoying our weekly musical Tacos!
-Danny

Enjoy a tasty musical treat every Tuesday: Sign up for our Taco Tuesday Newsletter! Click on the image below to sign up!

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The Show Must Be Paused.

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Giving Tuesday Now

#GivingTuesdayNow is a worldwide day of giving and unity on Tuesday, May 5 that aims to meet the urgent needs of nonprofits created by the pandemic. In central Texas, this is being hosted by I Live Here, I Give Here as an Amplify Austin event. Many of our local nonprofits are struggling as funding sources, ranging from ticket sales to City of Austin support, are plummeting. Please consider giving generously to support nonprofits of your choice by going to www.amplifyatx.org.

Texas Early Music Project is participating in this event, and if you wish to help support TEMP and its artists please go to TEMP’s page at www.amplifyatx.org/organizations/texas-early-music-project.

The pandemic has been devastating on so many levels for us as individuals, as families, as businesses, and as artists. But Texas Early Music Project, as an arts organization, is not throwing in the towel. We are working out what we will be doing to continue giving you, our audience, the experience of joy and beauty that music can bring, and finding ways that we can support our artists while we are on a performing hiatus. Please stay with us as we work out exactly how we are going to do this!

And meanwhile, while you are staying healthy in mind, body, and spirit, please enjoy our TEMP Taco Tuesdays, which provide you just the musical snack you need to carry you through these challenging times.

Danny Johnson, Artistic Director
Anthony Toprac, Board President

WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!

Strange days have found us...

Remember the good old days? The big question was, “Now, is it the night to set out the recycling or the night to set out the trash?”. I used to chuckle at myself for even having to think about it, but now we are mindful of absolutely everything we do.

We are also mindful of what we can’t do and what we really want to do: We want to gather together, rehearse, and present concerts for you (and for ourselves—we wouldn’t present the music if we didn’t love it!). As I mentioned in the previous blog from March, we were preparing to present music by a composer (Machaut) who was seminal in my "career path” before plans were derailed.

Our current plans, subject to change by the ever-fluid situation, include extending our 2019-2020 season for several months so that we can more safely gather to present the two postponed concerts: Ah, Sweet Lady: Passion in Medieval France, previously scheduled for March, and The Student Becomes the Master: Monteverdi & Cavalli in Venice, previously scheduled for May, We will let you know as soon as we have more details and we will, of course, honor purchased tickets at our rescheduled concerts. If we are not able to safely include audiences, we will come up with other plans, including live-streaming or videotaping the concerts.

There are many wonderful writers who have waxed eloquently about the human situation during these strange days, so I know I don’t even have to attempt to do the same other than to hope for your continuing health and safety.

In the meantime, I hope you are able to catch our Tuesday Musical Tacos. We’re trying to offer a variety of “flavors” so we can appeal to every palate! For additional audio samples, please visit our Recordings page and enjoy past videos on our Gallery page.

All the best,
-Danny

Sign up for a free audio “taco” every Tuesday!

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Found My Groove

So, speaking of the past, and we often are, when I was a sophomore at Texas Tech, we studied Medieval music as part of the music history survey, and I was introduced to the music of Guillaume de Machaut. He was not only a poet of high regard, but also a composer of both miniatures and larger musical works; for me, this introduction was yet another life-changing experience. The New York Pro Musica released their 1967 album, Ah Sweet Lady: The Romance Of Medieval France, with works by Machaut and others and it was—and still is—amazing.

This was yet another disc (of many) that I listened to so much that I created grooves in the album…. (The triple canon Sanz Cuer M'en Vols – Amis, Dolens – Dame, Par Vous especially affected me. How much fun it was to be able to sing it in the first Texas Tech University Collegium Musicum concert!) The discovery of all of the ars nova repertoire was another of the key events that directed my future interests.

Anyway … Our upcoming concert of music from Machaut and earlier is entitled Ah Sweet Lady as a tribute to the trailblazers of the NY Pro Musica.

And also: Love's Illusion: Music From the Montpellier Codex was released by Anonymous 4 in 1994, and they presented their concert of that album at UT in Bates Hall in 1996, sponsored by TEMP and the Handel-Haydn Society. In honor of those friends, we named our 2019-2020 season Love’s Illusion, fitting in many ways but also because our upcoming concert will be featuring several pieces from the Montpellier Codex as well. You can read more about our Ah, Sweet Lady concert below.

So history begat history?

And thanks for Amplifying TEMP! We will use it to bring more inspiring music to central Texas!

À Bientôt!
-Danny

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Ah, Sweet Lady:
Passion in Medieval France

Saturday, March 28, 2020, at  7:30 pm
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 8134 Mesa Drive
Sunday, March 29, 2020, 3:00 pm
First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa Drive

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 and other perks by sponsoring a concert!

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

The music from the 12th through the 14th centuries in France takes us back to days of yore with knights, monks, and poets. Songs of unrequited love, daily trials, melancholy, exuberance, and even blissful love are a natural reflection of the society at that time. Like the original troubadours in Southern Occitania, the trouvères in Northern France continued their poetic and musical tradition and extended the influence of the early singer-songwriters long after the troubadours were dispersed in the early 1200s. The songs often revolve around idealized treatments of courtly love, observations of nature, stories about loss due to death from wars or jousting. 

The Montpellier Codex contains early polyphonic works in France and was likely compiled around 1300. Guillaume de Machaut, who died in 1377, was the greatest and most important composer of the 14th century. Machaut’s compositions reveal skilled treatments of polyphony while invigorating the solo song with more subtle and adroit poetry, almost always on the topic of courtly love. 

