Copied from the Cinema Arts Centre web page
An Afternoon of Renaissance Lute Music and Dancing
with The Bacheler Consort & The New York Historical Dance Company
Sunday, February 20 at 2pm



Experience the sublime beauty and graceful majesty of Renaissance lute music and dance performed by The Bacheler Consort and The New York Historical Dance Company as they present a program of music from the age of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. The program features works by the greatest lutenist-composers of the Italian Renaissance, including Francesco da Milano (known as il divino), Vincenzo Galilei (the father of Galileo), Francesco Spinacino (author of the first published book of lute music, 1507), and Johannas Pacoloni (the foremost master of dance music for lute ensemble). A diversity of works to soothe and excite the passions will be presented; rustic galliards, voltes, and courantes rub shoulders with plangent pavans, ballets, and fantasies; virtuoso pieces with fiery fingerings and fast footwork are cooled by intimate, reflective music making. Several simple Renaissance dances will be taught.

The Bacheler Consort is composed of three lute virtuosi that play on an exquisitely crafted set of gut-strung Renaissance lutes (soprano, tenor, and bass). Christopher Morrongiello, the group's director, has performed widely as a soloist to critical acclaim throughout the USA and Europe. Matthew Weinman is an expert in historical musical composition as well as in the history of ballads and tunes. Diann Flanagan has been involved with lute music for over 20 years.

The New York Historical Dance Company is a group of dancers devoted to the study, recreation, and performance of dances from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Dorothy Olsson is the director and a well-known teacher and choreographer of historical dance. Kaspar D. Mainz of Germany is renowned throughout Europe as a choreographer and teacher of character dance and period movement style. Dr. Olsson and Mr. Mainz have co-authored six books on historical dance.