Join the SPL for Somerville Salon: Concerts and Conversations with Ensemble Chaconne!

For their third, and final, in-person concert, Ensemble Chaconne will perform with vocalist, mezzo-soprano Burcu Gulec, Measure for Measure: The Music of Shakespeare’s Plays. 

Join the musicians after the concert for questions and conversation.

The Program:
Music by Thomas Morley, Robert Johnson, William Corkine, John Dowland and other leading composers of Shakespeare’s time. Among the many selections are:

It Was a Lover and His Lasse (As You Like It)
O Mistress Mine (Twelfth Night)
Greensleeves (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
The Satyr’s Dance (The Winter’s Tale)
Hark, Hark the Lark (Cymbeline)
The Willow Song (Othello)
Go from My Window, from Ophelia’s mad scene in Hamlet
Take O Take Those Lips Away (Measure for Measure)
The Witches’ Dance (Macbeth)
Full Fathom Five (The Tempest)

 All of Ensemble Chaconne's performances are free and open to all.

This series is supported in part by a grant from the Somerville Arts Council, a local agency supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Our thanks to them!

About Ensemble Chaconne:

Founded in 1985, Ensemble Chaconne’s career spans almost 40 years. From its home base in Somerville, the group tours extensively in the U.S. and abroad, with performances for The National Gallery in London, The Bach Festival Society of Winter Park Florida, The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, The Edison Theatre in St Louis, the Yale Center for British Art, Jordan Hall in Boston, Spivey Hall in Atlanta, Connecticut Early Music Festival, Stamford Friends of Music (NY), King’s Chapel in Boston, The Morton Arboretum Chamber Series (Chicago area), The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Residency at Davidson College, to name a few.

The group can be heard on the CD Measure for Measure: The Music of Shakespeare’s Plays, on the Americas Musicworks label, praised for “vitality and character…style and verve" (MusicWeb International).

Peter H. Bloom, flute, whose playing has been called “a revelation for unforced sweetness and strength” (The Boston Globe), concertizes in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand; is featured on 48 recordings (Sony Classical, Dorian, Leo Records, other labels); and is a winner of the American Musicological Society’s Noah Greenberg Award. He performs with esteemed artists including Ensemble Aubade, the Karl Henning Ensemble, the Modernistics, FiLmprov Ensemble, and the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra (49th season). Among his many performances on historical flutes are concerts for Animusic Portugal, The New York Flute Club, The American Musical Instrument Society, the American Antiquarian Society, Christie’s-New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. He is contributing editor for Noteworthy Sheet Music; and has given lectures and workshops across the globe.

Olav Chris Henriksen, acclaimed in Europe and North America as a soloist on lute, theorbo and early guitars, is also a much sought-after ensemble player, performing and recording with the Boston Camerata, Handel & Haydn Society, Waverly Consort, and Chanticleer, among others. His solo recordings are on Centaur and Museum Music; he has also recorded for Nonesuch, Erato, Pro Musica, Telarc and Decca. He has lectured at Harvard University, Northeastern University, the Nelson Atkins Museum (Kansas City), Musikkhögskolen (Oslo), the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and elsewhere. He has taught at the Boston Conservatory and the University of Southern Maine. The Boston Herald praised his playing, saying, “Henriksen was able to dazzle with his virtuosity in the fantastical figurations of John Dowland’s solo Fantasy for lute and Kapsberger’s similarly brilliant Toccata prima.”

Carol Lewis has been called a “zestful and passionate champion” of the viola da gamba. She has demonstrated her virtuosity and versatility as a soloist in the U.S. and abroad, and has toured internationally with Hespèrion, Boston Camerata, Capriccio Stravagante and other noted ensembles. She appeared recently with Boston Camerata at The Cloisters (New York) and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, with Dunya at College of the Holy Cross, and with Cappella Clausura in the Boston area. She has recorded on Astrée, EMI, Lyrichord, Harmonia Mundi, Nonesuch, and other labels, and has taught at Festival dei Saraceni (Pamparato, Italy), Milano Civica Scuola di Musica (Italy), New England Conservatory of Music, Amherst Early Music and elsewhere. The Boston Herald called her playing “brilliantly florid,” and the Centre Presse (Poitiers, France) admired her “technique and musicality, her breathtaking dexterity.”

Mezzo-soprano Burcu Gulec, guest artist, has performed in New York, Boston, Detroit, Seattle, and other U.S. locations, and throughout Turkey (in Ankara, Antalya, Kastamonu, and other cities). Acclaimed for charisma, versatility, and impressive vocal range, she has appeared with Grammy-nominated Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol, Robert Larabee, the early music/world music group Dünya, and other noted ensembles. 

"Ensemble Chaconne, both in its individuals and together, is a powerhouse of great playing." - (Classical Voice of North Carolina) 

Ensemble Chaconne is managed by Americas Musicworks.