Click here to read the latest news about future meetings and many other recorder events. See announcements for the Washington Recorder Society Spring recital, a note with link on an Anon recorder performance, Mollie Habermeier’s answers to the ‘Whence Recorder Questionnaire’, and more.
Washington Recorder Society
The Washington Recorder Society (WRS), a chapter of the national American Recorder Society, is the premier place for people in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area who want to play the recorder together. For more than 50 years, WRS has been providing recorder players of all abilities with colleagues, teachers, workshops and great music from the Renaissance and Baroque eras to the present. New members and visitors are always welcome.
WRS members meet in person from September to May on the third Saturday of the month at St. Columba’s Church, 4201 Albemarle St NW, Washington, DC 20016. Music leaders David McGown and Adela Balima direct a 2-hour playing session. Bring your instruments and a music stand; music is provided. On the first Monday of selected months, members get free online instruction from well-known teachers across North America. Register online and receive the music and Zoom link. Other membership benefits include newsletters, recitals and access to the members-only part of the website.
Latest News
-
February newsletter is out!
-
Saturday, May 18, 3-5pm, recital
We will have an annual recital on Saturday, May 18th, 3-5PM at St Columba’s church in Tenleytown. We will play some music as a group. See the music and recordings of it here. At our February meeting, we began distributing music, assigned parts and started working on the music.
We will have a rehearsal on April 20th so for those who plan on attending this meeting and the May recital, please practice the parts ahead of time to learn them. For those who did not make the February rehearsal and need a part, select the part you would like to play and practice that, keeping in mind that that might change at the rehearsal. A good strategy is to learn two parts just so if we need to shift you to a different part, there is a ready alternate. We will rehearse all these pieces both on April 20th and at a final rehearsal the day of the recital at 2PM at the church.
In addition to the whole WRS group performing these pieces together, please let me know if you and/ or a group of you would like to perform a piece or two at the recital. We have a few lined up already but still have room for a few more.
We are so pleased to be able to offer the recital again to our friends and family after a several year hiatus due to the Pandemic. If you can’t play with us, then plan on joining us in the audience!
-
Monday June 3rd, 7:30pm – On-line session with Gwyn Roberts
Join the on-line session led by Gwyn Roberts, on Morley Canzonets.
Gwyn Roberts, flutist, recorder player and Artistic Director and founder of Tempesta di Mare, has been a featured soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Recitar Cantando of Tokyo, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. She is the director of Early Music at the University of Pennsylvania, and is on the faculty of Peabody Conservatory. A link to her bio is here
On the Morley Canzonets, she says: In 1595, Thomas Morley published his Canzonets for Two Voices. Some texted and some not, these two-voice madrigals and fantasies fit on all sorts of instruments, including recorders. We’ll play a selection of these duets with attention to the principles of Renaissance phrasing and articulation.
The music will be played with C instruments.
To participate in this meeting, please register here