This exciting, exuberating, sometimes experimental music in France from about 1175–1375 will be performed by a small ensemble of 16 singers, including soloists Jenifer Thyssen, Shari Alise Wilson, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, Tim O’Brien, and more, along with our period orchestra of vielles, rebec, oud, gittern, harp, hurdy-gurdy, and psaltery. Our special guests are Ryland Angel (tenor & countertenor), Peter Walker (bass & also Medieval bagpipes), percussionist Peter Maund, and vielle master Mary Springfels.

Join us for some sweetness, a few giggles, toe tapping and joy,
melancholy and empathy.
BYO Armor.

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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Unknown Facts

1960 Fender Concert Amplifier

So, it’s generally unknown, but pretty true, that I was in a band in high-school in Big Spring. Our name was the Summits, which was picked by going through the phone book and doing the closed-eyes and point technique and whatever the street name was, that was the selection. It was about the 3rd attempt. I don’t recall what the first ones were, but they were probably something like 18th street or Nolan or some other street that was nowhere as good as Summit Street. Anyway: I was the singer (I played bass a little) so since I didn’t have instruments to carry, I wound up carrying the amplifiers, which were, you know, necessary to a fledgeling rock band doing covers of the Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Dylan, Monkees, etc etc … Wow. I miss the Summits. Good times. There was that time that … well, more later.

And here it is is, &$^&$#@%&%$@ years later, and amplification is still necessary for music groups, even relatively fledgeling [compared to some] or established [compared to others] early music groups. So please help me amplify TEMP later this week: March 5–6!  Read all the deets below. And prepare yourself for some covers of Medieval French hits by Anonymous, Anonymous, and Machaut later this month.

More soon!
-Danny

AMPLIFY TEMP!
6 pm March 5 – 6 pm March 6

Our organizational goal is to raise $10,000 for our general operational expenses (especially for musicians’ compensation) and our educational outreach. TEMP is actively creating educational outreach programs to join forces with Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the Austin Independent School District. To make this program free for our partners, we need to raise funds for instruments, instructors, and performers. 

Please visit our Amplify page to read more about it.

Here’s how you can help:

Please consider donating $25 (or more!) on TEMP’s page on Amplify Austin. Any Amount Helps! Here are some suggestions:

• $25–$199 Helps with office supplies and program printing 

• $200–$499 Helps cover venue rental costs 

• $500–$999 Helps our educational outreach programs with TSVBI and AISD

• $750–$999 Assists with artist compensation

• $1,000–$4,999 Assists in Director compensation 

• $5,000 + Sponsors a concert

NO NEED TO WAIT: donate NOW!

Enter #LoveTitos and $5 will be added to your donation!

You don't have to wait until March 5 to participate in Amplify Austin! You can donate now! Just click on the "Donate now" button on the TEMP campaign page.  And if you enter the hashtag #LoveTitos when you check out, Tito’s Handmade Vodka will add an extra $5 to your donation!

BE A FUNDRAISING CHAMPION!

You can also become an individual fundraiser for TEMP by creating your own campaign page on the Amplify Austin website and inviting family, friends, and colleagues to donate to your TEMP campaign. Go to the TEMP campaign page and click on the "Fundraise"  button in the top right of the page next to the Donate button.

BE A MEDICI - BUT NICER! AMPLIFY TEMP AND AMPLIFY AUSTIN!

WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!

She loves, but when she confesses...

…it gets really interesting!

 Sometime in the 17th century, or maybe a little earlier, someone wrote these words about love:

My shepherdess, with no fickleness in loving, causes me to find good things every day. But you must manage your time carefully: For it flows away and is lost hour after hour.
Whoever wishes me to fall in love, let him at least tell me, with what: Broken hope, eternal faith? Better a thousand times to die, then for to live thus still tormented.

Crying is my only pleasure; I nourish myself only with tears. Grief is my delight and moans are my joys.
The heavens are raining disasters on me every hour. What can I say? My tears, why do you hold back? Why not give vent to the proud sorrow?
The sun refuses to show his light, and day shall then be turned to night; Then lose no time, for love hath wings, and flies away from aged things.

Your contempt each day causes me a thousand fears, My treasure, I would find torment with you that would be sweeter than happiness with another. My beloved, I suffer... O my sweet love!

Granted, no one poet wrote all of those lines: They are one-liners plucked from each of the songs (in Italian, French, and English) that we are performing in a couple of weeks as part of the cavalcade of “love songs” performed during the Valentine season. We are attempting to give you a pretty full gamut of the emotions involved in 17th-century love songs, but they anticipated Joni Mitchell’s “comfort in melancholy” line in a big way. (I did omit the blatantly ‘happy’ lines in my hodge-podge teaser above... but there are actually a few!)

 Beautiful, often bittersweet love songs from the 17th century in Italy (Strozzi, Monteverdi, & Rossi), France (airs de cour by Lambert, Guédron, & Moulinié), and England (Purcell, Robert Johnson, Dowland, & Lanier).

There are eight soloists and seven instrumentalists; it will be intimate and intense. Maybe we will supply the hankies...

Read the full program description and listen to audio teasers below. 

Happy Valentine’s Day(s) - Why limit it to just one day?
-Danny

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She Loves and She Confesses:
Love Songs from the Baroque

Saturday, February 22, 2020, at  7:30 pm
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Avenue
Sunday, February 23, 2020, 3:00 pm
First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa Drive

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 and other perks by sponsoring a concert!

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

The metaphysical English poet Abraham Cowley, who wrote the text of our title song, with music by Henry Purcell, also wrote this:

A mighty pain to love it is, And ’t is a pain that pain to miss;
But of all pains, the greatest pain it is to love, but love in vain.”

