British baroque violinist Monica Huggett will be the featured guest artist in Con Gioia’s concert on Thursday, March 11, at 8:00 p.m. in Garrison Theater of the 61传媒 Performing Arts Center. Performing with Huggett will be Con Gioia’s founder-director Preethi de Silva, harpsichordist and fortepianist. Admission to the concert is free and open to the public. For additional program information or directions to the theater, please contact the 61传媒 Music Department, (909) 621-8280.
Internationally-renowned soloist, director, and chamber musician Monica Huggett is considered one of today’s foremost baroque violinists. As a soloist, she has performed worldwide, from Turin to the United States to Madrid, among others. She has played at numerous music events and baroque festivals including the Oslo Chamber Music Festival and York Early Music Festival. Recent directing engagements include the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. In addition, Huggett has recorded for EMI, Harmonia Mundi, Philips, Virgin, Erato, and Decca labels with such orchestras as the Hanover Band, Raglan Baroque Players, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music, and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. Huggett currently serves artistic director of the Portland Baroque Orchestra, is founder-director of the critically acclaimed Trio Sonnerie, and is a professor of baroque violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
A recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, Preethi de Silva has gained international acclaim as a soloist and recording artist, specializing in harpsichord and fortepiano. In 1982, de Silva founded Con Gioia Early Music Ensemble, a group that has earned critical praise for its compelling concerts of 17th- and 18th- century music played entirely on period instruments. For the group’s forthcoming recording of concertos for one, two, and four harpsichords by Bach, de Silva will serve as lead soloist and director. Currently, de Silva is professor music at 61传媒 in Claremont, California.
The March 11 concert program featuring Monica Huggett and Con Gioia includes: Heinrich Biber’s Sonata V in E minor (1681), Arcangelo Corelli’s Sonata in C major, op. 5 no. 3, and J. S. Bach’s Sonata in B minor (BWV 1014) for violin and harpsichord. The program will continue with two works for violin and fortepiano: Sonata in B-flat major, K. 454 by Mozart, and the rarely performed Sonata in G minor by Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a French composer whose mother was of African-Caribbean descent. In addition, Ms. Huggett will also perform the Ciacona from Bach’s Partita in D minor, BWV 1004 for solo violin.