Best Marketing Idea Ever...

How can something seem so silly and be so brilliant at the same time. Chanticleer will sell 1,000,000 copies, I predict.



Buy the DVD.

Mourn, Day is with Darkness Fled - John Dowland Lute Song... Recent Videos

A lute song by John Dowland (1563-1626). This is from Dowland's second book of Ayres, a collection that also contains his song, "Flow my Tears". The text describes a pseudo-apocalyptic scenario in which day is overcome by night, hell has taken over heaven, and evil mists are choking off our joys. Heavy stuff for a lute song!

Text:
Mourn, mourn, day is with darkness fled,
What heav'n then governs Earth?
Oh, none but hell in heaven's stead
Chokes with his mists our mirth.

Mourn, mourn, look now for no more day
Nor night, but that from hell.
Then all must, as they may,
In darkness learn to dwell.

But yet this change needs must change our delight.
That thus the Sun should harbor with the night.

Ian Howell - Countertenor
Karl Wohlwend - Guitar

Recorded live at the Merit Music School in Chicago, IL.
Thanks to the Ravinia Festival for arranging this lecture demonstration.
Audio and video recorded with a Flip HD video camera, edited in iMovie.

Laudate Dominum - C.M. Cozzolani... Recent Videos

Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, a benedictine nun in the Italian city of Milan, published this cantata for solo voice and two violins in 1648.

Tableau Baroque:

Ian Howell - Coutertenor
Adam Lamotte & Tekla Cunningham - Violins
William Skeen - Viola da Gamba
Henry Lebedinsky - Harpsichord

Text:

Praise the Lord, all you nations.
Praise him, all you people.
For confirmed upon us is his mercy.
And the truth of the Lord remains forever.
Glory to the Father, glory to the Son
And glory to the holy spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now,
And always shall be.
Unto ages of ages.
So be it.

Recorded 15 August 2009 at the Whidbey Island Music Festival.

http://www.whidbeyislandmusicfestival...

For more information about Ian Howell and Tableau Baroque.
http://www.ianhowellcountertenor.com
http://www.tableaubaroque.org

Holy Messiah Source Material... Recent Videos

One of Handel's Italian duets, originally for two sopranos, re-scored for alto and violin obligato. The two arias in this cantata served as the source material for Handel's choruses "His yoke is easy" and "And he shall purify" from his oratorio, "Messiah."

Ian Howell - Countertenor
Tekla Cunningham - Violin
William Skeen - Cello
Henry Lebedinsky - Harpsichord

Text:

The flower that laughs at dawn
later will be killed by the Sun
and has its tomb in the evening.

Life is a flower
it is destroyed at dawn
and in one single day loses its springtime.

Recorded 14 August 2009 at the Whidbey Island Music Festival.

http://www.whidbeyislandmusicfestival...

For more information about Ian Howell and Tableau Baroque.
http://www.ianhowellcountertenor.com
http://www.tableaubaroque.org

This video was recorded with a FlipHD camera (that didn't like the intensity of the stage lights).
Audio was recorded with a matched pair of Avenson ST0-2 omni-directional microphones.

Check one off the list

So... in the way-back-time, before Yale, before Chanticleer, back when I was trying to decide if I had a future as a singer at all (and I was making most of my money wearing a hawaiian shirt and playing steel drum in central Ohio), I would make study CDs of my favorite singers (I had a super fancy 2x SCSI external CD burner).  When I was learning Cacinni lute songs, the singer I studied was Julianne Baird.  In 1999/2000, her recording of the Cacinni's song Dolcissimo Sospriro was the the template for both my pre-audition recording and subsequent successful audition performance of that piece for Chanticleer.

And now I'm singing the alto solos to her second soprano solos on a Bach B-minor Mass in Philadelphia.  

Ain't life grand and full of fun connections?  They say that the music world keeps getting smaller; the trick is to stay in the music world.

:-)

"1685 & the Art of Ian Howell" CD Release

1685 & the Art of Ian Howell

My debut solo CD with the American Bach Soloists has been released!

The CD may be ordered through the American Bach Soloists website or purchased at any of my upcoming concerts.  It will be available on iTunes in the coming months.

Click here to order and listen to online samples.

From the ABS website:

March 23, 2009

    ABS's newest recording was released on Bach's birthday, March 21st, 2009.

    1685 & The Art of Ian Howell features ABS International Young Artists Competition winner, Ian Howell, in works by three composers born in 1685: J.S. Bach, Handel, and Domenico Scarlatti.

    Ian Howell was the featured soloist in our subscription concerts in April of last year. During the following week, he and the ABS musicians recorded this newest addition to the American Bach Soloists' discography. One of Bach's greatest solo cantatas, Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust!, is paired with Scarlatti's exquisite Salve Regina. A selection of arias from Handel's oratorios and operas - including Saul, Giulio Cesare, Orlando, Rinaldo, and Serse - completes the 72 minute disc.

    Mr. Howell, Maestro Thomas, and recording producer Chris Landen spent Bach's birthday in the studio, putting the finishing touches on this beautiful compilation.

Rehearsals, Day 1

posted by Henry Lebedinsky

17 February 2009

2:00 a.m.

Scenic Hartford, Connecticut. My home town, I guess. I miss New England in winter. Down home in NC, the trees are flowering, the crocuses are blooming (and being eaten by my chickens) and it's pushing 60 degrees every day. Up here, it's in the 20s. Bracing, wonderful cold.

Tableau is rehearsing at Asylum Hill Congregational Church on Asylum Ave. in Hartford. The recession is hitting the area hard. It makes me sad to see the empty buildings and general urban malaise. We're in for it, it seems. Inside, we escape from it all with our music. Ian and Michael met for the first time, and sang beautifully together. 

A German baroque cantata by Johann Schelle and Italian duets by Steffani and Handel were on the menu, with extra virgin olive oil, freshly-grated Parmesan cheese, and prosciutto. Handel's 'Quel fior ch'al alba ride' was the source material for the Messiah chorus 'His yoke is easy.' The music makes much more sense with the Italian words, especially the rippling, jovial melisma on the word 'ride' (laughs) 

Perhaps a nice chianti?

I'll take Guinness.