Joni Mitchell wrote that there’s a sort of comfort in sadness; both classical and popular composers have long relied on tearjerkers with angst and melancholy to exhibit their powers of expression, and many seem most comfortable when composing in this vein. Barbara Strozzi, John Dowland, and others fit very comfortably into this mold, with music that is passionate and powerful and exquisite.

We will also feature a few wonderful songs about the delights of blissful love, and their exuberance and enthusiasm set them apart from their less happy cousins.

Enjoy these audio teasers from past concerts:

Our 21st season, Love’s Illusion, continues with beautiful, often bittersweet love songs from the 17th century in Italy (Strozzi, Monteverdi, Cavalli, Frescobaldi, & Rossi), France (airs de cour by Lambert, Guédron, Boësset, & Moulinié), and England (Purcell, Johnson, Dowland, & Lanier). Our soloists, accompanied by a small band of lutes, harp, harpsichord, and strings, are Jenifer Thyssen, Meredith Ruduski, Jenny Houghton, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, David Lopez, Brett Barnes, and special guests Ryland Angel, countertenor and tenor, and Donald Livingston, harpsichord.

Join us for a few tears, a few giggles, toe tapping and joy, melancholy and empathy. Oh, and some scary jealousy.

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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December needs another week!

So that we can all go to all the concerts we want to go to, perform in all the concerts we want to / need to, and still have a little time for, oh, I don’t know, maybe shopping/eating/visiting and the occasional nap! I know I’ve seen this idea proposed on other forums but no one seems to do anything about it. C’mon! Someone do something!

Because, as it turns out, we have our very own Christmas concert(s). NEXT WEEK. Three days in a row. So I’m too busy and having too much fun to start the 5-week-December campaign.

An Early Christmas is, by all accounts, one of our favorite concerts, because we cover so much territory, historically speaking, that we change the parameters of what early music is and even what Christmas music can be, and yet still tug at the heartstrings. So join us next week. And then, maybe after the New Year, get into gear with the 5-week-December campaign.

Read the full program description and listen to audio teasers below. 

See ya! It’s multilicious!
-Danny

Tickets for Saturday and Sunday's concerts are selling fast. Guarantee your seat by purchasing your tickets in advance. There is still plenty of room on Friday!

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AN EARLY CHRISTMAS

Friday, December 13, 2019, at  7:30 pm
St. John's United Methodist, 2140 Allandale Road
Saturday, December 14, 2019, at  7:30 pm
First English Lutheran Church, 3001 Whitis Avenue
Sunday, December 15, 2019, 3:00 pm
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 8134 Mesa Drive

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 and other perks by sponsoring a concert!

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

Join Texas Early Music Project for its annual multilicious feast of Christmas music through the ages. Different cultures across the centuries have celebrated this season of expectation and rebirth, and we are contributing our share with medieval chant and joyous English and French carols, magnificent motets for 8 parts from Italy and France, and lively Celtic songs, dulcet Dutch carols, exuberant folk-tunes, and more.

Enjoy these audio teasers from our most recent CD, In dulci jubilo: Early Music of the Season:

Enjoy more selections from Gaudete: An Early Christmas, Swete was the Songe, Noël: An Early Christmas and Stella splendens: An Early Music Christmas.

Brett Barnes, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, David Lopez, Jenny Houghton, Gil Zilkha, and Jenifer Thyssen are featured soloists, and acclaimed harpist Therese Honey, countertenor Ryland Angel, and Karelian chromatic kantele player Viktoria Nizhnik are featured as special guests.

Join Texas Early Music Project for a splendid and enriching evening of music. Encompassing 700 years of festive creativity and beauty, this music is sure to delight your ears and warm your heart. And you can use our new word, multilicious!

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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They're writing songs of love...

…and we're singing them!

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Song of Songs 1:1, Bible moralisée (76 E7, f. 122r): c. 1371 - 1372,
National Library of the Netherlands, The Hague

And it’s not even February / Valentine’s Day! But these songs of love aren’t your everyday, ordinary love songs. They’re divine, mystical (in some interpretations), and gorgeous. With a chamber choir, and viol consort, TEMP presents Praising the Beloved: The Song of Songs.

Enjoy this beautiful duet from our Monteverdi 1610 concerts during our 2016-2017 Season.

Purty music. Y’all come! We won’t see you again until Christmas!

-Danny

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PRAISING THE BELOVED:
THE SONG OF SONGS

Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019, at  7:30 pm
St. John’s United Methodist Church, 2140 Allandale Rd, Austin, TX
Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019, 3:00 pm
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 8134 Mesa Dr., Austin, TX

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 and other perks by
buying season tickets or sponsoring a concert!

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

The Song of Songs or Song of Solomon from the Hebrew Bible provided the texts for many of the most polished, sensual, and beautiful compositions by the master composers of the Renaissance and early Baroque, c. 1450-c.1650. Well-known composers such as Dunstable, Josquin, Lassus, Guerrero, Monteverdi, Palestrina, and others will be represented, as well as more rarely performed but splendid works by Vecchi, Clemens, Brumel, Weerbeke, Grandi, Rovetta, Ducis, and Ingegneri. Some of the texts echo the voices of two lovers, praising each other, yearning for each other, sometimes explicitly. Other verses are more indicative of “wisdom literature,” offering teachings about divinity, virtue, and relationship.

