Tropical Baroque Music Festival XIV to feature an Italian theme
In celebration of the “Year of Italian Culture in the United States,” the Miami Bach Society’s annual early music celebration will feature Italian artists, Italian music and Italian programming.
The society’s Tropical Baroque Music Festival XIV, taking place March 1-9 at venues throughout Coral Gables, will fill the week with the rich music of Monteverdi, Pergolesi Vivaldi, Locatelli, Mancini and more.
The festival will commence with pianist Shelly Berg, dean of the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, performing Jazz Bach and Scarlatti. The celebration will close with Don Oglesby conducting the Miami Bach Society’s Chamber Ensemble with soloists Karen Neal, soprano, Tony Boutté, tenor, Katherine Wiggins, mezzo-soprano, and Carl Du Pont, baritone, performing Italian Baroque arias.
Highlights include I Vitruosi delle Muse, which was founded in 2004 in Cremona by organist and harpsichordist Stefano Molardi and violinist Jonathan Guyonnet. The group quickly received international recognition for its distinctive interpretations on original instruments of Italian and German music of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Mala Punica, also from Italy, has been called “the best mediaeval-music ensemble in the world” by De Standard, Brussels.
Luca Guglielmi, from Turin, noted harpsichordist praised by the New York Times, is a Boston Early Music Festival regular who comes to Miami for the third time.
And Poème Harmonique, from France, presents Venezia, directed by Vincent du Mestre in a performance highly praised last September in New York, pairing Monteverdi’s haunting madrigals on the torments of love with light, witty works by Francesco Manelli.
Set for Sunday, March 3, the Royal Fireworks Music concert by Brass Miami with real fireworks at the Biltmore Hotel is a show stopper.
Tickets for general admission, $35; for preferred seating, $45, except for the Brass Miami fireworks performance, which are $50 and $75. Students 18 and under are admitted for free. College and graduate students $5. Special ticket prices before Feb. 23.
For tickets and information call 305-669-1376 or visit www.miamibachsociety.org.
