2025-2026 SEASON
A Co-Production of Early Music Access Project and Theatro
Tickets: $10-25, available online and at the door
Tickets: $10-25, available online and at the door
|
Saturday, October 4, 2025, 7:30pm
Rock Chapel at Church of Our Saviour, Charlottesville VA |
Sunday, October 5, 2025, 7:30pm
Blackfriars Playhouse, Staunton VA |
|
Shakespeare’s illustrious prose is inextricably linked with the music that was performed in his plays. The Bard frequently directed his characters to burst into song, cannily catering to the vast audiences who flocked to the Globe Theatre, expecting to enjoy the popular melodies of the day that were interwoven throughout the narrative. English novelist and biographer Peter Ackroyd remarked, “It can be argued that Shakespeare was the first dramatist to make song an integral part of the drama and can thus be seen as the begetter of the musical theatre.”
Play, Music! features music from such memorable plays as All’s Well that Ends Well, As You Like It, Hamlet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, and more, penned by prominent 16th-century tunesmiths including John Dowland, King Henry VIII, Richard Tarleton, and Shakespeare himself. Theatro founder Brian Kay is the guest director for this performance. Early Music Access Project and the Shenandoah LGBTQ Center are co-hosting a happy hour prior to our Staunton performance on October 5. All are welcome to join us at 6:30pm on the second floor of the Blackfriars lobby. Buy a drink, mingle with new and old music-loving friends, and meet our stellar artists. Ashlee Foreman, vocals
Brian Kay, vocals & plucked strings David McCormick, baroque violin Anna O’Connell, vocals & historical harp Holly Scarborough, historical winds & percussion |
|
|
Ashlee Foreman, an award-winning soprano from Akron, Ohio, has performed with renowned ensembles including Apollo’s Fire, the New York Philharmonic, and The Cleveland Orchestra at prestigious venues worldwide. Praised for her “tremendous range” and “theatrical assurance,” she is recognized for standout roles in works such as Porgy and Bess and Blind Injustice, as well as her contributions to music education and outreach.
|
|
|
Brian Kay is the Artistic Director of the early music meets early theater group THEATRO, and oversaw their international recording of music from the plays of William Shakespeare. He also works as a recording artist for the Netflix music lab and is a featured soloist on the soundtrack of their original series' The Witcher and The Decameron and created arrangements of Russian folk songs for their upcoming Guillermo del Toro film Frankenstein.
|
|
|
David McCormick is artistic director of Early Music Access Project, executive director of Early Music America, a founding member of Brooklyn-based medieval ensemble Alkemie, and a 2020 fellow of the International Center for Jefferson Studies. He plays a violin by Jonathan Vacanti.
|
|
|
Anna O’Connell is a soprano and harpist specializing in self-accompaniment with folk, medieval, renaissance, and baroque harps. Her research interests include medieval chant, seventeenth-century Italian women composers, and traditional Irish singing.
|
|
|
Holly Scarborough is a California native and medieval–Renaissance music specialist with a Master’s degree from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Based in Basel, Switzerland, she directs ensembles Zweigulden and Parlamento and is Managing Director for ReRenaissance, a monthly concert series and festival devoted to music before 1600.
|
|
AN ENGLISH MASQUE BY JOHANN PEPUSCH
Though Cupid tries to keep lovers Dido and Aeneas united, Mercury has other plans. He commands Aeneas to leave Carthage and establish a new Trojan kingdom, leaving Dido hopelessly heartbroken and alone.
The Death of Dido, first performed in 1716, has a delightfully Italianate musical score by Johann Pepush with an English libretto by Barton Booth. The libretto makes use of the same section of Virgil’s Aeneid as Purcell’s famous 1689 opera Dido and Aeneas, but with a smaller cast of characters. This EMAP production likely marks the first time this work has been performed in North America.
The masque will be preceded by arias and instrumental music from other English theatrical works by Henry Purcell, John Blow, and others. The musical selections will introduce the audience to the characters of the masque, setting the scene for the infamous tale to come.
The Death of Dido, first performed in 1716, has a delightfully Italianate musical score by Johann Pepush with an English libretto by Barton Booth. The libretto makes use of the same section of Virgil’s Aeneid as Purcell’s famous 1689 opera Dido and Aeneas, but with a smaller cast of characters. This EMAP production likely marks the first time this work has been performed in North America.
The masque will be preceded by arias and instrumental music from other English theatrical works by Henry Purcell, John Blow, and others. The musical selections will introduce the audience to the characters of the masque, setting the scene for the infamous tale to come.
|
|
|
EARLY MUSIC ACCESS PROJECT PRESENTS ALKEMIE
Sunday, March 8, 2026, 8pm
The Rotunda at The University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA
FREE ADMISSION (ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED)
Sunday, March 8, 2026, 8pm
The Rotunda at The University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA
FREE ADMISSION (ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED)
Brooklyn-based medieval ensemble Alkemie presents music that shows traces of the medieval zodiac and the ways it mapped onto daily life - including agriculture, recreation, magic, medicine, and personal divination. Do you know when to avoid tree-climbing and bloodletting but to reunite quarrelling friends?
|
Tracy Cowart - voice, harps, percussion
Shira Kammen - vielle, harp Ben Matus - voice, recorders, dulcians, hümmelchen David McCormick - rebec, vielle |
Sian Ricketts - voice, recorders, douçaine
Niccolo Seligmann - vielles, scheitholt, gittern, psaltery, percussion Ellie Sutherland - voice, lyre |
EARLIER THIS SEASON
PRE-SEASON EVENT
