John Wiens is joined by Guido Morini (continuo), Elinor Frey (viola da gamba), Madeleine Owen (theorbo), and Bruce Dickey (cornetto).
Guido Morini, Elinor Frey, Madeleine Owen, Bruce Dickey
Charismatic and forward-thinking curator/conductor, John Wiens opens our season with ROSA [mys.ti.ka], a concert of glorious Renaissance music by Gabrieli, Bovicelli, Mouton, Lassus, Praetorius, and contemporary Balfour. This concert features the extraordinary Bruce Dickey, one of a handful of musicians worldwide who have dedicated themselves to reviving the cornetto, an early wind instrument that dates from Medieval times. BBC Music Magazine noted “…Dickey’s cornetto playing would charm the skin off a snake.” Dickey is joined by Elinor Frey (viola da gamba), Guido Morini (continuo), and Madeleine Owen (theorbo).
ROSA [mys.ti.ka] will be performed on Friday, December 13 at 7:30 pm and again on Saturday, December 14 at 7:30 pm at Crescent Fort Rouge United Church (525 Wardlaw Avenue) in Winnipeg. There will be pre-concert talks at 6:45 pm on both days.
Tickets are available by CLICKING HERE, at McNally Robinson Booksellers, by phone (204.918.4547), or at the door.
Camerata Nova thanks concert supporters Drs. Bill Pope and Elizabeth Tippett-Pope.
Conductor, John Wiens
About Guido Morini
Guido was born in Milan in 1959. After studying organ, harpsichord and composition, he devoted himself to the art of basso continuo and of improvisation.
He has collaborated with many ensembles, recording nearly 80 discs, many of which have received awards and the highest acclaim from the international press and critics (Diapason d’Or, 10Repertoire, 5Goldberg, Choc de la Musique) with important labels: ECM, Opus 111, Arcana, Glossa, Astrèe, Alia Vox, Cypres, Naïve, Alpha.
In 1984 he founded, together with the tenor Marco Beasley, his ensemble ACCORDONE to porsue a new way to interpret the baroque repertoir and especially the 17th century italian music.
Guido Morini regularly plays for the most important festivals and concert halls and makes all the musical revisions and elaborations for Accordone. Eclectic musician, he also creates new music for his own ensemble thinking up concerts, performances, oratorios and liturgical music:
“Una Odissea” (2002) is an opera in one act for soloists, choir and orchestra on a libretto by Marco Beasley; “Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis” (2005), is a sacred oratorio for soloist, choir and organ on a latin text. In January 2009 his opera “Una Iliade”- that involves Accordone, the Netherland Blazers Ensemble and the Hilliard Ensemble – was performed as worldpremiere at Muziekgebouw ‘Aant of Amsterdam . In May 2009 another worldpremiere at Salzburg Festival: “Solve et Coagula” an opera devoted to Raimondo di Sangro Principe di San Severo, a philosoph, scientist, inventor and alchemist who lived in Napoli during 18th century.
In 2012 the new sacred creation “Passio” for tenor, choir and organ, was performed in Austria. Between 2012 and 2014 the french label Alpha presents Storie di Napoli, recording devoted to the neapolitan music from XVI century to nowadays; Cantate Deo, a cd devoted to italian sacred music for two voices in the early XVII century; Solve et Coagula. More, in 2014 he recorded for Brilliant the complete Quartets with “Cembalo concertato” by C.P.E. Bach
About Elinor Frey
Fascinated by the cello’s origins and the creative process of new music, Elinor Frey plays both period and modern instruments. Her recent release on the Belgian label Passacaille, Berlin Sonatas with Lorenzo Ghielmi on fortepiano, was nominated for a Juno award for Best Classical CD, Solo & Chamber Music and won the 2015 Québec Opus Prize for Early Music CD of the year. Her first Baroque CD, La voce del violoncello, was praised for its “careful scholarship and brilliant layering of moods and tempos” (Toronto Star) and for the “honest, reflective beauty of her music making” (Strings). Her performance of this program was the winner of the public prize at the 2013 Utrecht Early Music Festival Fringe. In May 2017, she released Fiorè, the world premiere recording of the sonatas of Angelo Maria Fiorè and various unknown Italian arias, performed alongside Lorenzo Ghielmi and Suzie LeBlanc.