TEMP will perform this serene and entrancing music with a small chamber choir, a consort of viols, and theorbo. Featured singers include Brett Barnes, Jenifer Thyssen, Gitanjali Mathur, Laura Mercado-Wright, Cayla Cardiff, Shari Alise Wilson, Tim O’Brien, Steve Olivares, and more, including special guest Ryland Angel, countertenor. Our consort of viols, led by guest Mary Springfels, will perform instrumental versions of some of these exquisite motets.

Superb and intense music performed in a quiet, intimate setting.
Bring someone you love.

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

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Please sir, can I have another?

Another concert, that is! Yes, we’re finally back to concert time and so we have two different programs this week. The first was Sept. 18, the inaugural Kerr Educational Outreach concert at Univ. of Texas: Sephardic Songs: Myths and Realities. We were the recital part of a lecture-recital, with the lecture portion being presented by Prof. Edwin Seroussi, renowned ethnomusicologist from Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was awesome and we were honored to be featured with him.

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The second program, starting our official 2019-2020 concert season, is completely different because, of course, why wouldn’t it be! Oh, Henry! No, not the short-story writer. The composer, Henry. Henry Purcell. You’ve heard his music in countless soundtracks, often in the background, often featured. At any rate, we’re featuring him and only him! This Saturday and Sunday. See all the details below. There are some absolutely emotionally devastating moments in his music as well as tunes that will encourage you to dance [while seated]. The world of Henry Purcell: complicated, complex, and way too short!

See ya this weekend!
-Danny

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OH, HENRY!
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO PURCELL

Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019, at  7:30 pm
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Ave., Austin, TX
Sunday, Sept. 22, 2019, 3:00 pm
St. Martin's Lutheran Church, 606 W 15th Street, Austin, TX

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 and other perks by
buying season tickets or sponsoring a concert!

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

No, even though O. Henry did sing in the choir at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Austin, this is a concert of music by Henry Purcell. Sorry for any possible confusion, O. Henry fans.

Henry Purcell is deservedly known as England’s greatest composer before Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams. His music is used often in movie soundtracks and his operas are revived frequently on international stages. As organist and composer at Westminster Abbey and also the Chapel Royal, he wrote vast amounts of sacred music, which resounds in modern day churches and concert halls.

TEMP has often explored the musical world of this genius, but never with a full concert dedicated to his eclectic and diverse repertoire. We are thrilled to begin our 2019-2020 season with music from Purcell’s compositions for the theater, the opera, the court, the sanctuary, and the pub.

With gifted soloists, a choir of twenty-six, and eleven instrumentalists, TEMP will present selections from Ode to St. Cecilia, the operas King Arthur, Dido & Aeneas, The Fairy Queen, and more, including a couple of catches (or rounds) suitable for late night rowdiness.

Soloists and featured singers include Jenifer Thyssen, Gitanjali Mathur, Meredith Ruduski, Shari Alise Wilson, Jeffrey Jones Ragona, David Lopez, Tim O’Brien, and special guests from the New York area, countertenor Ryland Angel and bass Peter Walker.

As Purcell himself wrote, “Prithee, be not so sad and serious,” come hear “How the wild musicians sing a welcome” to all who would hear music from the “Fairest isle, all isles excelling.”

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

Speaking of hot…

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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It's May, it's May, the lusty mont…oh, what?

Oh yeh, it’s still April. Cruelest month, and all. Sorry. On the other hand, it’s April 25 and your taxes are done or done’ish. Also, it means that it’s Pam Corn’s birthday! Yes, OUR Pam Corn, TEMP Treasurer and Board member! Join me in wishing her a Happy Birthday and in thanking her for all that she and Corn & Corn, L.L.P. do for TEMP! And my sister: It’s her birthday, too! What an auspicious day!!

So, we are preparing for our May concert of Medieval music from Germany, the Texas Toot workshop in June, the Amherst Early Music Workshop in July, and also the upcoming season, which we will keep to ourselves a little longer. Season tickets for 2019-2020 will be available at the May concert, so bring your calendar and grab those tickets while they’re hot!

Learn more about the May concert below and enjoy this audio sample from our 2012 concert “Living Waters: Works by Hildegard von Bingen” and recorded on our Sacred CD:

Hildegard’s music is unique and rare. Come for the 30-minute, pre-concert lecture by Sara Schneider, too, 1 hour before each performance.

More soon, featuring an exciting interview from this year’s SXSW! No more clues!
-Danny

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Mystic, Scientist, Scholar, Nun:
Music of Hildegard von Bingen

Saturday, May 11, 2019, at  7:30 pm
St. Louis King of France Catholic Church Chapel, 7601 Burnet Road, Austin, TX
Sunday, May 12, 2019, 3:00 pm
St. John’s United Methodist Church, 2140 Allandale Road, Austin, TX

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 and other perks by sponsoring a concert!

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

TEMP’s 2003 performance of Hildegard von Bingen’s liturgical drama Ordo virtutum won the Austin Critics Table award for Best Chamber Concert of the season. Now we return to the beautifully sophisticated and powerful music of the 12th-century German abbess with a performance of several of her compelling antiphons and sequences, performed by 15 women singers. KMFA’s Sara Schneider, host of the nationally syndicated program Early Music Now, will present a 30-minute lecture one hour before each concert.

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was a composer, a writer of theological, botanical, and medical texts, a Christian mystic, and an abbess. She has become increasingly important in recent decades due to renewed interest in her visions, music, and holistic healing teachings. She has long been venerated within the Catholic Church, and she was canonized as Saint Hildegard in October 2012. For Hildegard, music was the sacred means through which we become tuned to celestial unity while we remain linked to the lowly vibrations of life on Earth. The melodies of her chants highlight the emotions of the texts through soaring melodic arches, creating an ecstatic aural atmosphere that is unique to her compositions. She compiled all her music into a cycle called Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum (The Symphony of the Harmony of the Heavenly Revelations), which includes antiphons, sequences, and hymns set to her own texts.

