Antigua y Moderna

07/12/2020

Currently in dress rehearsal for our event tonight “A Taste Of ‘Giulio Cesare’” at 4 pm Mountain Standard Time! Go check out our event page for more information, including a link to the video! www.facebook.com/events/1454901818035401

05/26/2020

About a year ago today, I announced a series of concerts that would be "Antigua y Moderna"'s first foray into existing as an ensemble. In early June 2019, many of my friends joined me for two live concerts. It was so fun to make music with Corey Sweeney, Harry Musselwhite, John Yuan, Ruxandra Marquardt, Joel Becktell, Jeff Smith, Gabriel Deyarmond, Shea Perry, Lydia Grindatto, Kristin Ditlow, pianist / coach / conductor, and Antigua y Moderna.

While this year brings different challenges, Antigua y Moderna is also looking at opportunity to connect people who wish to further their expertise and enthusiasm in Baroque Performance Practice.
Today I am happy to unveil Antigua y Moderna's "Academy 2020."

You can view it by visiting our website as well -

https://www.antiguaymodernanm.com/academy-2020

We will be focusing on Handel's GIULIO CESARE, and also covering performance practice, ornamentation, Italian diction, recitative, and Handel oratorio and opera history.
Applications are due June 8, 2020. The online festival is July 6-12, 2020.

I am thrilled to be joined by my colleagues Michael Hix and Andrew Megill.

Tuition is $300.00 (application fee - $10.00) and includes:
- vocal instruction (two 60-minute sessions)
- complete role coaching, including customized ornamented arias for every aria of your role
- Italian diction instruction
- complete translation sent to the singers, including breakdown of grammar
- lecture on Handel oratorio and-or opera
- complete recordings / backtracks (piano for orchestral music / harpsichord for recitatives)

The opera will be produced online and the entire work will be released episodically.

We are casting all 8 principal roles (who are also the chorus in the brief moments when a chorus is called).

Giulio Cesare
Curio
Cornelia
Sesto Pompeo
Cleopatra
Tolomeo
Achilla
Nireno

If you have questions or are interested, please send me a pm here or reach out to me at [email protected]. That email will also work for your application.
A presto,
Kristin

Antigua y Moderna will be hosting its festival and young artist program (Academy 2020)  online from July 6-12th, 2020. The festival will focus on Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto, with possible other  baroque works (cantatas) if applicants express interest in something other than the opera.  

06/11/2019

ANCIENT AND MODERN COMING TO LIFE

By D. S. Crafts

It’s always an event to be celebrated when a new performing group comes into being. Conductor and keyboard player Kristin Ditlow Saturday night directed her new ensemble Antigua y Moderna in works primarily from the Baroque period including two cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach. The concert was given in a private house, making it truly an event of chamber music in the original sense.

The organization’s intention is to perform both Baroque and contemporary music. Ever since the demise of theAlbuquerque Baroque Players in 2016 there has been a hole in the historical repertoire that AyM should thankfully fill.
This concert concentrated exclusively on the Antigua aspect of the group's mission, creating an informative mini-tour through the Baroque period essentially. Ms. Ditlow provided illuminating oral comments introducing each piece – obviously a labor of love.

The program began with a work from the English Renaissance. Probably few are familiar with Tallis' piece with the rather unwieldy name Third Tune for Archbishop Parker ("Why F'umth in fight"), however many would recognize the beautiful melody which Vaughan Williams used for his orchestral work Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. It was given here in an excellent arrangement for the full ensemble of 4 vocalists and 6 instrumentalists.

Telemann's cantata Zischet nur, stechet, ihr feurigen Zungen (Just hiss, sting, you fiery tongues) was chosen for its textual relevance to the Southwest as it talks about scorpions, but it also served as an excellent vehicle for the dramatic and evocative talents of tenor Gabriel Deyarmond. Oboist Corey Sweeney translated the trumpet part into delightfully rhythmic figures on her instrument in the opening movement.

Marin Marais was the subject of a film some years ago, Tous les Matins du Mond (All the Mornings of the World). His career as composer and viol player straddled the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Four movements of his Suite in C Major were played with immaculate intonation from the strings (Ruxandra Marquardt, Jeffrey Smith, John Yuan and Joel Becktell) and harpsichord.

It never hurts to point out that J.S. Bach was generally considered in his day to be a composer of minor interest, a backwater town organist who composed because it was part of his job. Posterity obviously thinks otherwise, to say the least. Two cantatas were featured, Nos. 156 and 84 in which we heard the sparkling soprano voices of Lydia Grindatto and Shea Perry alternately. Ms. Sweeney here deftly spun out the long oboe phrases, giving color to the ensemble.

Two solo arias followed from different composers and periods but illustrating the same story, Amadigi or Amadis. In the classic Spanish chivalric romance, Amadis was a conquistador who talks about witnessing the magical wonders of the New World. Ms. Perry returned to sing Handel's Se tu brami (If you alone desire me) followed by the vibrant bass of Harry Musselwhite in Bois Epais (Deep woods) from the early French Baroque composer Jean-Baptiste Lully.
The program ended on the most optimistic note returning to Telemann's music, Das ist meine Freude (This is my joy) which employed the full ensemble and perfectly summarized the beginning of this highly promising new group.

One could hardly ask for a more auspicious inaugural concert displaying musicianship of the very highest caliber. By all means watch for Antigua y Moderna in future.

to afford young professional singers and instrumentalists more training in Baroque and Contemporary repertoire, improvisation, stylization, and performance practice.

06/08/2019

Sound check! See you tonight in Los Lunas

06/07/2019

In rehearsal! Join us tomorrow and Saturday for some gorgeous music ✨🎵

June 7th:
https://www.facebook.com/events/295364231347182/

June 8th:
https://www.facebook.com/events/882393082104213/

06/06/2019

So excited to preparing our first concert. Many thanks to all of our beautiful players and singers! Here is a photo from today's rehearsal.

06/05/2019

In rehearsal ✨
Join us this weekend!

June 7th:
https://www.facebook.com/events/295364231347182/

June 8th:
https://www.facebook.com/events/882393082104213/