World-famous Baltimore Consort to Perform
Dec. 10 at Centenary College

SHREVEPORT, LA -- On Sunday, Dec. 10 at 6 p.m., the Friends of Music Concert Series at Centenary College will present the world-famous Baltimore Consort.  The program will be in the Recital Hall of the Hurley School of Music.  

Admission is $8 for adults and $4 for students.  Centenary faculty, staff, and students are admitted free. 

The program will feature old carols and dance tunes from the British Isles, France, Germany and Appalachia, including Noel Nouvelet, Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen and Wassail! Wassail! All Over the Town!

The Baltimore Consort was founded in 1980 to perform the music of Shakespeare's time and has explored English, Scottish and French popular music of the 16th to 18th centuries, as well as German Christmas tunes and Italian music of the Renaissance.  Treading the line between folk and art music, they play in the spirit of their historic predecessors with artful improvising and arranging.  The Consort's interest in early music of England and Scotland, as well as their own personal roots, has led them to delve into the rich trove of traditional ballads and dance tunes preserved in the Appalachian Mountains and Nova Scotia.

The Baltimore Consort has toured extensively in the United States and in 1992, initiated European touring with appearances in Vienna and Regensburg.  They have also performed in Scotland at the Glasgow Early Music Festival.  They have become familiar to radio audiences through their syndicated broadcasts on St. Paul Sunday, Performance Today, CBC Radio's On Stage, and on the BBC.

Originating in Baltimore, where for many years they presented a subscription series of early music concerts, the Baltimore Consort has enjoyed multi-year residencies at the Walters Art Gallery and the Peabody Conservatory.  They have released several compact discs on Dorian Recordings, including On the Banks of Helicon  (early music of Scotland), Watdins Ale (music of the English Renaissance, and LaRocque 'n' Roll  (popular music of Renaissance France).  Their Yuletide recording Bright Day Star was named "Best Small Ensemble Release" by Allegro in 1994.  Absolute Sound named their CD A Trip to Killburn "Best Recording of 1996."

The six performers represent a wide variety of talents.  Mary Anne Ballard, player of viols and rebec, is the chief researcher for the Consort's programs.  She is currently on the faculty of the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute.  Mark Cudek, who plays cittern, bass viol and winds, is the director of the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble.

Soprano Custer LaRue specializes in singing medieval and Renaissance music, and has several prize-winning solo CDs.  She also tours as a ballad singer and sings with Canticum Novun of Virginia.  

Bass viol and wind player Larry Lipkis is chair of the Department of Music, composer- in-residence and director of early music at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Penn.

Lutenist Ronn McFarlane possesses a "talent comparable to James Galway's for the flute or Yo-Yo Ma's for the cello," according to the Washington Post.  He has recorded several solo lute albums for the Dorian label.  

Chris Norman, player of flute and bagpipes, has performed with the Celtic fusion group Skydance, as well as with the international folk trio Helicon.  His highly acclaimed solo recordings include an appearance on the soundtrack of the movie Titanic. 

The New Yorker says, "Few early music players have more fun making music than the Baltimore six."

"The Baltimore Consort is perhaps the best balancing act of period authenticity, instrumental precision and sheer fun in the early music community today," says the Times-Dispatch of Richmond, Va.

For further information, contact Centenary's Hurley School of Music at 318-869-5235.

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