DUO MARCHAND

Renaissance music for
lute, voice, and harp

Andy Rutherford, lute
Marcia Young, soprano and harp

ABOUT DUO MARCHAND

"Thoughtfully prepared and deftly executed. . . . every individual selection contributed to a greater totality. . . . the purely instrumental selections occasionally sounded as if they were emanating from some ancient, delicate music box—as an antiquated intricacy somehow preserved for 21st-century ears."

—The Washington Post
on "Songs of Fortune and Time's Flight," July 2002

Duo Marchand takes its name from a family of court musicians that flourished in 17th-century France. In recent seasons the Duo has performed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Cloisters; CityMusic in Columbus (OH); the Great Falls (VA) Chamber Music Series; The Hudson (NY) Opera House; The Chapel of Our Lady Restoration in Cold Spring (NY); the Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments; The French Church on Historic Huguenot Street, New Paltz (NY); and the Yale Center for British Art. The Duo was also presented by the New York Botanical Garden in a series of performances ancillary to its special exhibition, "The New Renaissance Garden."

In recent seasons Duo Marchand performed a series of concerts under the auspices of the New York Public Library's exhibition of illuminated manuscripts, "The Splendor of the Word." The Duo also returned to Washington D.C.'s historic downtown Church of the Epiphany with a program of songs from the Shakespeare plays. This program has twice been broadcast nationwide over Sirius Satellite Radio. In November 2007 Duo Marchand made its first appearance on the St. Andrews Music Society series at Madison Avenue Presbyterian in New York. Upcoming is a return to the Lute Society of America Conference and Seminar at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland; and in autumn 2008, a concert under the auspices of the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, spotlighting Duo Marchand's vintage English Guittar and Baroque triple harp.


"A skilled, cogently thought-out performance. . . . Young's gentle voice glided easily between her highest and lowest notes, adhering carefully to phrasing that made both musical and poetic sense. The duo . . . captured every emotional color and musical inflection."

—The Washington Post
on "Sounds and Sweet Airs: Songs from Shakespeare,"April 2006



LISTEN!

This merry pleasant Spring

ARTIST BIOS

"Young has an elegant, dark-hued soprano voice that she employs with a winning mixture of formal restraint and emotional intensity. Her diction is excellent, her pitch sense spot-on."

—The Washington Post

" . . . Marcia Young's soprano adds a welcome degree of clarity and focus to the overall sound."

—American Record Guide
(On "Masters, Monsters, & Mazes"—TREFOIL—MSR 1095)

Soprano and historical harper MARCIA YOUNG is a regular member of the renaissance group My Lord Chamberlain's Consort and the medieval trio Trefoil, which has toured widely since its founding in 2000. In recent years she has performed with the Folger Consort, the Newberry Consort, Parthenia, and the renaissance band Piffaro, and has been heard in recital on the Ars Antiqua series in Chappaqua (NY) and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Young has taught vocal and instrumental classes at the San Francisco Early Music Society's Medieval and Renaissance Workshop. During the academic year she serves as director of performance studies for Stern College, Yeshiva University. Also a music journalist, Young writes regularly for Opera News, Playbill, and Chamber Music America and is heard nationwide as an announcer for the classical music stations of Sirius Satellite Radio.

"Rutherford was in every way a sympathetic partner. . . . [he] plucked his lute with digital dexterity and an unusually keen sense of shading."

