Piffaro to Receive ARS Distinguished Achievement Award at BEMF

Piffaro to be honored by ARS

 
The ARS has announced that it will honor an entire group with its 2015 Distinguished Achieve-ment Award (DAA): Piffaro, The Renaissance Band, will receive the award for outstanding contributions to the study of recorder and music in general. “Sometimes a group of fellow musicians come together just to explore the possibilities of recorders, shawms and other early winds, not sure at all of what the future will hold: such was the fate or formula that started Piffaro, once known as The Philadelphia Renaissance Wind Band. Celebrating almost 30 years of exemplary historical musical performances and of bringing to life the virtuosity of the Renaissance wind band musician, Piffaro is synonymous with elegance, style, inspiration and a passion for excellence,” commented ARS President Laura Kuhlman. “Piffaro has raised the performance standard and educated audiences around the world with historically-crafted concerts and eloquent musicality. It is an honor for the ARS to award Piffaro the 2015 DAA. Come celebrate with founders Joan Kimball and Robert Wiemken at a reception in their honor on June 12 at the Boston Early Music Festival".
 
The renowned “pied pipers” of early music (standing above, Christa Patton, co-artistic director Kimball, Greg Ingles, co-artistic director Wiemken; seated, Tom Zajac, Grant Herreid, Priscilla
Herreid ) present an annual concert series in the Philadelphia (PA) area; tour throughout the Americas and Europe; and appear as performers and instructors at major early music festivals. They have released 16 CDs since 1992, including four on the prestigious label Deutsche
Grammophon/Archiv Produktion. Piffaro has been active in the field of education since its inception in 1980, and has been honored twice by Early Music America for its work: the “Early Music Brings History Alive” award (2003), and the Laurette Goldberg “Lifetime Achievement Award in Early Music Outreach” (2011). Since 2007, Piffaro has offered a biennial national recorder competition for middle and high school players, bringing four to five finalists to a live competition in Philadelphia (www.piffaro.org/education). The winner performs the following season alongside Piffaro members in a series program. (Former winner and current Piffaro guest performer Martin Bernstein was interviewed in the Winter 2014 American Recorder magazine.)