Here is the master schedule of festival events.  You can see more by searching for individual events under “Festival Events” in the left-hand column.

Fri-Sat, Mar 11-12, 8 pm, Benaroya Hall: Seattle Symphony Orchestra: Songs of Cleopatra: Nicholas McGegan conductor, Isabel Bayrakdarian soprano: music inspired by the famous — and infamous — Queen of the Nile.  Please join us in the lobby for the Opening Festivities of the American Handel Festival, hosted by the Seattle Symphony!   Wolfgang Puck wine tasting events before each concert from 6:30 to 7:45pm.

Sat-Sun, Mar 12-13: Gallery Concerts, Queen Anne Christian Church, 1316 3rd Avenue, W. (corner 3rd Ave. W and W. Lee on Queen Anne Hill): Soprano Julianne Baird sings the rip-roaring repertoire that Handel tailored for the magnificent heroines of his operas and oratorios. With Tekla Cunningham, violin; Margriet Tindemans, viola da gamba; and Jillon Stoppels Dupree, harpsichord.

Sun, Mar 13, 3 pm: Orchestra Seattle: Chamber Music, First Free Methodist Church, 3200 third Ave W, Seattle 98119:  Handel: Concerto Grosso in D Minor, Op. 6, No. 2 and Mozart: Serenade No. 12 in C Minor, K. 388

Mon, Mar 14, 7:30 pm: UW School of Music: Handel and Fielding: Italian opera and English song. UW Collegium Musicum, directed by JoAnn Taricani

Wed, Mar. 16, Noon & 7:30 pm: Trinity Parish Church: The Man in the Mirror, by Ben Bernstein, a brilliant, funny and poignant original one-act opera for tenor, harpsichord, cello and recorded voices by Ben Bernstein, performed by Seattle’s own inimitable tenor, Ross Hauck.  In preparing for a performance of Handel’s Messiah, the tenor dresses in full tie and tails and warms up, beset by the voices in his head.  At first they’re supportive, but they gradually devolve into ridiculous self-doubt.  In the end, he performs beautifully, of course — a rare glimpse into what really happens before performers go on stage. http://www.americanhandelfestival.org/man-in-the-mirror/

Thurs, Mar 17, 2 pm: The Frye Museum: The Man in the Mirror, by Ben Bernstein, sung by Ross Hauck 

Fri, Mar 18, 7:30 pm: Our Lady of Fatima Chamber Choir and Baroque Orchestra, Matthew Loucks, Artistic and Musical Director: Evening Prayer, featuring the music of G.F. Handel composed for the Catholic Church with a special emphasis on music composed/performed for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the church of St. Maria de Monte Santo (1707).

Fri, Mar 18, 9:30 pm: Sorrento Hotel: Late-night performance: The Man in the Mirror, by Ben Bernstein, sung by Ross Hauck; this is a fund-raiser for the festival, includes performance, wine, dessert, and good company. $50

Sat, Mar 19, 2-3:30 pm: Nave of St. James Cathedral: Seattle Recorder Society and Moss Bay Recorder Society,conducted by Peter Seibert: Handel Play-In, an opportunity to read through Handelʼs ever-popular Water Music, made up of three suites totaling 22 movements, including a newly orchestrated movement derived from Handel’s sketches, and Music for the Royal Fireworks. Both works are arranged to fit the ranges and timbres of recorders and related instruments. Come prepared to enjoy playing through these marvelous works. FREE! Players of recorders, viols, baroque flutes and related instruments should bring an instrument (pitch A=440) and a music stand.  Parts will be provided.

Sat-Sun, Mar. 19-20, 8 pm: Seattle Pro Musica: Dixit Dominus and Coronation Anthems conducted by Karen P. Thomas; works by Handel for chorus, orchestra and soloists in the glorious acoustic of St. James Cathedral.  The concert features Handel’s Dixit Dominus — a brilliant work from his Italian period, filled with vocal virtuosity and resplendent color. Also included are his Utrecht Jubilate Deo and Chandos Anthem #8: O come let us sing.

