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It's a Wammie!

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

It’s a Wammie!

Each year, not long after the GRAMMY Awards are announced, the Washington Area Music Association (WAMA) presents the Wammies!

The Wammie winner for Best Classical Recording of 2010 is Blame Not My Lute Ronn McFarlane, lute & Robert Aubry Davis, spoken word. This program of Elizabethan lute music and poetry is one that Ronn and Robert have performed together live for many years.

As you may know, Robert Aubry Davis is the well known producer and host of Millennium of Music, heard weekly on public radio stations nationwide. He is a frequent lecturer and commentator for arts institutions throughout Washington D.C. and hosts the weekly arts discussion program Around Town for WETA TV in the nation’s capital.

The Washington Area Music Awards recognize significant career achievements by area musicians. Nominations and balloting come from the WAMA membership. Past show participants include Emmylou Harris, Joan Jett, The Clovers, The Orioles, Bo Diddley, Jorma Kaukonen, Jimmy Dean, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Ruth Brown, LaVern Baker, Sweet Honey in the Rock.

One Morning Release

Mon, 24 May 2010 23:55:18 -0400

The album's title tune “One Morning” was written one early Spring morning - a surprise respite from the Winter chill, making the spirit feel full of possibility and glad to be alive. It was on of those moments when one realizes, with rare clarity, that with every day come an opportunity for a new beginning.

This is also the debut recording with the instrumentalist of my new band, Ayreheart, which includes Mindy Rosenfeld (flute and harp), Mattias Rucht (percussion) and Willard Morris (bass). I’m also grateful for the musical contributions of guest artists Jessyka Luzzi (vocals), William Simms (lute), and Danny Mallon (percussion), as well as the members of the chorus and string quartet who lent their talents to this recording project.

Following in the footsteps of Indigo Road, One Morning seeks to break new ground for the lute; and attempts to show this “King of Instruments” from the past to be an amazingly flexible and expressive instrument for new music in a wide range of styles.

-Ronn McFarlane

Indigo Road Nominated for Grammy

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Winchester, VA – Dorian / Sono Luminus is very proud to announce that world renowned American lute player Ronn McFarlane has been nominated for a Grammy Award as announced by the Recording Academy last week. McFarlane’s album Indigo Road (dorian / sono luminus) has been nominated in the Best Classical Crossover Album category. The 51st Annual Grammy Awards are to be held on February 8, 2009.

McFarlane has devoted himself to reviving the original tradition of lute composers where historically the lute player and the composer of music were one and the same by composing original, modern works for this age-old instrument. Many of the pieces on Indigo Road tread the line between popular, folk, new age and classical music where some of the works draw heavily on Renaissance and Baroque styles, while others are expressed in a more modern musical idiom. The pieces take the listener down aural roads from one composition to the next: from the peaks of Denali, to the Pinetops of Maine, into a storming sky in Blue Norther and across Uncharted Waters…listeners are transported to the future through dreams and left feeling wistful and nostalgic as if remembering the distant past.

McFarlane will be recording 2 Videos this week in support of the album and is currently touring in the east coast with famed early music ensemble the Baltimore Consort of which he is a founding member.

www.ronnmcfarlane.com
www.doriansonoluminus.com

Ronn Mcfarlane is available for live appearances and phone interviews. To request an interview or a copy of the Grammy-Nominated CD please contact:

Jessica Shores
Dorian / Sono Luminus
email: jshores@sonoluminus.com
phone: (540) 667 - 0729

Through the Looking Glass

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0400

I was already in bed when the phone rang. I let the answering machine take the call, rolled over and had a good night’s sleep.

The next morning, I was amazed and delighted to find that Indigo Road really was one of the five nominees in the “Best Classical Crossover Album” category. My first Grammy nomination! And I was delighted to learn that Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs had also been nominated in the Best Opera category, for their recording of Lully’s Psyche. Three lute players at the Grammys!

Then I wondered: What musical worlds could be further removed from one another than the world of the lutenist, with its focus on scholarship, historical practices, and original manuscript sources, and the world of the Grammys, with its high profile rock stars, glitz, glamour, limos and tight security? I was about to find out!

