Baroque & Folk: Purcell to Poland at Jeanne Lamon Hall

A vibrant fusion of folk traditions and baroque brilliance that will get your toes tapping.

Slovakian violinist Miloš Valent is renowned for his deep curiosity about the intersections between baroque and folk music traditions. He believes that “music is the unique and universal language of humankind, and music-making is enriched as it reaches beyond tribe and clan. When musicians meet at the crossroads, unexpected new creativity is unleashed, rewarding not only the performers, but those who listen and partake.”

For his Tafelmusik debut, Valent joins multi-instrumental virtuoso Jan Rokyta, percussionist Naghmeh Farahmand, and the orchestra to explore the ways in which baroque composers such as Telemann, Purcell, and Vivaldi were influenced by folk music from the Ashkenazy, Polish, Roma, Scottish, and Turkish traditions. Cross-cultural pollination yields luscious fruit as the sounds of Tafelmusik’s baroque strings, winds, and continuo intermingle with the sonorities of the hammered dulcimer, the Armenian duduk, folk recorders, and percussion.