Sun, Mar 20, 2 pm:  St. Mark’s Cathedral: Gakyung Chung and Heidi Kim, sopranos; J. Melvin Butler and Alan DePuy, organists: Handel: Organ Concerti, Op. 4, Nos. 5 and 6 and Two Italian Duets

Sun, Mar 20, 3 pm: Early Music Guild:  Bach’s St. John Passion. Portland Baroque Orchestra (PBO) performs Seattle’s first period performance of J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion. Monica Huggett will direct PBO with choral support from Cappella Romana and vocal soloists from Montreal’s Les Voix Baroques, whose recent recording (Carissimi Oratorios, February 2010) was lauded as “brilliant” and “sensitively sung” by the Toronto Star. Vocal soloists include Charles Daniels, Shannon Mercer, Matthew White, Jacques Olivier Chartier, Joshua Hopkins, and Tyler Duncan. Preconcert lecture at 2 pm

Mon, Mar 21, 7:30 pm, Blessed Sacrament Church, 5049 9th Avenue NE in Seattle’s U District: Concert Spirituel: A Handel Celebration for Bach’s Birthday: Soprano Linda Tsatsanis, Baroque flutist Jeffrey Cohan,  Baroque cellist Nathan Whittaker and harpsichordist Lisa Lewis perform a Handel and Bach extravaganza for Bach’s birthday… followed by Bach’s birthday cake!  Dedicated to George Shangrow.

Tues., Mar. 22, noon to 1:30 pm, Town Hall, and Thurs. Mar. 24, 11:30 to 1:00 pm, Trinity Parish Hall: Landscape Architect Paul Willen presents an absolutely stunning slide show with music demonstrating the deep affinity between Handel’s pastoral music and the soft and mellifluous “natural” gardens that were so boldly introduced into the English landscape in the early 18th century. With its passionate and lilting evocation of a distant arcadia, Handel’s quiet arias are the perfect “accompaniment” to the new landscapes, incorporating the hills, woodlands and meandering streams of the English countryside – and repudiating the rigid geometry that had dominated garden design since antiquity.

Wed, Mar 23, 12:10 pm: Organ Concert, Martin Olson and Jo Baim, donation at door

Wed, Mar 23, 2 pm: Short Course on Handel taught by the Handel Scholars

Mar 24-27, St. James Cathedral Pastoral Outreach Center: American Handel Society Conference: three days of papers, lectures, research, lively discussions, and great food with leading international Handel scholars.

Thurs. Mar. 24, 10 am, Trinity Parish Hall: Seattle Early Dance: lecture-demo on the dances performed at court and in the theater during Handel’s lifetime, with Artistic Director Anna Mansbridge

Thurs, Mar 24, 6-8 pm, Town Hall: Opening reception for final weekend, includes music by baroque harpist Maxine Eilander, whose CD Handel’s Harp was released in Aug. 2009. Performance at 6:30 pm. Followed by a performance at 7 pm by Chris Norman, wooden flute and David Greenberg, fiddle! More than 200 visitors from around the country and Europe will be coming to Seattle for the American Handel Festival.  This reception gives musicians, scholars, visitors, and Seattle audience members a chance to meet and mingle. This is a ticketed event; we will be serving food and wine!

Fri-Sat, Mar 25-26: Western Early Keyboard Association Conference: Handel at the Keyboard, St. Mark’s Episcopal and Trinity Parish: performances, masterclasses, lecture-demos for harpsichordists and organists. For schedule, information, and registration click here.  Performances include Handel Organ Concerti, Violin Sonatas, and a harpsichord master class with Byron Schenkman.

Fri, Mar 25, Noon, Trinity Parish Church: Janet See, Baroque flute, with Margriet Tindemans, viola da gamba, and Kraig Scott, harpsichord: Handel Sonatas for flute and basso continuo, Handel harpsichord solo, and an arrangement of Handel’s beautiful B Minor Trio Sonata.

