April 27, 2006

Early music returns with Cantatafest

The annual Evelyn Dunbar Early Music Festival returns to campus with CantataFest, a series of concerts featuring works from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque eras.

CantataFest promises to be a unique celebration of early music, with these remaining events.

Stephen Alltop will conduct vocal soloists and obbligato instrumentalists at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 29, at Lutkin Hall during the CantataFest Concert I, a performance of chamber cantatas.

The CantataFest II concert, “Cantatas of the German Tradition” at 7 p.m. Sunday, April 30, will be held in Alice Millar Chapel, 1870 Sheridan Rd. Instrumental soloists, the Early Music Ensemble and the Dunbar Festival Orchestra will perform cantatas by Franz Tunder, Dietrich Buxtehude and Johann Christoph Bach, as well as Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata No. 21, “Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis” — one of the master’s largest and grandest works in the genre. Renowned Bach scholar Carl Schalk will discuss the evening’s program in a preconcert presentation at 6 p.m. in Vail Meditation Chapel, adjacent to Alice Millar.

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, the Alice Millar Chapel will resound with the sounds of the composer’s rarely heard “Dixit et Magnificat” and selected Church Sonatas during the Alice Millar Spring Festival Concert at 7 p.m. Sunday, May 14.

To order tickets, call (847) 467-4000. For more information, call the Pick-Staiger Ticket Office at (847) 491-5441 or go to www.pickstaiger.com.