Pacific MusicWorks Gala 2023
$85
Kick off the 2023-2024 Season with a baroque celebration like no other. Join the Pacific MusicWorks ensemble and beloved guest artists for an evening of music, dance, comedy, and community.
Featuring PMW favorites Danielle Reutter-Harrah, Stephen Stubbs, Tekla Cunningham, Henry Lebedinsky, and Maxine Eilander, and introducing John Taylor Ward, and Paul Dudley.
This year’s event will take place at one of Seattle's favorite venues. In the shadow of the Space Needle, The Ruins inspires with its lush decor, inviting library, and tranquil courtyard.
About Tekla Cunningham
Baroque violinist Tekla Cunningham delights in bringing the music of the baroque, classical and romantic eras to life with vivid and expressive historically informed performances.
Praised as "a consummate musician whose flowing solos and musical gestures are a joy to watch", her performances have been described as "ravishingly beautiful" and "stellar". Her greatest musical love is music of the baroque and chamber music of all stripes, though she can’t seem to quit Johannes Brahms. She is co-artistic director of Pacific MusicWorks in Seattle, artist-in-residence at the University of Washington and founder and director of the Whidbey Island Music Festival.
Tekla plays regularly as concertmaster and principal player with the American Bach Soloists. Her new release 'Stylus Phantasticus' with Pacific MusicWorks is delighting critics. "Tekla is a marvel…an endlessly songful bird". Early Music America describes the recording as "played with verve, the music presented here reaffirms the old notion that instrumental music can have the flair of any theatrical spectacle. … a stellar vessel for the boldest showmanship".
Tekla plays on a violin made by Sanctus Seraphin in Venice in 1746.
http://www.teklacunningham.com/About John Taylor Ward
John Taylor Ward's performances have been praised for their "Stylish abandon" (Alex Ross, The New Yorker) and their "finely calibrated precision and heart-rending expressivity" (Washington Post). He performs regularly with the world’s finest baroque musicians and ensembles, including Christina Pluhar and L'Arpeggiata, Paul O'Dette, Steven Stubbs and the Boston Early Music Festival, William Christie and Les arts florissants, and Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists. In 2016, he was featured in the U.S. premiere of Claude Vivier's Kopernikus, directed by Peter Sellars at the Ojai Festival, and he began a series of recitals at Joe's Pub with Cantata Profana. In 2017 he made his debuts at the Salzburg, Berlin, and Luzerne Festspieles. Taylor holds a BM from the Eastman School of Music and an MMA from Yale School of Music; he is the founding Associate Artistic Director of the Lakes Area Music Festival, an Associate Artist of Heartbeat Opera, and an avid Sacred Harp singer.
https://www.johntaylorward.com/