Renaissance Psalms, Irish Baroque & Folk
Salish Sea Early Music Festival
Church of the Holy Spirit Vashon - Episcopal
Monday, May 6 at NOON

“Renaissance Psalms, Irish Baroque and Folk: Three Centuries of Folk Song” features Oleg Timofeyev and Jeffrey Cohan in a performance of three centuries of European, Scottish and Irish folk music, both sacred and secular, from the Renaissance, Baroque and Romantic periods on the plucked instruments and transverse flutes of three centuries. This is the sixth program in this year’s Salish Sea Early Music Festival bringing period instrument performances of early music to Vashon Island.

The program, in three parts, opens with settings of Psalms and variations on folk melodies by early 17th-century flutist Jacob Van Eyck, lutenist Nicolas Vallet and others performed on renaissance lute and flute. Then, baroque flute and the rare English Guitar of the 18th century will be heard performing the folk tunes of Scotland and Ireland as interpreted by the early 18th-century composers Francesco Barsanti, Turlough O'Carolan, James Oswald and others. Finally, an Eastern European 7-string guitar made in 1820 and an eight-keyed flute made in London in 1820 will be heard performing variations on folk music by the virtuoso flutists and guitarists of Beethoven’s day.

Presented in collaboration with the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit, the concert takes place on Monday noon, May 6, 2024 at 12:00 PM at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit at 15420 Vashon Highway SW on Vashon Island. Admission is by suggested donation (a free will offering) of $20 to $30. Those 18 & under are free. For additional information please see www.salishseafestival.org/vashon.

About the Artists:

OLEG TIMOFEYEV is an American guitarist, lutenist and musicologist, best known for his pioneering work in the discovery, promotion, interpretation, and authentic performance of the repertoire for the 19th- and 20th-century Eastern European seven-string guitar. He began his study of the classical guitar in the early 1980s under the tutelage of Kamill Frauchi in Moscow. In 1989 his musical interests brought him to the U.S., where he studied with Patrick O'Brien, James Tyler, and Hopkinson Smith. He holds an M.A. in Early Music Performance from the University of Southern California (1993), and a Ph.D. in Performance Practice from Duke University.

Timofeyev has performed and taught widely in Europe and the United States. A recipient of numerous scholarly awards, including IREX and Fulbright fellowships, he has taught and lectured at Maimonides State Academy (Moscow), Duke University, the University of Kansas, Northwestern University, Princeton University, the University of Iowa, Grinnell College, and the Smithsonian. His publications include a range of articles on the guitar in Russia, including entries in several standard musical reference works. One of the most prolific Russian guitarists living outside of Russia, he has to date released 12 CD recordings on international labels.

JEFFREY COHAN, who according to the New York Times can “play several superstar flutists one might name under the table”, has performed throughout Europe, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and for the USIA Arts America Program in the South Pacific, South America, Turkey and Portugal. First Prize winner of the Olga Koussevitzky Young Artist Competition in New York and recipient of grants from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music and the French Government, he has received international acclaim both as a modern flutist and as one of the foremost specialists on transverse flutes from the renaissance through the early 19th century. He is the only musician to have been awarded both the highest prize in the Concours Musica Antiqua in Bruges, Belgium, which he won together with lutenist Stephen Stubbs, and the Erwin Bodky Award in Boston - two of the most prestigious prizes for performers on period instruments. He is artistic director of the Salish Sea Early Music Festival.

Upcominging 2024 Salish Sea Early Music Festival performances at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit:

— Monday, May 27 at 12:00 NOON:

• Baroque Concerti • harpsichordist Jonathan Oddie, violinist Carrie Krause, violinist Elisabeth Phelps, violist Victoria Gunn, cellist Martin Bonham & Jeffrey Cohan on baroque flute

— Monday, July 1 at 12:00 NOON:

• Johann Sebastian Bach • harpsichordist Irene Roldan and flutist Jeffrey Cohan