Fri, Mar 25, 7 pm, Town Hall: Howard Serwer Memorial Lecture by David Hurley, Pittsburg State Univ., Pittsburg KS: Once More with Feeling: Da Capo Patterns in Handel’s Oratorios, downstairs at Town Hall at 7 pm, enter on Seneca

Fri, Mar 25, 8 pm, Town Hall: Pacific MusicWorks presents Handel’s Acis and Galatea: the 1718 chamber version of Handel’s beloved pastoral opera by the Boston Early Music Festival; stage direction by Gilbert Blin, musical direction by Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs. Only one Seattle performance!. A courtly entertainment about the simplicity of rural life, Acis and Galatea depicts the love affair between the nymph Galatea and the shepherd Acis, who must endure a long separation. When the two at long last find each other, their reunion is thwarted by the giant Polyphemus, who is himself in love with Galatea. Polyphemus kills Acis with a large rock, and as Galatea laments the loss of her lover, she uses her divine powers to transform Acis into an everlasting fountain. An exquisite staged performance.  See a video montage of this production!

Sat, Mar 26, 1 pm, Poncho Concert Hall, Cornish College of the Arts: Baroque Woodwind Master Class: five of the finest baroque wind players — Janet See, flute; Gonzalo Ruiz, oboe; R.J. Kelley, horn; Danny Bond, bassoon; and Kris Kwapis, trumpet — demonstrate some of the finer points of baroque performance practices and coach aspiring early music students in this special master class. FREE

Sat, Mar 26, 1:30 pm: Handel’s Continuo with Tekla Cunningham, violin; Jillon Stoppels Dupree, harpsichord

Sat, Mar 26, 7 pm: Pre-concert lecture by John Roberts, UC Berkeley. The Pre-concert lecture will be held at Skyline Retirement community, across 9th from the Cathedral:  725 9th Ave.

Sat, Mar 26, 8 pm, St. James Cathedral: Handel: the Oratorio Esther from 1720 by Pacific MusicWorks and the Tudor Choir (Doug Fullington, director), conducted by Stephen Stubbs: the first performance of this version of the oratorio since Handel’s time (one performance only!); soloists include Shannon Mercer, Ross Hauck, Charles Robert Stephens, Zachary Wilder, Catherine Webster and Matthew White. 

Sun, Mar 27, 3 pm, Town Hall: Seattle Baroque Orchestra, led by Ingrid Matthews: Handel’s Grand Concertos: From its debut and most recent recordings to performances of Handel’s Messiah played “exceedingly well” (R.M. Campbell, Seattle Post-Intelligencer) with the Tudor Choir, Handel has always been a staple of the repertory for Seattle Baroque Orchestra. SBO brings to the American Handel Festival a concert devoted entirely to great instrumental works by the beloved master, including sonatas and concertos for oboes, violins, harpsichord, strings and continuo.

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Handel in Seattle: Major festival shows there’s much more to the man than ‘Messiah’

For the first time, The American Handel Festival makes a trip to Seattle, and for the first time it includes not just sessions for scholars, but 17 days of concerts and events for Handel-lovers from March 11-27, 2011.

By Story by Bernard Jacobson, Special to The Seattle Times – Sunday, Mar. 6, 2011

“To him I would bow the knee,” said Beethoven. The great Beethoven was not much given to gushing about his fellow composers, but George Frideric Handel, he said, “is the master of us all: the greatest effects with the simplest means.”

Crosscut Tout: A heaping plate of Handel in March

By Tom Luce. March 02, 2011

This March 11-27 the peripatetic annual festival of Handel’s music sponsored by the American Handel Society visits Seattle. There will be 30 concerts giving Seattleites and all in the region an unrepeatable opportunity to explore one of classical music’s greatest and most approachable figures.

