PORT TOWNSEND — The Salish Sea Early Music Festival will present four of Telemann’s Paris Quartets on period instruments at 2 p.m. Saturday.
David Greenberg, violinist; Elisabeth Wright, harpsichordist; Susie Napper, viola da gambist; and Jeffrey Cohan, baroque flutist, will perform at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1020 Jefferson St.
Admission is by a $20 to $30 freewill offering at the door; youths 18 and younger are admitted free.
German composer George Phillip Telemann wrote two sets of six quartets for flute, violin, viola da gamba and continuo while visiting Paris in 1730 and in 1738.
The 1730 set is entitled “Quadri a violino, flauto traversiere, viola da gamba o violoncello, e fondamento” (Pictures for violin, flute traversiere, viola da gamba or cello, and foundation) while the 1738 set is entitled “Nouveaux quatuors en six suites” (New quartets in six suites.)
All 12 pieces later came to be known as the Paris Quartets.
Saturday’s program will consists of two quartets from the 1730 set and two from the 1738 set.
Wright has taught at Indiana University School of Music for more than four decades. Napper co-founded and is director emeritus of the Montreal Baroque Festival and teaches at McGill University, the University of Montreal and the Royal Conservatory in Copenhagen. Greenberg has performed in North America, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Far East as a Baroque violinist and Cape Breton fiddler.
Cohan is artistic director of the Salish Sea Early Music Festival.
Remaining performances in the 2024 Salish Sea Early Music Festival include:
• Haydn and Beyond, noon Friday, March 22, chamber music with Lindsey Strand-Polyak, violin and viola; Adaiha MacAdam-Somer, cellist; and Jeffrey Cohan, eight-keyed flute.
• Cantata and Lieder, 2 p.m. Sunday, April 7, soprano Arwyn Myers, harpsichordist Elisabeth Wright and baroque flutist Jeffrey Cohan.
• Psalms, 1620; Irish, 1720; and Folksong, 1820, Oleg Timofeyev, renaissance lute and seven-string guitar and Jeffrey Cohan, renaissance, baroque and eight-keyed flutes.
• Baroque Concerti, 2 p.m. Sunday, May, 26, Elizaveta Miller, harpsichord; Carrie Krause, violin; Elisabeth Phelps, violin; Victoria Gunn, viola; Adaiha MacAdam-Somer, cello; and Jeffrey Cohan, baroque flute.
• Johann Sebastian Bach, 2 p.m. June 30, harpsichordist Irene Roldan and flutist Jeffrey Cohan.
For more information, including the festival’s full schedule, visit www.salishseafestival.org/porttownsend.
