Dec. 19: 5BMF Presents Juxtapositions: Old and New Music for Baroque Instruments in Partnership with Portland Baroque Orchestra and Great Arts. Period

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR Contact: Katy Salomon | Morahan Arts & Media 
katy@morahanartsandmedia.com | 863.660.2214

Five Boroughs Music Festival Presents
Juxtapositions: Old and New Music for Baroque Instruments

A Virtual Concert Premiering December 19 in Partnership with
Portland Baroque Orchestra and Great Arts. Period. 

5bmf.org

NEW YORK, NY (November 24, 2020) — Five Boroughs Music Festival, in partnership with Portland Baroque Orchestra and Great Arts. Period., presents the world premiere of Juxtapositions: Old and New Music for Baroque Instruments, a two-part pre-recorded concert video available starting Saturday, December 19, 2020 at 7:00pm ET on YouTube Live and http://5bmf.org/events/juxtapositions/. 

5BMF’s original 2020-21 season included a late-fall presentation of the complete sonatas for violin and harpsichord by J.S. Bach, performed by violinist Monica Huggett and keyboardist Elliot Figg. Forced to switch gears due to the pandemic, 5BMF is now proud to present a double-feature of short programs led by Huggett and Figg respectively, recorded on the west and east coasts.

Figg’s recital program was recorded in November 2020 at Christ Church Riverdale in the Bronx, NY by Five Boroughs Music Festival. The program contrasts works by baroque masters J.S. Bach, Heinrich Biber, and Girolamo Frescobaldi with Figg’s own masterful compositions, each spinning off from their baroque counterparts’ templates. Figg’s compositions are vivid and playful reimaginings of old forms which each make ingenious use of piece-specific tuning systems, illuminating the compromises made by standard-usage equal temperament: some harmonies will be more perfectly in tune than you’ve ever heard them, while others might induce a pucker. He is joined in this program by violinist Manami Mizumoto and cellist Michael Unterman.

Part II, recorded in September 2020 in Portland, Oregon by Portland Baroque Orchestra, features PBO artistic director and violinist Monica Huggett and harpsichordist Byron Schenkman in J.S. Bach’s Sonata No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1014 and Sonata No. 2 in A Major, BWV 1015. In this presentation, 5BMF will also highlight Monica’s enduring contributions to the historical performance scene in New York City through her work as a performer and teacher, in particular through the Juilliard School’s Historical Performance Program.

Program Information
Juxtapositions: Old and New Music for Baroque Instruments
Presented by Five Boroughs Music Festival in partnership with Portland Baroque Orchestra
Available Beginning December 19, 2020 at 7:00pm ET

Program:

Part I
J.S. Bach – The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, Prelude in Bb major and Fugue in D# minor (1722)
H.I.F. Biber – The Annunciation, from Rosenkranzsonaten (1676)
Elliot Figg – Sonate für Violine und Generalbaß (2005)
Girolamo Frescobaldi – Canzon prima à basso solo (1643)
Elliot Figg – Canzona per basso solo (2007)
Elliot Figg – Prelude and Fugue in 21 Tones (2006)
     Elliot Figg, harpsichord
     Manami Mizumoto, violin
     Michael Unterman, cello

Part II
J.S. Bach – Sonata No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1014
J.S. Bach – Sonata No. 2 in A Major, BWV 1015
     Monica Huggett, violin
     Byron Schenkman, harpsichord

About Monica Huggett
Monica Huggett was born in London in 1953, the fifth of seven children. She took up the violin at age six and at age 16 entered the Royal Academy of Music as a student of Manoug Parikian. From age 17, beginning as a freelance violinist in London, Monica has earned her living solely as a violinist and artistic director and, in 2008, was appointed inaugural artistic director of The Juilliard School’s Historical Performance Program, where she continues as artistic advisor. Monica’s expertise in the musical and social history of the Baroque era is unparalleled among performing musicians today. 

In the intervening five decades, Monica co-founded, with Ton Koopman, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra; founded her own London-based ensemble, Sonnerie; worked with Christopher Hogwood at the Academy of Ancient Music and Trevor Pinnock with the English Concert; toured the United States in concert with James Galway; co-founded, in 2004, the Montana Baroque Festival; and serves as artistic director of Portland Baroque Orchestra since 1994 where she made her first appearance in 1992 playing Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. From 2006 to 2017 she was also the artistic director for Irish Baroque Orchestra, where she recorded Flights of Fantasy, named by Alex Ross in The New Yorker as Classical Recording of the Year for 2010. 

