Play the Recorder Month (PtRM) was celebrated in March, with Recorder Day! happening on Saturday, March 21st. Small groups and chapters all over this country did varieties of interesting things to commemorate it. Prizes were given for the most interesting events, for the largest percentage increase in chapter membership, and for the actual largest number of new members gained in the month.

The top prize went to the Eugene American Recorder Society (EARS)(OR): They had a recorder display at the Eugene Public Library for the entire month of March, including recorders, photos of local recorder players, two locally made sculptures of recorder players, plus other informative items. On Recorder Day! the group held an open invitation concert in the Atrium. Ten different ensembles performed at the Atrium.

The played Thank You, ARS as their finale. and there were about 30 performers. Their prize was a gift certificate donated by the Von Huene Workshop/Early Music Workshop of New England in Brookline, MA.

Denver Recorder Society (CO): The Waldorf School, a non-member ensemble, and a professional group, totaling 55 performers, including 10 children and 2 novices, took part in a an event at a locally owned bookstore. The players included recorder, violin and theorbo. The Chapter jazz band as well as a krumhorn quartet also performed. The chapter’s prize was a gift certificate from Honeysuckle Music in St. Paul, MN.

Rochester Recorder Society (NY): had a workshop and 3 concerts:  at a garden show, an indoor farmer’s market, and a sit-down concert at a library. They had also requested recorder music on their local classical music station on NPR in March, giving publicity to Recorder Day! For their participation they received a gift certificate from Lazar’s Early Music in Sunnyvale, CA.

Philadelphia Recorder Society (PA). Fifteen people performed in three nursing and three elementary and nursery schools. The audiences totaled about 360 children in the schools. Their efforts resulted in a gift certificate from Performer’s Music in Chicago, IL.

Metropolitan Detroit Chapter won a cash prize for the largest percentage increase in membership.

Erie Recorder Society won the prize for the most new members added to a chapter. They earned a gift certificate donated by compser, Glenn Shannon.

ARS salutes the groups that held events during PtRM:

Friendly Persuaders (MA): The entire month was dedicated to the exploration of Bach compositions suitable for their small group. Two people played on March 1 in the Yarmouth Quaker Meeting House. On March 21 was in an historic Cape Cod home and included a dinner for neighbors and friends. At this event three people performed, and a retired music professor guest performed a Teleman sonata at the invitation of the presenters. There was yet another Bach recital in the Quaker meeting House.

Monadnock (MA): Four performers gave a concert at a Senior home in Brattleboro VT. The next day ten performers, including three novices, were at a community Music Center in New Hampshire.

Highland Park (NJ): Two concerts were given, one in a church and one in a synagogue. They were titled “A Convergence of Musical Cultures: Spain and the Netherlands” and “Sephardim in the Old and New Worlds”. Eighteen adults performed with another 7-member ensemble whose mission is to increase understanding and appreciation of Hispanic Musical Arts and Culture among both Hispanic and Non-Hispanic populations. Highland's outreach involved publicity in Spanish and performing in a Hispanic area. The first of the two concerts was performed on Recorder Day!, including a world premier they had commissioned.

Potomac Crossing (WV): The four members of this group did an Interactive Performance Workshop at a localelementary school, reaching 53 students in grades K –5 in 45 minute sessions in each grade. The Kindergarteners received cheap plastic recorders, and part of the grant money the group received through American Masterpieces Grants funded by the West Virginia Commission on the Arts was donated back to the school so they can buy a number of recorders and beginner books. The motto of this group is “Get ‘em young and turn ‘em on!”

Carolina Mountains Recorder Society (Brevard, NC): celebrated PtRM at its monthly play-along on March 7 by playing music from their AR magazines over the years. CMRS is the only ARS chapter located in western North Carolina, drawing monthly visitors from the western Carolinas, northernGeorgia, and eastern Tennessee.

Utah Recorder Society: Eleven people, aged 19 to 80+ and ranging from Just Barely Can to Very Adept, got together for five hours in Salt Lake City to prepare for a future performance which would be their outreach activity for the broader community. Their meetings draw people from a huge geographical area. The music offered a variety of Renaissance compositions that were educational and enjoyable for those who played and eventually for those who listened. The ensemble includes a quartet of viols as well as recorders. After lunch was the ceremonial high point for the day – playing Carolyn Peskin’s Thank You, ARS.. This was followed by a round of playing through some personal “favs.”

Greater Cleveland (OH): The theme of the chapter’s Recorder Day! concert on March 21, at the South Euclid–Lyndhurst Branch of Cuyahoga County Public Library, was “Voices of the Past and Present.” Several ensembles participated including Queensbridge Consort (Claire Krupp, Barbara Perkins, Carolyn Peskin, Don Shaffer and Valentin Ustinov). Since the ARS was founded in 1939 and is celebrating its 70th birthday this year, Queensbridge played music associated with years ending in “9”: dances by William Brade (published in 1609); movements from Abdelazer by Henry Purcell (born in 1659); movements from Water Music Suite No. 1 by Handel (died in 1759); Puttin’ on the Ritz, composed in 1929 by Irving Berlin (died in 1989); and the special Recorder Day! music, Thank You, ARS! by Peskin.

