Festival Concert Series

All events are part of the Amherst Early Music Festival, June 30 to July 14, 2024 on the campus of Union College, in Schenectady, NY

All concerts are at 7:30 pm, except the opera, which begins at 8 pm.
Concerts are free for the public. Masks for audience members may be required.

Lecture with Alison Smith
Tuesday, July 2, 7:30 p.m.

Playing, singing, dancing, and dining at the Accademia Filarmonica in Verona: Music and Sociability in late Renaissance Italy. One of the first and most successful Renaissance musical academies, the Filarmonica attracted famous performers, promoted composers and instrument makers, and often included women in their activities. This talk will focus on ways that elite sociability--and amateur musicians--and made the academy's success possible. Featuring musical examples performed by AEM Festival faculty and staff

Baroque Academy Faculty Concert
Thursday, July 4, 7:30 p.m.
Nott Memorial

With Baroque Academy Faculty: Julie Andrijeski violin, Phoebe Carrai cello, Kathryn Cok harpsichord, Saskia Coolen recorder, Sarah Cunningham viol, Heather Miller Lardin double bass, Kathie Stewart flute, and Wouter Verschuren bassoon.

Baroque Opera: Il Trionfo dell'Onore by Alessandro Scarlatti
Friday, July 5, 8:00 p.m.
Yulman Theater

Co-directed by Jason McStoots and Alessandro Quarta
Lawrence Rosenwald, texts, and Dorothy Olsson, historical dance.

Il trionfo dell'onore (The Triumph of Honour) is an operatic 'commedia' in three acts by the Italian composer Alessandro Scarlatti, with a libretto by Francesco Antonio Tullio. It was first performed at the Teatro dei Fiorentini, Naples, on 26 November 1718. It is Scarlatti's only known comic opera.

Faculty Concert: Tapestry of Early Music I
Saturday, July 6, 7:30 p.m.
Nott Memorial

A variety show of early music through the ages, performed by wonderful AEM faculty using many different instruments and voices. Medieval love songs, Renaissance consort music, high Baroque sonatas, and fantasies that will delight and inspire! Program may include music from Italian composers including Landini, Palestrina, Scarlatti, and Vivaldi, and from Spain, Cabezon, Codex Las Huelgas, Llibre Vermell, Morales, and many others!

 In Stile Moderno
 Tuesday, July 9, 7:30 p.m.
 Nott Memorial

 Misero amante: Songs of Love and Suffering

Enter the world of 17th-century Italy to indulge in every poet’s favorite subject: the joys and pains of love. From the thrill of first attraction to the disappointment of a bad break-up, every moment of the lover’s journey was captured by the most celebrated musicians of the era, including Girolamo Kapsberger, Barbara Strozzi, Giulio Caccini, and Claudio Monteverdi. Alongside light-hearted love songs and heartbreaking laments, the concert will showcase instrumental music for guitars, theorbo, recorder, and cornetto. Agnes Coakley Cox soprano, Nathaniel Cox cornetto, theorbo, guitar, Cameron Welke lute, guitar, theorbo, Dan Meyers recorders, percussion.

Parthenia Viol Consort with Sherezade Panthaki
Thursday, July 11, 7:30 p.m.
Nott Memorial

ITALIA MIA: Music of Renaissance Venice

Musical performance by viol ensemble Parthenia with Soprano Sherezade Panthaki that explores the extraordinary repertoire for the viola da gamba and voice from the 16th to early 17th centuries. Italy is the birthplace of this instrument, and its earliest flourishing was in Venice where composers, musicians, patrons, citizens, instrument builders, and music publishers all mingled to create some of the most beautiful music ever written.. Rosamund Morley treble viol, Lawrence Lipnik tenor viol, Beverly Au bass viol, Lisa Terry bass viol, with Sherezade Panthaki soprano.

Choral Workshop Concert: Victoria and Steffani - the Spanish Golden Age meets Italian Splendor
Friday, July 12, 7:30 p.m.
Nott Memorial

This concert will be dedicated to the memory of Richard Pace.

The Festival's Choral Workshop, directed by Kent Tritle
Program will include pieces by Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548 – 1611): Motet and Missa O Quam Gloriosum for choir with organ, as well as Agostino Steffani (1654 – 1728): Stabat Mater for choir and strings.

Faculty Concert: Tapestry of Early Music II
Saturday, July 13, 7:30 p.m.
Nott Memorial

A variety show of early music through the ages, performed by wonderful AEM faculty using many different instruments and voices. Medieval love songs, Renaissance consort music, high Baroque sonatas, and fantasies that will delight and inspire! Program may include music from Italian composers including Landini, Palestrina, Scarlatti, and Vivaldi, and from Spain, Cabezon, Codex Las Huelgas, Llibre Vermell, Morales, and many others!