Rosalind—Salomé Gasselin, gamba & Martin Bernstein, recorder

The Harvard Early Music Society and the First Baptist Church of Medford presents
ROSALIND
with Salomé Gasselin (gamba) and Martin Bernstein (recorder)

FREE ADMISSION || $15 Suggested Donation

Prelude, Louis Marchand
Fantaisie & Sarabande, Louis Couperin
Fain would I change that note, Tobias Hume
Le Dodo ou l’amour au berceau, François Couperin
Sarabanda, Largo, Jean-Marie Leclair
A song, sence other beautys charmes your hart, Humphrey Salter
Courante & Jigg, Matthew Locke
Les voix humaines, Marin Marais
The sweet melody & its corrente, Andrea Falconieri
Sarabande & “Paul’s Steeple”, Anonymous

We’re going to tell a story. For a long time, we've had crossed interests and languages: speaking English and playing French music, reading French poems and listening to English songs. It made perfect sense then when we became enamored with this story, of a bilingual English girl, an unknown flutist and composer, and her journal signed only with the name "Rosalind du Bois."
When in 1651, the king of England Charles II was forced to flee to France, he made sure to take a few hand-picked English musicians and composers with him - exile can still be fun if you're rich enough. Our Rosalind quickly disguises herself as a boy and joins her teacher and the rest of the troupe. In her journal, she records her thoughts about the journey, the men she's with, and the experience of living in disguise - alongside of course, some of her compositions and arrangements. It's the perfect starting point for us: music that's cut up and reconfigured, adapted to the road; music inspired by English as well as the French composers that joined the troupe; music from and for those between places and languages. Join us in exploring it, and in finding the intimacy that comes from small ensembles, and from traveling and living and eating and drinking together. Maybe we'll all end up understanding each other.

Salomé Gasselin began playing the viola da gamba at age eleven, studying first with Julien Léonard. She earned bachelors and masters degrees from the CNSMD Lyon, in the class of Marianne Muller; she has also studied with Josh Cheatham, Philippe Pierlot, and Vittorio Ghielmi. She studied literature at University Paris X as well.
Gasselin performs regularly across Europe with many renowned conductors and performers, including Skip Sempé, Patrick Ayrton, Reinoud van Mechelen, and Raphaël Pichon. Her playing has been heard at the world’s leading early music festivals: in Bruges, Paris, Utrecht, York, Oslo, Göttingen, Pavia, Lisbon, Bloomington, New York, Sablé, and Ambronay. She often works with contemporary composers and playwrights, and has taught at the Nantes Conservatoire. Currently, she is particularly interested in seeking out and playing unexplored lyra viol music of the 17th century.

Martin Bernstein has been heard with numerous ensembles across the world, in venues ranging from 17th-century Italian palazzos to modern art museums in Reykjavik to the concert halls of New York City. Bernstein began studying recorder at age five, first with Charles Sibirsky and later with Nina Stern. At 18, he left New York City to study at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague with Reine-Marie Verhagen and Han Tol; he has also studied with Michael Form. He has won prizes at several national and international competitions and has been featured on NPR. Bernstein serves on the faculty at various American early music festivals and workshops. He currently studies history and philosophy at Harvard University.

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