The Lark has two very important responsibilities. The first is to teach the young lark his lessons on how to sing and fly. Next, it sings to the king and queen." -Kathryn
Erica Rubis is a versatile performer on the viola da gamba whose work ranges from renaissance viol consort to improvising and co-creating new music. She is a member of Alchymy Viols, Les Ordinaires Trio, and also plays with Bourbon Baroque, Catacoustic Consort, Echoing Air, Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, and Generation Harmonique. She also collaborates and performs regularly with composer/performer Tomás Lozano in his song project on the poetry of Juan Ramón Jiménez.
Erica’s most recent recordings, Les Ordinaires, Inner Chambers and contemporary music of Tomas Lozano, Eternal Juan Ramón Jiménez, will be released in 2017.
Active in music education, Erica holds regular workshops on the viola da gamba for string students and has pioneered a multi-media program, Shakespeare's Ear, with regular tours since 2009.
Kathryn Summersett, soprano and certified McClosky voice technician, is currently earning her Doctor of Music at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She received her MM from the University of North Texas and her BM from the University of Massachusetts.
Kathryn has been a featured soloist at notable programs such as the in Boston Early Music Festival 2009-2013, Bloomington Early Music Festival 2014 and 2015, Berkeley Early Music Festival 2014, Mountainside Baroque 2011-2016, Florence Voice Seminar (Florence, Italy), Amherst Early Music (New London, CT), Academia D'Amore (Seattle, WA), Indy Baroque, and the Lute Society of America conference.
In Indiana, she has directed several productions such as Purcell Project: A Masquein 2013, Musica Dolcefor Bloomington Early Music Festival 2014, Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum, Heaven versus Earth: A Soul's Moral Predicament in 2015, and L'Amour au Mois de Mai for BLEMF 2017.
lyrics
Swift through the yielding air I glide,
while night's sable shades abide:
Yet in my flight (though ne're so fast)
I tune and time the wild winds blast:
And ere the sun be come about,
teach the young lark his lesson out;
Who early as the day is born
sings his shrill anthem to the rising morn:
Let never mortal lose the pains
to imitate my aiery strains,
Whose pitch too high for human ears,
was set me by the tuneful spheres.
I carol to the fairies' King,
wakes him a-morning when I sing:
And when the sun stoops to the deep,
rock him again and his fair Queen asleep.
credits
from Phlox of a Feather,
track released July 14, 2018
Composed by: Henry Lawes (1595-1662)
Voice: Kathryn Summersett
Viola Da Gamba: Erica Rubis
From the studio to little ones, their families and teachers. BloomingSongs combines musical talents of Bloomington, Indiana composers and musicians. All donations will go directly to the BloomingSongs project.
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