That's D'amore!

     There is no better way to celebrate February, a month-long celebration of love, than with music, the food of love. That’s D’Amore! explores the often unheard and forgotten about flute d’amore, an instrument that first appeared during the eighteenth century as a counterpart to the widely utilized viola d’amore and oboe d’amore. Bearing the suffix d’amore, meaning “of love,” this flute produces softer, more dulcet tones than its typical counterpart because of its unique construction. Tuned a minor third lower than the concert flute, the flute d’amore has a mellow, cantabile quality that comes the closest to what Johann Joachim Quantz described as the quintessentially most desirable characteristics of the flute sound, “that should resemble the voice of the alto rather than the soprano, and mimic the chest sound of the human voice.” Join flute players Leighann Daihl Ragusa and Kathie Stewart and cellist Jaap ter Linden as they explore the dulcet tones of the flute d’amore in a program of music by Philidor, Telemann, McGibbon, Roman, Molter, Pla, and Schickhardt.

     Applauded for “some of the most spirited, stylish, and nuanced playing” (Chicago Classical Review) as well as her “invigoratingly fresh and perky interpretation” (Bachtrack), Leighann Daihl Ragusa, is an accomplished musician, performing on both historical and modern flutes. She has concertized throughout central Europe as well as the United States both as a soloist and as a collaborator of chamber and orchestral music. She earned degrees in modern flute from DePauw University and Indiana University as well as degrees in historical flutes from The Royal Conservatory of the Hague (The Netherlands) and Indiana University. In addition to an active performance career, Leighann is an avid studio teacher of aspiring and professional flutists, and offers masterclasses and workshops on ornamentation and historically informed performance practices.

     Kathie Stewart is the newly appointed Curator of Historical Keyboards and Visiting Academic Specialist in Historical Performance at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She is a founding member and principal flutist of the Grammy Award winning Apollo’s Fire: the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra. A faculty member at the Cleveland Institute of Music, she is also a Kulas Visiting Artist at Case Western Reserve University, and former Curator of Harpsichords at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she taught baroque flute for nearly twenty years. She is an avid proponent of Celtic music, playing Irish and baroque flutes on several Apollo’s Fire recordings. She has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, Tafelmusik, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, The Four Nations Ensemble, Oberlin Baroque Ensemble, ARTEK, and the Bach Sinfonia in Washington, D.C. She is also Assistant Director of the Seattle Baroque Flute Workshop.

     Jaap ter Linden, viola da gamba and baroque cello, is a Dutch pioneer in the world of Early Music. Currently based in the United States, he is on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University, where he directs ensembles and the baroque Orchestra. His extensive discography includes 2 recordings of the JS Bach suites for cello solo, the complete Mozart symphonies with the Mozart Akademie which he founded and conducted, as well as countless recordings with Musica Antiqua Cologne, the English Concert, and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. During his performance career he has collaborated with such well known musicians as Andrew Manze, Ton Koopman, Richard Egarr, Reinhard Goebel and the late Gustav Leonhardt to name a few. He joined Elizabeth Wallfisch and David Breitman to perform the fabulous trios of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. With David he recorded the complete Beethoven sonatas and Variations. As a solo and chamber music player and conductor, Ter Linden has toured throughout Europe, the United States, Australia, China, and Japan