The Baltimore Consort is a sextet of virtuoso Renaissance musicians who revive music of the past for today's audience. Their variety of instruments--lute, viol, flute, cittern, bagpipe, early guitar, rebec, recorder and crumhorn--and voice, have delighted audiences on both sides of the Atlantic and earned their CDs a place on the Billboard Magazine Top-Ten list. The Consort's unique arrangements of early music from England, Scotland, France, and Italy speak to the heart as well as the mind, and their love of the popular and folk music of English/Scottish heritage has led them to delve into the rich trove of traditional balladry preserved in the Appalachian Mountains.The group was founded in 1980 to perform the music of the Elizabethan consort, a specific instrumentation of treble viol, flute, cittern, bandora, and bass viol. The consort's seventh release, planned for the Fall of 1997, will be principally music from this magnificent repertory.
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Larry Lipkis (viols, recorders, and crumhorn) is Composer-in-Residence and Associate Professor of Music at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he also directs the early music program. A recipient of several composition fellowship grants from the NEA and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, he has often been inspired by the Commedia dell'Arte characters of the Italian Renaissance. His cello concerto, Scaramouche , was recently released on compact disc, and his bass trombone concerto, Harlequin , will be premiered in May of 1997 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Mr. Lipkis also composed O'er the Hills and Far Away , an arrangement of 17th century dances and ballads for the Baltimore Consort and chamber orchestra.To the top of the page
Mary Anne Ballard (viols and rebec) researches most of the Baltimore Consort's programs. She also plays viol with the Oberlin Consort of Viols (with whom she has made two recordings). Formerly, she directed or coached early music at the Peabody Conservatory, Princeton University, and the University of Pennsylvania, where she founded the Collegium Musicum. A graduate of Wellesley College, where she began her viol studies, her later mentors included August Wenzinger (viol) and Konrad Ruhland (medieval music).
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Mark Cudek (cittern, Renaissance and Baroque guitars, viol, crumhorn, and recorder) is Director of the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore; he is also Founder and Director of the High School Early Music Program at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Interlochen, MI, and he records and tours with the ensemble Hesperus. Trained as a classical guitarist (U. of Buffalo) and lutenist, Mark enjoyed a stint as a cafe guitarist in the Virgin Islands before devoting himself to early music. An avid athlete, he has participated in several marathons and triathlons.To the top of the page
Custer LaRue (Soprano) is an award-winning graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where she was a pupil of Mlle. Flore Wend. A native of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, she teaches voice at Mary Baldwin College. Her recent Dorian CD of Anglo-American traditional ballads (Custer LaRue Sings the Daemon Lover ), accompanied by members of the Baltimore Consort, placed high on the Billboard charts for several months, and her new Dorian release, The True Lovers' Farewell , has received outstanding reviews.
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Ronn McFarlane (lutes), in addition to pursuing his solo career as one of the world's virtuoso lutenists, performs lute songs with soprano Julianne Baird and for ten years served as a member of the music faculty at the Peabody Conservatory. He has recorded three lute-song albums for Dorian, as well as three discs of solo lute music (The Scottish Lute, LuteMusic of Dowland and The Renaissance Lute ). His eclectic experience as a rock musician, prior to taking up the lute, has been invaluable in stimulating the improvisational side of the Consort's music-making. Ronn also serves as the Baltimore Consort's postsession producer.
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Chris Norman (wooden flutes, crumhorn, bagpipe) plays traditional flutes with the trio Helicon and baroque and classical flute in recital. He has also achieved ranking on the Billboard charts with his Dorian solo album, Man with a Wooden Flute . A second solo CD, entitled The Beauty of the North , features traditional music of Chris's native Nova Scotia and the other provinces of Eastern Canada. Critics have hailed him as "the best traditional flute player in the country."
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Send any comments or questions to:
melal01@moravian.edu
Or via snail mail:
Larry Lipkis
1474 Locksley Dr.
Bethlehem, PA 18018