Chatham Baroque

“One of Pittsburgh’s greatest treasures” says the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Chatham Baroque continues to excite local, national, and international audiences with dazzling technique and lively interpretations of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century music played on instruments of the period. Founded in 1990, Chatham Baroque celebrates its twentieth season this year with a full calendar of concerts, tours, musical collaborations, and the CD release in December of vocal and instrumental works by the Italian composer Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger. The trio of baroque violin, viola da gamba, theorbo and baroque guitar tours nationally and internationally, has recorded seven CDs on the Dorian label and hosts a successful concert series in Pittsburgh.

The concert series offers Pittsburgh audiences the opportunity to hear baroque music that is accessible and thrillingly vivid, with a freshness akin to improvisational jazz. The Post-Gazette proclaims, “Pound for pound, you aren’t going to find a better ensemble in Pittsburgh than Chatham Baroque, and with a repertoire rich for rediscovery for most music-lovers, we might very well be seeing, and hearing, a renaissance of this local baroque gem.”(February 22, 2010)

The ensemble’s 2010-2011 season opened in September with the program Mediterranean Odyssey, and continues in December with Cantadas de Navidad: A Latin American Christmas. In February, the ensemble presents Trio Grande, a trio-only concert with music by Heinrich Biber, J.S. Bach and Arvo Pärt. The season concludes in March with the Pittsburgh premiere of the 1725 version of J. S. Bach’s St. John Passion. Led by esteemed Bach scholar and conductor Don Franklin, this monumental work will be performed with the exact forces used by Bach himself. The trio’s Pittsburgh engagements this season have been substantially broadened by exciting collaborations with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Opera, Renaissance & Baroque, Phipps Conservatory, Renaissance City Choirs, and Attack Theatre.

Chatham Baroque has toured across the United States as well as in South America and Mexico, the Virgin Islands, and Canada. Highlights of this season’s tours include concerts in Oregon, Delaware, New York, Kansas, Wisconsin, and Washington, DC.  On the road, the ensemble consistently receives high praise. The Washington Post calls them “musically impeccable”; the Chicago Tribune, “a splendid period-instruments ensemble”; and the New York Times praises their “colorful virtuosity.”

Chatham Baroque is repeatedly listed among the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s “Top 50 Cultural Forces in Pittsburgh” and “Ten Best Classical Concerts.” The ensemble prides itself on its commitment to the Pittsburgh region and its ability to serve nationally and abroad as ambassadors for the city. In addition to local and touring concerts and recording, Chatham Baroque presents Peanut Butter & Jam Sessions for pre-schoolers and Music All Over the Place performances in various community venues. Chatham Baroque is Ensemble-in-Residence at WQED-FM and Calvary Episcopal Church.

For more on the musicians, click here for their biographies.