Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra offers holiday show

MUSICA ANGELICA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA presents a HOLIDAY CELEBRATION performance conducted by Music Director Martin Haselböck on Saturday, December 1, 8 pm, at Zipper Concert Hall, downtown Los Angeles, and Sunday, December 2, 2007, 4 pm, at Schoenberg Hall, UCLA.
The spirited concert of beautiful seasonal works features Austrian trumpet virtuoso Martin Patscheider and luminous Canadian soprano Dominique Labelle as soloists for the program of Telemann's Concerto in D for Violin and Trumpet, Corelli's Concerto Grosso Op. 5, No. 8, “Christmas,” Scarlatti's Aria for Soprano and Trumpet, Handel's Gloria, Manfredini's Concerto Grosso, Op. 3, No. 12, “Christmas,” and Bach's Cantata No. 51, “Jauchzet Gott.”
A pre-concert lecture takes place 40 minutes prior to each concert.
"Italy maintains a very strong tradition of Christmas celebrations in paintings, music and dance," notes Haselböck. "Two of the Italian composers in our program, Corelli and Manfredini, each wrote virtuosic and meditative movements in their Christmas concertos. Each also features a pifa, which is a dance associated with shepherds' pipes and shawms -- the double-reed ancestors of the oboe and bassoon used in Europe from the 13th through the 17th century -- representing the early Italian tradition of shepherds coming to town on Christmas Day to play their instruments in homage to biblical shepherds.
"The Handel and Bach works we'll play are two very virtuosic and beautiful vocal compositions. Handel's Gloria, discovered in England only a few years ago, brings the text of the Christmas announcement in several parts using soprano solo, strings and basso continuo. Bach's cantata, "Jauchzet Gott," adds solo trumpet to the coloraturas of the voice, finishing with a festive Alleluja."

Zipper Concert Hall at the Colburn School of Performing Arts is located at 200 S. Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, across the street from Walt Disney Concert Hall.

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 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

Music Director/Conductor Martin Haselböck 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.

MARTIN PATSCHEIDER, Baroque trumpet, was born in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1973. He studied modern trumpet at the Hochschule Mozarteum Salzburg with Karl Steininger of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Baroque trumpet with Andreas Lackner. He has performed on the modern trumpet with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphonie Orchestra Vienna, Volksoper Wien, and Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. As a Baroque trumpet specialist, he has played concerts and recordings with Martin Haselböck's Wiener Akademie, the Neue Hofkapelle München, Nickolaus Harnoncourt's Concentus Musicus Wien, Il Giardino Armonico, Venice Baroque, Trumpet Concort Innsbruck, Ars Antiqua Austria, Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, Cantus Cölln, La Stagione Frankfurt, L´Arpa Festante and many more.
Patscheider has also composed trumpet works for youth orchestras, brass orchestras, trumpet soloists, trumpet studients and modern funk bands.

Canadian soprano DOMINIQUE LABELLE first came to international prominence as Donna Anna in Peter Sellar's stunning Summerfare Festival production of Mozart's Don Giovanni, set in Spanish Harlem, which she performed in New York, Paris and Vienna. Since then she has been acclaimed in a repertoire that ranges from Bach to 2006 Pulitzer Prize-winner Yehudi Wyner. She has worked with conductors from Boulez to Zinman, and orchestras from Atlanta to San Francisco. She is a regular guest soloist in Europe. Whether in opera, in concert, in recital, or in oratorio, the luminous beauty of her charismatic stage presence is unmistakable.
In a performance by Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the San Francisco Examiner gave top vocal honors to Labelle who sang Nitocris "with a glorious combination of dramatic fervor, tonal luxuriance and pinpoint accuracy." The Boston Globe raved, "none can top her performing Bach.". Following a performance of Bach's Cantata no. 202, the Boston Globe wrote, "Really, everybody needs more Dominique in their lives. There's operatic glamour in the voice and technique and control to burn."
Her many recordings, with repertoire from the 17th to the 21st centuries, appear on Virgin Veritas, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, RCA Victor Red Seal, Koss, Denon, New World, and Muisica Omnia labels. Her recording of Handel's Arminio won the 2002 Handel Prize. Labelle is a National Winner of the Metropolitan Opera competition, and the recipient of a George London Foundation Award and Boston University's Distinguished Alumni Award.

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.

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.