My plane touched down in Los Angeles too late for me to attend the Lifetime Achievement & Technical Awards the night before the Grammys. But that evening, I hurried over to the Nominees Reception as soon as my rattletrap taxi could carry me to the Wilshire district. Inside the Ebell Theatre, there was such a crush of glamorously clad bodies, it was hard to take a step in any direction! I eventually managed to wade over to the area where Grammy Nominee medallions were being given out, and got in line with the other nominees. I soon noticed that only a dozen places in line ahead of me were Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs! We greeted one another warmly with many congratulations, collected our Grammy Nominee medallions, and made our way over to the photography area. There, we had our photos taken together with Grammy medallions and huge smiles.

Wandering around the enormous reception, I found several very large rooms heaped with excellent food, drink and each with its own style of live music. One room had jazz, another big band, etc. Before leaving the reception, Paul O’Dette (a veteran of several Grammy Award ceremonies) gave me some sage advice about getting through the next day intact. High among his suggestions was to “Wear some heavy-duty earplugs to the televised show, because the live performances are ear-shatteringly loud!”

The Grammy awards the next day were divided into two awards shows. There was a pre-broadcast event in the afternoon, in which one-hundred Grammy Awards were presented. Following that ceremony, there was the televised show that was broadcast live, nationwide on CBS.

I arrived at the Los Angeles convention center to find that stretch limos and stretch Hummers were a common sight! (I, on the other hand, settled for a taxi.) There really is a red carpet, and security guards everywhere, but no guides to tell you where to go. So, I inadvertently wandered into an area set up for video interviews of high profile stars. There were more than a dozen booths set up for various networks and media outlets. And reporters were waiting there, with microphones and video cameras at the ready for the first hint of a celebrity walking past. Needless to say, none of the interviewers so much as raise an eyebrow when I wandered past! At the end of this area, a tight cluster of about two or three hundred people were cheering on cue, at the signal of their “conductor” or leader. It looked for all the world like they were actually rehearsing their cheers and screams with tremendous enthusiasm. Later that night, during the televised event I noticed about the same number of fans who were placed at the edge of the stage, right in front of the performers, cheering the live Grammy performances with upraised hands. Were these the same audience members placed right at the edge of the stage for the live cameras to see during the TV show? I never found out.

I made my way into the Convention Center, where the pre-telecast Grammy Awards were held. One hundred Grammy Awards were handed out over the course of nearly three hours, with several musical performances interjected to liven up the proceedings. For me, the most memorable performance was Hillary Hahn, who played the J.S. Bach unaccompanied solo violin Prelude BWV 1006 flawlessl

When it came time for my own category to be announced, my heart beat a little faster. I had my little acceptance speech prepared and timed to last 30 seconds. But it was not to be. The King’s Singers won the Best Classical Crossover Album category for their beautifully performed Simple Gifts. Of course I was a bit disappointed, but not surprised and really I was just fine with the outcome. I was happy just to be there. And the best was yet to come!

After the pre-broadcast ceremonies were over, everyone moved next door to the Staples Center, which is a huge arena. As a nominee, I had a great seat!

As the broadcast was about to begin, the MC was still frantically trying to get everyone seated. I was surprised to see how many in the arena were still milling about, looking for their seats, or still talking to friends. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised with a huge roomful of musicians!

U2 opened with tremendous energy and volume! It has been a long time since I’ve been to a rock concert, and the volume level was really shocking. Eventually, I got used to it (as my ears were pummeled into submission). Over the course of the evening we were treated to an amazing array of performances by Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Lil’ Wayne, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Coldplay, Neil Diamond, Al Green, Radiohead, Carrie Underwood, Kid Rock, Justin Timberlake, the Jonas Brothers and many others. These performances were easily the highlight of the Grammys for me. The performances were incredibly exciting, polished and loud! The combination of polished professionalism and raw excitement generated in the arena made me feel proud to be a musician. And I was struck by the clockwork precision of the complicated onstage set changes whenever the broadcast went to a commercial.

