Ensemble Galilei is following up its acclaimed appearance here last year with a new program, which appears tailor-made for the holiday season: "A Winter’s Night: Music and Poetry for the Solstice."
Coming from a successful premiere in Annapolis, MD, and narrated by NPR’s Neal Conan, performances will be given at the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse in Berkeley on Dec. 4, and at the Glaser Center in the Unitarian Universalist Church of Santa Rosa on Dec. 6.
The Ensemble offers a blend of Irish, Scottish, early, and original music on a variety of ancient and modern instruments, including the Celtic harp, Scottish small pipes, viola de gamba, fiddle, recorders, whistles, and percussion. The group is equally at home with Irish Reels, Medieval Cantiges, and English country dance tunes.
Since beginning in 1990, Ensemble Galilei has redefined the boundaries of chamber music, created new work, seized opportunities for collaborative relationships, and pushed the envelope in a series of innovative projects that explore combinations of images, words, and music. The group features Ryan McKasson on fiddle and viola, Jackie Moran on percussion, Sue Richards on Celtic harp, Kieran O'Hare on uillean pipes and Carolyn Anderson Surrick on viola da gamba.
The poetry and prose that are interspersed incorporate a wide variety of works from renowned American writers such as Jim Harrison, Mary Sarton, Jack London, Ogden Nash, and others.