Piffaro

Praised as "remarkable" and "superb" by The New Yorker, the early-music ensemble Sonnambula—a viol consort based in NYC—visited the WRTI 90.1 Performance Studio and played highlights from upcoming concerts with Piffaro, The Renaissance Band and works from a new album of music by 17th-century composer Leonora Duarte. WRTI's Susan Lewis is host.

David Serkin Ludwig, described by The Philadelphia Inquirer as "a composer with something urgent to say," has a new monodrama set to a text by poet Katie Ford, exploring a medieval spiritual practice called "Anchorism." Join us for highlights from The Anchoress a day before its world premiere. WRTI's Susan Lewis hosts the composer, poet, soprano Hyunah Yu, Piffaro, The Renaissance Band, and PRISM Quartet in the WRTI Performance Studio.

Hailed as “radiant” by The New York Times and “ethereal" by Newsweek Polska, the award-winning early music ensemble Peregrina, from Basel, Switzerland, will perform on WRTI in advance of upcoming concerts with Piffaro, the Renaissance Band. 

A local Renaissance band brings its virtuosity to a new recording of music J.S. Bach may have heard.  Piffaro’s CD, Back Before Bach: Musical Journeys, released in July 2017, is the pinnacle of over 35 years of experience.  It’s the climax of countless concerts, the building of Piffaro’s vast collection of early music instruments and its honed concept of sound.

Piffaro, Philadelphia’s Renaissance band, is taking Don Quixote back to his 17th-century roots in a pair of concerts this weekend at the Episcopal Cathedral titled The Musical World of Don Quixote. What might those roots sound like? A lot like ours, says the Philadelphia Inquirer’s David Patrick Stearns. 

A group of Philadelphia-area musicians who share a love of early music, made Renaissance bands new 30 years ago. Their range of instruments? It includes shawms, dulcians, sackbuts, recorders, krumhorns, bagpipes, lutes, guitars, harps, and a variety of percussion.  Earlier this year, the artistic directors of Piffaro, The Renaissance Band provided WRTI's Meridee Duddleston with a glimpse of their musical roots.

Philadelphia theatergoers visiting New York for Shakespeare's Globe on Broadway may stumble upon a surprisingly familiar sight: Priscilla Smith Herreid, a member of the Philadelphia Renaissance wind band Piffaro, playing shawms and bagpipes to accompany the beheadings in Richard III as well as the comic complications of Twelfth Night.  The Philadelphia Inquirer’s David Patrick Stea

Jim Cotter speaks with Peter Richard Conte, the Grand Court Organist of the Wanamaker Organ. Conte is the soloist in a concert with the Symphony in C orchestra, which is part of the organ's centennial celebration.

Susan Lewis profiles the Curtis Institute of Music, a vanguard in the training of classical musicians since 1924.

David Patrick Stearns takes us to where East Meets West - a concert series by the Renaissance wind band Piffaro.

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As Pennsylvania Ballet opens its 2010/2011season on October 21st, Jim Cotter speaks with artistic director Roy Kaiser.

The Philadelphia Orchestra Music Director Designate Yannick Nezet-Seguin makes his Berlin Philharmonic debut this week. The Philadelphia Inquirer's David Patrick Stearns reports from the German capital.

Susan Lewis considers artists' self portraits and artistic identity, as the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts gets set to open an exhibition of artist portraits and self-portraits.