Featured soloists include Jenifer Thyssen, Meredith Ruduski, Gitanjali Mathur, Jenny Houghton, Laura Mercado-Wright, Cayla Cardiff, Shari Alise Wilson, and others. We will also present a few instrumental pieces by composers contemporary to Hildegard’s time, featuring a small instrumental ensemble of vielles, hurdy-gurdy, gittern, and psalteries, led by featured guest Mary Springfels.

Extraordinarily creative and remarkably relevant, Hildegard’s music resonates through the centuries. Please join us for a concert of rare beauty by an exceptional genius.

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

How Many Tudors did the Tudors Tutor?

So, while March comes roaring in like a lion bundled up in down and scarves, I really must thank all of you who supported TEMP and other nonprofits during the Amplify Austin campaign! Your generous contributions will help us present another spectacular concert season for 2019-2020 and will help us continue and “amplify” our education programs in Austin-area schools. I think the final totals for Amplify Austin Day were about $11.2 million (for 740 local organizations) and TEMP came in #18 among the Arts and Culture organizations with 58 donors who helped us reach almost 80% of our goal!

THANK YOU!

I think you will see the results on the concert stages and in our outreach programs!

Speaking of concert stages, we hope you are keeping track of the calendar and are making plans to come to our Tudor concert: It’s epic, both in the planning and the musical scope.

Here’s a little snippet from our concert of Eton Choirbook/Tudor music back in 2007 and recorded on our Sacred CD:

Tutor yourself by reading the Symphony of Voices concert details below—and thank you, TEMP Fans, for your generosity and enthusiastically amplifying TEMP!

With gratitude,
-Danny

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A Symphony of Voices:
Choral Masterworks of Tudor England

Saturday, March 30, 2019, at  7:30 pm
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Avenue, Austin, TX
Sunday, March 31, 2019, 3:00 pm
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 8134 Mesa Drive, Austin, TX

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 and other perks by sponsoring a concert!

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

A symphony of voices, 26 a cappella voices in this case, works in the same way an orchestral symphony might: There are thickly colorful choral tutti sections alternating with starkly transparent solo lines, hypnotically static harmonic rhythms alternating with florid vocal lines that are full of subtle virtuosity, resplendent with both shimmering beauty and unexpected dissonances resolving quickly to more beauty. This is the tradition of the Eton Choirbook, compiled between c.1490 and c.1510, during the transition from the late Medieval to the early Renaissance in England, which set the path for English choral music for generations. TEMP explores a few of the breathtaking masterpieces from the Eton collection as well as music from the contemporaneous English court.

Thanks to boosts from popular culture on television and in movies, more people than ever are aware of and interested in the very important Tudor court of Henry VIII. During the time during which the Tudors ruled England—almost 90 years, from 1509 until 1603—England’s importance in the world increased dramatically and English musical and artistic culture became more important. In addition to small masterpieces from prominent composers like Robert Fayrfax and William Cornysh, we will perform a least one work written by Henry VIII, who received lessons in music and languages from an early age as a part of the standard curriculum for royal children. He played harp, lute, recorder, harpsichord, and organ. Though some of his best-known compositions are lively and roughly hewn, a much larger percentage of his works are rather intimate and delicate pieces written with obvious care and skill. (No, he did not compose Greensleeves. Who starts these rumors?) Most of his compositions can be dated to the early part of his reign (1509-1547) and can be found in the so-called “Henry VIII manuscript,” which dates from about 1520.

The TEMP viol consort, led by Mary Springfels, will freshen the aural palate with some selections from the court and the chapel. The chorus will include several frequent guests, including countertenor Ryland Angel, Temmo Korisheli, Erin Calata, and former UT-EME member, Joel Nesvadba. They will be joining TEMP core members Jenifer Thyssen, Meredith Ruduski, Jenny Houghton, Stephanie Prewitt, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, Gil Zilkha, Brett Barnes, and many more. Twenty-six singers, each a soloist in his or her own right, will help create an unforgettably beautiful experience.

Join us for a beautiful and moving concert that will illuminate the passage from the late Medieval to the early Renaissance with passion and beauty and soothe the souls of 21st century audience members.

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

Man, this word is right on the tip of my brain…

Ya know it, right? It means to intensify something or augment something, right? Like if there’s a performing group and you’d like to support it or even boost it? Gah, what’s that word?! I mean, no matter how it may look from the outside, most cultural arts groups need to be strengthened with support so they can enhance their programs or supplement their reserves so they can magnify and focus and continue their efforts. TEMP is no different—we need this TLC, too! We have some special projects we want to undertake, in addition to our ambitious concert season, but it will take some…some…what’s that word???? I keep trying to think of this word late on a Sunday and all I can picture is Paul McCartney plugging his bass into a box that boosts the sound…. I know there’s a word there.

Paul McCartney Tone bender MKI, 1965B

I wonder if some of the younger generation of TEMPsters can help me out here? Let’s see:

Well, you all probably know what I’m trying to say. Boost TEMP Day is coming right up (6pm Feb. 28–6pm March 1)!! Read all the deets below.

More soon!
-Danny

AMPLIFY TEMP!

Our organizational goal is to raise $10,000 for our general operational expenses (especially for musicians’ compensation) and our educational outreach. TEMP is actively creating educational outreach programs to join forces with Texas School for the Visually Impaired and the Austin Independent School District. To make this program free for our partners, we need to raise funds for instruments, instructors, and performers. 

