Baroque music to be focus of free Rancho Bernardo Library concert

The Kensington Baroque Chamber Players will perform 17th and 18th century music at the Rancho Bernardo Library, with some musicians using instruments hundreds of years old.

The free, hour-long concert will begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28 in the RB Library’s second-floor community room, 17110 Bernardo Center Drive. Seating is on a first-come basis, with the concert geared toward teens and adults.

It is presented by Friends of the Rancho Bernardo Library. Free-will donations will be accepted to support the Friends’ concert series.

Performing baroque music on replica strings, wind instruments and harpsichord.will be Pama Lynn Broeckel on violin; Sandra Stram on viola da gamba and violin; Ulla Sinz on recorder; Cathe Sobke on recorder, baroque guitar and theorbo; and Susan Willis-Powers on harpsichord.

Broeckel said they are an ensemble of the Kensington Baroque Orchestra, utilized when the 20-member orchestra does not fit in smaller venues, such as libraries. The orchestra formed in 2015 and she is an original member, its principal violinist and, for the last three years, its director.

She called the library concert an “historically informed performance” because it will be in the style of and include instruments modeled after the Baroque period (1600s and 1700s), when primarily it was played in intimate settings for royalty and in churches.

“The music was very festive for kings and more reflective for churches,” she said.

Instruments such as Broeckel’s 1766 German violin that she has dubbed “Ione” after her late mother do not produce music as loud as her 1826 modern violin does, invented during the instrument revolution when sound had to be amplified due to performances in large concert halls of the 19th century. The difference in sound, Broeckel said, is due to the strings and bow.

“It is a very special instrument,” Broeckel said of Ione. “The early instruments used sheep gut strings that can’t handle the higher tension, the fingerboard is shorter and there is no chin rest,” she said. “It has a heavier sounding board, creating a pure and mellow tone.”

As for the bow, the Baroque-era violin’s is more arched versus convex, creating natural swells and fades as it shapes sounds.

“For Baroque, most of the expression is in the bow, whereas in modern (violins) the wound string has a higher tension and notes.”

Broeckel said playing an early violin is different, because the strings do not stay in tune as easily and they are harder to hold.

It is things like this that Broeckel said the musicians will explain to the audience, along with talking about the selected pieces.

The eight pieces will feature compositions by Alessandro Scarlatti, Robert Carr, Godfrey Finger, Diego Ortiz, Dietrich Buxtehude, Georg Philipp Telemann, Jean-Marie Leclair and J.C. Pepusch.

Broeckel said she started playing Baroque music while studying at the Eastman School of Music in New York. She has performed with many groups for historical performance festivals and ensembles, including the American Bach Soloist Academy, Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute, Los Angelos Baroque and Opera Neo.

Sinz started playing recorder at age 7 in her home country of Germany and studied at the Institute of Music Leverkusen and University of the Virgin Islands. In the U.S. she has been a featured soloist with Dolce Dolores, Ensemble Lonato, The Goliards, Opera Neo and Kensington Baroque Orchestra (KBO).

Sobke, who was introduced to early music during graduate school, holds degrees in music composition and music theory. She recently retired from teaching at Southwestern College and plays with The Goliards, Courtly Noyse, KBO, Lonato, The Granada Consort and Musica Nova Anitiqua.

Stram taught strings and recorder in local schools for 34 years. In retirement, she is a festival adjudicator and clinician. She plays Baroque violin and viol with many groups, including Courtly Noyse, KBO and San Diego Early Music Society.

Willis-Powers grew up studying classical piano in New York. After performing in San Diego for two decades she discovered the harpsichord and became an active member of the San Diego Baroque chamber music scene.

For questions about the concert, call 858-538-8163.