Arcadia Players - New England's Period Instrument Ensemble
Arcadia Players embraces
historical performance practice to illuminate and invigorate the great Western heritage of vocal and instrumental music. |
Arcadia Viols
About Arcadia Viols Members: Alice Robbins, Jane Hershey, Robert Eisenstein, Douglas Kelley, Anne Legêne Arcadia Viols, a consort of viols, or ensemble of violas da gamba, has been associated with Arcadia Players of Western Massachusetts since its founding in 2009. The ensemble has performed in many venues in the North East and beyond, including Stratford Music in Ontario. In 2011 and 2015, the consort performed at the Boston Early Music Festival Fringe Festival. Recent performances include J.S. Bach’s “The Art of the Fugue” at Clark University in Worcester, MA, and at Tufts University; “Lachrimae” in Hadley, MA, and “The Wonder of Will” with Stile Antico and the Folger Consort at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, and in the series “Music before 1800” at Corpus Christi Church in New York City. This past season, the ensemble performed its program of adventurous music from the 17th and 21st centuries, “Viols on the Edge” at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Mount Holyoke Summit House Concerts and Tufts University. Arcadia Viols joined the Crescendo chorus of Limerock, CT in performances of a program of “Elizabethan Music and the Sounds of Hamlet.” In 2022, Arcadia Viols presented a thought-provoking program including a set of pieces based on the hexachord including English Renaissance fantasies as well as Froberger’s fantasia on the hexachord and American composer Larry Wallach’s Restless Hexachords. The program was performed at the Society for Historically Informed Performance in Eastern Massachusetts and at Concerts at 7 in Plainfield, Mass., as well as on the Arcadia Players season in February 2023. Arcadia Viols offers programs of music for 4 or 5 viols. The versatile consort often performs with voice(s), keyboard instruments or lute, and welcomes collaborations with choruses in concert and church settings. Arcadia Viols is equally at home with music from the 20th and 21st centuries as with the vast repertoire of Renaissance and Baroque music available to viols. |
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