Early Music Around Town
A timely shortlist of local early music concerts and events.
To view the entire season of concerts and events, consult the current Master Calendar.
Please note that SCEMS does not present or sponsor concerts.
The listings below include early music related concerts and events offered by organizations throughout the Southern California area. Readers are advised to call ahead to verify events, times, and ticket availability, which are subject to change.
Master Calendars
Credit: Renaissance minstrels in Augsburg (1520). iStock.com/© gameover2012
August 2020
Saturday, August 15, 2020 at 5 PM (PST)
Soo Bin Kwon: Virtual listening party! Hildegard von Bingen's music sung by Soo Bin Kwon
This 20-min online event will consist of Soo Bin describing the project and us listening to some of the recordings together, specifically recordings of Spiritus sanctus vivificans and O quam preciosa, both by Hildegard. All recordings will be released online after this event.
If you had the pleasure of hearing Soo Bin sing Hildegard in concerts by the UCLA Early Music Ensemble, you know that she has a phenomenal voice for Hildegard. FREE.
Go to the Facebook page for the
Ongoing Friday releases
John Eliot Gardiner : Monteverdi and his Constellation: Podcast series
John Eliot Gardiner presents a new podcast series exploring Monteverdi’s role at the centre of seismic shifts and tumultuous advances in all the arts and sciences during the early 1600s, spearheaded by his contemporaries - Galileo, Kepler, Bacon, Shakespeare, Caravaggio and Rubens.Across eight episodes, with the help of specially recorded musical illustrations and a handpicked team of experts, Gardiner guides listeners through an in-depth investigation into the development of the early-modern mind.
The series at a glance
The first three decades of the 17th century saw intellectual ferment bubbling up across Europe, epitomised by a single generation of visionary artists and scientists, all born in the 1560s or ’70s. Galileo, Kepler, and Bacon spearheaded a scientific and philosophical revolution, while Shakespeare, Caravaggio and Rubens made radical innovations in the arts, as did a pioneer group of women creative artists and interpreters. This constellation of game-changers extended the map of human knowledge, overturned traditional views, and helped usher in the modern world. But why do historians routinely overlook their exact contemporary, the composer Claudio Monteverdi, whose contributions were no less ground-breaking. Bringing his work and its historical context to life with the help of specially recorded musical illustrations and a handpicked team of experts, Sir John Eliot Gardiner guides listeners through an in-depth investigation into the causes of this seismic shift and the development of the early-modern mind.
Episode 1: Something in the air
Episode 2: ”The intertrafficke of the minde”
Episode 3: The new art of science
Episode 4: How music catches up
Episode 5: The anatomy of melancholy
Episode 6: “More beautiful than the truth”
Episode 7: Celebrating the self
Episode 8: The window of opportunity closes
The first episode in the series, ‘Something in the air’ is now available to listen to
https://monteverdi.co.uk/monteverdi-constellation-podcast-series
Subsequent episodes will be released every following Friday.