The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage
Piffaro, The Renaissance Band
Music from a Golden Era: 17th Century Portugal and Spain
2009 Grantee
$45,000
Piffaro, The Renaissance Band received $45,000 to produce two programs exploring contrasts among Iberian musical cultures in the mid-17th century. The first, to be performed with the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, will recreate music from a Marian Vespers as it would have been celebrated in Lisbon during the reign of John IV. This Vespers will follow the rubrics of a service, with the appropriate psalms, hymns, motets and antiphons by 17th-century Portuguese composers, including Rebelo, Melgás, and Correa. The second will feature Spanish theater music by Juan Hidalgo. Songs, dances, and selections based on musical cues from the plays of Lope de Vega (and reconstructed by Piffaro member Grant Herreid) will be performed by soprano Ellen Hargis; dancer and violinist Julie Andrijeski; and plucked string players Patrick O’Brien, Scott Pauley, and Daniel Swenberg. Piffaro will also be joined by cornettist Kiri Tollaksen, and wind players Mack Ramsey and Erik Schmalz.
Piffaro, the Renaissance Band brings to its audiences historically informed performances of music from the late Medieval, Renaissance, and early Baroque periods, in the manner of the civic, court, and chapel wind bands that existed between 1450 and 1650. The ensemble has toured extensively throughout the US and Europe. Piffaro has had successive recording contracts with Newport Classic, Deutsche Grammophon’s Archiv Produktion, Wyndham Hill, Passacaille, and Dorian Recordings. www.piffaro.com
Piffaro the Renaissance Band, photo by Andrew Pinkham