The Marchesa: Isabella d’Este
A co-production with Piffaro
7, 8, 9 February 2020
Friday, February 7th at 8:00 pm
(pre-concert chat at 7:30 pm)
Ruggles Hall at Newberry Library
60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610
Complimentary wine and prosecco available to ticket holders
before concert and at intermission.
Saturday, February 8th at 8:00 pm
(pre-concert chat at 7:30 pm)
International House, University of Chicago
1414 E 59th St, Chicago, IL 60637
Sunday, February 9th at 3:00 pm
(pre-concert chat at 2:30 pm)
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
939 Hinman Ave, Evanston, IL 60202
This program honors the great Isabella d’Este, a politician, mother, taste-maker, musician, writer, art collector, and one of the most important patrons of the Italian Renaissance. These concerts feature the frottole, an Italian song form that propagated at Isabella d’Este’s Mantuan court. Isabella commissioned her favorite poets and composers including Josquin des Prez (c. 1450-1521), Bartolomeo Tromboncino (d. 1534) and Marco Cara (d. 1525) to craft these short, amorous songs, which she herself enjoyed performing. Soprano Ellen Hargis gives voice to this sensual Italian poetry accompanied by a variety of Renaissance instruments, including guitar, lute, shawms, recorders, and strings.
Featured vocalists:
Ellen Hargis, soprano & co-director
Featured instrumentalists:
David Douglass, violin & co-director
Tim Macdonald, violin
Brandi Berry Benson, viola
Allison Monroe, viola
Jeremy David Ward, bass violin
Brandon Acker, lute & guitar
Members of Piffaro, The Renaissance Band:
Joan Kimball, co-director
Bob Wiemken, co-director
Grant Herreid
Priscilla Herreid
Greg Ingalls
Eric Schmalz
learn more about Piffaro
With projections by Shawn Keener
Tickets: $50 Preferred Seating, $40 General Admission, $10 student tix (available on-line or at-door)
Please note seats at all Newberry Consort venues are not assigned. Seating is divided into two sections: Preferred Seating and General Admission. Student ticket-holders must sit in the General Admission section. If you require special accommodation, please contact us in advance at manager@newberryconsort.org and we will assist you.
View the videos below to listen to musical highlights and more about our special guests, Piffaro!
The Marchesa Blog
Ilz Fantasie – Josquin
Click below for another tantalizing preview of the beautiful Italian Renaissance music you will hear at these special concerts. In this clip, taken from a live performance, Piffaro musicians play Josquin's "Ilz Fantazie" which will be performed at our concerts Feb....
Meet Piffaro, our partners for our upcoming concert, The Marchesa!
Our upcoming February project, The Marchesa, is a collaboration with Philadelphia-based wind band Piffaro. Like the Newberry Consort, (founded 1986), Piffaro is one of the longest running, most successful early music ensembles in North America. What began in 1980...
Who was Isabella d’Este?
February 7-9, 2020, we bring music from the unique court of Isabella d’Este to Chicagoland stages. These concerts, a collaboration with acclaimed Renaissance wind band Piffaro [link to website] will prominently feature our own Ellen Hargis performing frottole, a...
THE NEWBERRY CONSORT JOINS FORCES WITH PHILADELPHIA-BASED PIFFARO FOR THE MARCHESA: ISABELLA D’ESTE
January 2, 2020—The Newberry Consort joins acclaimed Renaissance wind band Piffaro February 7, 8, and 9, 2020 for The Marchesa, a program of music from the court of Isabella d’Este, the powerful woman politician, philosopher, and patron of the arts who ruled the...