Sacro / Profano
May 28 – June 4

Salon/Sanctuary Concerts of New York City in collaboration with the Italian Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali and the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno di Firenze offers the inaugural season of early music concerts in some of the most significant locations of the Renaissance capital of Florence, Italy. The Artistic Direction of Sacro / Profano is shared by Lucia Baldacci, Jessica Gould, and Giovanni Matteo Guidetti.

The festival runs from May 28th to June 4th. All concerts are free and open to the public, with the exception of the last, for which reservations are required.

For a small number of guests who have made reservations through Salon/Sanctuary Concerts, the Sacro / Profano festival will include daily privately guided tours under the direction of Art Historian Giovanni Matteo Guidetti, to a carefully curated selection of the most important museums of Florence.

Artists
Jessica Gould, soprano; Beatrice Mercuri, mezzo-soprano; Noa Frenkel, contralto; Anthony Roth Costanzo and Doron Schleifer, countertenors; Corina Marti, medieval flutes and clavisimbalum; Diego Cantalupi, lute and theorbo; Veronica Lapiccirella, cello; Lucia Baldacci, organ and harpsichord; Giovanni Matteo Guidetti, lecturer and museum guide.

Schedule of Concerts

Thursday, May 28th
9:00pm
La Voce di Santa Felicita
Church of Santa Felicita

Florentine organist Lucia Baldacci opens the festival with a solo organ recital on the antique instrument of the Church of Santa Felicita. Constructed in 1572 by the celebrated organ builder Onofrio Zeffirini, the organ will resound with the music of Guillaume Dufay, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Domenico Zipoli and others.


Friday, May 29th
9:00pm
Sacri Chiaroscuri: Arie per Artemisia
The Basilica of Santissima Annunziata, Cappella di San Luca (Accademia delle Arti del Disegno of Florence)

Soprano Jessica Gould, lutenist Diego Cantalupi, cellist Veronica Lapiccirella, and harpsichordist / organist Lucia Baldacci perform a concert of works by Purcell, Carissimi, Barbara Strozzi, and Händel which honor Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – 1656), the first woman artist accepted into the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno.

A post-Caravaggian genius, early recognition of Gentileschi's talent was tempered by acts of violence and struggles for survival. Born in Rome, she apprenticed in Florence, and later travelled to Venice and London. From the parallel female genius of Venetian composer Barbara Strozzi, to the dramatic chiaroscuro of Carissimi's counter-Reformation motets, to the word-painting of Purcell and the scene-setting of Handel, this concert offers a musical mirror to Artemisia's canvas.

Saturday, May 30th
9:00pm
Il Liuto di Caravaggio / Caravaggio’s Lute
Salone dell'Accademia delle Arti del Disegno

Chiaroscuro, or light and dark, is a term applied not just to art but to music. In Caravaggio’s Rome, where Medici Popes commissioned masterworks for both the eyes and ears, the lute was considered the most aristocratic of instruments. Caravaggio was commissioned by patron Vincenzo Giustiniani to paint a portrait of him as a lute player. Diego Cantalupi performs a concert of music by Arcadelt, Galilei, Kapsberger, and da Milano, some of which can be found depicted in the Giustiniani portrait.

Sunday, May 31st
6:00pm
Messiah Sketches / Quadri per il Messia
Oratorio della Venerabile Arciconfraternita della Misericordia di Piazza del Duomo

Before Händel was in England, he was in Venice, Florence and Rome. There, he composed hundreds of chamber cantatas and duets that served as "sketches" for later, more famous works – the great English oratorios whose passages we know so well today.

Organist Lucia Baldacci, soprano Jessica Gould, mezzo-soprano Beatrice Mercuri, and contralto Noa Frenkel are joined by lutenist Diego Cantalupi and cellist Veronica Lapiccirella to perform selections from this youthful treasure-trove of chamber music, in which passages we associate with English Oratorio are settings for Italian secular texts. The performance will take place in the beautiful Oratorio della Misericordia, which celebrated its 770th anniversary just last year.