Handel himself was an internationally peripatetic composer. Born in Germany, he trained there and then in Italy, but spent most of his adult life in London. In his travels he acquired the skills necessary to write in different styles and forms — oratorios and sacred music for both catholic and protestant traditions, orchestral suites, instrumental concerti, and not least opera. He was one of music’s most adaptable, perhaps most opportunistic, composers. And he succeeded brilliantly in all the forms he tried.  Read more here.

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KING-FM:

We have our own page on KING-FM!  Our friends at the classical station have been playing Handel’s music and interviewing our artists all month.  You can hear these artists on-demand on the arts channel:

Matthew Loucks on Handel’s Psalm Settings (Fri. Mar. 18, Evening Prayer at Our Lady of Fatima)

Byron Schenkman on Handel’s Keyboard writing (Sat.  Mar. 26, Western Early Keyboard Association Conference)

Karen P. Thomas on Handel’s Early Choral Writing (Mar. 19-20, Seattle Pro Musica: Dixit Dominus)

Ben Bernstein, composer: The Man in the Mirror

Ross Hauck, tenor: The Man in the Mirror, and the oratorio Esther

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KIRO News Radio:

Handel Festival explodes in Seattle

SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL REPORT

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Review: Seattle Times, March 17:

The meetings will be held at the Pastoral Center, St. James Cathedral, Seattle, March 24-27, 2011.  Space is limited.   Daily registration is available.

An online registration form is here.

Conference Schedule:

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE:

Thurs., Mar. 24
6 – 8 pm: opening reception with 30-min concert by Maxine Eilander whose CD Handel’s Harp was released in Aug. 2009

Fri., Mar. 25
9:00 – 11:45: Paper Session with snacks and coffee
12:00 – 1 pm: Janet See recital
1:15 – 2:30: Catered Lunch/AHS Board Meeting
2:30 – 5:00: Paper Session
7 pm: Howard Serwer Memorial Lecture by David Hurley: Once More with Feeling: Da Capo Patterns in Handel’s Oratorios
8 pm Concert: Boston Early Music Festival: Acis and Galatea

Sat., Mar. 26
9:00 – 11:45 Paper Session with snacks and coffee
12 – 1:00 pm: Handel Chorus concert
1:15 – 2:45 AHS luncheon and brief General Membership Meeting
3-6 pm Afternoon free
7 pm: Pre-Concert Lecture by John Roberts
8 pm Concert: Pacific Musicworks and Tudor Choir: Esther

Sun., Mar. 27 (Town Hall)
10 am – 1:30 Paper session and Brunch
2 pm: Pre-Concert Lecture
3 pm Concert: Seattle Baroque Orchestra
6 pm: Post-Festival Dinner

Early Music America

by Graydon Beeks, President of the American Handel Society

HANDEL CREATED his first two large scale dramatic works with English texts, Acis and Galatea and Esther, during the brief period when he enjoyed the patronage of James Brydges (1673-1744), who was from October 1714 the Earl of Carnarvon and from April 1719 the First Duke of Chandos. Research since the composer’s tercentennial in 1985 – 25 years ago – allows us to understand better the story behind the composition of these two landmark works, which will be featured at the American Handel Festival in Seattle, Washington, in March 2011…

Handel’s decision to accept the patronage of Brydges in the summer of 1717 was probably related to a number of factors. In the first place, the Earl of Burlington had decided to undertake another continental visit. More importantly, the ongoing hostility between the King and the Prince of Wales had flared into open conflict culminating in November 1717 with the Prince and Princess of Wales being ejected from St. James’s Palace and setting up their own rival court in Richmond. Henceforth, anyone paying court to one party was deemed persona non grata by the other. It was clear that the opera would not reopen for a 1717-18 season with such constraints on the members of the nobility who were its primary supporters. 

To read the entire article, click here.

Early Music America (EMA) is a not-for-profit service organization for the field of historical performance in North America. Founded in 1985, EMA’s goal is to expand awareness of, and interest in, the music of the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods. EMA is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2010-2011.