Frey’s debut album, Dialoghi, is titled for the solo piece written for her by Steven Stucky, and her CD of new works for Baroque cello, titled Guided By Voices, will be released on the Analekta label in March 2019. These works are by Scott Godin, Linda Catlin Smith, Ken Ueno, Isaiah Ceccarelli, Maxime McKinley, and Lisa Streich. She also recently performed Lutoslawski’s cello concerto and a new concerto by Colin Labadie with the Laurier Symphony, as well as a concerto by Keiko Devaux with Ensemble Arkea and conductor Dina Gilbert.
Frey’s honours include a US-Italy Fulbright Fellowship where she studied baroque cello with Paolo Beschi, the SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship, American Musicological Society, and Canada Council for the Arts grants facilitating her work on Italian cello music. In recent seasons she has performed with Il Gardellino, Constantinople, Clavecin en concert, Ensemble Caprice, SMAM, Les Idées heureuses, Arion, Les Boréades, and Theatre of Early Music, as well as with her quartet, Pallade Musica, grand prize winners of the 2012 Early Music America Baroque Performance Competition and second prize winners in the 2014 International Van Wassenaer Competition in Utrecht. Currently a course instructor at McGill University, Frey holds degrees from Mannes, McGill, and Juilliard and is the Visiting Fellow in Music from 2019-2022 at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University.
About Madeleine Owen
Lutenist Madeleine Owen is the artistic director of the Montréal early music group, La Cigale. She performs regularly with groups such as Helios Early Opera (Boston), ¡Saccabuche! (Sackville), Scaramella (Toronto), Per Sonatori (Regina), Les plaisirs du clavecin (Gatineau) and the Central City Opera (Colorado). In 2014, she worked as assistant music director to Timothy Nelson in the COSI production of Monteverdi’s Poppea in Sulmona Italy. Madeleine is a professor at the Cégep Marie-Victorin. She recently received a grant from the QALC to pursue research of the parallels between the theorbo and the Baroque cello.
About Bruce Dickey
Bruce is one of a handful of musicians worldwide who have dedicated themselves to reviving the cornetto – once an instrument of great virtuosi, but which lamentably fell into disuse in the 19th century. The revival began in the 1950s, but it was largely Bruce Dickey, who, from the late 1970s, created a new renaissance of the instrument, allowing the agility and expressive power of the cornetto to be heard once again. His many students, over 40 years of teaching at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, have helped to consolidate and elevate the status of this once forgotten instrument. For his achievements the Historic Brass Society awarded him in 2000 the prestigious Christopher Monk Award for “his monumental work in cornetto performance, historical performance practice and musicological scholarship.” In 2007 he was honored by British conductor and musicologist Andrew Parrott with a “Taverner Award” as one of 14 musicians whose “significant contributions to musical understanding have been motivated by neither commerce nor ego.”
About John Wiens
A dynamic conductor hailed for “awe-inspiring” (Winnipeg Free Press) performances, John Wiens has cemented his reputation as one of Canada’s finest chamber choir conductors.
John has appeared on stages across the world, pursuing an innovative path as a programmer known for an uncommonly wide repertoire. John’s inquisitiveness and love of investigation often results in the performance of new music, and music from before 1700. His conducting career has ranged from Belgium (University Chorus for L’Université Catholique de Louvain) to Morocco (Ensemble Voca Me) to Montreal (St. Matthias Anglican Church, Westmount) and Winnipeg (Polycoro, Camerata Nova).
Born into a musical family in small – town Manitoba, John aspired to be a musician from an early age. He studied violin at the age of four, and sang in choirs throughout his childhood. He holds degrees in Violin, Voice, and Conducting, from CMU, McGill, and the University of Sherbrooke respectively. He has studied privately with Paul van Nevel, (director of the Huelgas Ensemble), Christopher Jackson (SMAM), Andrew Megill (University of Illinois), Konstantin Krechler, and Donna Grescoe.
John is constantly expanding his knowledge of music ancient and modern. He has conducted the premiers of works by Andrew Balfour, Norbert Palej, T. Pat Carrabré, Neil Weisenthel, and Isaiah Ceccarelli, and regularly programs repertoire by many of Canada’s leading composers including Anna Sokolovic, Mychael Danna, Vivian Fung, Nicolas Gilbert, and Oleksa Lozowchuk.
When not performing, John is in more and more demand as a clinician, adjudicator, and juror, participating in these activities as often as his busy schedule will allow. He is honored to work with and support new talent. He loves spending his spare time with his wife and sons in the kitchen or outdoors, and he is an avid fencer.
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