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The Sun King's Steps: A French Baroque Program

Sunday, May 23, 2027

11:30 PM

Location shared upon purchase of ticket(s).

Plymouth Church UCC, Herr Chapel 

2860 Coventry Rd, Shaker Heights, OH 44120

During the Baroque era, French dance held Europe in its thrall. Paris alone teemed with hundreds of dancing masters, all licensed by Louis XIV's Académie Royale de Danse.  This program features music by Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Jean-Marie Leclair, and other masters of the French Baroque, tracing the elegant steps that graced the court of Louis XIV, the Sun King. Through live dance and engaging musical storytelling, we invite audiences of all backgrounds to experience these early masterworks anew.

See hors d’oeuvres menu

During the Baroque era, French dance held Europe in its thrall. Paris alone teemed with hundreds of dancing masters, all licensed by Louis XIV's Académie Royale de Danse.  This program features music by Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Jean-Marie Leclair, and other masters of the French Baroque, tracing the elegant steps that graced the court of Louis XIV, the Sun King. Through live dance and engaging musical storytelling, we invite audiences of all backgrounds to experience these early masterworks anew.

See hors d’oeuvres menu

Program

Variaciones del fandango español Félix Máximo López 

 

Harpsichord Sonata in G major  Marianne Martinez

Sonata El jardín de Aranjuez José Herrando

Sonata in G minor G 29 op 5 no 5 Luigi Boccherini 

Folia Variations Pedro Lopes Nogueira  

Canarios Gaspar Sanz, arr. Brian Kay

L'Espagnole, from Les Nations François Couperin


Trio Sonata in Bb major Élisabeth Claude Jacquet de La Guerre

 

Paris Quartet in E minor Georg Philipp Telemann

 

Minuet perform'd by Mrs Santlow Anthony L'Abbe


Chaconne from Phaeton Louis-Guillaume Pécour / Jean Baptiste Lully


Artists

QinYing Tan, baroque dancer/harpsichordist/artistic direction

QinYing Tan, harpsichord and artistic direction

Lauded by Cleveland Classical as "an excellent soloist, a compelling performer who is equally comfortable handling long strings of notes... and singing through emotive melodies with her instrument…” Dr. Qin Ying Tan currently serves as faculty at Cleveland Institute of Music and Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music.  As co-artistic director of The Resonance Project Cleveland and CLE Concierto, Dr. Tan has helped lead a highly successful inaugural season, marked by sold-out premium seating and critical acclaim for its bold programming, intimate performances, and unwavering commitment to musical excellence. Together with pianist Irwin Shung, they have brought fresh energy to Cleveland’s classical music scene by fostering cross-cultural collaborations and reimagining the concert experience for 21st-century audiences.  The Resonance Project has been featured on Ideastream Public Media, as well as opened the Cultural Concert Series at the Cleveland Metropark Zoo.


Dr. Tan has appeared in concerts in Singapore, Shanghai, Germany, France, and has performed extensively across the United States of America.  This season sees engagements with Hudson Historical Society and Library, Music from theWestern Reserve , the Historically-Informed Performance Practice Department at Case Western Reserve University, the Resonance Project, Rush Hour Concert Series at Fairmount Presbyterian.  In addition to her commitment to early repertoire, Tan regularly presents new music to her audiences and has premiered several pieces, most notably Cenk Ergun's sound installation piece, "Fomare" at the Cleveland Museum of Art and “Are You You” by Michi Wiancko with City Music.   As a pedagogue, Dr. Tan continues to cultivate an interest in historically-informed performance at the pre-college and college level in her role as a board member of the Northeast Ohio MTNA and as the harpsichord faculty at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory.  Her passion for sharing historical music has also led her to lead dynamic workshops on baroque dance and historical keyboards in Southeast Asia where accessibility to period music is rare.

Ellen Sauer Tanyeri, historical flutes

Ellen Sauer Tanyeri, Recorder/flute player

ELLEN SAUER TANYERI is a flute and recorder player based in Cleveland. She grew up in a musical family in Michigan, where she remained for her undergraduate and master’s studies in flute performance at the University of Michigan. Ellen’s Baroque flute mentors have included Kathie Stewart and Sandra Miller. She enjoyed attending Oberlin BPI, Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, and American Bach Soloists summer festival, and has also spent time in Europe taking lessons with Marten Root, Wilbert Hazelzet, and Marc Hantaï. Ellen earned a Historical Performance degree at The Juilliard School, where she has had the chance to play with many esteemed artists in the field including Jed Wentz, Rachel Podger, Masaaki Suzuki, and William Christie. Ellen is a member of Nuova Pratica, a chamber group composing and performing original works in Baroque styles. She is currently earning a PhD in musicology at Case Western Reserve University. Ellen also nurtures passions for writing and teaching, and enjoys sewing in the rare moments she finds herself with free time.