At the Grammy Celebration Party afterward, there seemed to be a “60’s hippy flower child” theme to the evening with a full-sized school bus decorated in a rainbow of psychedelic designs and colors (complete with peace signs). On a number of small stages scattered about the huge room, a number of painted acrobatic performers were performing feats of flexibility and daring that reminded me of the Cirque du Soleil. Some of the dance/acrobatics were performed in the air while hanging from a sheet suspended from the ceiling! There was a succession of live bands, a huge amount of food (quite good!) available on a number of giant buffet tables, and drinks flowing from several bars around the room. It wasn’t long before the combination of noise and crush of people began to feel a bit overwhelming to me, so I left while the party was still groovin’ full-stride into the night!

Leaving the Grammy Celebration, we were each issued a “gift bag” of hair products: Rockaholic Livin’-the-Dream Shampoo, Rockaholic Livin’-the Dream Conditioner, Rocktastic Hardcore Spray Gel and Punk Out Molding Gunk. Livin’-the-Dream? Hmmmm... I guess it depends which dream you’re livin’...

All in all, it was tremendously fun experience that I’ll always remember. It made me feel very fortunate and very grateful to be a musician.

One Morning Now Available for Purchase

Tue, 25 May 2010 00:00:00 -0400

One Morning is now available for purchase from a variety of retail outlets.

"A new day dawns with GRAMMY® nominated lutenist Ronn McFarlane's new album One Morning. The follow-up release to his wildly popular original music album Indigo Road, Ronn continues to show the world that the lute is a living instrument suited for more than just classical performances by past composers, but is ready to introduce new music into the world. Joined by his new group Ayreheart, this album further explores the world of the composer/performer."

The following links will take you directly to the product pages for One Morning on the respective sites.

iTunes

Amazon

Amazon MP3

Ronn Discusses One Morning on the Naxos Blog

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Ronn recently spent time discussing the lute, musical inspiration, and his new album, One Morning, with Raymond Bisha of the Naxos blog. The conversation is available as a podcast and features extended clips of several tracks from the new CD. You can listen to the interview on the Naxos Blog by clicking on the link below.

http://blog.naxos.com/2010/06/01/podcast-one-morning-with-ronn-mcfarlane/

Of Love and Evil

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

I just learned about the new Anne Rice novel, Of Love and Evil. I heard from one of her enthusiastic readers that the main character in the book is a Renaissance lute player named Toby. And at the end of the book, in the Author's Note, she writes: "With regard to the Renaissance lute, I listened to a good deal of music while writing this book, but was singularly inspired by a compact disc called The Renaissance Lute by Ronn McFarlane. Let me recommend to the listener selection No. 7, entitled only "Pessemeze." This piece of music proved particularly haunting, and I imaging my hero, Toby, playing it during his concluding hours in Renaissance Italy."

A New CD from Ronn & The Bach Sinfonia

Wed, 25 May 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Ronn recently collaborated with The Bach Sinfonia for an album of compositions by Vivaldi. The CD album is currently available from Sono Luminus, while digital downloads are available through iTunes. The CD is also available for preorder at Amazon.com. Links are included at the bottom of the article.

From the Sono Luminus website:

One of the United States best period instrument ensembles teams up with one of the worlds best lutenists to perform the music of one of the most beloved composers of all time for this exciting new release from Sono Luminus. The Bach Sinfonia, under the direction Daniel Abraham performs the lute works of Vivaldi with GRAMMY® Nominated lutenist Ronn McFarlane delivering one of the years most exciting concerto albums.

The Baroque concerto owes much of its development and advancement to Vivaldi. At the essence of the genre’s structure is idea of the ritornello. In the Baroque concerto, these reoccurring statements each alternate with modulating episodes with freer character in which the soloist(s) dominate the overall texture. Treatment of the ritornello within the works varies greatly among composers: whereas Bach and other Germans often integrated the ideas of the refrain, either complete or in part, as accompaniment to the episodes, Vivaldi relies heavily on exploring only specific ideas of the complete refrain and regularly ignores or alters other elements of the ritornello during repetitions. In addition, Vivaldi’s works advance the standard Italianate concerto scheme of three movements in a fast-slow-fast pattern.

