Follia Project Chamber Music Mutations
POSTED IN Frances Bartlett Music 8.01.2014
Follia Project perform baroque and classical repertoire with spontaneous improvisation between movements and pieces, giving intimate and virtuosic concerts, exploring new perspectives to enjoy the great masterpieces.
Follia Project is a collaborative group of musicians specializing in early music and free improvisation, playing on period instruments, adhering to historic performance practice while looking for new and vital ways to connect our past to our present.
Follia Project explores the performance possibilities of sonorities, styles and spaces with period instruments. Space that has been time is changed and the distance between audience and artist is erased as this unique and intimate experience of shared time travel resonates in all present.
The founders Adriana Alcaide, Baroque Violin, plays with renowned baroque orchestras in Europe and has made notable recordings for several record labels, including Harmonia Mundi.
Frances Bartlett, Cello is a notable improviser, working with composers, improvisation groups and in theater and dance companies around the world.
PROGRAMMES
“On Intimacy”
A unique opportunity to hear a collection of emblematic English Songs with Instrumental music , arrangements of English Pop Songs and Improvisations that guide us through our emotional existence.
Songs by Henry Lawes, Henry Purcell, Instrumental music by John Playford and Nicola Matteis with improvisations and arrangements of songs by The Beetles, Queen and The Police.
“La Follia”
J.S. Bach (1685 – 1750)
Inventions Numbers 1,4 and 8 with Improvisations
Sonata in G Major
A. Corelli (1653 – 1713)
“La Follia” with improvisations
“Golden Age”
Music and Song from the XV and XVII century Spain and Britain, with Adolf Osta, Voice and Guitar.
Instrumental court music by Diego Ortiz, Selma y Salaverde, John Jenkins and John Dowland contrasts with the traditional sounds of Sefardi, Catalan, Occitanean, Spanish, English and Scottish Songs.
ADRIANA ALCAIDE – BIOGRAPHY
After many years of study, experiences, achievments and setbacks, Adriana completed her studies in Barcelona on the violin. Having discovered Early Music, she decided to specialise in the field. With support and a grant from the Catalan Government, Adriana studied historical interpretation and baroque violin for four years a the Royal Conservatory (Koninlijk Conservatorium) in the Hague, learning from masters such as Enrico Gatti and Pavlo Besnoziuk. There, she got to work with Elizabeth Wallfish, Ton Koopman, Christina Pluhar, Lucy van Dael, Margaret Faultless, Ryo Terakado, Wilbert Hazelzet, Jaap ter Linden and Wieland Kuijken with whom she shared enriching and unforgettable moments. Taking her career a step further, she was selected as a member in the European Baroque Orchestra from 2000-2002 (conducted by Roy Goodman, Lars Ulrik Mortensen and Andrew Manze).
In her drive to improve; her skill, curiosity and professionalism lead her to join Concerto Amsterdam, Berlin Baroque, Florilegium Musicum, Utrecht Baroque Consort, Capilla Peñaflorida and Le Tendre Amour. She currently works with Al Ayre Español, Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla and plays under directors such as Rinaldo Alessandrini, Martin Gester, Eduardo López Banzo, Monica Hugget, Jordi Savall, Andrea Marcon and Fabio Bonizzoni.
She has recorded several CDs on the Harmonia Mundi, Naïve, K617, Brillian Classics and Verso labels.
Due to her interest and passion for therapies aimed at helping fellow human beings, she combines performing as a freelance musician with music therapy by offering experimental workshops in various centres.
RICART RENART – Violin
Born in 1981, Ricart graduated from ESMUC (Superior Music School of Catalunya) with teachers Eva Grauin and Kay Gleusteen and with chamber music tutors Charles Tunnell and members of the Ysaÿe Quartet. He went on to study with Tomasz Tomaszevksy in the University of Künste, Berlin. Ricart has won many chamber music prizes (Toledo, Ponts, Lleida, Barcelona), was member of the Catalonia Youth Orchestra, concertino of the Academy Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona and has collaborated with the Chamber and Symphony Orchestras of the Gran Teatro del Liceu, the Bilbao Symphony and the National Spanish Orchestras.
His interest in early music took him to study a Masters in Performance and teaching of early music in Madrid’s Music Conservatoire with Hiro Kurosaki, and in ESMUC with Manfredo Kraemer, where he received highest honors for his thesis about the Tartini School. Ricart has received tutoring from Enrico Onofri, Pablo Valetti, Ricardo Minasi, Pedro Gandía, Emilio Moreno and Lorenzo Coppolla.
He has been invited to play with various groups such as Sphera Antiquva, Harmonia del Parnàs, Estil Concertant, Haydn Simfonietta Wein, Nereydas, Baroque Orchestra of Seville and Catalunya, Le Tendre Amor, Vespres d’Anardi, Al Ayre Español with Eduardo López Banzo, The Rare Fruits Council with Manfredo Kraemer and Le Concert de Nations with Jordi Savall.
Ricart’s interest in other musical styles has taken him to work with the pianist Miriam Méndez with whom he performed in Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Rome and throughout Spain.
