NJ-based viol consort to play new and old music for old instruments in innovative free program at Mt. Tabor Tabernacle

MONTCLAIR, NJ. The Cisraritanian Consort of Viols will play consort music from the 16th, 17th, and 21st centuries in a program titled “Where We’ve Come From; Where We’re Going” at the Tabernacle, Mt. Tabor (Parsippany) NJ on Saturday, September 17, at 7:30 pm. The concert is free and open to the public.

The consort, founded in 2010 by longtime Montclair NJ resident and early-music specialist Roland Hutchinson will play classic viol fantasies, in nomines, and ayres from 16th- and 17th-century England by John Taverner, William Byrd, John Dowland, Orlando Gibbons, John Ward and John Jenkins. Some of these, together with a selection of Renaissance madrigals and songs from continental Europe, have been paired with contemporary works similar in spirit by living American composers Martha Bishop, Will Ayton, Barbara Logen. The result is intended to be a varied but highly accessible and audience-friendly program of music from the two “golden ages” of music for the viol consort.

The historic wooden Tabernacle in Mount Tabor has been described by acoustic-music veteran, singer-songwriter, and eclectic rocker John Sebastian as a “building [that] plays like a vintage guitar.” Its splendid old-school acoustics form an ideal complement to the sweet and soul-stirring tones of the viols.

For additional information, call Hutchinson at 973 509-2165.

About the Cisraritanian Consort of Viols

The Cisraritanian Consort of Viols was established as an outgrowth of the performing and teaching activities of Roland Hutchinson, a California-born, American-trained early-string specialist who has long hung out his shingle as the Garden State’s foremost exponent of the viol, also known as the viola da gamba. (This, as the Star-Ledger has observed, is “comparable to being ruler of an exceptionally small duchy.”)

“We took our name from the region we fondly and whimsically call ‘Cisraritania'—‘the land this side of the Raritan River,’ ” says Hutchinson.

In addition to presenting its performing ensemble of New Jersey-based violists da gamba, the consort is developing projects to promote the viol and early music generally throughout metro New Jersey. The consort has given lecture-recitals and classes in viol playing for the Chamber Music Institute of the American String Teachers Association (New Jersey Chapter), a two-week residential course for young string players held on the campus of Kean University.

Hutchinson adds that, “we are actively seeking New Jersey amateur and professional string players who are interested in learning more about, or learning to play, the viol. They can often join one of our outreach activities at no or low cost.”

About the viol family

The viols are bowed stringed instruments, cousins to the violin family of our modern orchestra. Both families of bowed instruments made their first appearance in Europe at the very end of the 15th century.

The commonly encountered members of the viol family are the treble viol,tenor viol, and bass viol, corresponding roughly to the violin, viola, and cello in the violin family and, like them, varying in size according to their musical range. An ensemble of three, four, five, or six viols of assorted sizes is termed a “viol consort.”

Unlike the two violinists, one viola player, and one cellist of a modern string quartet, all members of a viol consort usually play more than one size of instrument, and the sizes of instrument required can vary between one composition and another. This flexibility is facilitated by the fact that all viols are held vertically (cello-wise; in Italian “da gamba,” i.e. using the legs—which is why the viols are also known as violas da gamba). Consequently, the playing technique remains similar for all the instruments of the consort despite their considerable variation in size.

Lightly built, with a flat back, six or seven strings, and tied gut frets on the fingerboard, the viols are tuned similarly to plucked instruments such as the guitar or lute, and they share certain acoustical characteristics with these, being built in a way that favors resonance rather han absolute volume of tone. Perhaps because they are quieter than the violins, the viols had fallen out of widespread use by the end of the 18th century as the focus of music making moved from smaller private spaces to large, public concert halls.

After resting unseen, unheard, and all but ­unremembered for over a hundred years, the viols, along with other early instruments such as the harpsichord and recorder, started to be revived toward the end of the 19th century as early instrumental music began attracting devotees—few in number at first, but steadily increasing throughout the course of the 20th century and into the 21st. The Viola da Gamba Society of America, founded in 1964, currently numbers well over a thousand members, and the instrument is now taught at leading conservatories and music schools worldwide.

In addition to historical repertoire from the 16th through the 18th centuries, both the viola da gamba as a solo instrument and the viol consort as a chamber ensemble possess surprisingly large repertoires of new music from the 20th and 21st centuries.

About the members of the consort

Consort founder Roland Hutchinson has performed on viola da gamba with groups including Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (San Francisco), the Bach Aria Group, and the Boston Camerata; taught viola da gamba at Stanford University, at Sarah Lawrence College, and at Montclair State University; demonstrated the viola da gamba and historical string technique for the Juilliard School and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; lectured on the baryton and on early tuning systems for the Viola da Gamba Society of America; and taught at workshops for the Society and its regional chapters, for Viols West, and for Amherst Early Music. In addition to broadcast performances on public radio in the USA and on Dutch television, his recording credits include discs on the Erato and Centaur labels as well as the Hauschka Ensemble's CD of the complete music for two barytons by Joseph Haydn on Esoteric Binaural.

Hutchinson studied viola da gamba with the noted American teachers Sarah Cunningham and John Hsu, and musicology and early-music performance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at Stanford University. In his modern-instrument life in New Jersey, in addition to doing a bit of conducting and composing when he can, he has served as principal viola and/or acting concertmaster of the Livingston, Ridgewood,and Metropolitan symphony orchestras, the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey, the August Symphony Orchestra, the Garden State Sinfonia, and the orchestras of New Jersey Concert Opera, the Essex County Summer Players, and the Society of Musical Arts. He has been profiled in “I am New Jersey,” the Star-Ledger series “about New Jerseyans who make the Garden State a better place.”

Ilizabeth Cabrera has a Bachelors in Music from Hartt School of Music (Hartford, CT) and a Master of Music Degree from Mason Gross School of the Arts of Rutgers University. She studied cello with David Finckel, Paul Olefsky, David Wells, Stephen Kates, and Yehuda Hanani, and participated in master classes with Raya Garbousova and Mstislav Rostropovich. She studied viola da gamba with Mary Ann Ballard. Ms. Cabrera maintains an active teaching studio in Whippany and performs professionally with the Early Music Players, the Dolce Trio, the PELChamber Trio, Rosetta, and other area ensembles. She also performs asa freelance cellist with orchestras and choral groups throughout thetri-state area.

Douglas Hardin is a native New Jerseyan who has played in numerous local orchestras and chamber groups as a cellist and a gambist for over fifty years. As gambist his local credits include work with The Madrigal Singers, the Sine Nomine Consort, and the Nicolai Consort. During four years in England while studying molecular physics as a Churchill Scholar at the University of Cambridge he was a member of the Cambridge Consort of Viols. He was a cello student of Mary Gili, Laszlo Varga, and Janos Starker, and a viola da gamba student of Jane Ryan and Laura Jeppesen.

Sheryl Reed studied cello and music education at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and fashion buying, merchandising, and design at Fashion Institute of Technology. A former principal cellist of the Livingston Symphony Orchestra, Reed started playing the tenor viol a few years ago as a participant in the Cisraritanian Consort of Viols outreach program to local string players, and she now plays both tenor and bass viols in the consort. She has also performed locally with the Ridgewood and South Orange symphony orchestras and in the orchestras of numerous musical theater productions. A notable project was a recital on cello of music by Bach, Gershwin, and Piazzolla in collaboration with pianist Greg Dlugos. She enjoys teaching cello privately to both children and adults.