concert

Wind band Piffaro plays Dunedin music fest

By John Fleming, Times Performing Arts Critic
Published March 6, 2008

Piffaro, a Renaissance wind band from Philadelphia, headlines this year's Dunedin Early Music Festival. There are also a host of other interesting performances, and they're free. Tenor Bryce Westervelt and the 12-voice Clearwater Choral Scholars, directed by organist Beth Hunter, perform works of J.S. Bach, Handel and Buxtehude to open the festival at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, 639 Edgewater Drive, Dunedin.

Performances take place Saturday at First United Methodist Church, 421 Main St., Dunedin, beginning at 10:30 a.m. with Nathaniel Thomas on recorder and Joe Garcia on guitar. Others at the church include Wessex Pro Musica at 11:30 a.m., Westervelt and harpsichordist Robert Shone in Gregorian chant at 1:30 p.m., the Viol Trio (Suzanne Ferguson, Carole Hansuld, Theresa Villani) at 3:30 p.m. and the Dunedin Scottish Country Dancers at 4:30 p.m.

Piffaro deploys an array of shawms, sackbuts, recorders, krumhorns, bagpipes, lutes and other period instruments to celebrate Flemish composers from the 15th and 16th centuries, including Jacob Obrecht, Josquin Desprez and Nicolas Gombert. The concert is at 3 p.m. Sunday at Peace Memorial Church, 110 S Fort Harrison Avenue, Clearwater. For information, visit goforbaroque.us.

[Last modified March 5, 2008, 12:18:22]