Voices of Music will Launch a New Project with a Special Pre-Season Event

The subscription season of Voices of Music will not begin until December, as it has done in the past. However, tomorrow night there will be a special concert, which will inaugurate a new project called The Voice of the Viol, specializing in solo and ensemble music for the viola da gamba. The project is directed by Adaiha MacAdam-Somer, who was one of the winners of Voices of Music’s 2012 Bach Competition with her performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1007 solo cello suite in G major. Later that year MacAdam-Somer spent her summer as a student at the American Bach Soloists (ABS) Academy and contributed extensively to all three of the Academy-in-Action recitals held as part of the ABS Festival concerts.

The first program in The Voice of the Viol will provide as much attention to the first noun as to the second. The evening will feature consort songs by the English composers William Byrd and Antonio Ferrabosco (of Italian descent) and by the Spanish composers Cristóbal de Morales and Tomás Luis de Victoria. The vocalist will be Phoebe Rosquist. MacAdam-Somer will play in the accompanying viol consort along with Joanna Blendulf, Farley Pearce, and Elizabeth Reed. Continuo will be provided by David Tayler on lute.

Both the date and the venue will depart from those of the usual Voices of Music events. The performance will take place on a Friday evening, tomorrow, October 7, beginning at 8 p.m. The venue will be Old First Church, located at 1751 Sacramento Street on the southeast corner of Van Ness Avenue. Admission will be free to subscribers, and those interested in subscribing will be able to do so at the door. Information about the concerts for the season may be found at the Voices of Music 2016–2017 Concert Series Web page, which also has a hyperlink for purchasing subscriptions. Subscriptions may also be purchased prior to tomorrow night’s concert by calling 415-260-4687. For those wishing only to attend tomorrow night’s concert, general admission will be $40 with a discounted rate of $35 for seniors and members of SFEMS, ARS, or EMA. Student tickets are $5. Single tickets may be purchased online in advance through an Arts People event page.