The Southeast Baroque Ensemble is a faculty chamber group based at Southeast Missouri State University. It is dedicated to the performance of music from the Baroque period on musical instruments from that era. The ensemble has appeared on numerous concert series, including performances at the Sheldon Concert Hall (St. Louis); at Westminster College; on the Cedarhurst (Ill.) Chamber Music Series, the Illinois State and Murray State University Guest Concert Series; the First Concert Series (Rockford, Ill.); and was a featured ensemble at the International Baroque Festival, Jackson, Miss.
The Southeast Baroque Ensemble has recently joined the roster of artists for the Heartland Arts Fund "Community Connections," a major Midwest arts program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Midwest and the Mid-America Arts Alliance. The ensemble also tours throughout Missouri under the auspices of the Missouri Arts Council as a member of the Missouri Arts Touring Program. Faculty members of the ensemble are Paul Thompson, Baroque flute; Brandon Christensen, Baroque violin; Sara Edgerton, Baroque cello; and Gary Miller, harpsichord.
About The Instruments
Dr. Christensen plays a Baroque violin from the shop of Larry Bowers, made in 1988. The bow is a transitional reconstruction by William Salchow of New York.
The Baroque flute used by Thompson was made by Folkers & Powell of Hudson, N.Y.; it is a replica of a flute made by Carlo Palanco, Italy, c.1800.
The Baroque cello played by Dr. Edgerton is by Mathias Neuner of Mittenwald, Germany. It dates from around 1800. This instrument has been restored to the historical proportions of the Baroque and Classical cellos. It has a thinner bridge than a modern instrument and is strung with lighter, more responsive strings, which enable it to create the crisp articulations and resonant sonorities of the 18th century music. The Baroque bow, by Ralph Ashmead of California, is a copy of a mid-18th century English bow.
The harpsichord used by Dr. Miller is a single-manual instrument from the shop of Theodore Robertson of Bloomington, Ind. The harpsichord is modeled after a Flemish instrument by Jan Couchet. It contains two choirs of strings at 8’ pitch. The dark blue body is trimmed in grey. The soundboard is decorated with egg tempura in the fashion of the era. In addition, the interior of the lid is a copy of a painting by Dutch painter, Jacob van Ruisdael, entitled, “A View of Haarlem from the Dunes at Overveen,” and was completed by hand by Robertson in his Bloomington shop.
URL: http://www.semo.edu/music/baroque.htm
