Baroque Performance Institute

This year marks the 38th Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin, America's premiere summer workshop for baroque instruments and voice.

The internationally-renowned faculty, headed by the members of the Oberlin Baroque Ensemble (Michael Lynn, Marilyn McDonald, Catharina Meints, and Webb Wiggins), will again lead daily master classes and ensemble coachings. Faculty and student concerts promise to offer memorable listening and music-making experiences, lectures and informal open discussions stimulate the intellect, and the ever-popular baroque dance classes provide excellent physical exercise as well as a kinetic appreciation for the rhythms that underlie so much music of the baroque era.
 
Highlights include:

• Two Faculty Concerts (Fridays, 26 June & 3 July), offering listeners a rare opportunity to hear BPI's world-class faculty members perform together. Repertoire emphasizes the English theme, and will include performances at both A=415 and A=430.
• Faculty Fringe Concerts will present masterful interpretations of important and representative solo and small ensemble pieces.
• Two Saturday student concerts (27 June and 4 July) will showcase the work of the faculty-coached ensembles that constitute the main component of each afternoon's schedule. Repertoire is wide-ranging, and need not be restricted to the English.
• Daily masterclasses in voice, recorder, flute, baroque oboe and bassoon, natural trumpet, viola da gamba, baroque violin, viola, and cello, lute and theorbo, and harpsichord, fortepiano/clavichord and organ are open to all.
• Special keyboard continuo classes help players of all levels improve their figured bass realization skills.
• Daily baroque dance classes help "get the kinks out" and stimulate deep-body understanding of the rhythms that underpin so much baroque music.
• NEW THIS YEAR: Baroque Clarinet and Chalumeau (week 1).
• Many opportunities for ad hoc reading sessions, plus the superb and readily-accessible music and book collection of the Conservatory Library, facilitate the exploration of new repertoire. For many, the chance to come into contact with new literature in this fashion is among the most important aspects of BPI, providing fresh fuel for an entire year's subsequent study.