Featured Performers
- Ruckus, chamber ensemble
- Emi Ferguson, flute
Program
SANCHO: Lady Mary Montagu's Reel - Culford Heath Camp - Ruffs and Rhees from Twelve Country Dances for the Year 1779
HANDEL: Trio in G major, Op. 5, No. 4
SANCHO: Air - Bushy Park - Lord Dalkeith’s Reel – Le Douze de Decembre
HANDEL: Trio in E minor, Op. 5, No. 3
SANCHO: The Royal Bishop - Lindrindod Lasses - Strawberries and Cream
HANDEL: Trio in D major, Op. 5, No. 2
- SANCHO: Duchess of Devonshire's Reel - Trip to Dillington - All of One Mind - Mungo's Delight - Lady Mary Montagu’s Reel
Strawberry Fields is a joyous feast of rustic dances from the 18th century. Featuring Ruckus’ dazzling arrangements of Ignatius Sancho’s 12 Country Dances for the year 1779 and the evergreen trio sonatas of George Frederic Handel, this program will have audiences craving to get on their feet.
While George Frideric Handel and Ignatius Sancho never met each other, they inhabited the same world, and shared one thing for certain: the transcendent joy that comes from a life of music and dance with good company. And if there is one thing that encapsulates the joy of togetherness in 18th-century England it was the English Country Dance. Sweating, laughing, spinning, holding hands…. Propelled onwards by the unrelenting groove of the music.
Ruckus is a shapeshifting, collaborative ensemble with a visceral and playful approach to early music. The NYC-based ensemble aims to fuse the early-music movement's questing, creative spirit with the grit, groove and jangle of American roots music, creating a unique sound of "rough-edged intensity" (New Yorker). Ruckus' core is a continuo group, the baroque equivalent of a jazz rhythm section: guitars, keyboards, cello, bassoon and bass. Its members are among the most creative and virtuosic performers in North American early music.
Sponsors
Part of the Eclectic Orange Series
sponsored by the Jelinek Family Trust 
Featured Artist Sponsor (Emi Ferguson): Shanbrom Family Foundation
