Organization Member
Contact Information
(303) 587-6825
info@seicentobaroque.orghttps://seicentobaroque.org/
Boulder, Colorado
Type of Organization
Performing EnsembleAbout
With a name inspired by the Italian word Seicento which means “six hundred” and refers to the culturally rich 1600s in Italy, the Seicento Baroque Ensemble was founded in 2011 to fill a void in the Colorado choral scene by performing worthy but rarely-heard music of the early baroque musical period. The group is an auditioned chamber choir which uses historically-informed performance practices and period instruments.
Seicento Baroque Ensemble’s concerts are performed with vocal soloists as well as baroque strings, violas da gamba, harpsichord, recorders, sackbuts, baroque flute and oboe, all who specialize in historic performance. Seicento’s concerts and pre-concert talks offer a more in-depth look at the highlighted composers and instruments and incorporate creative connections such as baroque artwork and history. Of special note have been their concerts of music from the Kremsier Archives (Czech Republic); a concert for voices and viols; and a concert of music by Henry Purcell woven to tell a historical fiction about the great comet of 1680, narrated by Charley Samson of Colorado Public Radio; the Western Hemisphere premier of the Delalande Dies Irae; the psalm settings of Italian Jewish composer Salamone Rossi in Hebrew and sacred music from Croatia; and a concert of secular French Baroque opera, songs, and cantatas with French Baroque dancer Elena Mullins. Most recently, Seicento presented a rare (for Colorado) early-instrument performance of the Bach St. John Passion, and a concert comparing the improvisation and embellishment similarities in Baroque music and American jazz.
With education as a part of its mission, Seicento mentors paid apprentice artists, professionals with little or no experience with the performance practices and repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries.
