The Texas Early Music Project is a performing arts ensemble based in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, that focuses on bringing audiences a closer knowledge and appreciation of

Baroque music Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Classical music, Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance music, Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Class ...

Medieval music Medieval music encompasses the sacred music, sacred and secular music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. It is the Dates of classical music eras, first and longest major era of Western class ...

Renaissance music Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century ''ars nova'', the mus ...

, and early Classical-period music. The group uses historical instruments in keeping with

historically informed performance Historically informed performance (also referred to as period performance, authentic performance, or HIP) is an approach to the performance of Western classical music, classical music which aims to be faithful to the approach, manner and style of ...

practice. The ensemble was founded in 1987 by Daniel Johnson, who remains the group's artistic director. The group is classified as a non-profit organization (

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

) and operates primarily on grant money and donations for individual and corporate supporters. Income is supplemented by ticket sales and merchandise sales. Texas Early Music Project is a member of Early Music America. Performers are primarily professional musicians from the Austin area, although performers visit from Texas at large, from all over the United States, and occasionally internationally.

History

The Texas Early Music project was initially conceived of as an opportunity for student members of The University of Texas at Austin Early Music Ensemble to work and perform with professional musicians, allowing them to explore a wider repertoire and gain performance experience. Over the years, growing popularity and an increased awareness of early music have led to the group's establishment as a prominent presence in the Austin music community, and the group regularly hosts performances in the Austin area at several different venues.

Performances

Between 1995 and 2002, TEMP's orchestra performed in several productions with the UT Opera Theater, including

Purcell Henry Purcell (, rare: ; September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer of Baroque music, most remembered for his more than 100 songs; a tragic opera, ''Dido and Aeneas''; and his incidental music to a version of Shakespeare's ...

's ''

Dido and Aeneas ''Dido and Aeneas'' (Z. 626) is an opera in a prologue and three acts, written by the English Baroque music, Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by Nahum Tate. The dates of the composition and first performance of the opera are uncer ...

'', "Baroque and Loving It" (a pastiche of selections from the works of

Lully Jean-Baptiste Lully ( – 22 March 1687) was a French composer, dancer and instrumentalist of Italian birth, who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he spent most of his life working in the court o ...

Rameau Jean-Philippe Rameau (; ; – ) was a French composer and music theorist. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera a ...

, Cavalli, Cesti, and others, arranged by conductor Daniel Johnson), Cavalli's ''

L'Ormindo ''L'Ormindo'' is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Francesco Cavalli to an original Italian libretto by Giovanni Faustini. The manuscript score is held at the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice,The score is offered digitally aInternet Culturale ...

'',

Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considere ...

's '' Coronation of Poppea'', and

Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel ( ; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well-known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concerti. Born in Halle, Germany, H ...

's ''

Alcina ''Alcina'' (Händel-Werke-Verzeichnis, HWV 34) is a 1735 opera by George Frideric Handel. Handel used the libretto of ''L'isola di Alcina'', a work set to music in 1728 in Rome by Riccardo Broschi, which he had acquired a year later during his t ...

'' and '' Rinaldo''. TEMP has performed at the Early Music Weekend at Round Top Festival Institute, appears regularly at the Texas Early Music Festival in

Palestine, Texas Palestine ( ) is a city in and the County seat, seat of Anderson County, Texas, Anderson County in the U.S. state of Texas. It was named after Palestine, Illinois, by preacher Daniel Parker (Baptist), Daniel Parker, who had migrated from that ...

, and contributed a performance to the Mostly Music Marathon (benefiting AIDS Services of Austin). In 1998, TEMP became a member of the Austin Circle of Theaters (now the

Austin Creative Alliance Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufactu ...

) and initiated its Midwinter Festival of Music (1998–2002), a series of unique concerts and operas performed over six successive weekends. Local performers and guests from Europe and Canada came together for performances of

's '' Rinaldo'' and ''

'',

's ''

King Arthur According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...

'', and other works from the diverse early music repertoire ranging from

Hildegard of Bingen Hildegard of Bingen Benedictines, OSB (, ; ; 17 September 1179), also known as the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictines, Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mysticism, mystic, visiona ...

's chants to

Sephardic Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

love songs to

lieder In the Western classical music tradition, ( , ; , ; ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German and Dutch, but among English and French speakers, is often used interchangea ...

Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; ; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a List of compositions ...

and

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

. Since 2003, TEMP has offered audiences a concert season between the months of September and May. Many concert programs are brought back by popular demand in successive seasons, including "Convivencia: The Three Worlds of Spain" (repeated in 2004, 2005, and 2010) and "The Play of Daniel" (repeated 2003-2005). More recently, in 2012, the ensemble performed

's ''

Ordo Virtutum ''Ordo Virtutum'' (Latin for ''Order of the Virtues'') is an allegorical morality play, or sacred music drama, by Hildegard of Bingen, composed around 1151, during the construction and relocation of her Abbey at Rupertsberg. It is the earliest ...

'' to a sold-out concert hall in downtown Austin.

