HOUSTON EARLY MUSIC
www.HoustonEarlyMusic.org
Media contact:
Susan Love Fitts, 936-597-8825
susan@susanlovefitts.com
Trio Settecento highlights Scottish Baroque music
Chicago-based ensemble closes Houston Early Music’s season, May 4
HOUSTON, TX – March 19, 2012 – Chicago early music ensemble Trio Settecento will
perform a program titled “The Scottish Play” at Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church on
Friday, May 4, at 7:30 p.m. Closing the Houston Early Music 2011-2012 concert season, the
performance will include both classical and folk music from the Baroque period, either
composed in Scotland or inspired by the country.
“Scotland, in the Baroque period, was unique among the regions of Europe,” said Trio Settecento
violinist Rachel Barton Pine. Most places separated classical and folk music, but in Scotland
there was no such differentiation. “You would have the same guy who was playing in the local
musical society orchestra doing Vivaldi concertos and Handel oratorios one night, and then he’d
be playing in a barn for a dance the next night. Same instrument.”
This free intermingling allowed for fertile crosspollination between classical and folk music in
Scotland, and the Trio Settecento program will showcase that. The group plans to perform fiddletune medleys, as well as sonatas by Italian composers Francesco Veracini and Francesco
Geminiani and little-known Scottish composers like Thomas Erskine (the Sixth Earl of Kellie)
and John Reid, a general in the British army. There will also be what are known as variation sets,
essentially sets of variations improvised by a fiddler on a given tune and written down for
posterity.
More about the trio
Trio Settecento performs on period instruments in a historically informed manner. Pine plays a
violin made in 1770 by Nicola Gagliano and still in its original condition. Bowed-string player
John Mark Rozendaal sometimes plays a viola da gamba, but will perform on a Baroque cello
in Houston, because the instrument was common in Scottish orchestras and folk bands during the
1700s. Completing the trio, David Schrader will play the harpsichord, though he is also adept
on organ, piano and fortepiano.
Pine, Rozendaal, and Schrader first came together as an ensemble in 1996 to record Handel’s
complete violin sonatas for Cedille Records. They were not yet known as Trio Settecento, only
taking that name 1997, after the release of their successful Handel recording, which became
Cedille’s top-selling CD for most of the following decade.
Besides touring throughout the U.S. the group has released three additional CDs. All recorded
for Cedille, these comprise a survey of the European Baroque and include An Italian Sojourn
(2007), A German Bouquet (2009) and A French Soiree (2011). The trio’s fourth CD of the
series, An English Fancy, is planned for release this fall.
More about the ensemble members
Though both Rozendaal and Schrader specialize in early music, Pine is primarily known as a
modern violin soloist, who has performed with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras.
A child prodigy, she debuted with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1984 at age 10. Fanfare
magazine described her as “one of the rare mainstream performers with a total grasp of Baroque
style and embellishment.” On some 20 recordings and in a long touring career, she has delivered
repertoire that ranges from medieval to modern in styles as diverse as classical and heavy metal.
She plays an electric Viper violin with the Chicago thrash-and-doom heavy metal band Earthen
Grave. When not performing she oversees the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation, which assists
young musicians through projects that include an instrument loan program, career and education
grants, providing musical supplies to developing nations and maintaining a library of music by
black composers.
Pine’s interest in Scottish music began in 2001, when the Wildwood Festival in Arkansas invited
her to give a Scottish-themed recital. Intrigued by the intimate connection between classical and
folk music in the country, she was soon studying Scottish fiddling with the likes of Alasdair
Fraser. She released an album of 19th-century Scottish Romantic music in 2005 and has taught
workshops during the last two summers at the Jink & Diddle School of Scottish Fiddling in
North Carolina.
Rozendaal specializes in performing and teaching stringed instrument music from the Baroque
and Renaissance eras. He was founding artistic director of the Chicago Baroque Ensemble and
has performed solo and continuo roles with many period-instrument ensembles, including the
Newberry Consort, Orpheus Band, Boston Early Music Festival Violin Band, the New York
Consort of Viols, Repast Baroque Ensemble and others.
Schrader has appeared with the Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, and Colorado Symphony
orchestras and at a host of prestigious festivals and music conventions. He performs regularly
with Chicago’s Music of the Baroque, the Newberry Consort and the venerable Bach Week
Festival in Evanston, Ill. He is a founding member of Baroque Band, Chicago’s premier periodinstrument orchestra.
Information
Trio Settecento will present “The Scottish Play” on Friday, May 4, at 7:30 p.m. at Christ the
King Evangelical Lutheran Church, 2353 Rice Blvd., Houston, Texas 77005. A pre-concert talk
with trio bowed-string player John Mark Rozendaal will begin at 6:45 p.m.
Parking will be available for $1.00 (credit card only) in the Rice University visitor parking area
next to the church on the Greenbriar side.
Exploring history through music is a Houston Early Music hallmark. The group follows music
from the Middle Ages through the 18th century, providing unique programming and world-class
concerts performed with historical instruments and styles true to the period.
For more information about Houston Early Music and to purchase tickets, please visit
www.HoustonEarlyMusic.org or call 281-846-4222.
CALENDAR EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:
What:
TRIO SETTECENTO, Chicago-based early music ensemble
Program:
“The Scottish Play,” a program of Scottish Baroque music
Where:
Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church, 2353 Rice Blvd., Houston, TX
77005
When:
Friday, May 4 at 7:30 p.m. | Pre-concert talk with Trio member John Mark
Rozendaal at 6:45 p.m.
Tickets:
$35 general admission | $30 Seniors (60+) | $10 (students w/ student ID)
Available online at www.HoustonEarlyMusic.org or by calling 281-846-4222.
Presented by: HOUSTON EARLY MUSIC
Description: For its last concert of the season, Houston Early Music presents Chicago-based
early music ensemble Trio Settecento in a program titled “The Scottish Play,” a spirited program
of Scottish Baroque music.
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Attached Photo: Trio Settecento
Photo credit: Janette Beckman
Media contact:
Susan Love Fitts
936-597-8825
susan@susanlovefitts.com