Baroque is back in a big way

And you can be part of it

The Pequot Library will present an early music concert  featuring the Sebastian Chamber Players at 4 p.m. March 20.
The event follows a successful concert by the group Rebel from New York, an event held in partnership with the Westport Arts Center, according to a statement.

"The Sebastian Chamber Players perform in historically inspired styles on period instruments, specializing in music before 1750," the statement said.
"Since its founding in 2001, the ensemble has performed throughout the United States, and was recently named the artists-in-residence at Emanuel Lutheran Church in Manchester. The group is comprised of members who have studied at the Historical Performance Program at the Juilliard School and as post-graduate fellows in early music at Yale University."
The ensemble also is a finalist of the 2011 York International Early Music Competition, the statement said.
At the event, works works by well known composers of the Baroque such as Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Handel, as well as introducing the audience to works by lesser known gifted composers such as Zelenka, Pfeiffer, and Duphly will be performed, the statement said.
Extensive program notes written by Larry Erdmann will add background and context to the music. Erdmann played a role in the revival of interest in early music through his work in reproducing harpsichords in the 1970s, the statement said.
Pequot Library Director, Dan Snydacker studied harpsichord and early music at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and owned an instrument built by the shop for which Erdmann worked. Both Snydacker and Erdmann will lend one of their harpsichords to the concert, the statement said. One is shown in the attached photo.

Snydacker is very enthusiastic about this new early music initiative, the statement said.

“The smaller scale ensembles required by this music are a perfect fit in Pequot Library’s auditorium,” he said. “There is an intimacy to these concerts that make them very special. So much of the music from this period is based on popular dances that can be best enjoyed in a room like Pequot’s auditorium rather than in the large, formal concert halls in New York or Boston.”

Tickets for each of these concerts are $10 for adult members of the Pequot Library Association and $20 for non-members. Student tickets are $10. Visit http://www.pequotlibrary.org/ for more information about the concerts, the full program for each event and to purchase tickets.

For more information or to purchase tickets by phone, call 203-259-0346 ext. 15.

Editor's note: All information in this post was contributed.