Cambiata (kam' be-a-ta) Italian for "changed."

• Changing notes that invigorate melody and harmony.
• A moving sculpture in Mitchell Auditorium.
• A concert series that celebrates changing styles and enduring values in music.

Enjoy great music and innovative programs, this season includes the following. (Or see the printed brochure in PDF format.)

*Our Cambiata series features The Center for Early Music Orchestra using historical instruments in performances of baroque and classical music.

2008-2009 Cambiata Season

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The Muse's Mistress

Emily Van Evera - soprano

Stephen Stubbs - theorbo/lute, baroque guitar

A rare chance to hear music of heart-rending beauty by two singer-songwriters of the 17th-century: the acclaimed Venetian virtuoso songstress, Barbara Strozzi, and Francesca Caccini, star singer and composer to the Medici family in Florence. Prepare for stirring flights of fancy and audacious invention, for beguiling songs of love and yearning, alongside the serenest of hymns.

A rare opportunity, too, to hear internationally acclaimed artists Emily Van Evera - a Duluth native and singer, who has made interpreting the music of these two composers a particular specialty - and lutenist Steven Stubbs, who partners with her tonight on theorbo, lute and baroque guitar.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Blues & the Depression: for Drinks and Tips

Country Blues from the 1920s and 30s

Bill Bastian - voice and guitar

Music, not unlike religious faith, lives in a relationship that is inversely proportionate to society's relative comfort. When life is comfortable, music and faith become casual, "take it or leave it" experiences, frills that money can buy at a whim. In hard times, both music and faith become necessities in part because, like manna from heaven, they cost nothing. When money is scarce, one seeks joy through one's heart where music and faith are freely available.

The Depression is said to have started on Black Tuesday with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929, but in rural America it started earlier. People without money had to find happiness through their own creativity. Woody Guthrie and Robert Johnson are just two of the hundreds of such people who often performed in places of ill-repute, literally "for drinks and tips," neither of which was taxable, since tips were not recorded and liquor was illegal.

This recital by Bill Bastian presents country blues and folk music from the 1920s and 30s as it was performed on front porches, at barn dances, in juke joints and schools, in churches and brothels, and, of course, at ice cream socials. Come back to a time when folks drank water from their own wells, ate food from their own gardens, and lived a proud life, molded by their own hands.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Handel's Messiah Sing-along

FREE ADMISSION

Bring your friends, family and your voice to our 28^th annual sing-along of Handel's Messiah. You provide the singing and the St. Scholastica Center for Early Music Orchestra will provide the accompaniment. Shelley Gruskin directs this wonderful holiday event. Scores will be available for purchase at the door. There are also a limited number of scores to borrow for the evening, available at the door.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Haydn from the local authorities

St. Scholastica Center for Early Music Orchestra

Shelley Gruskin, director

Two hundred years after his death, the music of Franz Joseph Haydn is still alive and vital. Join our period-instrument orchestra and tenor Bill Bastian for a concert celebrating the joy, humor, and profundity of Haydn's compositions ranging from his earliest symphonies to arias from his late masterpieces The Creation and The Seasons.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Dvorak and more

Pianist LeAnn House is joined by Penny Schwarze and Laurie Bastian on violin, Ronald Kari on viola, and Rebecca Peterson on cello for a performance of Dvorak's Piano Quintet, full of intoxicating melodies, vibrant rhythms, and exotic moods. The program will also include a set of House's compositions to texts by poet Nancy Fitzgerald, performed by tenor Bill Bastian, recorder virtuoso Shelley Gruskin, Schwarze, and House. The program is rounded out with Beethoven's Sonata for piano, Op. 109.

General Information:

All concerts are at 7:30 p.m. in Mitchell auditorium.

Advance Sales/More Information: Call (218) 723-7000.

Ticket Information: Tickets may be purchased at the door starting 30 minutes before the concert. Ticket prices are $12 for adults and $6 for students age 18 and younger (or with current college ID). All performances are open seating.

*BUY FOUR TICKETS AND SAVE! But four tickets for any combination of Cambaita Series concerts and receive a discount of $6 (four adult tickets = $42; four student tickets = $18). Tickets for the entire Cambiata Series will be available at the door on Oct. 7; tickets for all remaining concerts will be available at each subsequent concert.