Couperin @ 350
Sunday, October 14, 2018 at 3:00 pm
Chapel of the Cross, 304 E. Franklin St, Chapel Hill
He is known today as Couperin le Grand. François Couperin, born into an illustrious musical family, is the best-known member of this family of French baroque musicians. It is a situation not unlike that of J.S. Bach, who was also born into a family with a long line of distinguished composers and performers and who became its most famous family member.
Our Couperin was born in the fall of 1668, making this autumn a perfect time to celebrate his 350thanniversary. Baroque & Beyond, the early music concert series based in Chapel Hill, will do just that on Sunday, October 14, 2018. B&B’s season opens with Couperin @ 350, celebrating the marvelous musical output of one of France’s creative geniuses.
Our featured guest artist is baroque violist and violinist Sarah Darling from Boston. Baroque & Beyond’s Artistic Director, harpsichordist Beverly Biggs, first heard Sarah several years ago in a concert at the Boston Early Music Festival. It was a memorable musical moment and the two have been working ever since to find a compatible date for Sarah to play on the B&B series.
Sarah has an impressive pedigree. She enjoys a varied musical career that spans many centuries and styles. She holds a variety of leading roles on viola and violin with A Far Cry, the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra, Musicians of the Old Post Road, Boston Baroque, Musical Offering, Les Bostonades, and Gut Reaction, while also performing with the Boston Early Music Festival, the Carmel Bach Festival, Emmanuel Music, Antico Moderno, Grand Harmonie, and Boston Ballet. Sarah has recorded old and new music for Naxos, Linn, Paladino, Azica, MSR, and Centaur Records. She studied at Harvard, Julliard, Amsterdam, and Freiburg (via the Beebe, Paine, and DADD grants), and is currently finishing a doctorate at New England Conservatory with Kim Kashkashian. She is active as a teacher and coach, with a special interest in body mechanics and musical rhetoric, and recent guest sessions at Longy, Yale, and Cornell. Sarah has been described as “focused, nuanced, and arresting” (Boston Musical Intelligencer) and praised for “excellent solos” (Boston Globe), “absolute concentration and astonishing precision” (Badischer Zeitung), and “sympathy and spirit” (Hub Review).
Joining Sarah and Bev for this concert are Sarah Paysnick, baroque flute, a Boston musical colleague of Sarah Darling; and viola da gambist Gail Ann Schroeder, who after a long musical career in Europe, is now based in Asheville. Their biographies are found on the Baroque & Beyond website under Musicians.
Tickets for Couperin @ 350 are available in advance from Preservation Chapel Hill at 919-942-7818 or https://www.preservationchapelhill.org/baroque-beyond. Single tickets are $18 and the three-concert series is $50. Tickets will also be available at the door.
The concert venue is the historic chapel at Chapel of the Cross, 304 E. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514. Suggested parking in the adjacent Planetarium parking lot or the nearby Rosemary Street parking deck.