A frequent guest director and soloist around the world, Monica’s recordings, numbering well over 100, have won numerous prizes and acclaim throughout her career. In addition to her baroque violin recordings, she recorded “Angie” with The Rolling Stones in 1972. She received the Gramophone Award for her recording of Biber’s violin sonatas (2002) and her recording of J. S. Bach’s Orchestra Suites for a Young Prince with Gonzalo X. Ruiz and Ensemble Sonnerie was nominated for a Grammy™ Award and won the Diapason d’or in 2009. Recordings with PBO include a 2011 recording of Bach’s St. John Passion (AVIE). This was followed by a 2014 release of J. S. Bach's Concertos for Oboe and Oboe d’amore (AVIE) featuring Gonzalo X. Ruiz, and a 2015 release of J. S. Bach Concertos for One, Two and Three Violins. In 2015, Juilliard Baroque, led by Monica, released its inaugural recording, Couperin, Les Nations: Sonades, et Suites de Simphonies en Trio.

About Elliot Figg
Elliot Figg is a keyboardist, conductor and composer from Dallas, Texas. He is a graduate of the Historical Performance Program at The Juilliard School where he studied harpsichord with Kenneth Weiss. He also studied with Arthur Haas at the Yale School of Music. Elliot is an active member of several New York-based early music and contemporary ensembles, including ACRONYM, Ruckus, and New Vintage Baroque. Recent engagements include: Conductor and harpsichordist for Death of Classical's production of Dido and Aeneas in the catacombs of Green-Wood Cemetery; Conductor and harpsichordist for Piramo e Tisbe and L'Amant Anonyme, both with Little Opera Theatre of New York; Deputy Music Director and harpsichordist for Farinelli and the King on Broadway; Assistant Conductor and harpsichordist for Il Farnace and Veremonda, both with Spoleto Festival USA; assistant conductor and harpsichordist for Dido and Aeneas with L.A. Opera.

About Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF)
Since 2007, Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) has brought virtuosic chamber music performances of the highest caliber to every borough of NYC, cultivating new audiences for the genre and encouraging music lovers to look beyond Manhattan for outstanding performances. Lauded as “imaginative” by The New York Times, “enterprising” by The New Yorker, and “vital” by WQXR’s Operavore blog, 5BMF’s commitment to musical outreach and diverse programming has distinguished it as a standout presence in the New York City arts community from its earliest days.

5BMF’s artist roster of over 250 individual performers and ensembles is comprised of talented emerging artists and distinguished musicians alike, representing an incredibly diverse range of musical genres and styles. Its venues are just as eclectic, and have included performing arts spaces, cultural centers, and historic New York City landmarks such as Federal Hall, Pregones Theater, Flushing Town Hall, King Manor Museum, Brooklyn Historical Society, the Alice Austen House, and the Staten Island Museum, to name merely a few.

As champions of new music, 5BMF has commissioned over 50 composers and presented world premieres of their works all across New York City, most notably the two borough-wide tours of its Five Borough Songbook Volumes I and II. 5BMF’s outreach initiatives continue to expand every year, and have included program-related interactive lectures and discussions, public masterclasses with world renowned performing artists, and free public programming. Learn more at www.5bmf.org.

About Portland Baroque Orchestra
Founded in 1984, Portland Baroque Orchestra is the third-largest period performance orchestra in the United States. PBO specializes in works of the Baroque and Classical eras, but also explores the musical world outside of those time constraints, performing with period instruments or replicas of instruments that were available when the music was composed. This means that our concerts feature familiar instruments that may look or sound a little different (for example, violins with gut strings or flutes made of wood and bone) as well as instruments that are no longer a part of the modern orchestra (like the theorbo). Led by Artistic Director Monica Huggett, the orchestra thrives on spontaneity, playfulness, and extraordinary artistry. PBO seeks to recreate the live music experiences of history by presenting the highest level of music performance in intimate venues. Learn more at www.pbo.org. 

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