01 Jul Announcing our 2019-2020 season!
Read our season press release, hot off the presses!
LES DéLICES’ 2019-2020 CONCERT SEASON
FEATURES ARTISTIC COLLABORATIONS
Les Délices, Cleveland’s premier early music chamber ensemble, announces details for their 2019-20 Season, which includes exciting international collaborations, the creation of a new cross-disciplinary entertainment based on Aesop’s Fables and 17th Century French fairytales, and increased community outreach initiatives. Known for their creative, original programming, Les Délices (pronounced Lay day-lease) has been recognized as “an early music group with an avant-garde appetite,” whose “concerts and recordings are journeys of discovery” (New York Times).
Les Délices will present four subscription programs in 2019-20. Special collaborations are key to bringing rich, new, musical and cultural experiences to Northeast Ohio audiences. Top period wind players from Europe join us for transcendent Mozart and Beethoven Quintets (November 1-3, 2019), beloved collaborators from Boston’s Blue Heron ensemble transmit Lessons in Love (January 16-19, 2020), a trio of Montréal-based artists from L’Harmonie des Saisons bring us Torchsongs Transformed (March 6-8, 2020), and a fabulous creative team including puppet designer Ian Petroni (of CMA’s Parade the Circle) and Shawn Keener (whose fantastic visual displays illuminated Les Délices’ recent Leuven Songbook and Remede de Fortune programs) will bring to life Aesop’s fables and 17th C fairy tales when we present Into the Labyrinth and our family-friend program The White Cat (April 23-26, 2020). Performance program, date, and venue details follow below.
In addition to subscription programs, the ensemble’s season includes four national tours, multiple regional performances, and free community programs for audiences in partnership with St John’s in Ohio City, the BOP STOP, and Cleveland Public Library, and others.
Artistic director Debra Nagy commented, “I’m very excited about the many guests we’re bringing to Les Délices’ series this year! Our concert offerings in November, January, and March will truly be brought to new levels through these collaborations.” Nagy added, “I’m particularly excited about our April programs Into the Labyrinth and The White Cat. I was originally inspired by Louis XIV’s famous Labyrinth at Versailles (now destroyed) and the ways in which design, sculpture, and poetry were combined to animate Aesop’s Fables through fantastical, life-like fountains. We’ll extend the idea of animating the stories by incorporating puppetry into our musical production ÔÇô all the while creating a fabulous entertainment with broad audience appeal.”
Following a very successful first season of concerts in Akron in 2018-19, Les Délices announces their status as Artists-in-Residence at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. “The beautiful acoustics of Holy Trinity’s sanctuary are a wonderful setting for our music,” stated Nagy, “and we are delighted be able to share our programs with audiences in Akron and surrounding Summit County. Our partnership with Arts@Holy Trinity also enables some of our outreach programming in the community.” Les Délices continues to present concerts as Artist in Residence at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights and at Lakewood Congregational Church in Lakewood.
Subscriptions ($63-$136) and Single Tickets ($25-$40) for all concerts in the series will go on sale August 1 at www.lesdelices.org. Senior Tickets ($25) and Student Tickets ($5) are always available at the door.
2019-20 Concert Details:
Mozart & Beethoven Quintets for piano and winds. Not long after its 1784 premiere, Mozart called his Quintet K.452 for piano “the best thing I have written in my life.” Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear masterpieces for piano and winds by Mozart and Beethoven performed by all-star period-instrument artists from the U.S. and Europe including fortepianist Sylvia Berry, Dutch bassoonist Wouter Verschuren, British clarinetist Colin Lawson, hornist Todd Williams, and oboist Debra Nagy.
- Friday November 1, 2019 at 7:30pm
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
50 N Prospect St, Akron OH 44304
- Saturday November 2, 2019 at 7:30pm
Lakewood Congregational Church
1375 W Clifton Blvd, Lakewood
- Sunday October 7, 2018 at 4pm (pre-concert lecture at 3pm)
Herr Chapel at Plymouth Church
2860 Coventry Rd, Shaker Heights
Lessons in Love sees Les Délices return to the world of the Romance of the Rose, where the allegorical character Hope (Esperance) sustains a courtly lover through the thousand pains of lovesickness and teaches him to find delight instead of suffering. Presented in collaboration with Boston’s Blue Heron, this program explores a group of 14th-century songs in the hypnotic late-medieval Ars subtilior style that draw inspiration from each other’s words and music. Works by Machaut, Senleches, Caserta, and Galiot, and others.
