Coach: Julie Jeffrey
Location: Santa Monica College, Music Building, 1310 11st St., Santa Monica, CA 90401.
Note: Parking is free, and masks are required indoors.
Description: For our morning session I would like to share two of my current viol-related obsessions, one of which centers on repertoire, and one of which is all about technique.
For starters, we will look at some sixteenth-century settings of Dido’s lament, Dulces exuviae. Lifted from Virgil’s Aeneid, this text, spoken by Dido at the moment of her death, was a favorite with composers throughout the 16th century, including Josquin, Ghiselin, Orto, Arcadelt, Willaert, Lassus, and Handl, among others. We will play through a few of these gorgeous pieces as a warm-up for the second portion of the session, in which we shall move on to some more focused technical work.
My technique topic of the day: tips and tricks for how to get better at fast notes! Leaping forward into the 17th-century, we will explore ways to build courage and facility when faced with those sixteenth-note passages that inevitably pop up when you least expect them, and we will put it all to practice in a bracing 3-part fantasia by William Young.
Julie Jeffrey has been playing the viol since 1976. She has performed throughout the U.S., in Canada, Mexico, Europe and Australia, and teaches privately and at workshops in the U.S. and abroad. Ms. Jeffrey is a founding member of Sex Chordae Consort of Viols, Wildcat Viols, Antic Faces, and The Barefoot All-Stars, and she embodies half of the viol duo Hallifax & Jeffrey. Ms. Jeffrey is co-founder and co-director of Barefoot Chamber Concerts, and has served on the board of directors of The Viola da Gamba Society of America, The Pacifica Viola da Gamba Society, and The San Francisco Early Music Society.
Class Materials: Click here
