The Baltimore Consort
The Baltimore Consort |
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The Baltimore Consort is a musical ensemble that performs a wide variety of early music, Renaissance music and music from later periods. They began in 1980 as a group specializing in music of the Elizabethan period, but soon expanded their repertoire to include Scottish music, broadside ballads, and Italian, French, and other European music of the 16th and 17th centuries. Their music bridges the genres of classical and folk music.
The Baltimore Consort was founded by Roger Harmon, who formerly had taught lute at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland. They performed together for ten years before releasing their first album for Dorian Recordings, a collection of Scottish music called On the Banks of the Helicon. By the time of that recording the ensemble consisted of Custer LaRue (soprano), Ronn McFarlane (lute), Mary Anne Ballard (viols, fiddle), Larry Lipkis (bass viol, recorder), Chris Norman (flutes, bagpipes, bodhran), Howard Bass (bandora), and Mark Cudek (cittern, bass viol). Norman was replaced in 2003 by Mindy Rosenfeld, a member of the original 1980 group whom he had replaced in 1986, and LaRue began an indefinite leave of absence in 2004, at which time countertenor Jose Lemos entered, joined in 2005 by soprano Danielle Svonvec.
The group has recorded more than 12 albums for Dorian, including a Christmas album, Bright Day Star, and a collection of bawdy songs with the a capella quartet called the Merry Companions, The Art of the Bawdy Song and a 2007 instrumental compilation, Gut, Wind and Wire. Their various recordings also cover a number of the Child ballads.
Discography
- On The Banks of the Helicon (1990)
- Watkins Ale (1991)
- La Rocque 'n' Roll
- The Art of the Bawdy Song
- Bright Day Star
- A Trip to Killburn (1996)
- Tunes from the Attic
- The Ladyes Delight
- The Mad Buckgoat (1999)
- Adew Dundee
- Custer LaRue Sings 'The Daemon Lover' with The Baltimore Consort
- Gut, Wind and Wire; Instruments of the Baltimore Consort (2007)