The Art of Vivaldi's Lute is available from the following:

iTunes
Sono Luminus (CD)
Amazon (CD)

The Art of Vivaldi's Lute is "Pick of the Week" for WETA in Washington, DC

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Week of June 27, 2011

A brand-new release by Washington’s own Bach Sinfonia features the talents of lutenist Ronn McFarlane.

http://www.weta.org/fm/features/cdpick/Art+Vivaldi’s+Lute

The Art of Vivaldi’s Lute | WETA

www.weta.org

The title of this recording, and the presence of renowned lutenist Ronn McFarlane, might lead one to believe that this relatively rare instrument is always front and center in this all-Vivaldi release. However, the collegial musicality of all the musicians shines through in each selection.

Along with two concertos and two trios that especially feature the lute, there are two sinfonie, and a motet for soprano and strings. Equally pleasing is the music scholarship of director Daniel Abraham, as articulate and engaging in his role as program annotator as he is when directing the ensemble.

Unusual here is the choice to omit the continuo harpsichord in favor of theorbo, Baroque guitar and the lute itself. This somewhat more gentle-sounding base of operations is perfectly suited to the focus on the lute as a solo instrument.

Indigo Road CD featured on Harmonia Early Music radio broadcast this week

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Ronn McFarlane's GRAMMY nominated recording, Indigo Road is featured on this week's radio broadcast of Harmonia, a nationally broadcast program devoted to Early Music http://indianapublicmedia.org/harmonia/ronn-mcfarlane-indigo-road/

Podcast interview with Ronn McFarlane on Indigo Road

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

This Harmonia Early Music Podcast can be heard and downloaded at InstantEncore:

http://www.instantencore.com/buzz/item.aspx?FeedEntryId=143844

Ronn at the Indianapolis Early Music Festival

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

I had a great time this past weekend playing at the Indianapolis Early Music Festival. Friday night, was a performance with the Baltimore Consort. We played a program of English Broken Consort music - the music that the BC was created to play. Saturday morning, we had a children's show with a great turnout of youngsters and their parents. It was a beautiful thing to see the kids touching, questioning and sometimes even trying out our instruments. And on Sunday evening I played the Vivaldi concertos and trio sonatas for lute and strings with the Indianapolis Early Music Festival. Here's what the Indianapolis Star had to say about the two evening concerts:

http://www.indystar.com/article/20110709/ENTERTAINMENT/107090333/Back-Elizabethan-times

http://wap.indystar.com/entertainment/article?a=2011107110338&f=1247

THE BUZZ: Lutenist is a star in salute to Vivaldi

by Jay Harvey

It's a long way from "Wipeout" by the Surfaris to baroque lute music, but Ronn McFarlane seems capable of catching the big wave and riding the crest.

That long ago-ago instrumental pop hit with its churning guitars is what launched McFarlane's interest in music, according to his program biography.

Antonio Vivaldi is a chart-topper among baroque composers. The imperishable slow movement from his Concerto in D for Lute and Strings has added gloss to weddings and TV ads, and every other month, it seems, a star violinist joins a string orchestra to record "The Four Seasons."

McFarlane presented an enchantingly ornamented line in that D major concerto's Largo movement against a cushion of sustained, vibratoless string tone. The outer movements caught the verve and lyrical allure of the best Vivaldi.

The lutenist has been featured in both Indianapolis Early Music Festival programs this weekend. On Friday, McFarlane appeared with the Baltimore Consort, his home band, and on Sunday night with the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra. The local musicians were supplemented by the Baltimore Consort's Mark Cudek, playing guitar this time around, and William Simms, a master of the ungainly theorbo.

"Viva Vivaldi" was the title of Sunday's concert, and its hip-hip-hooray implication was well-served by the music's variety. At the small end, J.S. Bach's adaptation of a Vivaldi concerto featured a three-man ensemble, with the harpsichordist Thomas Gerber deservingly showcased.

Three short pieces by pre-Vivaldi Italian composers also brought forth just three players, principally to further spotlight McFarlane, though a pert "Ciacona" by Alessandro Piccinini was launched magisterially by Simm's gently booming theorbo.

The restrained but warmly phrased playing of Alison Guest Edberg had been evident from the top of the program, especially in the main slow movement of Concerto No. 11 in D minor. Her poise and well-knit lyricism with the baroque violin carried over to the solo role she filled in another D minor concerto, this one for the mellow, resonant viola d'amore. The imitative passages and conversational byplay between that solo instrument and the partnered lute were among the concert's peak delights.

