2025 Minnie Untermyer Series: Sonnambula - Renaissance and Baroque Music

Sonnambula is a historically informed ensemble that brings to light unknown music for early instruments.

About this Event

Sunday, August 10 at 5:00 PM.

Sonnambula presents Florilegium musicum: Musical Flowers of the Renaissance and Baroque

Renaissance theorist Marchetto da Padua claimed his music treatise Pomerium (“The Fruit Tree,” late 14th century) contained the “flowers and fruits” of the art of music. The sensuousness of a floral bouquet similarly inspired Pierre Phalèse to publish a collection of diverse musical gems in Antwerp in 1602, which he titled the Florilegium sacrarum cantionum. Today’s program explores Renaissance and Baroque music with a relationship to nature, and the composers who sought flora’s ultimate allegorical expression: in sound.

SONNAMBULA: Jude Ziliak, violin, James Kennerley, harpsichord, Elizabeth Weinfield, viola da gamba

About Sonnambula

Praised as “remarkable” and “superb” by Alex Ross in the New Yorker, Sonnambula is a historically informed ensemble that brings to light unknown music for early instruments with the lush sound of the viol at the core. Sonnambula recently held the position of ensemble in residence at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the group curated a site-specific series at The Cloisters. Performances and collaborators have included The Madison Early Music Festival, Early Music Texas, The Boston Early Music Festival, Teju Cole, Barnard College, PERFORMA, Bard Graduate Center, Princeton University, and many others. The ensemble has a strong commitment to working with museums and in this capacity has worked closely with The Hispanic Society of America in New York to curate a season of music by women with connections to the Iberian Diaspora as well as American premieres of 18th-century Cuban sacred music and Spanish zarzuela. Sonnambula has also been a featured guest at The National Gallery of Art, The Detroit Museum of Arts, The Frick Collection, and other notable American museums. Their award-winning recording of the complete works of 17th-century composer Leonora Duarte was released on Centaur Records and in 2024 they will release their second recording, Passing Fancy: Beauty in a Moment of Chaos, highlights of which you will hear today.

RAIN OR SHINE: In case of inclement weather, the performance will move indoors to the Community Room of the Cola Center at Untermyer Park and Gardens.

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