Dear Friends of Musica Angelica:

Welcome to a new and exciting season of music presented by Southern California's leading period instrument orchestra.  Join us for a series of wonderful concerts combining well-known musical treasures with newly discovered repertoire.

Our season begins with romance.  It is not only Renaissance and Baroque music that gains a new quality when performed on period instruments.  Our charismatic concertmaster Ilia Korol and keyboard artist Natalia Grigorieva demonstrate that the well-known sonatas by Beethoven and Schubert resound in an exciting new way when played on a classical violin and a beautiful fortepiano.

The second concert in our series will honor the legacy of Musica Angelica‘s Founders, composer and noted lute player Michael Eagan and Baroque cellist Mark Chatfield, in a program of early music led by premier lutenist John Schneiderman and members of Musica Angelica.

Dame Emma Kirkby is one of the leading voices of Early Music.  Daniel Taylor was a featured soloist in Musica Angelica‘s successful tour to South America in 2010.  We are honored to welcome these great artists to our concerts in January with a beautiful program that includes Bach‘s transcription of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater.

Bach‘s cantatas have long been central to our programs.  We are pleased to welcome back to our stage the wonderful soprano Mary Wilson, who has chosen to perform a series of 'Angelic Cantatas'; pieces of extreme beauty dealing with the transcendent world beyond our reality.

If concertos are beautiful, think how beautiful DOUBLE Concertos must be!  Featuring two soloists means dialogue, competition and virtuosity.  We have chosen the most exciting examples of this genre by Bach, Krebs and Vivaldi to end our season in a flamboyant way.

Two special engagements have been added to Musica Angelica's roster.  In the spring of 2012, we are pleased to collaborate once again with Grant Gershon and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, this time in two performances of Bach's St. John Passion.  On May 3, I look forward to leading the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in their Baroque Conversations series.

This season, Musica Angelica will be touring once again.  Following our successful concerts in Germany and the Musikverein in Vienna (May 2011), our orchestra has been invited to an extended tour of The Infernal Comedy with actor John Malkovich, two sopranos and a Baroque orchestra.  Musica Angelica premiered this project in 2008.  Since then, it has been presented more than 50 times all around the globe.  This coming tour will add 16 performances in major venues of North and South America, including Boston, Ann Arbor, Berkeley, Santa Barbara, Lima, Bogota, Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro.

It is an exciting time to be part of the Southern California music scene.  I look forward to welcoming you to another stimulating season of Musica Angelica concerts.

Martin Haselböck
Music Director