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"Peace In Our Time: music of love and loss in the shadow of the Thirty Years' War" Agave Baroque with countertenor Reginald Mobley

St. John's Episcopal Church
Ross, CA

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"Peace In Our Time: music of love and loss in the shadow of the Thirty Years' War" Agave Baroque with countertenor Reginald Mobley

Marin Baroque Presents
Peace In Our Time:
music of love and loss in the shadow of the Thirty Years' War

CD PRE-RELEASE CONCERT

Agave Baroque
"brilliantly virtuosic...shining...profound playing" -Early Music America

featuring star countertenor Reginald L. Mobley
"a young countertenor destined to make his mark..." -Chicago Tribune

Saturday, February 4, 2017 at 8:00pm
St. John's Episcopal Church
14 Lagunitas Rd, Ross, CA 94957

Agave Baroque is...
Aaron Westman, Natalie Carducci, Anna Washburn, and Kati Kyme, violin and viola
William Skeen, viola da gamba and viola da basso
Kevin Cooper, theorbo and baroque guitar
Henry Lebedinsky, chamber organ

Join "the brilliantly virtuosic" and "free-spirited group" (-Early Music America) Agave Baroque to celebrate the upcoming release of their new album featuring the largest Agave band to date with countertenor soloist and Agave regular Reginald L. Mobley. Mr. Mobley is taking time out of his busy schedule of touring in Europe(!) to perform some more intimate, passionate, and heartfelt music with Agave right here in Marin.

2018 will mark the 400th anniversary of the beginning of the Thirty Years War - one of the longest and most destructive in European history. Yet, in the darkest shadows of war, and in the still unstable period following The Peace at Westphalia (1748), we see the immense power that music has to motivate, unite, comfort, heal, and lift people out of the depths of their grief.

This program explores stylus fantasticus a new compositional emphasis on the range and depth of human emotion and its evocation in music that evolved and grew in the countries and territories ravaged by the Thirty Years War. From the heartwrenching sorrow of Johann Christoph Bach's lament Ach, dass ich Wassers gnug hätte, to the feelings of resignation and yearning for a better day to come in David Pohle's Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe, we get a chance to share in the myriad emotions of these musicians, and the people at large, who were affected by terrible conflict . There is also music of hope for a brighter tomorrow, including the virtuosic and passionate Ciaccona from Johann Christoph Bachs cantata Meine Freundin, du bist schön, written for a Bach family wedding, and the barely-contained overflowing joy of Johann Pachelbels legendary Canon and Gigue.

Particularly noted for his crystalline diction and pure, evenly produced tone (Miami Herald), as well as an elaborate and inventive ornamentation (South Florida Classical Review), Countertenor Reginald Mobley is highly sought after for baroque, classical and modern repertoire.

Past performances of note include premiering a reconstruction of Bachs Markus-Passion at the Oregon Bach Festival, devised and led by Matthew Halls, a premiere of Eric Banks Aluta continua: the passion of David Kato Kisule with Coro Allegro, concerts of Bachs Easter Oratorio and Lullys Te Deum with Bach Collegium San Diego, and an extensive tour of sixteen concerts around Europe singing Bachs Matthäus-Passion with the Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists led by Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

Upcoming engagements in the 2016/2017 season include a tour and recording of Bachs Magnificat with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, concerts of Handels Messiah with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, several performances with the Seattle Symphony and Calgary Philharmonic Orchestras as well as an innovative project with the Academy of Ancient Music entitled Bach Reconstructed.

Next season will also see the release of a new disc called Peace In Our Time with the Agave Baroque Ensemble focussing on the 400th anniversary of the beginning of the Thirty Years War one of the longest and most destructive in European history.