March is Ear­ly Music Month! Please join Sin­fo­nia Spir­i­tu­osa for “An After­noon in Italy” as we live up to our name in a sparkling, high-ener­gy pro­gram cel­e­brat­ing Ital­ian baroque music Har­mon­i­cal­ly rich and rhyth­mi­cal­ly play­ful, Francesco Geminiani’s Con­cer­to Grosso Op. 2, No. 4 in D Major, steps out of win­ter into spring with the sun­ny trio of soloists flutist Cathie Apple, vio­lin­ist Tyler Lewis, and cel­list Tim­o­thy Stan­ley. Bas­soon­ist David A. Wells will per­form Sonata No. 8 from Arcan­ge­lo Corelli’s famous and tremen­dous­ly influ­en­tial Opus 5. As part of our Men­tor­ship Pro­gram, we are espe­cial­ly proud and excit­ed to col­lab­o­rate with 11 tal­ent­ed stu­dents from the Davis Senior High Baroque Orches­tra. Don’t miss the oppor­tu­ni­ty to hear these young musi­cians shine as we cel­e­brate Domeni­co Scarlatti’s inspi­ra­tion for the Con­cer­to Grosso in D Minor No. 5 by Charles Avi­son. All the col­or, char­ac­ter and ener­gy of the Four Sea­sons are packed into the emo­tion­al roller coast­er ride of Vivaldi’s Vio­lin Con­cer­to in E Minor, an exhil­a­rat­ing tour de force fea­tur­ing con­cert­mas­ter Jubal Fulks. The Andante Sta­cat­to e Piano of Anto­nio Caldera, with its charm­ing dia­log and ele­gant lilt, pro­vides a thought­ful respite that nods toward a lat­er style. Bring­ing our con­cert to a vibrant end, the pluck­ing and strum­ming of harp­si­chord, baroque gui­tar, arch lute and the­o­r­bo dri­ve the imag­i­na­tive, French-influ­enced vari­a­tions of the grand Cha­conne in A Major by Giuseppe Anto­nio Brescianello.

The Davis Senior High School Baroque Ensem­ble, direct­ed by Ange­lo Moreno, pro­vides 10 – 12th grade stu­dents the rare oppor­tu­ni­ty to focus on Baroque per­for­mance prac­tice and the mas­tery of tech­ni­cal skills on peri­od instru­ments. These instru­ments allow the ensem­ble to recre­ate the style of this era through his­tor­i­cal­ly informed per­for­mances, mak­ing the over­all expe­ri­ence unique­ly engag­ing for stu­dent musi­cians and audi­ences alike. The first group of its kind at the high school lev­el in the coun­try, the DHSBE is nation­al­ly rec­og­nized as a mod­el for oth­er pub­lic school music pro­grams. In 2014 and 2017, the DHSBE was joined by Rachel Bar­ton Pine as a guest solo artist, and was thrilled to wel­come her back for a ben­e­fit con­cert in Octo­ber, 2022. The DHS Baroque Ensem­ble made its debut on the main stage of the 2014 Berke­ley Baroque Fes­ti­val, and was hon­ored to have been invit­ed back for the 2016, 2018, and 2020 Fes­ti­vals. In June of 2014, the group had its first Euro­pean tour to Italy, and in 2017 the ensem­ble enjoyed its sec­ond major inter­na­tion­al tour start­ing in Aus­tria and end­ing in Italy. In June, 2023, the DSHBE is priv­i­leged to return to Europe for a tour to Eng­land, Bel­gium and France.