- Thursday January 16, 2020 at 7:30pm
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
50 N Prospect St, Akron OH 44304
- Saturday January 18, 2020 at 7:30pm
Lakewood Presbyterian Church
14502 Detroit Rd, Lakewood, OH 44107
- Sunday January 19, 2020 at 4pm
Our Lady of Peace Church
12406 Buckingham Ave, Cleveland OH 44120
Torchsongs Transformed. LD brings their innovative baroque-jazz fusion program to a new level with fresh songs and arrangements featuring soprano Hél├¿ne Brunet and members of L’Harmonie des Saisons (Quebec). Timeless melodies and inspired improvisations bridge the gap between baroque composers and 20th C songsters as we find common ground between the tender sentiments and rich harmonic language of 17th C love songs and tunes made famous by Nina Simone, Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday, and more.
- Friday March 6, 2020 at 7:30pm
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
50 N Prospect St, Akron, OH 44304
- Saturday March 7, 2020 at 7:30pm
Lakewood Congregational Church
1375 W Clifton Blvd, Lakewood, OH 44107
- Sunday March 8, 2020 at 4pm (pre-concert lecture at 3pm)
Herr Chapel at Plymouth Church
2860 Coventry Rd, Shaker Heights, OH 44122
Into the Labyrinth. Music by Marais, Clérambault, and Couperin animates Aesop’s Fables and provides a soundtrack for the Countess D’Aulnoy’s 17th-Century feminist fairy tale The White Cat. This multi-media performance combining Baroque music with live puppetry and gorgeous visuals will evoke the experience of visiting Louis XIV’s famous labyrinth at Versailles (where a series life-like fountains embodied Aesop’s fables) and invites us to enter imaginations of the conteuses (the female authors of fairy tales).
- Thursday April 23, 2020 at 7:00pm
Akron Art Museum
1 S High St, Akron, OH 44308
- Sunday April 26, 2020 at 4:00pm
Temple Tifereth Israel
26000 Shaker Blvd, Beachwood, OH 44122
The White Cat. Unlike the wily, manipulative feline hero of Puss in Boots, the Countess D’Aulnoy’s The White Cat Celebrates generosity, ingenuity, and the power of love. Discover a little-known version of a beloved fairy tale at this 45-minute family-oriented performance that combines Baroque music with live puppetry and gorgeous visuals. Kids under 17 free with accompanying adult ticket
- Thursday April 23, 2020 at 3:30pm
Akron Art Museum
1 S High St, Akron, OH 44308
- Saturday April 25 at 3:00pm
The Breen Center
2008 W 30th S, Cleveland, OH 44113
Les Délices is a small ensemble that makes a big impact with entertaining, thought-provoking programs presented in intimate settings that enhance the listening experience. Lasting a little over an hour without intermission, Les Délices’ concerts celebrate Cleveland’s flourishing arts community and strive to simulate a salon atmosphere similar to the one in which this music was first heard and enjoyed.
About Les Délices
Les DélicesÔÇ»(pronouncedÔÇ»Lay day-lease) explores the dramatic potential and emotional resonance of long-forgotten music. Founded by baroque oboist Debra Nagy in 2009, Les Délices has established a reputation for their unique programs that are “thematically concise, richly expressive, and featuring composers few people have heard of.” The New York Times added, “Concerts and recordings by Les Délices are journeys of discovery.” The group’s debut CD was named one of the “Top Ten Early Music Discoveries of 2009” (NPR’s Harmonia), and their performances have been called “a beguiling experience” (Cleveland Plain Dealer), “astonishing” (ClevelandClassical.com), and “first class” (Early Music America Magazine). Les Délices made its New York debut before a sold-out audience at the Frick Collection in May 2010. Highlights from recent seasons included performances for Music Before 1800, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, San Francisco Early Music Society, the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments, and at Columbia University’s Miller Theater. In addition to touring engagements,ÔÇ»Les Délices presents its own annual four-concert series in Akron, Lakewood, and at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, OH, where the group is Artist in Residence. Their critically-acclaimed 4th CD, “Songs without Words,” was released in November 2018. Visit www.lesdelices.org for more information.
“A baroque oboist of consummate taste and expressivity” (Cleveland Plain Dealer) with a musical approach that’s “distinctly sensualÔǪpliant, warm, and sweet,” (New York Times),ÔÇ»director Debra NagyÔÇ»is one of North America’s leading performers on the baroque oboe. She plays principal oboe with the Handel & Haydn Society, Apollo’s Fire, and American Bach Soloists, and is a regular guest with other ensembles around the country. Following studies at the Oberlin Conservatory, Conservatory of Amsterdam, and Case Western Reserve University, Debra has received many awards for her creative and scholarly pursuits including first-prize in the American Bach Soloists Young Artists Competition, a 2009 Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a 2010 Creative Workforce Fellowship from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. She has recorded over 30 CDs with repertoire ranging from 1300-1800 on the Chandos, Avie, CPO, Capstone, Bright Angel, Naxos, and ATMA labels, and has had live performances featured on CBC Radio Canada, Klara (Belgium), NPR’s Performance Today, WQXR (New York City) and WGBH Boston.