Our recording of the John Dowland song ‘Come Again’ was aired on WBAI’s music show Cosmik Debris on Sunday, August 15th! Sending out a big thank you to WBAI host Mark Laiosa for checking us out on the Oasis sampler CD.
Voices & Lute
30
Aug
Our recording of the John Dowland song ‘Come Again’ was aired on WBAI’s music show Cosmik Debris on Sunday, August 15th! Sending out a big thank you to WBAI host Mark Laiosa for checking us out on the Oasis sampler CD.
Tags: "Come Again", John Dowland, radio airplay, WBAI New York
13
Jul
Well, we’re back from the tour now and planning for upcoming seasons. We’d like to thank all of our host venues and homestay families. Thank you for the beds, the wonderful food, the local impromptu neighborhood tours and parties. Your generosity and graciousness made our visits to your communities very special.
Our tour has already garnered us one new booking and invitations to return everywhere we played. At the Lute Society seminar, many people told us after our performance to “keep going with this — you’ve got something really special here.” One grad student told us “I’ve been studying lute songs for two years and I’m so excited to see this! You’ve expanded my view of what lute song performance can be.” If you attended one of our concerts and would like to give us feedback, please send us an email via the Contact page.
As for future plans, we’re contacting local and regional presenters to continue to spread “the Shakespeare” as far and wide as possible. We’ll also be adding music to our annual holiday program and starting work on a new program of traditional ballads and folk songs.
13
Jun
Check out all of our behind the scenes anecdotes and snapshots on our Good Pennyworths Blog!
31
May
In her other life, Erika Lloyd is lead singer and main songwriter for the indie rock/alt jazz band Little Grey Girlfriend. The Grammy award-winning choral ensemble, Chanticleer, is going to be performing Erika’s song “Cells Planets” on their world tour! And the NYTimes wrote about it! (10th paragraph down) Congratulations, Erika! Here’s a link to the NYTimes article.
Arts – Embracing the Renaissance and YouTube, Too – NYTimes.com
The all-male Bay Area chorus Chanticleer is gently shifting its direction under Matthew Oltman, who became the group’s new music director last July… Mr. Oltman still honors Chanticleer’s past; for example, he remains passionate about Renaissance music. This week Chanticleer performs a series of concerts featuring music by 16th- and 17th-century English composers like Thomas Tallis, William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons. Mr. Oltman also intends to continue commissioning new works, especially by young composers and arrangers like Vince Peterson. He is arranging “Cells Planets,” by the New York indie rock band Little Grey Girlfriend, for the ensemble’s tour next season.
(And here’s more info on Little Grey Girlfriend: http://littlegreygirlfriend.com/)
Tags: Cells Planets, Chanticleer, Early Music, Erika Lloyd, Good Pennyworths, Little Grey Girlfriend, New York NY, Renaissance Music, vocal ensemble
11
May
Catch us on the road June 19-27, 2010! We’ll be touring our most ambitious concert to date – “Songs From Shakespeare: True Love Never Did Run Smooth” – traveling from Western New York through Ohio to Michigan. (And yes, that’s the final title.)
Sat, June 19 at 8 pm – Buffalo, NY (Ascension Church, 16 Linwood Ave.)
Sun, June 20 at 2:30 pm – Chautauqua, NY (Hurlbut Mem’l Church, Chautauqua Institute campus)
Mon, June 21 at 7:30 pm – Columbus, OH (Redeemer Lutheran Church, 1555 S. James Rd. off I-70)
Tue, June 22 – Detroit Area, MI
Wed, June 23 at 7 pm – Grand Rapids, MI (MAJIC Concert Series Fundraiser, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 250 Commerce Ave SW)
Thu, June 24 at 7 pm – Ann Arbor, MI (Ann Arbor Downtown Library, 343 S. Fifth Avenue)
Fri, June 25 at 7 pm – Toledo, OH (St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 428 N. Erie Street)
Sat, June 26 at 7:30 pm – Port Clinton, OH (Firelands Presbyterian Church, 2626 East Harbor Rd.)