Please visit our Amplify page here to read more about it.

Here’s how you can help:

Please consider donating $25 (or more!) on TEMP’s page on Amplify Austin. Any Amount Helps! Here are some suggestions:

• $25–$199 Helps with office supplies and program printing 

• $200–$499 Helps cover venue rental costs 

• $500–$999 Assists with artist compensation 

• $1,000–$4,999 Assists in Director compensation 

• $5,000 + Sponsors a concert

NO NEED TO WAIT: PLEDGE NOW!

Enter #LoveTitos and $5 will be added to your donation!

You don't have to wait until February 28 to participate in Amplify Austin! You can donate now and it will post on February 28! Just click on the "Donate now" button on the TEMP campaign page.  And if you enter the hashtag #LoveTitos when you check out, Tito’s Handmade Vodka will add an extra $5 to your donation!

BE A FUNDRAISING CHAMPION!

You can also become an individual fundraiser for TEMP by creating your own campaign page on the Amplify Austin website and inviting family, friends, and colleagues to donate to your TEMP campaign. Go to the TEMP campaign page and click on the "Fundraise"  button in the top right of the page next to the Donate button.

BE A MEDICI - BUT NICER! AMPLIFY TEMP AND AMPLIFY AUSTIN!

WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!

Well, you know what they say:

There’s cauld Kail in Aberdeen

I reckon that’s a good thing. Maybe it’s a less good thing. Anyway, it’s a fun song that Jeffrey Jones-Ragona will be singing in our upcoming Celtic Fancies concert (see details below). There are lots of fun pieces, ne’er you fear, to balance out the sad love songs, the happy love songs, the longing love songs, the. . .well, you get the idea. Some of the most romantic songs express love for specific places in Scotland, like The Birks of Invermay, The Braes o’ Ballochmyle, Etrick Banks and, of course, The Broom of Cowdenknows. . .well, there’s quite of variety of aspects of love mixed in that one song alone.

Peter Walker (NY) will be featured on a variety of Scottish smallpipes—think of them as chamber bagpipes, ‘saft and sweet’—and will be featured, along with Cayla Cardiff and Ryland Angel, in the Game of Thrones portion of the concert, based on an historical event in 1630: murder, deception, revenge. Frennet Hall. Amazing! And you don’t need HBO to catch it! Jenifer Thyssen sings a few of Robert Burns’ best poems, Jenny Houghton sings The Broom, David Lopez will warm your heart with his rendition of The Birks…, and all 5 guys (Jeffrey, David, Peter, Ryland, and Danny) will make you laugh with The Pleugh Song, an amazing, epic, 16th-century advertisement for. . .wait for it. . .plows!

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

Besides Peter Walker on pipes, we will feature always-amazing Peter Maund on percussion, Therese Honey and Elaine Barber on harps, and our Ballad Band (see below) with reels, strathspeys, and more! “We are a band compleatly fitted to be joyly!”

“We’ll please ourselves with mutual Charms, as we did lang syne.” Ok, yes, it’s an earlier Auld lang syne than the one that we all sing without really knowing…

Join us! It’ll be wonder bonny!
-Danny

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Celtic Fancies: Music From Ireland & Scotland, c. 1500–1800

Saturday, February 16, 2019, at  7:30 pm
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 8134 Mesa Drive
Sunday, February 17, 2019, 3:00 pm
First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa Drive, Austin, TX

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 and other perks by sponsoring a concert!

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

Celtic music is very popular, beautiful, and exciting in the 21st century. But what was it like in earlier periods, 200-500 years ago? Well, it was popular, beautiful, and exciting! Even the English held the Scottish ballads in high esteem and our own Ben Franklin adored these songs and considered them the height of great art. TEMP enjoys presenting this repertoire because of its musical challenges and rewards and because of its musical link to another time and place—one that is still vibrantly alive in many ways.

TEMP’s featured singers for the ballads are Jenifer Thyssen, Cayla Cardiff, Jenny Houghton, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, and David Lopez, as well as frequent guest singers from New York, Peter Walker and Ryland Angel. Peter Walker will also play a variety of evocative Scottish smallpipes and reelpipes, and will join the TEMP “ballad band” for several exhilarating dances. Harpist Therese Honey will perform traditional music from Ireland and will be joined by guest artists Peter Maund (percussion) and TEMP core players Marcus McGuff (flute), Elaine Barber (harp), Bruce Colson & Stephanie Raby (violin), John Walters (mandolin), Scott Horton (lutes and guitar), and Carolyn Hagler (cello).

Join us for an exhilarating / heartbreaking / knee-slapping funny /
bonny sweet concert.
I guess I could’ve just said it has lots of variety!

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

I'll be thanking you-oo-oo-oo*

So, just so you know, we are thankful all year long: thankful that we have audience members, both long-term and newly-found, who come to our playful-yet-virtuosic concerts like the November production of Pimpinone. We are thankful for the chance to present beautiful/humorous/melancholic music like the ‘Complaints’ concert that we performed in Austin last spring and in college Station in late October. We are thankful for the adventurous amateur and semi-pro musicians who joined us at the Texas Toot workshop last summer and this last weekend led by professionals from around the nation.

We are thankful for donors like the Fifth Age of Man Foundation, which will be sponsoring the upcoming Christmas concert (see deets below!), and we are thankful for donors who help to keep us going on a daily basis with contributions from $10 to $10,000!

