Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra announces season opener

Internationally acclaimed conductor/organist Martin Haselböck launches MUSICA ANGELICA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA's 2007-08 season on Saturday, October 20, 8 pm, Pasadena Presbyterian Church, and Sunday, October 21, 2007, 4 pm, Schoenberg Hall, UCLA., leading a CONCERTO! program of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and No. 5, and Telemann's Concerto for Flute d'Amour, Oboe d'Amore & Viola d'Amore; Concerto for Flute, Violin and Cello in A from Tafelmusik; and Concerto for Oboe.
Spotlighted as soloists for the evening are Musica Angelica Concertmaster/Resident Artistic Director Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin and viola d'amore; Principal Oboist Gonzalo Ruiz, oboe and oboe d'amore; and Principal Flutist Stephen Schultz, flute and flute d'amour. All three have performed with Musica Angelica for many years and are key artists in the orchestra's success.
Haselböck is beginning his third season as music director of Musica Angelica, considered Southern California's premier Baroque ensemble.
A pre-concert lecture takes place 40 minutes prior to each concert.
Pasadena Presbyterian Church is located at 585 E. Colorado Blvd. at Madison in Pasadena.
Schoenberg Hall at UCLA is located in the Schoenberg Music Building (enter the East side of the UCLA campus at the Westholme Avenue entrance off Hilgard Avenue) in Westwood.
Tickets, which are available online at www.MusicaAngelica.org or by calling (310) 458-4504, are $25 to $49 for general audiences; $31 to $43 for seniors; and $12 for students.
Also available are subscription packages for the 2007-08 season, including Season Series Subscriptions (all 8 concerts) for $249 to $289); Orchestral Series Subscriptions (5 concerts) for $159 to $199.00; Chamber Series Subscriptions (3 concerts) for $94.00; and "Create Your Own Personal Favorites Subscription Package" (any 4 concerts) for $129.00.
Tickets for the UCLA concert can also be purchased from the UCLA Central Ticket office at (310) 825-2101 or online at www.uclalive.com.
For more information, or a brochure with the full season schedule, call (310) 458-4504 or visit www.MusicaAngelica.org

Martin Haselböck (Music Director/Conductor) has distinguished himself in many ways on the international music stage. Equally at home with period- and modern-instrument ensembles, he has earned an outstanding reputation as a solo organist, an orchestral and opera conductor and composer. Haselböck's main focus lies in works of the Baroque and Classical periods. As a solo organist, he has won numerous competitions and has made more than fifty solo recordings. Additionally, he has conducted over 60 recordings, with repertoire ranging from Baroque to 20th Century vocal and instrumental works. This prodigious output has earned him the Deutsches Schallplatten Critics' Prize as well as the Hungarian Liszt Prize.
While in his official role as Court Organist for Vienna, where he was responsible for an extensive repertoire of classical church music, Haselböck began an intense commitment to conducting, which led to his founding the now-famous Vienna Akademie Ensemble in 1985. Haselböck frequently guest conducts major orchestras including the Vienna Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Dresden Philharmonic, the Toronto Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
As an opera conductor, he made his debut with the Handel Festival in Göttingen. He also conducted the U.S. premiere of Porpora's "Il Gedeone" in a concert version with Musica Angelica in Los Angeles. When not conducting, Haselböck is busy unearthing long lost vocal/instrumental works in the dusty archives of Kiev and Vienna, finding unpublished gems by Biber, Porpora, Fux, Muffat, and the Bach family, which he transcribes and resurrects in historical re-creations for his Vienna Akademie Ensemble and festivals around the world.

ELIZABETH BLUMENSTOCK, violin, is widely admired as a Baroque violinist of interpretive eloquence and technical sparkle. In August 2004, she was appointed Resident Artistic Director of Musica Angelica, which includes the responsibilities of programming the ensemble's Chamber Music Series. Blumenstock has performed frequently as soloist and concertmaster not only with Musica Angelica but also with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Chicago Opera Theater, the Italian ensemble Il Complesso Barocco and, most recently, the Goettingen Handel Festival with Nicholas McGegan. She is also a member of several of California's finest period instrument ensembles, including Musica Pacifica, Trio Galanterie, and the Arcadian Academy. Blumenstock has appeared with period orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout the United States and abroad and has performed at the Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Carmel Bach Festival, the Oulunsalo Soi festival in Finland, the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, and with Los Angeles Opera, among many others.
With over 90 recordings to her credit, she has recorded for Dorian, harmonia mundi, Virgin Classics, BMG, Reference Recordings, Koch International, Sony, New Albion, and others. She is instructor of baroque violin at the University of Southern California, teaches at the International Baroque Institute at Longy, and has coached university Baroque ensembles at Roosevelt University and the University of Virginia. Blumenstock is also organist/choir director at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Richmond, CA, and is an avid Scrabble and pinball player.

