The Loring-Greenough House

On Sunday, December 6, 2009, at 3:00 p.m., Ensemble Suave (Laurie Israel, violoncello, and L. Mark Slawson, fortepiano) with guest Jeanne Lucas (soprano) will celebrate the holiday season as the December offering in the 10th season of Sunday Afternoon at the ‘Greenough House concerts at the historic Loring-Greenough House, 12 South Street, Jamaica Plain.

The series recreates the atmosphere of 18th and 19th century “musical afternoons” in the 1760 Loring-Greenough House on the first Sunday of each month, October through May. Tickets are available at the door: donation $17 ($12 seniors, students and JPTC members) which includes a “preservation fee” to support preservation projects at the landmark property. Space is limited; reservations are suggested. Call 617-524-3158 or email lghouseconcerts@aim.com.   Afternoon tea follows the program.

Ensemble Suave, founded in 2003, is a Boston-based early music group specializing in vibrant interpretations of seldom-performed baroque music. In their six years, they have performed over 25 concerts, in music series and in historic houses, incorporating programs of baroque music with cross-over into folk, world and classical musical (historic and modern). Their specialty is accompanying baroque singers, and they are most recently pleased to have performed with Gerrod Pagenkopf and Steven Serpa, countertenors, and Jeanne Lucas, soprano. For more information about Ensemble Suave, see www.ensemblesuave.com.

L. Mark Slawson (fortepiano) received a BA degree in composition from Union College and a masters degree in harpsichord from New England Conservatory. He has performed with Cantorum Baroque Ensemble, Boston Renaissance Ensemble, La Sonnerie de St. Botolphe, among other baroque groups. He is currently organist and music director at Second Parish, Hingham. Mark is on the board of the Cambridge Society for Early Music and the Society for Historically Informed Performance (SoHIP).

Laurie Israel (violoncello) specializes in baroque cello performance practice. She received a masters degree in musicology/theory from University of California. Laurie has performed in the SoHIP concert series with Complesso Soave and The Splendid Century, and also has performed a solo unaccom-panied cello series entitled “Bach, Bach & Beyond”. Laurie has created a book of arrangements of nine baroque keyboard pieces for unaccompanied cello, violin, and viola which is now available. See Bach, Back & Beyond portion of this website for information. She is also a visual artist, appearing in a number of shows in Massachusetts and New England.

The Forte Piano is the transitional instrument between the harpsichord, in which the strings are plucked by quill plectra, and the modern piano where strings are struck by hammers. In the latter half of the 18th century, Longman and Broderip of London, had an important place in British musical life as publishers of music and sellers of all kinds of musical instruments: harps, guitars, woodwinds, harpsichords and pianos. At the time that the Loring-Greenough House’s instrument (no. 2954) was made, there were at least two makers supplying the company with keyboard instruments: Christopher Ganer and Thomas Culliford, Our instrument was probably made by Culliford. It was restored in 1999, by Tim Hamilton with a gift from the late Virginia Peters

Built in 1760, the Loring-Greenough House, a local landmark listed on the Massachusetts and National Registers of Historic Places, is located at 12 South Street (at the Civil War Monument) in Jamaica Plain, MA. It is owned and managed by the non-profit Jamaica Plain Tuesday Club, Inc. as a historic house museum and site for art and music presentations. The Loring-Greenough House is wheelchair accessible. For more information on the Loring-Greenough House, see www.loring-greenough.org.

For reservations or directions, call (617)524-3158, or email lghouseconcerts@aim.com.