Hesperus performs its own early music soundtracks for innovative cartoons from the era just before Disney created Mickey Mouse. Tina Chancey, early bowed strings, percussion; Brian Kay, lute, cittern, dumbek; Spiff Wiegand, lute, cittern, recorder, guitar, percussion. Innovative, historically-informed, and multi-cultural, Hesperus collaborative artists perform a variety of programs designed to bring musical history alive including silent movie soundtracks of early music, musical portraits of a single culture through time, fusions of European early music with American traditional styles, and single-genre early music programs from medieval to Spanish and British Colonial music. Whatever the genre, Hesperus performs with creative energy, technical assurance, and a sense of fun. Founded by the late Scott Reiss and his wife, Tina Chancey, Hesperus has appeared throughout the US, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Europe, most recently at Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Lincoln Center, the Carmel Bach Festival and the Cloisters, as well as at festivals in Italy, Germany, Indonesia and Bolivia. The ensemble can be heard in three Hallmark Channel specials (including the Emmy-nominated Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland), and in the film Sleepy Hollow.
New York City, NY; NYC