Cornell Baroque Orchestra
(MUSIC4651)
This ensemble is open to music major/minor/graduate students, as well as Cornell University
students from other departments.
Participation: Entrance is by audition (to be held at the beginning of Spring 2018)
Advisor: Prof. Neal Zaslaw
Cornell Baroque Orchestra is one of Cornell’s large ensembles. This group of 10 to 14
musicians plays on restored antique instruments or modern copies of baroque strings and
winds and performs orchestral works and chamber music by Bach, Handel, Corelli, Vivaldi,
Telemann, Lully, Rameau, Marais, Purcell, Biber and others.
By way of playing using instruments appropriate to the period, we will explore ways in which
one can creatively and critically engage with music written before ca. 1820. The group meets
once a week in the forms of rehearsals and workshops. In the workshops, we will address
performance practice issues such as editions, intonation, bowing, articulation, style, rhetoric,
and ornamentation. The group will give one public performance at the end of the semester.
Baroque instruments and bows from Cornell’s instrument collection are freely available for
interested students to borrow on a first-come-first-served, semesterly basis.
Prior experience of period-instrument performance not required.
For Spring 2018, we anticipate the following opening:
Violin: 4+ spots
Viola: 1-2 spots
Cello: 1-2 spots
Bass: 1 spot
Harpsichord: 1 spot
For more details and wind instrument opening, contact Morton Wan (mtw74@cornell.edu).