DECEMBER 22, 2018 Eclectic Adventures with AMOC by CJ Ru What better antidote to December doldrums or holiday hustle than to let one’s spirit run amok with AMOC — the American Modern Opera Company — through an afternoon of ambitiously eclectic adventures? Last weekend the interdisciplinary collective helmed by artistic directors Matthew Aucoin and Zack Winokur presented a quartet of hour-long programs with modern dance, theatric lighting, and music ranging from Bach to present day, alternating between two Harvard venues — the Agassiz House’s neoclassical Horner Room and the Loeb Ex black box, each configured to accommodate an intimate audience of 30-60. Bach Sonatas and Preludes Although the
THAT DECISIVE MOMENT Favorite Christmas Sounds: The Week in Classical Music Last weekend was the second annual Run AMOC! Festival at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., a celebration of the American Modern Opera Company, a troupe of young and preternaturally talented musicians and dancers dedicated to collaboration and experimentation, led by artistic directors Matthew Aucoin and Zack Winokur. The three intimate concerts I heard on Saturday were blindingly impressive. One fun hour had Emi Ferguson playing Bach’s flute sonatas with a six-part continuo band, Ruckus, improvising on the figured bass, a fizzing, daring display of personality and imagination. Another was a concert
Handel and Haydn Society Adds Three New Principal Musicians to Orchestra December 18, 2018 New Principal Flute, Bass, and Timpani Players to Help Define H+H Sound for Years to Come [Boston, MA – December 17, 2018] The Handel and Haydn Society has announced the addition of three new principal musicians to its Orchestra. Emi Ferguson joins the orchestra in the principal flute position, Heather Miller Lardin joins in the principal bass role, and Jonathan Hess joins as the principal timpanist. All three musicians were selected by a committee either by appointment or following a series of auditions with an international field of candidates. “These three new musicians will play a prominent role in
Read the full article here. Listening to her 2017 album, “Amour Cruel,” which sounds like what would happen if Lana del Rey ended up at Louis XIV’s court, it’s easy to hear why flutist Emi Ferguson, 31, is so enthused about her involvement with the daring, deliberate arts collective American Modern Opera Company. “There’s this infusion of energy that goes across discipline, b etween the dancers and the musicians. Everyone’s teaching each other,” she says via phone from New York, where she’s based. “It’s a really amazing group of people, who are very curious about finding new pathways to share their art forms.” Born in Japan and raised in England and Brookline, the flutist has been a member o
