Empire Viols Cold Comfort February 3, 8 pm Second Presbyterian Church 96th St & CPW, NYC $10 suggested donation to benefit the organ restoration fund
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Empire Viols "Excellent" — The Wall Street Journal
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Martha McGaughey Carlene Stober violas da gamba
Arthur Haas harpsichord
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Second Presbyterian Church
Second Presbyterian Church's
sanctuary provides an intimate and
warm, acoustically excellent setting.
The historic building retains its
austere nineteenth-century Scottish
heritage.
Let Empire Viols warm you up with a spirited exploration of 17th- and 18th-century German music. Transcriptions of organ trio sonatas by J.S. Bach and his student Krebs anchor the program, which includes a sonata by Kühnel and a lovely ciacona by Schenck.
The players
Martha McGaughey was a member of the Paris-based Five Centuries Ensemble as well as the California-based group Musical Assembly. She has recorded on the Erato and EMI labels, and taught at Stanford University and the Mannes College of Music.
Carlene Stober performs on the viol with Abendmusik and other ensembles. She has appeared on Prairie Home Companion and with the Utah Shakespearea Festival, and was featured musician in Theatre for a New Audience's original production of Pericles. On period cello, she was continuo cellist of Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity Church in Manhattan for 15 years, and is a member of the Grenser Trio, a clarinet-cello-fortepiano group.
Arthur Haas, winner of the top prize in the Paris International Harpsichord Competition, is a member of the Aulos Ensemble. His solo CDs include recordings of Jean-Philippe Rameau, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre and François Couperin. He is professor of harpsichord and early music at SUNY Stony Brook and is a member of the Yale faculty.
Empire Viols formed in 1994. The core group of two viols and harpsichord frequently expands to include more viols or other instruments, while maintaining a focus on the rich duo viol repertoire of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The 2008-2009 season featured a tour of the southwestern United States.