Folger Consort

Folger Consort is the early music ensemble-in-residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Founding Artistic Directors Robert Eisenstein and Christopher Kendall create musical programs from the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. The Consort performs concerts in the ensemble’s home, the Folger’s Elizabethan Theatre, the Washington National Cathedral, and the Music Center at Strathmore, and brings internationally noted guest artists to Washington, DC to join in its “early music chamber society.”

Beyond its concert series, Folger Consort strives to deepen audiences’ understanding and appreciation of early music through seminars, discussions, recordings, radio broadcasts, and unique collaborations with other programs of the Folger Shakespeare Library. Folger Consort won the Best Classical Chamber Ensemble award from the Washington Area Music Awards in 2006, and every year from 2008-2012.

History and Founders

Folger Consort emerged as a significant and enduring presence on the DC cultural scene at its founding in 1977....(more history)

Robert Eisenstein

Robert Eisenstein is a founding member and the program director of Folger Consort. In addition to his work with the Consort, he is the director of the Five College Early Music Program in western Massachusetts, where he teaches music history, performs regularly on viola da gamba, violin, and medieval fiddle, and coordinates and directs student performances of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music. He is an active participant in Five College Medieval Studies with a particular interest in the use of computer technology in the service of music.

Eisenstein has performed with many ensembles including the Washington Bach Consort, the Newberry Consort, the National Symphony, Western Wind, and recently at Tanglewood, Amherst Early Music, and other summer festivals. He studied viola da gamba with Judith Davidoff and Richard Taruskin.

Christopher Kendall

Christopher Kendall is the founder of Folger Consort. Kendell has been the Dean of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor since 2005, where he has launched a university-wide initiative recognizing the fundamental role of the all the arts in the human condition and in human culture called "Arts on Earth."

From 1996 to 2005, he was Director of the School of Music at the University of Maryland, during a period of significant institutional growth related to the building of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Associate Conductor of the Seattle Symphony from 1987 to 1992 and Director of the Music Division and Tanglewood Institute of the Boston University School for the Arts from 1993 to 1996, Kendall is also Artistic Director, founder and conductor of the 21st Century Consort, the new music ensemble-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution.

Kendall has guest conducted many professional orchestras and ensembles from San Francisco to New York, in repertoire from the 18th to the 21st centuries. His recordings can be heard on the Bard, Delos, Nonesuch, Centaur, ASV, Arabesque, Innova, and Smithsonian Collection labels.

Recordings

Folger Consort recordings are available online through the Folger Gift Shop.

Upcoming season

Folger Consort 2014-2015

• Courting Elizabeth: Music and Patronage in Shakespeare's England (2014) September 26-28, 2014

• A Renaissance Christmas: Music of Flanders and Italy circa 1500 (2014) December 16-23, 2014

• The Road to Canterbury: Music of Medieval England (2015) January 9-10, 2015

• The Merchant of Venice: Music and Poetry of Shakespeare's Play (2015) February 27, 2015

• Ships, Clocks and Stars: Music of Telemann and Other Baroque Masters (2015) April 10-12, 2015

Past seasons

2010s

• A Polish Renaissance: Music of Poland's Golden Age (2014)

• Le Jardin Chinois: Music of 18th-Century France (2014)

• Brave New World: Music of the Tempest (2014)

• Christmas in New Spain: Early Music of Mexico and Peru (2013)

• Map of the World: Music from 13th- and 15th-Century Spain (2013)

• Vienna: Music for Maximilian (2013)

• Dublin: Celtic Art and Music (2013)

• Paris: Music from the City of Light (2013)

• Florence: Christmas Music of the Trecento (2012)

• London: Music from the City of Shakespeare(2012)

• City of Ladies(2012)

• The Songbird (2012)

• Heavenly Revelations: Hildegard von Bingen and Medieval France(2012)

• O Magnum Mysterium: Christmas Music of Renaissance Spain (2011)

• A New Song (2011)

• Fete d'Ete: French Cantatas and Suites (2011)

• Stile Antico (Presented by the Folger Consort, 2011)

• Ecco la Primavera: 14th- and 15th-Century Music from Italy (2011)

• The Four Seasons: Antonio Vivaldi, Christopher Simpson & John Cage (2011)

• A Renaissance Christmas (2010)

• Pastime With Good Company: Music from the Court of Henry VIII (2010)

• Tempest (2010)

• A Musical Banquet: Songs for Lute, Voice, and Viol (2010)

• Ballets and Brawls: French Music of Court and Countryside (2010)

• Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers (2010)

2000s

• In Dulci Jubilo: A German Christmas (2009)

• A Harmony of Friends: Music of Italy and China (2009)

• Don Quixote (2009)

• Mosaic: Medieval Song from Spain and Cyprus (2009)

• Gloria: Music of Vivaldi (2009)

• A Spanish Christmas: Festive Music from Spain's Golden Age (2008)

• Isabella's Court: Italian Music of the High Renaissance (2008)

• Highland Ayres: Distinctive Scottish Music with Pipes and Fiddle (2008)

• Seven Songs of Love: Entrancing Love Songs from the Galician Poet (2008)

• Victoria's Requiem: Rich and Resounding in the Great Cathedral (2008)

• The Second Shepherds' Play: A Medieval Mystery for the Yuletide Season (2007)

• Groves of Antiquity: Ancient Myths in Baroque Guise (2007)

• The Fairy Queen (2007)

• Ballads and Brawls for the Bard (2007)

• The Elizabethan Muse: William Shakespeare, William Byrd, and John Dowland (2007)

• Greensleeves (2006)

• Tales from Canterbury (2006)

• Marenzio & Morley: Master of the Notes (2006) (no link on public site)

• Landini & Machaut: Master of the Notes (2006)

• Hildegard & Jaufre: Master of the Notes (2006)

• Monteverdi & Palestrina: Master of the Notes (2006)

• Corelli & Charpentier: Master of the Notes (2005)

• Josquin & Isaac: Master of the Notes (2005)

• Playing with Fire (2005)

• Italian Fantasia 2005

• Flauto Dolce (2005)

• What Notre Dame was New (2005)

• Feliz Navidad (2004)

• Sounds and Sweet Ayres (2004)

• Making Music (2004) (No link on public site)