GONZALO X. RUIZ, oboe, is one of the North America's most critically acclaimed and sought-after historical woodwind soloists. In recent seasons he has appeared both as principal oboist and concerto soloist with leading period instrument groups in America and Europe under conductors such as Andrew Manze, Nicholas McGegan, and Jordi Savall. His playing is featured on numerous recordings of solo, chamber, and orchestral repertoire. Equally accomplished on the modern oboe, he was principal of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic and the New Century Chamber Orchestra and was awarded the 2000 ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming for his work with American Baroque. A prizewinner at the Brugges competition, he is an acknowledged expert in historical reedmaking techniques; over two dozen of his pieces are on permanent display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

STEPHEN SCHULTZ, flute, called "among the most flawless artists on the baroque flute" by the San Jose Mercury News, and "flute extraordinaire" by the New Jersey Star-Ledger, is solo and principal flutist with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Musica Angelica and performs with other leading early music groups such as Tafelmusik and Chatham Baroque. Tours have taken him throughout Europe and North America with featured appearances at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall in London, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Göttingen International Handel Festival, and the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. Schultz was a featured soloist in the Mark Morris Dance Group's critically acclaimed production of Handel's L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato.
Currently an Associate Teaching Professor in Music History at Carnegie Mellon University, Schultz is also a featured faculty member of the Jeanne Baxtresser International Flute Master Class at Carnegie Mellon University and at the International Baroque Institute at Longy School of Music.
In 1986, Schultz founded the original instrument ensemble, American Baroque. This unique group brings together some of America's most accomplished and exciting baroque instrumentalists, with the purpose of defining a new, modern genre for historical instruments. As solo, chamber, and orchestral player, Schultz appears on forty-six recordings for such labels as Dorian, Naxos, Harmonia Mundi USA, New Albion, Amon Ra, and Koch International Classics and has also performed and recorded with world music groups such as D'CuCKOO and Haunted By Waters, using his electronically processed Baroque flute to develop alternative sounds that are unique to his instrument.
In 2006, composer Nancy Galbraith wrote Traverso Mistico for him, scored for electric Baroque flute, solo cello, and chamber orchestra and given its world premiere that year at Carnegie Mellon in Pittburgh.

MUSICA ANGELICA is led by Music Director Martin Haselböck, the internationally renowned organist, conductor, and composer. Regarded as Southern California's premier Baroque ensemble, Musica Angelica presents wide-ranging programs encompassing music from the early Baroque through the early Classical era. Since its inception in 1993, Musica Angelica has produced an annual subscription season of orchestral and chamber concerts in venues throughout Los Angeles County, programming a mixture of known masterworks along with rarely heard gems, and featuring many of the best Baroque musicians from across the country and Europe. Guest conductors have included Rinaldo Alessandrini, Giovanni Antonini, Harry Bicket, Paul Goodwin, and Jory Vinikour, among others. Concertmaster/Resident Artistic Director Elizabeth Blumenstock, the noted Baroque violinist, programs Musica Angelica's chamber music series.
Musica Angelica's first international tour, distinguished by sold-out performances and wide critical acclaim, took place in March 2007 in a joint venture with Haselböck's acclaimed European orchestra, the Wiener Akademie of Vienna. The ensemble presented 13 performances of Bach's St. Matthew Passion in Los Angeles, New York, Savannah (Savannah Music Festival), Mexico, Hungary, Austria, Spain, Italy and Germany.
Among critical acclaim from the media for Musica Angelica is a Los Angeles Times review which said, "Musica Angelica soars in a Baroque gem. a triumph. Haselböck's leadership was nuanced and inspiring." The Times also referred to Elizabeth Blumenstock as "one of the leading lights of the early-music movement." Musica Angelica was described as a "world class Baroque orchestra" by KUSC FM Classical Music Radio, as "L.A.'s premiere Baroque music ensemble" by Angeleno Magazine, and as "a serious and important early-music ensemble, the best of its kind in these parts" by esteemed music critic Alan Rich.
In 1998, Musica Angelica issued a well-received recording, Vivaldi Concertos for Lute, Oboe, Violin and Strings. In 2007, Musica Angelica raised its profile with a contract for four recordings on the Germany-based New Classical Adventure (NCA) label. The first, released in 2007, is Handel's Acis and Galatea. Musica Angelica, based in Santa Monica, California, collaborates with leading performing arts institutions in Southern California including Los Angeles Opera, Long Beach Opera, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Norton Simon Museum, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
Musica Angelica was co-founded by Michael Eagan, widely considered one of the foremost lute players in the country, and gambist Mark Chatfield. Eagan passed away in 2004, and Chatfield passed away in 1998. www.MusicaAngelica.org