Fourth Concert, The Gloria Consort

Sunday, March 25, 2012, - 3:30 p.m.
               

THE GLORIA CONSORT was formed in 1994 to explore the solo and small chamber ensemble music literature of the European late Renaissance and Baroque eras. The ensemble specializes in European music before 1800 and the programs are based on historically accurate performance practice and played on faithful reconstructions of instruments from that period.

 
Cornettist and recorder soloist Orum Stringer, flautist, Kenton Meyer, and harpsichordist Ernest Meyer comprise the basic ensemble.  For specific programs, distinguished artists are asked to join in to perform larger works for up to seven players. This season viola da gambist Lynn Fergusson joins the ensemble to present a program of French music from the time of Louis XIV.

 
ERNEST MEYER holds degrees from Temple and New York University. He has performed extensively in the Philadelphia area as an oboist with such ensembles as the Concerto Soloists, Pennsylvania Pro Musica and the Delaware Symphony Orchestra. He joined The Gloria Consort as a harpsichordist in 1999. He was an instrumental music teacher in the Philadelphia public schools for many years.

KENTON MEYER holds BFA, MM and MLIS degrees from The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he studied flute with Israel Borouchoff and Samuel Baron. He earned a PhD in musicology at the University of Iowa, specializing in performance practices and the history of musical instruments. His dissertation, The Crumhorn, was published by the UMI Research Press in 1983. He has served on the faculties of Marquette University, The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. He has performed with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Milwaukee early music ensemble Les Jongleurs. Dr. Meyer is now the Assistant Librarian at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

ORUM STRINGER studied Baroque recorder technique with Prof. M. S. Rubin in New York. After coming to Philadelphia in 1973, he extended his studies to include music of Medieval and Renaissance Europe. He mastered the Renaissance cornetto and kortholt and has sung with the Bryn Mawr-Haverford Renaissance choir under the direction of Edward Handy since 1975. He teaches recorder and cornetto and has directed large ensembles in meetings of the American Recorder Society, and in workshops of the Historic Brass Society. He founded The Gloria Consort in 1994 and serves as its director. He sat on the board of the Lower Makefield Society for the Performing Arts (Bucks County, PA) for eight years and, for twelve years, was the artistic director for the Lake Afton Concert Series sponsored by St. Andrew’s Church, Yardley, PA.

A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Lynn Fergusson spent 30 years living and working in Switzerland. She holds a degree in Baroque performance practice from the Schola Cantorum in Basel, with a major in viola da gamba and minor in Baroque cello. She also received training in voice and choral conducting. During her time abroad Ms. Fergusson concertized as soloist and chamber/orchestral musician with numerous early music ensembles throughout Europe, and founded her own viol consort, Chelyos. She was also active as choir conductor, teacher, and ensemble coach. In 2005 she returned to the United States and now lives in Yardley, Pennsylvania. Since her return she has performed with numerous early music ensembles including Tempesta di Mare (Philadelphia), The Washington Bach Consort, Galileo’s Daughter’s (NY), La Fiocco (Bucks County, PA), and La Spirita (Princeton).