Sun, June 27 at 3:30 pm – Cleveland, OH (Lute Society of America Concert Series, Harkness Chapel, Case Western Reserve U.)
Please join us if you live nearby. If you don’t, we’d love it if you would pass the word along to friends and family who do. Full concert details are posted on the “Dates” page of the site.
Tags: Chamber Music, Early Music, Good Pennyworths Tour, Lute Songs, Renaissance Music, Shakespeare, Upcoming Concert, vocal ensemble
24
Feb
Rehearsals are going well for our new concert, and we’re thrilled to be working with director and Shakespeare Geek Extraordinaire Kate Harte-DeCoux on the staging. Kate did a phenomenal job of choosing the Shakespeare dialog for the show, which thematically connects one song to the next. Kate is the Artistic Director of Mortal Folly Theatre. We’re also thrilled to be working with tenor Christopher Preston Thompson, a talented singer/actor with Shakespeare credits in both opera and theater, who is starting to move into the Early Music genre. For more info on this concert, go to the “Dates” page.
18
Feb
If you have an iTunes account, please go to iTunes and give our album, “Love Lust Longing Loss” and the two iMixes on our page 5-star ratings! We need as many 5-star ratings as possible to help our music start to appear on other artists’ pages in the “If you like this, you might like…” section. This will really help our visibility and sales! If you’ve heard the album (you can listen on our Music page), you can add a review, too!
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewIMix?id=356286881
You can also do the same on cdbaby.com, amazon.com, rhapsody and digstation.com. If you download, digstation is our favorite site because they don’t take a cut of our sales. Every penny goes right back into the organization!
2
Feb
Save the Date! We will be performing our new concert of songs from Shakespeare at 3:30pm, Saturday, March 27 at Advent Lutheran Church, 2504 Broadway at W93rd Street, Manhattan. Suggested donation – $20; $10 students and senior citizens. Keep your eyes on this space — we hope to announce an additional date soon.
William Shakespeare’s plays feature many songs; some he commissioned specially for his plays, others he “appropriated” from other sources and adapted the lyrics for dramatic purposes, and some were simply popular songs of the period which he included merely to cover costume changes or to please his audience. We’ve taken these songs, using the original tunes whenever possible, and woven them together using Shakespeare’s own words into a tale about fools, lovers and the ups and downs of these “giddy-paced times.” Stage Direction by Katherine Harte-DeCoux (Artistic Director, Mortal Folly Theatre). Featuring Garald Farnham, Erika Lloyd, Alane Marco and guest artist Christopher Preston Thompson.
Tags: Early Music, Good Pennyworths, John Dowland, Lute Songs, Music, Renaissance Music, Shakespeare, Upcoming Concert, vocal ensemble, Vocal Quartet
2
Feb
We will be performing “Love! Lust! Longing… Loss” at the Hastings-on-Hudson Public Library for Valentine’s Day, Sunday, February 14, 2010 at 2pm. 7 Maple Ave., Hastings-on-Hudson, New York 10706 | (914) 478-3307
www.hastingslibrary.org
Tags: Early Music, John Dowland, Lute Songs, Renaissance Music, Upcoming Concert, vocal ensemble
16
Dec
Our new album “Love! Lust! Longing… Loss – An Elizabethan Romp” is now available! Just in time for Holiday gift giving. You may download it right now for $9.99 at www.DigStation.com/TheGoodPennyworths. (We like DigStation — we keep 100% of the proceeds, which is very helpful for a not-for-profit organization like ours!) The CD features ballads and lute songs from our popular concert of the same name, with selections by John Dowland, Thomas Campion, Philip Rosseter, Thomas Morley and many other Elizabethan-era composers. We’ll be selling CDs after our holiday concert on Dec. 19th, of course. CDs and downloads are also available on iTunes, Amazon, cdbaby.com, and other online music retailers. All net proceeds from the sales of CDs go directly back into the organization to support new concerts and touring initiatives. Buy one for yourself and one for a friend!
Scroll down for details about the Saturday, December 19th concert in NYC.
Tags: album, CD release, cdbaby.com, digstation.com, Early Music, iTunes, Music, Renaissance Music, vocal ensemble
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