Review: Baltimore Consort brings merriment of 17th century alive

Music was a haven from the turbulence of Shakespeare's time, and its forms were short and accessible to soothe a people otherwise gripped by fear, ambition and intrigue.

The Baltimore Consort connected readily with its Early Music Festival audience Friday in a program of songs and dances drawn mostly from three decades surrounding the turn of the 17th century.

Mark Cudek, the festival's artistic director, has counted this as his home ensemble for 31 years, and its stability was reflected here in the performance's blend of precision and relaxed rapport.

Instrumental pieces formed the bulk of the program, grouped in compatible sets of three that offered the pleasures of the "broken consort," in which bowed strings, plucked or strummed strings, and flutes were enjoyed in combination.

The Baltimore Consort's showcased players were flutist Mindy Rosenfeld-Hedges and lutenist Ronn McFarlane -- adept musicians whose almost nonchalant mastery was an unfailing source of delight (to them as well as to the audience).

Several lively pieces ended with a variation or two spotlighting Rosenfeld-Hedges duetting with recorder player Larry Lipkis. With Cudek strumming the metal-strung cittern and William Simms the bandora (essentially a larger cittern), the rhythmic pulse could get intense, especially when McFarlane joined in. Near the end of Jean d'Estree's "Les Buffons," a "yee-HAH!" might almost have been appropriate.

The composer most represented Friday was John Dowland, a contemporary of Shakespeare whose volatile personality suggests he would have been at home in the plays. But his true distinction was to have produced so compelling a variety of lute pieces and songs that their appeal up to the present day includes advocacy by Sting, who's recorded a Dowland CD.

One of them, "Come Again, Sweet Love Doth Now Invite," was guest soprano Danielle Svonavec's initial offering Friday night. Her slightly wooden, carefully enunciated performance did not nurture any faith that Elizabethan warmth and flair were natural to her. But this impression was dispelled by her ardor in "Take, O Take Those Lips Away" and friskiness in "The Carman's Whistle." The gradually more elaborate lines of the suggestive "The Dark Is My Delight" suited her well-schooled gift for apt expression.

Encores were a couple of ballads, one featuring Svonavec a cappella ("Go From My Window") and the other, this superb Renaissance band.

review of The Art of Vivaldi's Lute in Gramophone magazine, October 2011

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400

http://www.exacteditions.com/exact/browse/345/365/9340/3/15/0/

Ronn McFarlane's lute is ever present in this varied and pleasurable programme

Vivaldi's output is so vast that listeners have opportunities to hear only a fraction of the composer's creative gifts. So this new disc by the Bach Sinfonia, which is based near Washington DC, provides pleasurable engagement with music beyond the famed climatic concertos and other works that have raised the composer to such a high status. The recording's title, The Art of Vivaldi's Lute, may be a bit misleading, since that delicate instrument comes to the fore only in a portion of the programme. But the lute is present throughout the music-making, both in solo and secondary roles, and it can have no better champion then Ronn McFarlane, whose playing is the epitome of grace and rhythmic animation.

McFarlane is very much the protagonist in the Concerto in D major for two violins and lute, RV93, in which the lute weaves lilting material in conversation with the other soloists. It's possible for the dulcet-voiced lute to get lost amid string textures but the conductor Daniel Abraham and his ensemble maintain balances that promote articulate interplay. Each work receives distinctive treatment, among them the Concerto in D minor for viola d'amore, lute, strings and continuo, RV540, in which William Bauer's invigorating viola d'amore artistry meshes vibrantly with McFarlane's elegance.

There's also a chance to hear Vivaldi in motet mode. Soprano Jennifer Ellis Kampani is the expressive, nimble soloist in In turbato mare irato in tandem with the Bach Sinfonia's refined flexibility.

Donald Rosenberg

The Borgias

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0500

SHOWTIME TV SERIES WILL USE RONN MCFARLANE TRACKS

"The Borgias," depicting the powerful 16th century Italian family, has licensed two tracks from Ronn McFarlane's discography: "Catena d'Amore" by Cesare Negri from the Between Two Hearts CD, and "Passacaglia" by Alessandro Piccinni from The Renaissance Lute CD for the premier episode of its second season. The new season premiers on Sunday, April 8, 2012 at 10 PM ET/PT.