Ensemble Affect explores the works of composers who traveled from their home countries and settled abroad during the Baroque era, mixing their native compositional styles with their new country’s traditions. “Home Away from Home” traverses the European continent with Muffat, Scarlatti, and Marini, crosses the English Channel with Godfrey Keller, visits China with Teodorico Pedrini, and enters the New World with Gaspar Fernandes, while highlighting works by female composers including Antonia Bembo in France and Maria Grimani in Austria. The program relates the experiences of these composers with the stories of modern immigrants in America today, highlighting the timeless challenges born of making a life in a new land.
Pauline Kempf, violin; Octavio Mujica, cello; Dominic Favia, trumpet; Phoebe Chee, voice; Phoebe Gelzer-Govatos, violin;
Kiyoe Matsuura, Seth Van Embden, violas; Sun Chang, harpsichord/viola da gamba; Matthew Xie, theorbo/baroque guitar
FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 7:30 PM
First Presbyterian Church
1140 Cowper Street at Lincoln, Palo Alto
SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 7:30 PM
First Church Berkeley UCC (First Congregational)
2345 Channing Way
SUNDAY, MARCH 30, 4:00 PM
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church
1111 O’Farrell Street, San Francisco
About Ensemble Affect
Ensemble Affect is a string band conceived in Chicago, with members spread across the U.S. specializing in historically informed performance. Established November 2019, the ensemble brings thrilling music of the Baroque, as well as Classical and Renaissance periods across the country providing accessible, engaging, and affordable concert performances. “Affect” illuminates the slew of different emotions imbued in the music through the raw power of period instruments, creating emotive, passionate, and dramatic concert experiences.
About Home Away From Home
In “Home Away from Home,” Ensemble Affect explores the works of composers who traveled from their home countries and settled abroad during the Baroque era, mixing their native compositional styles with their new country’s traditions. We traverse the European continent with Rosenmüller, Muffat, Scarlatti, and Marini, cross the channel with Bononcini, and enter the New World with Gaspar Fernandes. Multiple female composers are highlighted, including the works of Antonia Bembo in France and Camila De Rossi in Austria.
The program emphasizes that travel and immigration were as common four hundred years ago as they are today, demonstrates the benefits of mixing cultures and ideas, and explores the reasons for composers to leave their homelands. For instance, the Portuguese-born composer Gaspar Fernandes is responsible for creating music drawn upon the native languages he experienced after immigrating to Guatemala and Mexico in the early 1600s. His songs use not only the common languages of Spanish and Portuguese (instead of the formal Latin) but also those native to Central America, such as Nahautl.
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