Ruckus Early Music – Past Concerts
Ruckus is a shapeshifting, collaborative baroque ensemble with a visceral and playful approach to early music. The ensemble debuted in Handel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo in a production directed by Christopher Alden featuring Anthony Roth Costanzo, Ambur Braid and Davóne Tines at National Sawdust. The band’s playing earned widespread critical acclaim: "achingly delicate one moment, incisive and punchy the next" (The New York Times); "superb" (Opera News).
Ruckus’s core is a continuo group, the baroque equivalent of a jazz rhythm section: guitars, keyboards, cello, bassoon and bass. Other members include soloists of the violin, flute and oboe. The ensemble aims to fuse the early-music movement’s questing, creative spirit with the grit, groove and jangle of American roots music, creating a unique sound of "rough-edged intensity" (The New Yorker). Its members are assembled from among the most creative and virtuosic performers in North American early music, and is based in New York City.
Ruckus' debut album, 'Fly the Coop', a collaboration with flutist Emi Ferguson, was Billboard’s #2 Classical album upon its release. Live performances of Fly the Coop in Cambridge, MA was described as "a fizzing, daring display of personality and imagination" (The New York Times).
"Ruckus brought continuo playing to not simply a new level, but a revelatory new dimen-sion of dynamism altogether… an eruption of pure, pulsing hoedown joy … Wit, panache, and the jubilant, virtuosic verve of a bebop-Baroque jam session electrified and illuminated previously candle-lit edifices as Ruckus and friends raised the roof, and my mind’s eye will never see those structures in quite the same light again." (Boston Musical Intelligencer)
With 'Holy Manna', a program including arrangements of early American hymns from the shape-note tradition, Ruckus has begun a multi-project exploration of histories of American music. Other upcoming projects include a co-commission of a large-scale work by pioneering artist and NEA Jazz Master Roscoe Mitchell as part of a Bach / Bird Festival (with The Metropolis Ensemble and the Immanuel Wilkins Quartet).
Gawain & the Green Knight: A New Year's Opera
Pay what you wish, from $1
LOC Founder's Day: Emi Ferguson & Ruckus
Georg Philipp Telemann — 12 Fantasias for Flute without Bass TWV 40:2-13
Currently sold out; check back for availability updates
Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival: Ruckus featuring Emi Ferguson – "Fly the Coop!"
Among the most creative and virtuosic performers in North American early music and described as "the world's only period-instrument rock ba…
Free ($20 suggested donation)
People's Symphony Concerts: Ruckus feat. Emi Ferguson, flute & Rachell Ellen Wong, violin—Arcadian Visions
$25-$30 ($10 student/essential worker)
Music Mondays: Ruckus & Emi Ferguson – Fly the Coop
Don’t miss this performance of "the world’s only period instrument rock band" (San Francisco Classical Voice) in music by J.S. Bach that is…
Free
Shriver Hall Concert Series: Emi Ferguson, flute & Ruckus
$44 ($10 student)
Dumbarton Concerts: Ruckus Ensemble – Holy Manna
$20
Dumbarton Concerts: Ruckus Ensemble – Holy Manna
$43
Philadelphia Chamber Music Society: Emi Ferguson, flute & Ruckus
Online: Free | In person: $25
Caramoor: Emi Ferguson & Ruckus (on-demand until 4/27/2021)
$15-$45 / Caramoor members free