A very nice review on our last concert of the season. Thanks to David Hawley of the St. Paul Pioneer Press who also acknowledged the fact that he could not stay for the 2nd half of the performance due to a deadline. Legend has it that Palestrina, perhaps the most-recognized composer before Bach, dissuaded the [...]
ome to one of our four concerts this weekend to hear The Rose Ensemble and London’s Voces8 collaborating with some of the great music written for the Sistine Chapel.
St. Paul, Minn. — White sauce vs. tomato sauce.
Meat vs. fish.
Polenta vs. pasta.
Northern and southern Italy still retain distinct differences in cuisine and culture today.
The difference between the music of the two regions was even more pronounced four hundred years ago.
Let’s face it: History lessons aren’t always fun. Too often, an artistic event that strives toward historical accuracy leaves you feeling educated but not really entertained. Shoring up some cracks in your knowledge base can be worthwhile but seldom extremely enjoyable. However, one of those infrequent occurrences happened Sunday afternoon when St. Paul-based early-music group [...]
The Greater Minnesota Rose Ensemble Tour will soon be upon us and I could use your help to make this tour a success. Since these concerts are self-produced, we do not have the luxury of a presenter to market and publicize these concerts on our behalf. If you have family members, friends, or other contacts [...]
Last Saturday evening I was priviledged to attend a wonderful choral concert, something that I’m not given much opportunity to do. When you are a professional singer, you are usually booked with concerts of your own and so many times concerts overlap your collegues concerts. So when I happened to have a Saturday night free, [...]
In an era accustomed to sensory overload, when stage productions are hard put to compete with the technological wizardry available to film makers, it’s refreshing to spend a couple of hours in a vivid world created simply through the interaction of words and music.
A wonderful weekend of concerts celebrating the release of our new CD “Il Poverello: Medieval & Renaissance Music on the life of St. Francis of Assisi”
Francis was born Giovanni Francesco Bernardone and gave up a life of privilege for the materially impoverished life of a monk. He later founded an order of friars known as the Franciscans.
The patron saint of animals, St. Francis is also the patron of Italy. But his influence was felt well beyond the borders of Assisi and Italy. At Notre Dame in Paris, a group of educated (and perhaps inebriated) monks wrote poetic lines about his life that have a lusty musical setting.
We are thrilled to have performing with us our friends from Legnano, Italy, Isacco Columbo and Stefano Burrati. Isacco came to the US for the first time during our recording session this past August and is just enamored with America. He plays a myriad of instruments, but the most impressive to me is the fife & tabor. It’s kind of like rubbing your head and your belly at the same time in different directions. Check out the video I shot from the first time we met 2 years ago.
I’m back home. It’s was kind of a bittersweet tour for me this time. I loved the Festival, seeing old friends and meeting new ones, singing with new Rosies and making some really fantastic music. The churches were glorious and Piggy gave everyone a great smile. Jordan from The Rose Ensemble has written a couple of [...]
What an amazing evening. We weren’t sure at first how things were going to go. Our bus was due to leave Legnano at 6:30pm, but there was no sign of our guide or our guest instrumentalist. Around 7pm, Issaco arrived explaining that our guide was with the Norway choir and that our packet lunch and [...]
Day 2 began with a quick breakfast at the hotel.. rather decent, actually. It’s buffet style with scrambled eggs, a selection of breads, croissants, pastry, cereals, & fruits. And coffee. But not just any coffee, you see you get a choice of a brewed pot of espresso or a pot of American coffee. I found [...]
For an unprecedented return engagement, The Rose Ensemble has been invited back to participate in the “La Fabbrica del Canto”, an international choral festival that takes place in and around the Milan region of Northern Italy. The following blurb was published in an Italian paper this past week: “The Rose Ensemble dal Minnesota, Usa (torna [...]
There are just some concerts that are worth the time to write about and this is one of them. Not, it wasn’t a classical or early music concert. In fact, this was a jazz concert that I had the extreme luck to attend last night with my husband. The group was the everlasting Manhattan Transfer. [...]
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