Get ready to view a baroque'n-hearted performance Wednesday from 7:30-9:30 p.m. at the Ackland Art Museum.
Heartland Baroque, an ensemble of music specialists from the United States, is known for its passion for playing instrumental music from the 17th and 18th centuries. The ensemble has had concerts at the Boston and Berkley early music festivals, as well as the Early Music for Grace festival. Now, Heartland Baroque is gearing up to perform a concert at Chapel Hill for the upcoming 2018 North Carolina HIP Music Festival, entitled “Baroque'n Hearted: A Valentine’s Love Letter to 17th-Century Italy.”
Barbara Krumdieck, a baroque cellist and one of the founding members of the ensemble, grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she studied baroque cello with Phoebe Carrai at the Conservatory of Music in Hilversum, the Netherlands. She believes that this coming concert will warm everyone’s hearts.
“The concert will feature musical instruments such as a baroque violin, baroque cello, baroque dulcian, baroque guitar and theorbo," Krumdieck said. "We’ll also have a soprano singer that will sing some songs in Italian.”
Keith Collins, another founding member of Heartland Baroque, has performed and taught baroque and classical bassoon with ensembles in North and South America. He is also a founding member of the award-winning shawm and curtal band Ensemble Lipzodes, which specializes in the music of colonial Latin America.
“The music that we’re playing is mostly from Italy,” Collins said. “The songs will be focused around the concepts of romantic love, and we’ll put instrumental music in there as well. I am also super excited to be working with a soprano, since one of the most exciting things about the concert will be sharing this early baroque music with a vocal component.”
Collins studied with Heartland Baroque’s founder, Martha Perry, at Indiana University. There, the vision of an ensemble with a repertoire of baroque instruments came to life.
“I’ve wanted to have a group for a long time that featured a baroque violin,” Perry said. “I’ve had a dream of this for a long time. I had a vision of wanting to play a repertoire of baroque instruments. I was fortunate enough to meet Barbara and Keith — we’ve played together in other ensembles but we cherish the ability to make music together.”
At Indiana University, Perry earned a master of music in early performance/baroque violin and served as the graduate assistant for the baroque orchestra. Her music has been played on radio stations such as Chicago’s WFMT radio and NPR’s “Performance Today.”