Tuesday, June 2nd
9:00pm
Il Dolce Suono – Ki Kolech Arev
Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore

Beyond the sparkling body of Florentine polyphony and song was a shadow world of many Jewish musicians and dance-masters who lived in Italy at the time. Alongside the elaborate polyphonic music and flashy dances they would play, sing, dance and teach, they composed hauntingly beautiful music for the synagogue.

Some of the most beautiful piyyutim, from Achot Ketanah for the High Holidays to Maoz Tzur for Hanukkah reappear in the secular music of the same era and continue to be sung in services today.
Among masterpieces Middle Ages and Baroque Art, two Basel-based guest artists – countertenor Doron Schleifer and multi-instrumentalist Corina Marti – perform a special ecumenical concert of stunning late-Medieval repertoire in one of the most spectacularly beautiful medieval churches of Florence.

Wednesday, June 3rd
9:00pm
Baroque Portraits / Ritratti Barocchi
Salone da Ballo di Casa Martelli

Portraits aren’t only painted. They are also sung. In this program soprano Jessica Gould and contralto Noa Frenkel, with lutenist Diego Catalupi, cellist Veronica Lapicirella and harpsichordist Lucia Baldacci, share an exhibit of musical paintings, renderings of some of the most famous characters in history and myth, immortalized by Monteverdi, Purcell, Scarlatti, Handel, and Strozzi – A panoply of personalities humble and arrogant, innocent and devious, heroic and ignoble, brought to life in a vivid musical gallery.

Thursday, June 4th
5:00pm and 6:00pm
Passione Sacra / Sacred Passion
Cenacolo di Ognissanti

In front of The Last Supper of Domenico Ghirlandaio, one of the most celebrated young artists of his generation the American countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, first-prize winner of the Operalia competition, and soloist at some of the most prestigious operahouses of the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Glyndebourne, and Teatro Real, will perform an original program which explores the thin line between sacred and secular passion which so animated the spirit of the baroque era.

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Salon/Sanctuary Concerts

Salon/Sanctuary Concerts was founded in 2009 by Artistic Director Jessica Gould in order to present music from the 8th to the 18th centuries in intimate venues which complement both the acoustic and the historical context of the repertoire. Since then, the season has grown to include some of the most prestigious presenting partners throughout Manhattan and a roster comprising some of the most respected musicians active in historical performance today. Among the artists who have participated in our original interdisciplinary projects are soloists of the Metropolitan Opera and La Scala, award-winning actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company, Broadway and Hollywood, principal dancers from the New York City Ballet, and an organist of the Duomo of Florence.

As an alternative to the conventional concert hall, Salon/Sanctuary Concerts has forged a path apart from other early music presenters through the development of original projects which incorporate the aesthetic of the venue into the performance itself, and which view history through the prism of music. The series’ programs have garnered consistent critical praise, and have earned the partnership of such distinguished institutions as The Archdiocese of Florence, The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, Il Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo, The Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, L’Accademia delle Arti del Disegno di Firenze, The American Philosophical Society, The Colonial Dames of America, The Fraunces Tavern Museum, Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò of New York University, The Explorer’s Club and The Players Club in bringing many original early music projects to fruition.

Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo
The Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, the culture ministry of the Italian Republic, welcomes the collaboration of Salon/Sanctuary Concerts in a new Italian / American artistic partnership.

Accademia delle Arti del Disegno di Firenze
The Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, or "Academy of the Arts of Drawing", was founded on 13 January 1563 by Cosimo I de' Medici, under the influence of Giorgio Vasari. Artists including Michelangelo Buonarroti, Agnolo Bronzino, Benvenuto Cellini, Giorgio Vasari, Bartolomeo Ammannati, and Giambologna were members. Most members of the Accademia were male; Artemisia Gentileschi was the first woman to be admitted. Its declared purposes are the promotion and diffusion of the arts, and the protection and conservation of cultural heritage worldwide. It organizes conferences, concerts, book presentations and exhibitions, and elects noted artists from all over the world to honorary membership, under the direction of president is Prof. Luigi Zangheri. (from )

salonsanctuary.org

• This event has passed.
  Through June 5, 2015

  May 28, 2015 to June 5, 2015
• Various venues in Florence, Italy
  , Florence, TU

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