Albuquerque Recorder Orchestra (NM): For Recorder Day! the

group presented a concert titled “Something Borrowed, Secular Tunes in Sacred Music,” a performance of Renaissance polyphony using cantus firmi. This is the third year the group has appeared on the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library concert series, marking their most ambitious program ever played. Performing were Lynda Abshire, Christy Crowley, Barbara Frames, Ray Hale (also the emcee who spoke to connect the sets), Ruthann Janney (who sang and played percussion as well as recorders), Kelly McDowell, Kees Onneweer, Maria Rippiere and Carolyn Shaw.

Dayton/Cincinnati (OH): A group of players performed at the Centerville–Washington Township Library to an enthusiastic audience of patrons and staff. The program included music for the entire group of eight players as well as a number of duets. They attempted to cover music for all eras, as they celebrated spring with Sumer is icumen in as an audience participation sing-along and played more recent music including Thank You, ARS! Members of the group— Jenelle Allen, Janet Burke, Dan Duncan, Scott Hewitt, Frank Lowe, Linda Reitmann, Shirley Richardson. McCourt and Yvonne Wingard— intend to form a chapter in the near future.

Heartwood (Souderton, PA): At their March 20 performance at Pennview Christian School, Franconia, PA, 120 third-, fourth- and fifth-graders arrived to an intrada by Johann Groh, then heard music of various genres and periods including dances. They enjoyed a musical car-drive, complete with traffic jam and honking, blues and an early and a modern piece illustrating.

As each of three third-grade classes stood in turn and played Hot Cross Buns, Heartwood played a variation of the tune: in a minor key, jazz, waltz, and—after the classes played in unison—boogie woogie. During Q&A, the children wanted to see and hear the biggest recorder (C bass) and the smallest (garklein). The children exited to the gentle Moonlight Serenade by Glenn Miller.

Lynne Rush provided a narrative and had composed the variations. Other members are Janice Arrowsmith, Laura Loewen, Marilyn Nolt, Ray Overpeck and Rob Yoder.

Moss Bay Recorder Society (WA): A strong turnout at the Bellevue Library marked their monthly meeting for March. With Wini Jaeger conducting, they began the afternoon with the first verse of Psalm 90 in a setting by Sweelinck. Members then turned to several examples of American music as a tribute to the ARS and to honor composers who have created these works for our instruments: The Children’s Suite, A Day in the Park, by LaNoue Davenport; Peskin’s Thank You, ARS! and Santa Barbara Suite by Erich Katz.

Pilgrim Pipers Recorder Consort (Largo, FL): A free recital on March 13 at Freedom Square Retirement Home honored Dr. Ray Zepp, former professor at the University of Kansas and former (long-time) member of the ARS. The program, directed by Richard Carbone, included Moonglow and When the Saints Go Marching In (arr. Gordon Terrell), Three Piano Duets & Dances for Two by Catherine Rollin, and Recorder Calypso by Gwendolyn Skeens. SATB recorders were joined by a vocalist and two pianists.

Sweetwood Recorder Ensemble of the Northwinds Chapter (MI): Borrowing 18 recorders from the local school district, they used the instruments to teach senior residents at the Hillside Apartments how to hold, blow and play the recorder. There were lots of giggles, and many smiles, and by the end of the session, all played Mary Had a Little Lamb beautifully. The seniors received printed information to keep, and one resident took five recorders with her to teach her visiting grandchildren what she had learned.

Triangle Recorder Society (NC): At its annual spring workshop on March 21, the theme was “French and Flemish, Medieval to Modern.” Led by friendly facilitators Patricia Petersen and Kathy Schenley, faculty included Jack Ashworth, Stewart Carter, Karen Cook, Holly Maurer and Jody Miller. More than 50 recorder players, singers, and early instrumentalists—from North Carolina, Virginia and beyond— swooned to the sweet songs of courtly love, explored the treasures of the troubadours and trouveres, and mingled with Machaut and DuFay, Josquin and more.

Following day-long specialty and repertory classes, Recorder Day! and the 70th anniversary of the ARS were celebrated by playing Peskin’s Thank You, ARS! under Miller’s direction. To cap off the day, many attended an electrifying evening performance by the Dutch vocal ensemble Egidius Kwartet.

Twin Cities Recorder Guild (MN): In the atrium entry area of Ridgedale Library in Minnetonka, MN, 11 mostly-intermediate players —ranging from music director Kate Stuart to a youth member—played a Twin Cities Recorder Guild varied program of old and new music on Recorder Day! Member Susan Lindvall arranged a beautiful rendition of All Through the Night. The weather cooperated by providing a gorgeous day, and the door to the busy library constantly admitted new people to the audience. Performers asked the audience to sing along with Thank You, ARS! Publicity involved notices in the chapter newsletter, which also is sent to area event coordinators of early music, radio stations and the paper that serves the library, which also posted signs in advance of the event.

Go back to PTRM page