We hope you all have a lovely, peaceful, heart-warming, multilicious Thanksgiving, and we hope to see you all at our upcoming Early Christmas concerts. We will have our new Christmas cd ready for you, gathered from our 2016 and 2017 Early Christmas concerts. For now, enjoy these audio teasers from our earlier Christmas CDs: Gaudete, Noël, Swete was the Songe, and Stella splendens.

Breaking news! We have a NEW Christmas CD!

Learn more —>

Photo credit: Kudos Kitchen by Renée

And now, I think I hear a pumpkin pie calling my name…
-Danny

*Curious about the title of this post? Here’s the reference: https://bit.ly/2Q8UvBi

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An Early Christmas

Friday, December 7, 2018, at  7:30 pm
St. John's United Methodist, 2140 Allandale Road
Saturday, December 8, 2018, at  7:30 pm
First English Lutheran Church, 3001 Whitis Avenue
Sunday, December 9, 2018, 3:00 pm
First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa Drive, Austin, TX

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 and other perks by sponsoring a concert!

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

Join Texas Early Music Project for its annual multilicious feast of Christmas music through the ages. With sweet medieval lullabies and joyous English and French carols, magnificent motets from Germany, dulcet Celtic cradle-songs and exuberant folk-tunes, and more, we celebrate this season of expectation and rebirth, along with different cultures encompassing more than 700 years of humanity's hope, love, and joy.  TEMP puts its distinctive stamp on the intangible essence and passion of Christmas with arrangements for solo voices, small chorus, harps, violin, flute, mandolin, viols, and lute.

Brett Barnes, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, David Lopez, Jenny Houghton, and Jenifer Thyssen are featured soloists, and acclaimed harpists Therese Honey and Elaine Barber are featured as special guests.

Join us for a splended and enriching program. With more than 700 years of creativity and beauty, this music is sure to delight your ears and warm your heart.

And you can use our new word: multilicous!

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

How do you solve a problem like Vespetta?

TEMP’s Meredith Ruduski & Peter Walker in the roles of Vespetta and Pimpinone in 2012
(Photo by Zoe Weiss)

We had a fun and successful season-opener! Almost 2 weeks later and there are still ear-worms from the Alegría concert zinging through my head. Or is that my allergies? Hard to tell sometimes. Anyway, welcome to our Celebramus Season and welcome to the many new season subscribers—we’re glad to have you for our 20th anniversary season.

But, Vespetta, well: She’s something else! The heroine character from our upcoming Telemann opera concert is strong-willed, conniving, entertaining, obviously well-educated on a number of subjects, and makes Pimpinone’s heart go pitter-patter. He may be a nerdy bachelor with industrial strength pocket-protectors, but he has a few tricks up his sleeve as well. But, is this a match made in heaven, hell, or merely for the comedic intermezzi of 18th century Hamburg? Here’s a hint: the real title is Pimpinone, or The Unequal Marriage, or The Domineering Chambermaid! Telemann’s vocal music is singable and catchy and quite beautiful! See the full description below, but don’t miss Gitanjali Mathur and Peter Walker in the starring roles!

See you at the theatah!
-Danny

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How to Marry a millionaire (c. 1725)

Saturday, November 3, 2018, at  7:30 pm
and
Sunday, November 4, 2018, 3:00 pm
First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa Drive, Austin, TX

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 by clicking the button below or at the venue door through November 4!

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

Georg Philipp Telemann’s short comic opera Pimpinone: The Unequal Marriage Between Vespetta and Pimpinone or The Domineering Chambermaid, written in 1725, is hilarious, touching, prophetic, and beautiful.

The interplay between the two characters, Vespetta and Pimpinone, is hilarious both in the witty dialogues and duets and in the acrobatic arias; the more intimate arias in which each separately explores inner fears and desires are tender and heartfelt. How can an opera be prophetic, one might ask? In at least two ways, actually: First, one of Pimpinone’s songs foreshadows Papageno’s “Pa, pa, pa, Papagena” from Mozart’s The Magic Flute, written 66 years later. It uses the one syllable motive “Pim, pim, pim…” The second way the opera is prophetic is the feminization of his own name, “Pimpinona.” Mozart knew a clever idea when he heard it!

The subtitle gives an idea of the nature of the plot. It is a story that has been told often in theater, opera, movies, and television sit-coms: Pimpinone is a wealthy but homely bachelor while Vespetta is a clever and attractive chambermaid looking for a rich boss (soon-to-be-husband.) Guess who marries whom and guess who is in control of the marriage! The arias expertly define the personalities of the characters: Vespetta’s arias are flirty and saucy and become more complex as her station in life elevates. Pimpinone’s arias are tender and heartfelt, yet also very funny. The orchestral music is delightfully sophisticated with brilliantly written imitations of vocal lines and stunningly complimentary countermelodies.

Early music stars from around the USA join TEMP’s Austin regulars for this entertaining and virtuosic music. TEMP core-member Gitanjali Mathur (soprano) sings the role of Vespetta and New York’s Peter Walker (baritone) portrays the put-upon title character in this performance, set in current times and fully staged, and with supertitles for easy comprehension of the comedy and pathos. The accompanying period-instrument ensemble includes violinists Anna Griffis (Boston) and Bruce Colson (Austin), violist Bruce Williams (Austin), and cellist Jane Leggiero (Cleveland), Scott Horton (theorbo), and Austin newcomer Donald Livingston on harpsichord. We will also feature a couple of Telemann’s fantasies for solo flute, performed by traverso master Marcus McGuff.

Join us for intimate, expressive, and comedic chamber music at its most beautiful and most entertaining!

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

Read All of This! School has started!

There's gonna be a pop quiz on it all!

