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Archive of past events: 2004 through 2014
Since its founding in 1990, Musica Pacifica has become widely recognized as one of America's premier baroque ensembles, lauded for both the dazzling virtuosity and the warm expressiveness of its performances. They have been described by the press as "some of the finest baroque musicians in America" (American Record Guide) and "among the best in the world" (Alte Musik Aktuell). At home in the San Francisco Bay area, the artists perform with Philharmonia Baroque and American Bach Soloists, and appear with many other prominent early music ensembles nationally and abroad.
They have performed on some of the most prestigious concert series in the U.S., including Music Before 1800 and the Frick Collection (NY), the Getty Museum (Los Angeles), the Cleveland Art Museum, the Pittsburgh Renaissance and Baroque Society, the Seattle Early Music Guild, the Houston Early Music Society, and the Los Angeles County Museum, among many others. The ensemble has been featured at the Berkeley Early Music Festival three times, and their first appearance there was cited in Early Music (UK) as "perhaps the standout of the entire festival." They have performed at festivals in Germany and Austria and have been heard on German National radio as well as on National Public Radio's "Performance Today" and "Harmonia" and on Minnesota Public Radio. The ensemble is made up of four talented musicians, all with a wealth of training and experience. Judith Linsenberg, recorder, is one of the leading exponents of the recorder in the U. S. and has been acclaimed for her "virtuosity," "expressivity," and "fearless playing." She has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe, including solo appearances at the Hollywood Bowl and Lincoln Center; and has been featured with such leading American ensembles as the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco and Los Angeles Operas, the Oregon Symphony, LA Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque, American Bach Soloists, the Portland and Seattle Baroque Orchestras, the Oregon and Carmel, Bach Festivals, Musica Angelica of Los Angeles, and others. Ms. Linsenberg has recorded for Virgin Classics, Dorian, harmonia mundi usa, Koch International, Reference Recordings, Musical Heritage Society, Drag City Records (with Joanna Newsom), and Hännsler Classics. A Fulbright scholar to Austria, she was awarded the Soloist Diploma with Highest Honors from the Vienna Academy of Music. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University, holds a doctorate in early music from Stanford University, and has been a visiting professor at the Vienna Conservatory and Indiana University's Early Music Institute in Bloomington. Baroque violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock is widely admired as a performer of interpretive eloquence and technical sparkle. A frequent soloist, concertmaster, and leader with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, the Italian ensemble Il Complesso Barocco, and the Goettingen Handel Festspielorchester, she is also a member of several of California's finest period instrument ensembles, including Musica Pacifica, the Arcadian Academy, and Trio Galanterie. She has appeared with period orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout the United States and abroad, and has performed for the Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals, Los Angeles Opera, the Carmel Bach Festival, the Oulunsalo Soi festival in Finland, and the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, among many others. Her numerous recordings for harmonia mundi, Deutsche Grammophon, Virgin Classics, Dorian, BMG, Reference Recordings, and Koch International have included prize-winning discs with several of the above-named ensembles. She is instructor of baroque violin at the University of Southern California, teaches at the International Baroque Institute at Longy, Oberlin's Baroque Performance Institute and the Austrian Baroque Academy, and has coached university Baroque ensembles at USC, Roosevelt University, the University of Virginia, and California Institute of the Arts. John Dornenburg, viola da gamba, has performed as a soloist in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Turkey and the United States. He has made over 30 recordings, mostly on the Centaur and Meridian labels, including solo works by J.S. and C.P.E. Bach, Marais, Abel, Telemann, Sainte Colombe and others. He has performed as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony and the Carmel and Oregon Bach Festivals, and can often be heard in the San Francisco Bay Area with chamber groups such as Magnificat, Music's Re-creation, Sex Chordæ Consort of Viols, and Archetti Baroque String Ensemble. As music director he has led performances of Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, the 1610 Vespers, and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. He studied viola da gamba with Wieland Kuijken at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and performance practice with Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. John teaches viola da gamba at Stanford University, violone at UC Berkeley, and is Emeritus Faculty in music history at California State University, Sacramento. In May 2013 he performed Bach's St. John Passion with members of the Lebanese Symphony in Beirut, Lebanon. His second CD of virtuoso music for unaccompanied viola da gamba was recently released on the Centaur label. Harpsichordist JungHae Kim's playing has been described as "inspired, fluid, emotionally exquisite, warm, and inviting." Her unique style blends sparkling virtuoso technique with a gentle and lyrical sensibility. JungHae holds a Bachelor's Degree in Harpsichord Performance from the Peabody Conservatory, and a Master's Degree in Historical Performance in Harpsichord from the Oberlin Conservatory. She completed her studies with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam on a Haskell Scholarship, and holds an Advanced Degree in Harpsichord Performance from Amsterdam's Sweelinck Conservatorium. JungHae has performed in concert throughout United States, Europe and in Asia as a soloist and with numerous fine historical instrument ensembles including American Baroque, Brandywine Baroque, Musica Angelica, Music's Re-creation, Agave Baroque, and Ensemble Mirable. She has also soloed with some of California's premier modern ensembles including the San Francisco Symphony and the New Century Chamber Orchestra. For additional information including information regarding upcoming concerts, please visit JungHae's website, www.junghaekim.com.
Musica Pacifica's eight CD releases on the Virgin Classics, Dorian and Solimar labels have won national and international awards, including the highest ratings in several CD magazines and being chosen as "CD of the Month" by the early music journal Alte Musik Aktuell (Regensburg). The prestigious Gramophone Magazine (UK), called Dancing in the Isles "one of the zestiest recordings of recent vintage." Fire Beneath My Fingers was touted as "one of the most exciting Baroque recordings I've heard" on Audiophile Audition. Their Telemann CD won Chamber Music America and WQXR's 2003 Record Award honoring the best chamber music recordings of the year, and their Mancini recording was cited as a "Noteworthy Disc" in the 2000 International Antonio Vivaldi Awards for Italian Early Music in Venice.
Online, Musica Pacifica may be heard on radio station 1.fm, Last.fm, Celtic Radio, and Recorder-radio.com; and seen at
youtube.com/MusicaPacificaSF.
More information on the ensemble can be found on their website
www.musicapacifica.org.
The Gualala Arts Center, located at 46501 Old State Highway in Gualala, CA, |
