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Flutist Emi Ferguson re-imagines Bach with continuo band Ruckus on album, Fly the Coop: Bach Sonatas and Preludes, June 28th release on Arezzo Music.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: Nicholas Csicsko | Arezzo Musicnick@arezzomusic.com | (917) 740-6661
Flutist Emi Ferguson re-imagines Bach with continuo band Ruckus on album, Fly the Coop: Bach Sonatas and Preludes, June 28th release on Arezzo Music.
Taking Bach out of the museum and infusing it with equal parts tradition, funk, whimsy, and fun, Emi Ferguson and Ruckus take you on a wild romp through some of Bach’s most playful and transcendent works.
June 3rd, 2019
Emi Ferguson will release Fly the Coop: Bach Sonatas and Preludes, June 28th 2019 on Arezzo Music with continuo band Ruckus. The album features new arrangements of Bach’s Flute Sonatas and Keyboard Preludes, orchestrated for baroque flute and the forces of Ruckus that include theorbos, baroque guitars, baroque bassoon, cello, viola da gamba, harpsichord, organ, bass, and even banjo.
“blindingly impressive…a fizzing, daring display of personality and imagination”
- The New York Times
Not one to shy away from updating and revitalizing music, as seen on her previous Billboard charting album, Amour Cruel (“How a classical musician turned 400-year French songs into a modern hit”, Washington Post), Emi enlisted her friends in Ruckus to join her in giving Bach’s music the jolt of energy and imagination that Bach himself would have been exhilarated by.
Ruckus, the super-powered baroque rhythm section, explodes Bach’s single bass line into a rainbow of textures and colours, continually shifting like light over the landscape as Ferguson’s flute lines dance above. Contrasting the three flute sonatas on the album are new arrangements of a variety of Bach’s keyboard preludes, with selections ranging from the beloved Well Tempered Clavier, to alternate movements from keyboard suites that are rarely performed.
The album will be presented live in Los Angeles on June 16th at the iconic Wayfarer’s Chapel as the final concerts of the DaCamera Society’s 2019 season, and in New York on November 17th on the Music Before 1800 concert series.
Emi Ferguson baroque flute
Ruckus: Clay Zeller-Townson baroque bassoon | Shirley Hunt baroque cello and viola da gamba | Doug Balliett viola da gamba | Evan Premo baroque bass | Paul Holmes Morton theorbo, baroque guitar, and banjo | Adam Cockerham theorbo and baroque guitar | Elliot Figg harpsichord and organ
ABOUT EMI
Emi Ferguson can be heard live in concerts and festivals around the world as a soloist and member of the Handel and Haydn Society, AMOC*, the New York New Music Ensemble, and the Manhattan Chamber Players. Her debut album, Amour Cruel, an indie-pop song cycle inspired by the music of the 17th century French court, was released by Arezzo Music in September 2017, spending 4 weeks on the Classical, Classical Crossover, and World Music Billboard Charts. Emi has spoken and performed at several TEDX events and has been featured on media outlets including the Discovery Channel, Vox, and TouchPress apps talking about how music relates to our world today. She has been featured in performances by the Marlboro, Lucerne, Lake Champlain, and Twickenhamfest music festivals and has been a guest artist with early music ensembles Tafelmusik, Les Arts Florissants, the American Classical Orchestra, Voices of Music, and Trinity Baroque Orchestra.
Emi is currently on the faculty of the Juilliard School and the Bach Virtuosi Festival. Born in Japan and raised in London and Boston, she now resides in New York City. For more information please visit www.emiferguson.com
ABOUT RUCKUS
Ruckus is an emerging early music band with a fresh, visceral approach to old music. The ensemble aims to fuse the early-music movement’s questing, creative spirit, with the grit, groove, and jangle of American roots music, creating a unique sound of “rough-edged intensity” (The New Yorker). Ruckus performed its debut in Christopher Alden’s staging of Handel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo featuring Anthony Roth Costanzo, Davone Tines, and Ambur Briad to wide-spread acclaim: “achingly delicate one moment, punchy and incisive the next” The New York Times; “Superb” (Opera News). Material from its forthcoming debut album with flutist Emi Ferguson, Fly the Coop: Bach Sonatas and Preludes, was described as a “fizzing, daring display of personality and imagination” by The New York Times. Future performances will be held at The Da Camera Society (Los Angeles) and Music Before 1800 (New York City).
At its core, Ruckus is what is known as a continuo section in baroque music: a collection of guitars, keyboard, and bass instruments akin to a rhythm section in jazz. This five person core is comprised of players who are among the most creative and virtuosic performers of their instruments in the United States. Individually, they perform with the leading period-instrument ensembles.
TRACK LISTING
[1] Prelude in G Major, after BWV 884
[6] Prelude in E Minor, after BWV 855
[11] Prelude in G Minor, after BWV 847a
[12] Prelude in C Minor, after BWV 999
[13] Prelude in C Major
[18] Prelude in E Major, after BWV 815a
Duration 46:03
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