Tuesday, Jul 16, 2013
Performing works by French Baroque masters.
Westminster Choir College of Rider University will present the inaugural performance of Les Agrements de musique in a concert featuring French Baroque music for recorder and harpsichord on Wednesday, July 24, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. in Bristol Chapel on the Westminster campus in Princeton. The concert is free and open to the public.
The performance will highlight the music of French Baroque masters Couperin, Hotteterre, Le Roux, Blavet, Lully, Rameau and others.
Les Agrements de musique was founded by Minju Lee and John Burkhalter to survey the grandeur and intimacy of the musical riches associated with the courts of Louis XIII, his son and heir Louis XIV and his great-grandson Louis XV. The ensemble specializes exclusively in the field of French Baroque music and performs repertory on period instrument copies of recorders and harpsichord at the Paris/ Versailles pitch of A392, a whole step lower than today's more common A440.
Minju Lee earned her bachelor’s degree in Music Composition at Hanyang University in Korea; her master's degree and Doctor of Musical Arts in Harpsichord Performance under Arthur Haas at the State University of New York at Stony Brook; and Artist Diploma at Oberlin Conservatory of Music under Lisa Crawford. She has many years of experience teaching harpsichord music, theory and basso continuo at the Korea National University of Art, Hanyang University and elsewhere. Ms. Lee has performed widely in Korea and the United States. Recent appearances have been with the early music groups Zorzal, The Practitioners of Musick and La Fiocco.
John Burkhalter studied the performance of early music at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston under Daniel Pinkham and the performance of Baroque music at Harvard University under the noted Dutch recorder virtuoso, scholar and conductor Frans Bruggen. In addition, he received valuable instruction from the distinguished Swiss Baroque oboist and recorder player Michel Piguet. Artistic Director of The Practitioners of Musick, Mr. Burkhalter also performs with Le Triomphe de l' amour, Brandywine Baroque and the Princeton University early music group Musica Alta. He regularly performs in various English country dance bands, most notably, with the Germantown Colonial Assembly of Philadelphia and New York's 92nd Street Y.