13 Jul Press Release: LD Announces 2024-25 Season
Welcome to Visions & Dreams
Cleveland, OH – Les Délices, the renowned early music ensemble, is proud to announce its 2024-25 season: Visions & Dreams. The 2024-25 Season is Les Délices’ most wide-ranging to date, encompassing music from Classical, Medieval, French Baroque, and folk traditions, plus a significant new commission supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Les Délices’ Artistic Director Debra Nagy (pictured left) explained the inspiration for the season’s name, “Each of our programs this season is inspired by the ideas and symbols that ignite our imaginations and occupy our subconscious.” In Les Délices’ The Mermaid (April 2025), for example, the ensemble explores ballad tunes that celebrate the beguiling, magical creature who permeates sailor’s dreams; For A Moment’s Oblivion (Feb 2025), coloristic harmonies and ethereal soundscapes become the basis for music that seeks truth in the face of challenge and obscurity; and November’s Fourteenth Century Avant-garde features music by visionary composers whose complex music still sounds remarkably modern today. “It’s truly a season filled with fascinating ideas and transcendent experiences.”
Les Délices Executive Director Laura Potter added, “There’s incredible variety on offer this season, each program provides something totally unique that you can’t hear anywhere else. We have a host of incredible guest artists coming to bring these programs to life, ranging from Classical period instrument specialists to folk musicians. We’re especially excited to launch our three-year Mythology Project with a new commission featuring tenor Nicholas Phan. Audiences will have ample opportunity to experience this diverse programming both in person and virtually.”
Exhilarating Live Performances
The season encompasses four subscription programs performed live on the East and West sides of Cleveland and in Summit County:
- Moonlit Mozart (Oct 3-6): Les Délices opens its season with a vibrant, all-Mozart program featuring a band of North America’s finest period-instrument woodwind players. Audiences will be mesmerized by the timeless beauty of Mozart’s compositions, including historical arrangements of popular arias from his operas and the transcendent Serenade in C minor “Nachtmusik” (K388) for pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and natural horns. When it came to conceiving the season opener, Nagy explained, “I was inspired by an early scene from the 1984 film Amadeus in which the composer Salieri recounts his first encounter with the young Mozart. Salieri is completely awed and captivated by Mozart– and the music that accompanies this revelatory moment is one of Mozart’s sublime woodwind serenades.”
- 14th Century Avant-Garde (Nov 22-24): Discover the groundbreaking spirit of Medieval music with visionary composers like Machaut and Senleches, brought to life by the sounds of medieval fiddle, gothic harp, and recorders and featuring vocalists Sophie Michaux and James Reese.
- A Moment’s Oblivion (Feb 22-23): Embark on a poignant exploration of memory and myth with acclaimed tenor Nicholas Phan in this exciting new program pairing Baroque cantatas and instrumental works with a new commission by Vietnamese-American composer Viet Cuong.
- The Mermaid (Apr 25-27): The Mermaid will lure you on a fantastic journey filled with tales of pirates, fearsome storms, raucous drinking songs, toe-tapping fiddle tunes, rousing sea shanties, and more. Special guest vocalist and Irish bouzouki player Seán Dagher joins soprano Elena Mullins Bailey and Les Délices’ ensemble of oboe, recorder, violin, and cello.
Virtual Concert Options Return by Popular Demand
Les Délices is excited to reintroduce virtual concert options for early music fans everywhere. During the pandemic, LD’s high-quality concert films set an industry standard and attracted international attention. After much logistical, artistic, and technical problem-solving, LD eagerly anticipates releasing three subscription concerts on Vimeo’s easy-to-use platform. Virtual subscribers will also enjoy an exclusive re-release of the popular Machaut’s Lai of the Fountain concert film (2021) with beautiful video “projections” designed by Camilla Tassi.
Access to Virtual Concerts can be purchased as a Subscription ($75 for four concert videos) or as a $50 add-on for in-person subscribers, or à la carte for $20 per concert. Virtual and In-Person Subscriptions go on sale August 15th.
Special Events
In addition to its Concert Series, Les Délices will perform special concerts and host community events and outreach programming throughout its season. These special events include:
On Saturday, September 14th, the ensemble performs a free, outdoor version of its treasured baroque-folk program The Highland Lassie as part of the Annual Waterloo Arts Fest.
In October, Les Délices makes musical magic with dramatic works from the French and Italian Baroque featuring “magnetic” soprano Hannah De Priest in Arcadian Dreams. The ensemble will perform this new program at the Hudson Library & Historical Society at 2 pm on October 19th and at 7:30 pm on October 20th at the CWRU Campus as part of the 2024 Early Music America Summit.
On March 22, 2025 at 3 pm, Les Délices celebrates the release of its latest CD The Poet & the Prodigy with a FREE birthday bash in honor of J.S. Bach hosted by BottleHouse Brewing in Cleveland Heights. Attendees will enjoy live music and cold beer at this free community performance.
More community events and accessible online releases, including the details of SalonEra’s fifth season, will be announced soon.