Schola Cantorum of Syracuse coming to Skaneateles

Schola’s small-ensemble program “It’s Telemann’s Time,” to be presented Saturday June 22 at First Presbyterian Church, will feature four concertos of the baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann.

Jessica Tumajyan (viola), Eileen Allen (recorder), and Lana Stafford (flute) will be soloists. Edward Tumajyan and Noemi Miloradovic (violins), Kate LaVerne (cello), Spencer Phillips (double bass), Arthur Lewis (harpsichord and viola), and Nick Abelgore (harpsichord) will round out the ensemble.

This instrumental ensemble, featuring well-regarded Central New York professional players, is a new venture of Schola Cantorum, which has been known since 1975 primarily for its a cappella early music vocal performances. The June 22 program (with the addition of a bonus flute concerto) is a reprise, for Skaneateles, of the new ensemble’s well-received January 2024 debut concert in DeWitt.

The aim of this new ensemble is to provide Central New York professional players the opportunity to play historically-informed, well-polished performances of Baroque repertoire, and Central New York audiences the opportunity to hear those performances. The present basic configuration of five string players is planned to expand in September to eleven string players. (Those who heard the January performance have attested to the robust sound produced by the group in its present, smaller configuration).

Three of the players are current Syracuse Orchestra members. Barry Torres, music director of Schola Cantorum, has been coaching the ensemble.

The June 22 concert at First Presbyterian is at 7:30 p.m. Tickets will be available at the door at $20 ($15 for seniors, $5 for students and children). The concert duration is about 90 minutes.

Like Charles Ives, Telemann possessed an uncanny knack for synthesizing disparate musical elements into a cohesive whole. His music can be, in turns, gracious and graceful, fluid, jarring, aristocratic, or rustic. All these turns will be heard in the June 22 concertos concert.

A contemporary and friend of J.S. Bach, Telemann (1681–1767) composed an enormous amount of music. Highly regarded in his own time, he fell into comparative neglect, and even disparagement, in the 19 ^th and early 20 ^th centuries; only since then, gradually, has appreciation grown for the musical quality of what he wrote. Thus, now, “It’s Telemann’s Time.”

The four concertos are for viola (in G major, TWV 52:g3), recorder (A minor, TWV 55:a2), flute (D major TWV 51:D1), and for recorder and flute (E minor TWV 52:e1).

More information about the concert, and about Schola Cantorum of Syracuse, is at ScholaSyracuse.com.