August, you are the cruelest month, are you not? On the other hand, we know straight away what you're going to bring us, so maybe that's the wrong adjective. Anyway, during August we performed for the Public Radio Content Conference and brought them some live medieval music to get their day off to a good start—and to celebrate KMFA's Sara Schneider: her Ancient Voices/Early Music Now program has gone national, with several stations broadcasting her excellent program! Congrats, Sara!

And the 20 for 20 Campaign is still percolating along: Thanks for the support!

And now it's finally September! I can almost smell the pumpkin stout, pumpkin soup, pumpkin pancakes...right? Any day now! It's all just around the corner! No more weeks on end of 100°F+, right!?!?!? Cool days, cooler nights, amiright? Please say yes...

Maestro Daniel Johnson explains ensaladas, pieces that are featured on our Alegría: The Spanish Renaissance program. See more videos on our Gallery page!

Ok, I might live in dreamlandia, but we'll finally have a concert in a few weeks to kick off the 20th Season Anniversary, and it's one of my favorite themes, topped by the incredible ensaladas by Mateo Flecha. These are little epics,  illustrated with music in many different styles to fit the different texts; Señor Flecha knew what he was doing. La Justa (The Joust) is new to us and maybe to you! It tells the story of a tournament—a joust between good and evil, the light and the dark. You'll have to come to the concert to find out if that means Gandalf vs. Sauron, or Dumbledore vs. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, or maybe some other featured jousters! And there is much alegría throughout the concert!

Enjoy these audio teasers from our 2013 performances:

Voldemort! There. I said it!
-Danny

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Alegría: The Spanish Renaissance

Saturday, September 22, 2018, at  7:30 pm
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2111 Alexander Avenue, Austin, TX

Sunday, September 23, 2018, 3:00 pm,
St. Martin's Lutheran Church, 606 West 15th Street, Austin, TX

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.

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

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Seriously? There are ensaladas on this concert?!?
Usually, if you want an ensalada, you go to a restaurant, not a concert, AMIRIGHT?

Not so fast, my friend! These ensaladas are a treat for the ears and the spirit, but have nothing to do with the delectable edible! Like most salads, they are created from a little of this and little of that, but that’s where the similarity ends. Filled with drama, Biblical quotations, exhortations, lovely melodies, and lots of humor, the ensaladas are toe-tappers from beginning to end! They were extraordinarily popular in many of the Cathedrals of Renaissance Spain—and were even banned in a few!

For a more solemn contrast, our program will explore some of the glorious wealth of polyphonic sacred music from the cathedrals and monasteries of 16th-century Spain, a repertoire that has served as inspiration for fans of choral music everywhere, with selections by Morales, Ceballos, and Peñalosa.

Other pieces in the concert feature the viol consort, led by our guest artist and viola da gamba star Wendy Gillespie, guest percussionist Peter Maund, and 3 sackbut (early trombone) players, led by University of Texas trombone faculty member Nathaniel Brickens.

Soloists and featured singers include Jenifer Thyssen, Gitanjali Mathur, Laura Mercado-Wright, Cayla Cardiff, Jeffrey Jones Ragona, David Lopez, Tim O’Brien, and featured countertenor, Ryland Angel.

¡Bailamos!

Click on the image above to buy tickets now!

Celebramus...

...We're almost legal!

It has been brought to my attention, dear readers, that I haven't written a blog for April yet, so let me rectify that! Oh wait, maybe I mean May. Oops, I definitely mean June. What? July, too? Hmmm...see, I have this problem with time... So, since I can't fill in all the blank spaces between mid-March and early August, let me just thank everyone for support for our Amplify Austin campagin and for our April and May concerts. They were fun and successful, and the Complaints concert even garnered Critics Table nominations, along with our infamous It's About Time concert. (By the way, Jenifer Thyssen and Bruce Colson won awards for TEMP concerts at the ceremony—congratulations to them!) 

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Texas Toot Faculty 2018

Let's see, what else has happened? The early June Texas Toot Early Music Workshop at Concordia was successful and the Amherst Early Music Workshop, which took up almost all of July, was huge, successful, and exhausting/ exhilarating. Several current and past TEMP members took part in the Amherst workshop as faculty and staff and it seemed like old home month. 

Ok, that's definitely all that's happened in the last ... oh, there's more, you say? You're right! There have been two additions to the TEMP family! Frequent guest and may-as-well-move-here mezzo, Erin Calata, and husband, Dom, welcomed a baby boy, Dylan, in June! AND local wonder and TEMP Operations Coordinator, Meredith Ruduski, and husband, Stephen, are now the proud parents of young Stephen William Ruduski, born at the end of July! Congratulations and wishes for the occasional full-night's sleep to all the parents! 

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Of course I won't end this post until I mention the upcoming season (our 20th!) and the accompanying 20 for 20 fundraiser! We are, indeed, trying to raise an extra $20K to help create the foundation for 20 *more* years for TEMP. As music becomes increasingly important in our lives and necessary for our culture, we want TEMP to be here for a very long time. In our 20th Anniversary Season, we’ll reflect on our journey through time as an ensemble, giving a nod or two to our 1998-1999 season, while looking to the future and to even more adventurous projects. 

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TEMP Then...

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TEMP Now...

Our 20th season has Alegría (joy), comedy, remarkable Christmas music, poignant and evocative Celtic music, amazing Tudor music, and heart-stopping chant by Hildegard von Bingen! Season subscriptions are already on sale and there's at least 6 reasons to join us as a subscriber! Get your season subscriptions now! Single tickets are also available online by clicking on the tickets buttons on the 2018-2019 Season page!

More details in the next few weeks! No, really!

-Danny

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