Judges Needed

Sylvia Rhyne, soprano • Eric Redlinger, tenor and lute

The 32nd season of the Early Music in Columbus concert series opens with the medieval vocal and lute duo Asteria in Music for a Rash Prince: Medieval Love Songs from the court of Charles the Bold of Burgundy on Friday, Sept. 30, 2011 in Mees Hall at Capital University. The concert begins at 8:00 p.m. with a pre-concert lecture at 7:30 p.m.

The year is 1475, and Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, prince of the French royal family, and one of the richest and most powerful men in Northern Europe, is involved in a protracted siege of the Germanic town of Neuss. His most precious possession that he kept with him during the siege, particularly for such a great music lover as Charles, was his chapel choir. Asteria’s program, “Music for a Rash Prince,” seeks to reconstruct the musical atmosphere at this very precise moment in history by presenting pieces that might well have been sung before Charles the Bold during the siege of Neuss in 1475. Songs by Robert Morton, Hayne Van Ghizheghem and Antoine Busnoys, who were all in the employ of the duke, are interspersed with works attributed to the duke himself, to provide a unique view of medieval courtly life at its height in the latter 15th century.

Asteria burst onto the national Early Music scene in 2004, winning Early Music America’s first Unicorn Prize for Medieval and Renaissance Music with a performance heralded by the New York Times as “intimate and deeply communicative…meltingly beautiful.” This engaging duo brings out the passion and emotional impact of late medieval vocal and instrumental music with timeless love songs of wide appeal, transporting their listeners back to the age of chivalry.

Eric Redlinger’s skill on the lute and sweet tenor voice are complemented by his expertise in early music, earned through study at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and extensive archival research into original sources. Following graduation from Middlebury College, Eric spent several years immersing himself in the European musical archives of the Hague, Basel and Marburg. During this time he also did post- graduate studies in composition and musicology at the Frankfurt Conservatory of Music, worked in the studio of New York based avant-garde composer Philip Glass and studied medieval lute with Crawford Young and voice with Richard Levitt at the Schola. He now makes his home in New York, where he has studied with Drew Minter and Gary Ramsey.

Sylvia Rhyne brings to the partnership not only her quicksilver soprano but also a strong dramatic connection with the audience, gained from a professional career in musical theater. She has starred internationally as Christine in “The Phantom of the Opera,” and on Broadway as Joanna in “Sweeny Todd” under the direction of Harold Prince, Susan Schulman and Stephen Sondheim. Raised in London and the Pacific Northwest, Sylvia grew up surrounded by classical music, opera and dance. She pursued a passion for early music at Carleton College, guided by Stephen Kelly, taking leading roles in early operas and operettas on her way to a degree in music. She studied also with Wesley Balk at St. Olaf College and recorded with Dennis Russell Davies and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Arriving in New York, Sylvia was invited to sing with the New York City Opera and began ongoing coaching with Marcy Lindheimer.

Upon meeting, Eric and Sylvia immediately discovered their mutual interest in earlier repertoire and began to rendezvous regularly in New York’s Central Park to work on late Medieval and Renaissance pieces, gradually developing their passionate approach to the music. Asteria’s performances convey the anguish and ecstasy of the poetry and the rapturous beauty of the interweaving vocal and instrumental lines.

The Early Music in Columbus concert series features regional, national and international artists who perform music from the medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods on reproductions of historical instruments. Tickets are $27 general admission, $22 for seniors and $12.00 for students and may be purchased through the web site: www.earlymusicincolumbus.org, at the door or charged by phone. To order tickets by phone, contact Katherine Wolfe at 614-861- 4569, the CAPA ticket offices (614-469-0939) or Ticketmaster (800-745-3000).

The Early Music in Columbus concert series is supported by funding from the Ohio Arts Council, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, and The Columbus Foundation.