News from San Francisco’s Sizzling Baroque Ensemble


Musica Pacifica

Elizabeth Blumenstock
Elizabeth Blumenstock

San Francisco’s Musica Pacifica combines world-class musicianship with a spirited and communicative performing style and brings exuberant vitality to the intimate chamber music of the Baroque. Since 1990, the ensemble has featured the talents of Judith Linsenberg, recorder and Elizabeth Blumenstock, baroque violin. Charles Sherman, harpsichord, joined the ensemble in 1997, and Josh Lee, viola da gamba, joined in 2012.

Now after 27 years, this season marks a “changing of the guard,” as Ms. Blumenstock has announced her retirement from the ensemble. Ever ready to celebrate, Musica Pacifica is gearing up to fête Ms. Blumenstock’s illustrious career with the ensemble and to welcome the widely acclaimed Ingrid Matthews as their new violinist.

Ingrid Matthews
Ingrid Matthews

Since winning first prize in the Irwin Bodky International Competition for Early Music in 1989, Ingrid Matthews has become well established as one of today’s leading baroque violinists. She served as Music Director of the Seattle Baroque Orchestra from 1994 until 2013, earning widespread respect among musicians and audiences alike. (For more information, please visit ingridmatthews.com)

Elizabeth Blumenstock is a long-time concertmaster, soloist, and leader with the Bay Area’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and American Bach Soloists, concertmaster of the International Handel Festival Orchestra in Göttingen, Germany, and is Artistic Director of the Corona del Mar Baroque Music Festival. Her love of chamber music has involved her in several accomplished and interesting smaller ensembles including Musica Pacifica, Galax Quartet, Live Oak Baroque, Ensemble Mirable, and Voices of Music. An enthusiastic teacher, Ms. Blumenstock teaches for the Juilliard Historical Performance program, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the American Bach Soloists’ summer Festival and Academy, and the International Baroque Institute at Longy. Her discography includes some 100 CDs for such labels as harmonia mundi usa, Dorian/Sono Luminus, Koch, Naxos, Reference Recordings, and Virgin Veritas.

Watch a 2012 highlight from Elizabeth Blumenstock‘s tenure with Musica Pacifica:


MUSICA PACIFICA SEASON HIGHLIGHTS CALENDAR:

Elizabeth Blumenstock’s final concert with Musica Pacifica will take place on Saturday, December 16th, 2017 on the Barefoot Chamber Concert series at the Hillside Swedenborgian Church, 1422 Navellier Street, El Cerrito, California, where the group will also have a champagne send-off for Ms. Blumenstock and a welcome for Ms. Matthews. This is the public’s last chance to experience live and in person the brilliant musical chemistry between Ms. Blumenstock and Ms. Linsenberg.

Ingrid Matthews will officially begin as Musica Pacifica’s new permanent violinist on Sunday April 8, 2018 at Arizona Early Music: Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 2331 E. Adams St., Tucson, Arizona.

Other upcoming concerts including various members of Musica Pacifica are:

October 1, 2017: Dancing In The Isles at Early Music in Columbus (with David Greenberg, violin), Huntington Recital Hall, Capital University, 1 College and Main Columbus, Ohio

October 15, 2017: Sprezzatura–Virtuosic Sonatas of the Italian Baroque with Judith Linsenberg, William Skeen, cello, and Katherine Heater, harpsichord at the California Jazz Conservatory, 2087 Addison St, Berkeley, California

February 16, 2018: A la mode, A le monde – a potpourri of Medieval, Renaissance, traditional, and world music—performed on a panoply of bowed, blown, plucked and hit instruments. On the Barefoot series with Judith Linsenberg, Shira Kammen, Peter Maund, and Katherine Heater. Hillside Swedenborgian Church, 1422 Navellier Street, El Cerrito, California


For more information, please visit musicapacifica.org. Musica Pacifica may be found on Amazon, iTunes, Spotify; and seen on their official YouTube channel.
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