Camerata Goes Back to Baroque

Chamber music is alive and well in Santa Barbara, if having three qualifying, locally-generated concerts in a single week is any indication. Camerata Pacifica, the ensemble series founded originally as Bach Camerata by flutist Adrian Spence in 1990 that has become widely respected and revered for the virtuosity exhibited by its world-class musicians and the ambitious nature of its programming, gives something of a nod to its roots in launching a new baroque series. Serving as curator is Emi Ferguson, the acclaimed flutist who has quickly become a favorite of the company after two recent appearances, including an adventurous baroque concert with the early music band Ruckus.

The inaugural concert, which will be performed on period instruments at Hahn Hall on October 20, features five seminal Bach chamber works set against six anonymous pieces composed during the same era in Bolivia that were rediscovered in the past 20 years in a Bolivian Jesuit mission church. The seemingly disparate pieces separated by oceans are bridged by “La Follia”byDoménico Zipoli, an Italian composer who completed his musical training in Europe before moving to Argentina. 

“We are so fortunate to have found these incredible pieces of chamber music – keyboard works, preludes, and fugues, the same kind of styles that Bach himself was composing, but written on the other side of the world by anonymous composers,” Ferguson said. “The music shares so much in common with Bach’s way of thinking. It’s a wonderful snapshot into how European music was being played and combined with local music, elements that are not at all European and creating these moments of fusion that are quite astounding.” 

Ferguson, who was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant earlier this year, handpicked the other musicians for the series debut, tapping longtime colleagues in violinist Katie Hyun, cellist Coleman Itzkoff,and keyboardist Mikael Darmanie to tackle the 400-year-old works. 

“We’re all musicians who deeply understand and are immersed in the history of the music but also well-versed in modern music,” she said. “It’s exciting to use our modern sensibilities applied back as we look at this early music with the same lines of inquiry we’d use for a contemporary composer.” 

The foursome is also well versed and comfortable with improvisation, capable of real-time collaborative efforts that characterize Baroque music and a big part of the appeal of Ferguson. 

“Before composers began to micromanage to make sure that they had ownership over the music, classical music was always considered a collaboration between the composer, the performers, the audience, and the space that they were in,” she explained. “It was constantly changing and evolving, and as a result was always alive. Even though this music is 300 years old, it’s still alive today because we are interpreting it and we are improvising within it and adding our own flavors and decision-making, in a sense collaborating with the composers, each other, and the audience in real time. That’s incredibly exciting.”

Visit www.cameratapacifica.org for more information and tickets.