Guillermo Salas Suárez, baroque violin

Guillermo Salas Suárez, baroque violin

Costa Rican Baroque violinist and scholar Guillermo Salas-Suárez performs with several period ensembles in North America, including the Lyra, Atlanta and North Carolina Baroque Orchestras, Apollo’s Fire, The Newberry Consort, Sound Salon, Lumedia Mu  sicWorks, Bach Collegium Fort Wayne, etc. He has also served as guest concertmaster with the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Bourbon Baroque, and the American Baroque Opera Co. Guillermo holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Historical Performance from Case Western Reserve University, where he studied with Dr. Julie Andrijeski. Guillermo’s chamber music appetite spans from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, which he explores with The Early Interval, up to the Classical and early Romantic repertoire for string quartet and clarinet with Wit’s Folly, which he co-founded. He has collaborated and trained with Malcolm Bilson, Paolo Pandolfo, Jaap ten Linden, Barthold Kuijken, Bruce Dickey, and the late Jeanne Lamon at the early music festivals in Boston, Bloomington, Amherst, Bach Oregon, Urbino (Italy), Daroca (Spain), Saintes (France), and the Stuttgart Bachwoche (Germany).


As a scholar of Spanish and colonial music, he has presented his research in conferences at Boston, Indiana, Oregon Universities, and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. His upcoming book The Tender Echo, a commented English translation of the Spanish violin treatises from the 18th century, is currently under publishing contract with Indiana University Press. As an educator, Guillermo is committed to the advancement of historical performance practice in Latin America. He served on the faculty of the Festival de Musica de Santa Catarina (Brazil), and has conducted masterclasses and workshops at the Academia de Música Antigua de Medellín (Colombia), Escuela Nacional de Música (Honduras), Universidad Nacional, Instituto Nacional de Música (Costa Rica), etc. He also serves in Early Music America’s IDEA Task Force, dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion in early music throughout the Americas.


Guillermo started music lessons at age nine in his native Costa Rica, where he studied with Lidia Blanco, Mercedes Moreno, and José Aurelio Castillo. He furthered his studies in the US and Bulgaria with Dr. Borislava Iltcheva, Aleksandr Iltchev, Espen Lilleslåtten, and Dr. Lin He. He shared the stage with conductors and soloists Manfred Honeck, Robert Spano, Yefim Bronfman, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Midori, Lang Lang, and Renée Fleming at the Aspen Music Festival, Severance Hall, Benaroya Hall, Sala São Paulo (Brazil), and the National Theatres of Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, and Honduras. He performed with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, CityMusic Cleveland, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional and Orquesta Sinfónica de Heredia (Costa Rica).


He plays on an instrument by Jason Viseltear and bows by Michelle Speller, H.F. Grabenstein, Pieter Affourtit, and James Dodd II. Outside of music, Guillermo is a voracious reader, a language learner, and a yogi. He lives with his husband in Columbus, Ohio.

Brian Kay, lute and theorbo

Brian Kay, lute and theorbo

Brian Kay is a modern-day troubadour. He is the first Artistic Leadership Fellow of Apollo's Fire and in 2019, he won a Grammy Award for his work on their Songs of Orpheus recording. He has performed throughout the world at venues such as the National Concert Hall of Dublin, Belfast Castle (Ireland), Carnegie Hall, and the Kennedy Center. His live radio appearances include NPR, Baltimore's WYPR, Baltimore's 98ROCK, Boston's WGBH, and Cleveland's WCLV. He has recorded with record labels Avie and Sono Luminus and has appeared on more than 10 album releases at the age of 33. He is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, arranger, traditional and historical music specialist, poet, painter, and avid proponent of meditation.


His recent projects include “Meditations”, an album of original songs in a modern style with a nostalgic flare, "Play, Music!" a one-man Shakespeare show which combines traditional music and theater (performed live at the Folger Theater in DC), and he was one of three Apollo's Fire musicians chosen to collaborate with the UKs Early Folk Band.


Brian was the first featured artist in EMAg’s column Early To Rise and was the first of three soloists to be featured in the Lute Society of America’s Emerging Artist Series. He is a core member of Twa Corbies and Apollo's Fire, and regularly performs with Hesperus, The Folger Consort, Early Music Access Project, Trio Sefardi and is a founding member of the early music improvisation group Divisio.


As a professor, Brian teaches at Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University. He has lectured on music and history at Yale University, The Peabody Conservatory, Johns Hopkins University, The Maltz Center, the Folger Theater, the Kennedy Center, and Baldwin-Wallace College. He was Artist in Residence at the Cushman School in Miami and has done outreach for elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and prisons across the country.

Rebecca Landell, gamba and baroque cello

Rebecca Landell, cellist and gambist

Cellist and gambist Rebecca Landell enjoys a vibrant performing career as a soloist and chamber musician, regularly collaborating with Apollo’s Fire, Les Délices, the Crumhorn Collective, and in experimental programs with a variety of artists. As a teacher, she is dedicated to holistic music education that draws upon her varied musical experiences.


Landell was classically trained on cello with Darrett Adkins and explored historical performance practice on Baroque cello and viola da gamba with Catherina Meints. Inspired to broaden her expressive range, she incorporated classes in acting and education while completing her master’s degree with Norman Fischer at Rice University. She later moved to Holland to work with Steuart Pincombe, creating innovative programs in unusual performance venues.


Landell pursues a varied professional career that has included performing and acting in Studio Theatre’s An Iliad, developing educational programs with Debra Nagy for “Early Music Explorations,” developing educational programs with the Crumhorn Collective, and creating unique artistic combinations with artists like filmmaker Mathias Reed and poet Derek Gromadzki. Her solo appearances on cello and viola da gamba include performances with Apollo’s Fire, Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Three Notch’d Road, and Batzdorfer Hofkapelle. She can be heard on the Grammy Award-winning recording Songs of Orpheus by Apollo’s Fire.

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