La Serenissima: Music of Venice And Her Others Plays St. Bart's 1/29

Great Music at St. Bart's will present Salon/Sanctuary Concerts and The Rose of the Compass Ensemble in a program of 17th century Venetian music entitled "La Serenissima: Music of Venice and her Others" on Sunday, January 29 at 3 pm in the Chapel of St. Bartholomew's Church.

Venice was known as La Serenissima because it managed to maintain an extraordinary level of civil peace throughout its long reign as the dominant political and economic power of the Mediterranean in the 17th century. The economic engine of La Serenissima thrived on diversity, and with an Arabic School, an Armenian Church, and numerous Jewish ghettos, the influence of foreign voices on the sacred music of the Venetian seicento is unmistakable.

Sacred motets of Strozzi, Rigatti, Cavalli and Monteverdi performed in alteration with music of Venice's Armenian, Turkish, and Dalmatian communities comprise this compelling program.

Salon/Sanctuary Concerts
Jessica Gould, soprano
Daniel Swenberg, theorbo
Ai Stein, harpsichord

The Rose of the Compass Ensemble
Nina Stern, recorders & chalumeau
Ara Dinkjian, oud
Glen Velez, percussion

Tickets at $25 with a $15 rate for students/seniors can be purchased at stbarts.org or with a credit card by calling (212) 378-0248, and will be available at the concert desk at St. Bart's Central daily from 9 am - 6 pm and will be available at the door on the afternoon of the concert.

The Great Music Series, produced by the Mid-Manhattan Performing Arts Foundation, Inc., offers a diverse variety of concerts from large scale choral works and organ concerts in the church to chamber music and jazz in the acoustically remarkable chapel. Crucial to the musical programming of the series is St. Bartholomew's Choir, a fully professional choir, and the Boy and Girl Choristers, renowned as one of the finest children's choir in the metropolitan area. The church also possesses an Aeolian/Skinner pipe organ of 168 stops, the largest in New York City and considered to be one of the greatest examples of the American Classic Organ of the 20th century.