BRATTLEBORO — The Sarasa Ensemble offers two concerts at the Brattleboro Music Center which celebrate the young orphan girls under Vivaldi's tutelage, whose virtuosic talent put the composer's name and the city of Venice on the proverbial map.
Performers of “Vivaldi's Orphan Girls: Virtuosi della Pietà” include soprano Kristen Watson; violinists Susanna Ogata, Susannah Foster, and Keats Dieffenbach; Jenny Stirling on the viola; cellists Jennifer Morsches and Timothy Merton; and John McKean on the harpsichord.
The all-Vivaldi program will include Sinfonia in G-major for strings and basso continuo, RV 146; Concerto No. 1 in B-flat major RV 383a, from Op. 4 “La Stravaganza” for violin, strings, and basso continuo; Zeffiretti che sussurrate RV 749.31 for soprano, strings, and harpsichord; Concerto No. 12 E Minor RV 409 for violoncello solo, two violins, viola, and basso continuo; Ascende laeta RV 635 for soprano, strings, and basso continuo; Trio Sonata for two violins and basso continuo in F major, RV 68; and In turbato mare irato, solo motet for voice, strings, & basso continuo in G major, RV 627.
Founded in 1997, the Sarasa Ensemble is a performing collective, presenting music spanning the 17th to the 21st centuries, on both period and modern instruments. Sarasa has played throughout New England, and has toured Ireland, Cuba and India.