Bozeman’s Holy Rosary host to opening performance of annual Musikanten MT regional tour
Musikanten Montana has announced the 17th Annual Montana Early Music Festival will take place January 17th–20th. The span of regional shows will feature the Montana premiere of Historically Informed Performances (HIP) of J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (part 2). After the acclaimed 2018 performances of the Christmas Oratorio’s first half, the festival ensemble will perform the remaining three cantatas of the six the German master composed for the major church festival days of the 1734 Christmas Season in Leipzig. The concerts will open with Bach’s Epiphany Cantata 65 “Sie werden aus Saba alle komen.”
For the fourth consecutive year, the ensemble will travel to four Montana cities – Bozeman, Butte, Missoula and Helena. Concerts are at 7:30pm at Holy Rosary in Bozeman (Thursday, Jan. 17th), Immaculate Conception in Butte (Friday, Jan. 18th), and St. Francis Xavier in Missoula (Saturday, Jan. 19th). The final festival concert is in Helena at 3pm on Sunday, Jan. 20th, at the Cathedral of St. Helena.
A 15-member chamber orchestra will play period instruments – Baroque oboes, bassoon and flauti dolci (recorders), natural trumpets and horns, gut strings and historic timpani – either actual 18th-century instruments or modern replicas. Players come from Early Music hotspots of Seattle, San Francisco, Minneapolis, New York, Indianapolis, Denver and more. Leading the orchestra as concertmaster will be MEMF favorite Carrie Krause, concertmaster of the Bozeman Symphony, and member of Apollo’s Fire and other world-renowned Early Music ensembles. Organist Keith Reas and cellist Sarah Stone are the continuo players. Vocal soloists are Amanda Balestrieri (soprano), Anne Kania (contralto), Daniel Hutchings and Thomas Gregg (tenors), and Bobb Robinson (baritone), all specialists in “music before 1800.”
Musikanten Montana Artistic Director Kerry Krebill will conduct the vocal soloists, chamber orchestra and singers of Musikanten Montana in this joyous work.
Seating for the concerts is general admission, with a reserved section for Musikanten Angel donors ($100 and above). Tickets will be available at the door, as well as at outlets in Helena, Missoula and Hamilton – call (406) 442-6825 or visit www.musikantenmt.org for more information. •