—The Washington Post

ANDY RUTHERFORD began studying the lute in connection with his interest in 17th-century art, especially the paintings of Caravaggio and Vermeer, which often feature the instrument. A regular member of My Lord Chamberlain's Consort, Rutherford has also appeared at Tanglewood and Lincoln Center with the Mark Morris Dance Group, and on the Temple of Dendur series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He performs regularly with such ensembles as Parthenia, the New York Consort of Viols, Musica Antiqua New York, Chacona, New York's Ensemble for Early Music, and the Big Apple Baroque Band. Internationally recognized as a builder of lute-family instruments, Mr. Rutherford has taught and lectured on the history of lute design at the Lute Society of America Conference and Seminar.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS LEE

COMING CONCERTS

Wednesday, Nov. 5, 6:00 p.m.
Yeshiva University Museum at the Center for Jewish History
A Merry Heart: Music for a Wandering People
15 West 16th Street, New York

Thursday, April 23, 2009, 8:00 p.m.
New series: Thursdays at 8
Church of the Ascension
221 West 107th Street (at Amsterdam)
Sounds and Sweet Aires: Songs from Shakespeare's Plays

Monday, April 27, 2009, 1:00 p.m.
Concerts at One, St. Paul's Chapel
Jubal's Lyre: A 1770 Musicale
Broadway and Fulton Street, New York

June 2010
Lute Society of America Conference and Seminar
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio
Program and details TBA


RECENT CONCERTS

Wednesday, April 9, 2008, 1:15 p.m.
Music for the Spirit, Midtown Concerts
Church of St. Bartholomew
Park Avenue at 50th Street, New York
Jubal's Lyre: A 1770 Musicale

Tuesday, April 29, 2008, 12:30 p.m.
A Little Midday Music series
Church of the Transfiguration (Little Church Around the Corner)
One East 29th Street, New York
Jubal's Lyre: A 1770 Musicale

Mother's Day (Sunday, May 11, 2008), 4:00 p.m.
Music and Arts Healing Ministry
St. Jacobi Evangelical Lutheran Church
5406 Fourth Avenue, Sunset Park
Brooklyn, New York
Jubal's Lyre: A 1770 Musicale

Tuesday, June 23, 2008, 10:30 p.m.
Lute Society of America Conference and Seminar
Harkness Chapel, Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio
Jubal's Lyre: A 1770 Musicale

Monday, September 8, 2008, 7:00 p.m.
Yeshiva University Museum at the Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street, New York
A Merry Heart: Music for a Wandering People

CURRENT PROGRAMS

'Tis Nature's Voice.—The Duo sings of Nature and her charms in 17th-century songs and pastoral dance melodies. Birds and flowers, sunlight and shadow, and the fierce and gentle gods of the natural world play leading roles in the verses of Renaissance poets like Campion, Jonson, and Shakespeare.

Wake all the Dead, what ho! What ho!—Originally conceived as a 17th-century Halloween program, featuring songs of death and the spirit world—including "Fortune my foe," the famous "Hanging Tune" of Elizabethan England.






Jubal's Lyre: A 1770 Musicale—This program gives an overview of the domestic music-making scene of Colonial America, which maintained close ties to trends and fashions in the British Isles, including the London stage. The spotlight is on Duo Marchand's vintage 1770 "English Guittar" (at left) and Baroque triple harp.

Sounds and Sweet Airs.—Songs from the Shakespeare plays in settings from the Bard's time, as well as from later 17th-century productions with incidental music by such composers as Purcell and Blow.

Courtly Pastimes.—Music of fashion in the European courts of the 16th century, including examples of the Italian frottola, the Parisian chanson, and songs and instrumentals from the music- and dance-loving court of Henry VIII.

Songs for Sovereigns.—Music designed to flatter and delight Queen Elizabeth—as well as her successor, King James—with direct references to such royal virtues as beauty, chastity, wisdom, benevolence, and courage in battle. Instrumentals include "Queen Elizabeth's Galliard," "The Queen's Goodnight," and Elizabeth's favorite dance tune, "La volta."

Amor e gratioso: Music for a Renaissance Spring.—The pastoral tradition in 16th-century French, Italian, and English song, together with lute fantasias and instrumental dances.

CONTACT INFORMATION

E-mail LuteWorld@gmail.com

or call (212) 262-0337

Also visit:

http://www.angelfire.com/music7/mylordchamberlains

http://www.trefoiltrio.com/