Awards and honors

*2006- Austin Critic's Table - Best Choral Concert for "Monteverdi's Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, 1610" *2005- Austin Critic's Table - Best Choral Concert for "Pathways to Bach" *2003- Austin Critic's Table - Best Chamber Concert for "Veris Dulcis" *2011- Austin Critic's Table - Best Chamber Concert for "Convivencia: Worlds of Renaissance Spain"

Past and Current Performers

*Laurie Young Stevens, violin, concertmistress *Abby Green, mezzo-soprano,

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', , from Greek , from Turkish ) is a musical instrument popular in West Asia (Syria, Iraq), Europe and Balkans (Greece, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey). It is a member of the long-necked lute fam ...

, percussion *Allison Welch, oboe, alto *Annette Bauer, winds, percussion *Becky Baxter, harp *Boel Gidholm,

Baroque violin A Baroque violin is a violin set up in the manner of the baroque period of music. The term includes original instruments which have survived unmodified since the Baroque period, as well as later instruments adjusted to the baroque setup, and moder ...

& viola,

vielle The is a European bowed stringed instrument used in the medieval period, similar to a modern violin but with a somewhat longer and deeper body, three to five gut strings, and a leaf-shaped pegbox with frontal tuning pegs, sometimes with a fig ...

*Brent Baldwin, baritone *Brett Barnes, baritone *Brian Pettey, baritone *Bruce Brogdon,

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...

theorbo The theorbo is a plucked string instrument of the lute family, with an extended neck that houses the second pegbox. Like a lute, a theorbo has a curved-back sound box with a flat top, typically with one or three sound holes decorated with rose ...

, guitars *Bruce Colson, violin *Cayla Cardiff, mezzo-soprano *Christopher Haritatos, Baroque cello *Christopher LeCluyse, tenor *David Dawson, bass *David Lopez, tenor *David Stevens, tenor *Elaine Barber, harp *Gil Zilkha, bass-baritone *Gitanjali Mathur, soprano *Heidi Hock Kaim, soprano *James Brown,

viola da gamba The viola da gamba (), or viol, or informally gamba, is a bowed and fretted string instrument that is played (i.e. "on the leg"). It is distinct from the later violin family, violin, or ; and it is any one of the earlier viol family of bow (m ...

*Jane Leggiero, viola da gamba, Baroque cello *Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, tenor *Jim Garrison, percussion *Joel Nesvadba, tenor *Jonathan Brumley, lute, keyboard *Jonathan Nesvadba, baritone *Jonathan Riemer, tenor *John Walters, viola da gamba, Baroque cello,

mandola The mandola (US and Canada) or tenor mandola (Ireland and UK) is a fretted, stringed musical instrument. It is to the mandolin what the viola is to the violin: the four double courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola ...

, vielle,

rebec The rebec (sometimes rebecha, rebeckha, and other spellings, pronounced or ) is a bowed stringed instrument of the Medieval era and the early Renaissance. In its most common form, it has a narrow boat-shaped body and one to five strings. Origins ...

*Jos Milton, tenor *Julie Silva, mezzo-soprano, percussion *Kamran Hooshmand, oud,

santur The santur ( ; ) is a hammered dulcimer of Iranian origin.--- Rashid, Subhi Anwar (1989). ''Al-ʼĀlāt al-musīqīyya al-muṣāhiba lil-Maqām al-ʻIrāqī''. Baghdad: Matbaʻat al-ʻUmmāl al-Markazīyya. History The santur was invented ...

*Karen Burciaga, violin, vielle, viola da gamba *Kathlene Ritch, soprano *Keith Womer, keyboard *Kit Robberson, vielle, viola da gamba *Larisa Montanaro, mezzo-soprano *Lisa Alexander, mezzo-soprano *Meredith Ruduski, soprano *Peter Lohman, tenor *Philip Baker, organ, bass *Rebecca Muniz, soprano *Scott Horton, lute, theorbo, guitar, oud *Stephanie Prewitt, mezzo-soprano *Steven Olivares, bass *Susan Richter, alto, recorders,

shawm The shawm () is a Bore (wind instruments)#Conical bore, conical bore, double-reed woodwind instrument made in Europe from the 13th or possibly 12th century to the present day. It achieved its peak of popularity during the medieval and Renaissanc ...

*Temmo Korisheli, tenor *Therese Honey, harp *Tom Zajac, shawm,

sackbut A sackbut is an early form of the trombone used during the Renaissance music, Renaissance and Baroque music, Baroque eras. A sackbut has the characteristic telescopic slide of a trombone, used to vary the length of the tube to change Pitch (m ...

, bagpipe, recorder, percussion

Recordings

The Texas Early Music Project often release recordings of their live performances. Listed below are several notable examples from their diverse catalogue. *1999- The Bonny Broom and Other Scottish Ballads (Professional studio recording) *2005- The Play of Daniel - A 12th Century Mystery Play *2005- Convivencia - Worlds of Renaissance Spain *2005- Pathways to Bach - Music in Germany in the 17th Century *2007- Celtic Knot - Scottish, Irish, and Breton Music from the 15th-20th Centuries *2007- Paris City Limits - Chansons and Dances by Janequin, Josquin, and Others *2010- Stella Splendens - An Early Christmas Music *2010- Night and Day - Sephardic Songs of Love and Exile

References

External links

Official Site
* {{Authority control Early music groups Texas classical music Musical groups established in 1987 Musical groups from Austin, Texas 1987 establishments in Texas