Molly Johnston, Brittany Lord, David Gable, Jan Elliott. Photo by Dorene Sykes.
Courante, an Upper Cape-based baroque music quartet, will present “Old World Charm” at Woods Hole’s Church of the Messiah, 22 Church Street, on Sunday, June 9 at 4 PM. The
program will feature baroque and late renaissance chamber music including pieces by Bach, Telemann, Buxtehude, Hotteterre, Purcell, and Salomone Rossi.
Admission is by donation with $15 suggested; children are admitted free. The Church of the Messiah is handicapped accessible, and off-street parking is available.
Courante was founded in 2017, when local musicians David Gable (violin), Jan Elliott (recorder) and Molly Johnston (viola da gamba) discovered their mutual affinity for beautiful and challenging chamber music from the baroque era. Brittany Lord (harpsichord) soon joined the group, completing the “basso continuo” portion of the ensemble.
They perform in a wide variety of European baroque styles, on authentic instruments, with a particular affinity for the music of J.S. Bach; they have been performing Bach’s organ trios as trio sonatas in each concert. They also include at least one French courante or Italian corrente, their namesake dance form, in every performance. This concert will include a set of three correntes by Salomone Rossi. The program will be repeated at the Boston Early Music Festival on June 11, featuring a professional baroque dancer who will dance to one of the correntes.
Elliott holds a BA in music from Wesleyan University and an MA in dance ethnology from UCLA, and studied ethnomusicology at the University of London. Formerly on the music education faculty at Boston University, she maintains a private teaching studio and teaches music and dance at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod. In addition to Courante, she performs with Ensemble Passacaglia and the Woods Hole Recorder Consort, as well with as a number of folk music and dance groups.
Gable holds degrees in violin performance from the University of Michigan and Boston University. He offers private violin lessons, teaches music at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod and the Cape Cod Conservatory, and has performed with many instrumental ensembles across Cape Cod. With Courante he plays a violin dating from eighteenth century Germany, using two bows: a replica of a mid-eighteenth century Italian-style bow made by Donald MacKenzie of Brewster and an English bow from circa 1790.
Johnston holds degrees in music history from Wellesley College and Yale University, and has studied instrumental performance with Adrienne Hartzell, Grace Feldman and Laura Jeppeson. She taught music history at Duke University, where she also directed the Collegium Musicum, performing medieval, renaissance and baroque music. She was the director of the Utah Shakespearean Festival Consort and has taught at the Viola da Gamba Society of America conclave. She also performs with Ensemble Passacaglia and Canto Armonico of Boston.
Lord has been music director at the Church of the Messiah in Woods Hole since 2008. She also maintains a large studio of private piano students on the Upper Cape. Mrs. Lord earned a master’s degree in organ performance from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, where she studied organ with Alan Morrison. She received bachelor’s degrees in both organ performance and music education from the University of Southern Maine. Prior to her organ studies, she studied piano with Robert Noyes, of Durham, Maine
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