KU's Instrumental Collegium Musicum to present fall concert

The University of Kansas Instrumental Collegium Musicum will perform on Sunday, October 24, 2010, 7:30 pm in Swarthout Recital Hall. This fall concert is free and open to the public.

The evening concert will feature two special segments. The first will be a presentation of the ten songs from the Llibre Vermell, a collection of music honoring the Virgin Mary from 14th-century Catalonia, compiled at Montserrat, a monastery and place for Roman Catholic pilgrimages on an unusual mountain outside of Barcelona. The soloist for this segment will be countertenor Chad Payton, a KU doctoral student in voice. The concert will also include selections from The Beggar's Opera, which premiered in London in 1728. This was a satirical work set among the lowest rungs of London society and remained popular for more than a century. Soloists include soprano Ashley Benes and baritone Stephen Dagrosa, also KU graduate students in voice. The concert also will include dances from the time of Henry VIII, two fantasias by Henry Purcell (1659-1695), a string trio by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), and other pieces from the Renaissance and Baroque.

The KU Instrumental Collegium Musicum performs on reproductions of instruments like those in use before the year 1800, such as recorders, viol, vielle, Baroque violin and cello, and harpsichord. The director is Paul Laird, professor of musicology, and the assistant director is Hsun Lin, a doctoral student in musicology.

Visit music.ku.edu or call 785-864-3436 for more information.