Salish Sea Early Music Festival begins Jan. 21

This program offers guitar, lute and flute sounds from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.

January 12, 2024 1:30 am

The first of eight 2024 Salish Sea Early Music Festival programs, “Three Centuries: Guitar, Lute and Flute” features German guitarist and lutenist Michael Freimuth on the theorbo — a long-necked lute — and a renaissance guitar, and Jeffrey Cohan on both renaissance and baroque transverse flutes.

Presented in collaboration with the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Whidbey Island, the concert takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday Jan. 21 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, located at 20103 Highway 525 in Freeland.

This program offers an unusual and expansive journey through guitar, lute and flute music from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, including elaborate jazzed-up versions of well-known songs of the time, published by the incredible wind instrument virtuosi of the late 16th century, along with canzonas, sonatas and suites from Spain, Italy, England and France.

The program will include works by 16th century composers Diego Ortiz, William Byrd, Giovanni Bassano and Girolamo Dalla Casa; 17th-century composers Giovanni Paulo Cima, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Giovanni Battista Fontana, Bartolomé de Selma y Salaverde and Giovanni Battista Buonamenti; and 18th-century composers Arcangelo Corelli and André Chéron.

Admission is by suggested donation of $20 to $30. Those ages 18 & under are free. All are welcome regardless of donation.

The Salish Sea Early Music Festival presents early chamber music on period instruments around Salish Sea and in Eastern Washington. It is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and an affiliate organization of Early Music America. For additional information please see salishseafestival.org/whidbey.

Michael Freimuth from Kiel, Germany is dedicated to the lute and guitar music of the 16th through 19th centuries and is one of the most sought-after lutenists in Europe. He has toured both as soloist and with well-known conductors and other soloists in Europe, the U.S., Japan and South Korea.

Flutist Jeffrey Cohan has performed as soloist in 25 countries as one of the foremost specialists on all transverse flutes from the Renaissance through the present. He is the only person to win both the Erwin Bodky Award in Boston and the highest prize awarded in the Flanders Festival International Concours Musica Antiqua in Brugge, Belgium. He has performed throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S., and worldwide for the USIA Arts America Program.