The Aulos Ensemble Kicks Off SFEMS' 2017-18 Concert Season

The San Francisco Early Music Society's 2017-18 concert season kicks off the weekend of October 20 with three concerts by The Aulos Ensemble. The venerable original instrument ensemble will perform a program devoted to Handel and His World, featuring selections from Henry Purcell's The Fairy Queen, one of Telemann's Paris Quartets and several more pieces for three and four voices by both Handel and Telemann.

The Aulos Ensemble performs at 8 p.m. Friday, October 20 at First Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto; at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, October 21 at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Berkeley; and at 4 p.m. Sunday, October 22 at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in San Francisco. Individual tickets from $15 to $50 as well as season subscription packages are available for purchase online at sfems.org.

Formed in 1973 by five Juilliard graduates, The Aulos Ensemble was one of the very first American ensembles devoted to historical performance practices, and its accomplishments over the past four decades have given it preeminence in the early music movement. For its concerts next month, Aulos examines the connections among Handel, Purcell and Telemann over a period of four decades, from the 1690s through 1730.

The members of The Aulos Ensemble are Christopher Krueger, flauto, traverso and recorder; Marc Schachman, baroque oboe; Linda Quan, baroque violin; Myron Lutzke, baroque cello; and Arthur Haas, harpsichord.

For more information about The Aulos Ensemble including audio and video samples, visit aulos.org.

Founded on a core of winds-shawm, sackbut, recorder, organ, and voice-Ciaramella is directed by Adam and Rotem Gilbert, faculty in the Early Music Program at USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles. They will perform a program of German music composed shortly before and after a watershed year in European history - 1517, the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Included are songs of love, lust and devotion from the Lochamer Liederbuch, the Schedel Liederbuch, the Glogauer Liederbuch, the Songbook of Anna of Cologne and the Kodex Leopold. The program also includes works of Heinrich Isaac, Paul Hofhaimer and Ludwig Senfl, topped off with popular dances collected and arranged by Michael Praetorius.

Founded in 1975, SFEMS is the leading early music community-based service and membership organization in the US. Under the direction of Executive Director Harvey Malloy and President Robert Cole, it is the focal institution in Northern California for the advancement of historically informed performance of early music. Through its concert series, publications, outreach activities, affiliate support and educational programs, SFEMS encourages the development of amateurs, supports professionals, and increases public involvement and participation in early music. SFEMS is the lead presenter of the Berkeley Festival & Exhibition of early music.