February music events at St. Thomas
The University of St. Thomas welcomes the public to the music performances listed below.
For more information, call the St. Thomas Music Department, (651) 962-5850.
- 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, in St. Mary's Chapel at the St. Paul Seminary, 2260 Summit Ave.: "The Society for the Doctrinal Affectation of Baroque Music" – whose very name pokes fun at the perceived snootiness of classical aficionados – presents its eighth-annual concert. This year's program includes music by "all Italian and Italian wanna-be" composers who wrote in the early and middle Baroque era and were "inspired and fascinated and obsessed with the latest musical thing back then: opera," said Society ringleader Dr. Christopher Kachian, of the St. Thomas music faculty.
The expanding "Society" includes mandolinist and classical guitarist Kachian, organist and harpsichordist Dr. David Jenkins, who is liturgical music director at the St. Paul Seminary, and music faculty member Paul Berget, on viola de gamba and theorbo (a plucked string instrument in the lute family). They'll be joined by St. Thomas art historian and curator Dr. Michelle Nordtorp-Madson, who will provide visual treats and scintillating commentary.
The event is free and open to the public.
- 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 20, in Brady Educational Center auditorium: Dr. Sarah Schmalenberger, assistant professor of music, presents a faculty horn recital. Schmalenberger teaches courses in music history and literature, as well as studio French horn at St. Thomas. She earned her Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Minnesota, with a dissertation on African-American music at the Washington Conservatory of Music. She also holds a master's degree in music education from the University of Michigan, and a bachelor's degree in music education and French horn from Capital University Conservatory of Music.
The recital is free and open to the public.
- 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 22, in St. Mary's Chapel at the St. Paul Seminary, 2260 Summit Ave: The Rose Ensemble, the critically acclaimed Twin Cities early music ensemble, presents "Candlelight Concert: The Secret Society of Notre Dame de Paris." A pre-concert presentation begins at 7 p.m.
Here's how the ensemble describes this program: "Scandal, satire, pilgrimage and politics: Enter Paris at a time when monks were scholars and fierce social commentators, bridging a deep religious faith with a passionate involvement in the secular affairs of a multicultural city. Paris in the 13th century was a starting and stopping point for pilgrims journeying to and from Santiago de Compostela, a more popular pilgrimage destination at the time than either Jerusalem or Rome. Latin was spoken on the street in the scholars' quarter, a city within a city, echoing with a language at once sacred, secular, poetic and political. This is the world the Rose Ensemble brings to the modern stage with an ethereal candlelit concert of rhythmically complex, organic harmonies — a style said to be directly influenced by the syncopated hammering of the construction of the Cathedral of Notre Dame."
Tickets are $17, $25 and $35. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.rosensemble.org.
