Additional PtRM reports

The Miami Recorder Society was the group with the largest increase in membership this year. They will receive a gift certificate from the Lazar's Early Music in Sunnyvale, CA.

Other notable contest entries:

To celebrate Play the Recorder Month, and to mark the 75th anniversary of ARS, the Triangle Recorder Society held its Spring Workshop on March 8, 2014 at First Presbyterian Church in Durham, NC. Despite an eleventh hour change of venue due to a storm?related power outage, we managed to start on time. The theme this year was “The French Connection”, with the enjoinder to “laissez les bons temps rouler!” They did. Fifty five participants, from all over North Carolina and Virginia, sampled the delights of French music, from medieval to modern. We explored compositions by Le Jeune, de Lassus, Boismortier, Attaingnant, Josquin, Dufay, Lully and many, many other French greats. The workshop concluded with a tutti play?through of a Faure pavane and “A Day in the Park” by LaNoue Davenport. Attendees included recorder players, strings, early reeds and brass, and voices.

Our wonderful instructors and facilitators were Jack Ashworth, Stewart Carter, Jody Miller, Patricia Petersen, Kathy Schenley, Jennifer Streeter, Anne Timberlake, and Doug Young.

For pictures and a sampling of our music-making visit us on Facebook or at www.trianglerecorder.org
(reported by Jan Jenkins)

 
The Inland Recorder Society (Riverside, CA) participated in 2 events: they performed at the Plymouth Tower Senior Living Center at 2:00, and in the tasting room of the Canyon Crest Winery at 3:30, as a show and as background music as their patrons enjoyed a glass of wine.
(reported by Greg Taber)
 

The Chicago Chapter held 3 PtRM events:
1. The Chicago chapter met for our regular March 16 monthly meeting in the lobby of the Oak Park Public Library. Oak Park is a suburb that borders Chicago, about ten miles west of the downtown. It is an historic community, the home of both Frank Lloyd Wright and Ernest Hemmingway, and is noted for its excellent historic architecture and vibrant arts
and cultural community. The handsome Prairie School style Main Library opened in 2003. About 15 third and fourth graders from Holmes, Longfellow, and Hatch Elementary Schools, joined us. They performed one piece, Silver Sphere, for the chapter members and the audience, and then the children joined the chapter members in playing two pieces, Bouffons by Arbeau (1519?1595) and Bransle de Champaigne by Gervaise (c 1550).
2. Dennis Sherman and Mark Dawson joined the Baron's Noyse, Dennis Sherman, director, in playing at the Conrad Sulzer Regional Library on Monday March 10. We were joined by the Pippins, a madrigal group. We were in a small meeting room off the lobby, and we noticed patrons, on their way to find a book about Ukraine or surf the Internet, pause for a few minutes to listen, and then move on. A few people joined us in the meeting room.
3. Dennis also played recorder and other instruments as part of a historical re?enactor group demonstration for a few hours at the Batavia Public Library, a suburb about 35 miles west of Chicago.
(reported by Mark Dawson)
 
Gamut is a sextet comprised of members from the Los Angeles Recorder Orchestra and Southern California Recorder Society.  Gamut was invited by the Los Angeles Community College Music Department to present an educational program for college music majors (and others), with spoken information presented by each of us before each piece. The music ranged (the gamut) from Medieval to Contemporary (via a live composer). The students had to take notes, and questioned the players at the end. Many took photos, and several interviewed us for the school paper. We began with the ancient “Sumer is Acumen In,” and ended with “Matins” by a Texas scientist-composer named Victor Eijkhout. The instruments ranged from garklein to contrabass. I played great bass and alto. We all changed off with most pieces, which impressed this audience. This was a very successful and fulfilling enterprise. Gamut, a name we made up for this program, consists also of Nancy Davis, Bruce Teter, Ricardo Beron, Jerry Cotts and Nick Siu. We so enjoyed working together, and the reception we received was so encouraging, so attentive, that we will continue to play for events. The head of LA Community College’s Music Dept has already invited us back for next year. The Southern California Recorder Society, to which we all belong, holds a “Bring Your Own Band” meeting in June of each year. That is our next gig!
(reported by Nadia Lawrence)
 
And furthermore....
For Play the Recorder Month the Albuquerque Orchestra performed A Renaissance Tour at Kaseman Hospital. Ranging from Dunstable to Adson, music of many musical centers was played. Karen Rathge played her harp, Ruthann Janney sang, and Nan Simpson and Ruthann played percussion. The performers were Christy Crowley, Lois Gilliland, Ray Hale (leader), Ruthann Janney, Kees Onneweer, Lorraine Raczek, Karen Rathge, Carolyn Shaw, and Nan Simpson.
(reported by Ray Hale)
 
On March 14, 2014, the Brandywine Chapter had 31 in attendance, 30 recorder players and one viola da Gamba. Six of the recorder players are high school students of one of the members (Brian Drumbore) at Mount Pleasant High School in Wilmington, Delaware. They are members of the Early Music Ensemble that meets weekly after school. This was their first experience playing in a larger group and they performed very well.

The meeting was led by Rainer Beckmann from Philadelphia. His program consisted of five canzoni, utilizing a range of recorders from soprano to contra-bass (and the gamba). Recordings from the meeting are available in the website RogerMatsumotoArts.com through the recorders link.
(reported by Roger Matsumoto)
 
Edmonton Recorder Society’s big celebration of Play-the-Recorder-Month is in April (we're still snowed in in March). The Edmonton Recorder Society's annual Gala Concert was on April 12, 2014 and they had a most varied and delightful time at Trinity United Church, Edmonton. The title was "The Real Canadian Water Music" and the recorder orchestra, with nine members under the very able direction of Lois Samis Lund played Handel (of course) and Canadian classics like Gordon Lightfoot and French Canadian folk songs. Players were very inventive about finding water connections. One of the pieces the group Georgian Sound played was Cardoso's Aquam Quam Ego Dabo (The Water which I shall give) and Lori Klingbeil mentioned in her introduction to a Telemann sonata that Telemann's second wife had run off with a sea captain! Players ranged in age from 10-year-olds in Donna Mae Mohrmann's school recorder group to - well, shall we say seniors.
(reported by Vivien Bosley)
 
The Montreal Recorder Society played "A Day in the Park!" at their monthly meeting on March 6; three members plus a former member played 5 pieces (incl. A Day...) at a community Story Night on March 12; on March 23 a "Sons et Brioches" followed by coffee and buns took place at the Georges Vanier Cultural Centre. The latter were four Sunday 11 a.m. concerts "pushing forward" the chapter's 4 coached ensembles and a few smaller groups in celebration of 
the 75th year of the Montreal Chapter. We wind up the anniversary year on June 5 with a reading/AGM/sparkling wine and cheese and presentations to long-time volunteers. 
(Mary McCutcheon)