Pacific Musicworks, the American Handel Society, St. James Cathedral, and Sweet Bird Classics are bringing the 30-year-old American Handel Festival to Seattle in March 2011. This is a three-week, citywide festival, incorporating some 30 concerts and a host of lectures, symposia, and educational activities.

The festival was founded at the University of Maryland in 1981 and held there until 2001, when it began traveling to different cities. The most recent festivals were in Danville KY, Princeton NJ, Santa Fe NM, and Iowa City IA. The idea of a Handel festival in Seattle has captured the city’s imagination, and a number of groups are holding Handel events in the month of March.

The American Handel Festival begins March 11th and continues for 17 days — with 30 concerts, 1 conference, and 1 workshop.

See it all in here:   American Handel Festival Brochure

(You need at Adobe Reader to open this file.  You can download it here.)

The Amerian Handel Festival is a Professional Affiliate of the Early Music Guild, which is providing ticketing assistance and a variety of other administrative support services.

Follow @handelfestival on Twitter!

Visit our American Handel Festival Facebook page.

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The American Handel Festival in Seattle begins March 11, 2011 with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas McGegan and ends March 27, 2011 with Seattle Baroque Orchestra, directed by Ingrid Matthews.  

Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs will direct the Boston Early Music Festival production of Acis and Galatea on Friday, March 25th.  Then on Saturday March 26, Stubbs conducts a Seattle production of the 1720 version of the oratorio Esther.  Both performances are productions of Pacific MusicWorks. 

Check our Festival Schedule for the two dozen performances in between.  Concerts of Handel’s music include oratorios and other sacred choral works, solo recitals, Baroque dance, and more.

Tickets.

HANDEL IN SEATTLE

Here are a few samples:

Seattle Recorder Society and Moss Bay Recorder Society PLAY-IN! Recorder and viol players are invited to bring their instruments and join us to play Handel’s Water Music and Fireworks Music on March 19 from 2 – 3:30 pm, in the nave of St. James Cathedral.  Open to all free of charge.

Landscape Architect Paul Willen presents an absolutely stunning slide show with music demonstrating the deep affinity between Handel’s pastoral music and the soft and mellifluous “natural” gardens that were so boldly introduced into the English landscape in the early 18th century. With its passionate and lilting evocation of a distant arcadia, Handel’s quiet arias are the perfect “accompaniment” to the new landscapes, incorporating the hills, woodlands and meandering streams of the English countryside – and repudiating the rigid geometry that had dominated garden design since antiquity.

Two showings:

*Tuesday, March 22nd at noon, downstairs at Town Hall, with optional lunch afterwards
*Thursday, March 24th, at noon, at Trinity Parish Hall, with optional lunch afterwards

The Man in the Mirror is an original play by Ben Bernstein about a tenor who is preparing to sing a performance of Handel’s Messiah. Tenor Ross Hauck brings verismo to the role from his vast experience, which last season alone included 14 performances of Messiah.  http://www.americanhandelfestival.org/man-in-the-mirror/

Four performances: Wed. Mar. 16, noon and 7:30 pm, Trinity Parish
Thurs. Mar. 17, 2 pm, Frye Art Museum;  Fri. Mar. 18, 9:30 pm, Sorrento Hotel

American Handel Society Conference: papers and lectures by the world’s leading Handel scholars.  March 24-27 at the Pastoral Center of St. James Cathedral.  See more here.

Western Early Keyboard Conference:  See more here.
Friday, March 25 (St. Mark’s Cathedral):
3:30-5:00: Handel Organ Concerti Lecture-Recital, J. Melvin Butler and Alan DePuy, organists (St. Mark’s Cathedral)

Saturday, March 26 (Trinity Parish Church):
1:30: Handel’s Continuo: Sonatas for Violin and Basso Continuo: Tekla Cunningham, baroque violin; Jillon Stoppels Dupree, harpsichord

2:30 – 5:30 Handel Harpsichord Master Class: with Byron Schenkman
and
Handel: Cosmopolitan Composer: Elaine Thornburgh and JungHae Kim, harpsichord; Josh Lee, viola da gamba