Arizona Early Music bringing intriguing acts to Tucson next season

That’s when Montreal’s mostly female Ximenez Quartet performs “The Transatlantic Salon,” a concert of string quartets by Baroque and Classical era composers from Germany, France, Peru, Austria and Italy.

The concert on Dec. 17 is among five planned for Arizona Early Music’s 2023-24 season, which opens with a pay-what-you-can recital on Sept. 24 with keyboard and harpsichord player Guy Whatley, the Phoenix-based harpsichordist who has become a regular fixture on Tucson stages.

Arizona Early Music regular performances are at St. Philip’s in the Hills Episcopal Church, 4440 N. Campbell Ave.; and Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 2331 E. Adams Street. Season tickets are on sale now through azearlymusic.org/tickets.

Whatley will perform works by William Byrd in the pre-season concert at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 2728 N. Old Sabino Canyon Road. Admission is pay what you will, but because the venue has limited seating (accommodating about 120), registration is required through azearlymusic.org.

The main season kicks off with the exciting French-Italian mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre and renowned French lutenist Thomas Dunford performing “Lettera Amorosa: Songs of Love from 17th Century Italy” on Nov. 12 at Grace St. Paul’s.

The Montreal, Quebec-based Ximenez Quartet, named after the 19th century Peruvian composer Pedro Ximenez Abril Tirado, will introduce itself to Tucson on Dec. 17 with “The Transatlantic Salon: String Quartets by Haydn, Sirmen, Bologne, Mozart and Ximenez.” The ensemble, which formed in 2019, features violinists Karin Cuellar and Simon Alexandre, violist Namgon Lee and cellist Jessica Korotkin. The concert will be at Grace St. Paul’s.

The Boston Renaissance choir Blue Heron performs “Portraits in Song: Music from Renaissance Italy, from Ciconia to Petrucci, in intimate settings for voices and instruments” on Jan. 14 at St. Philip’s in the Hills.

Philadelphia’s Piffaro, The Renaissance Band, performs “The French (Italian) Connection: Music from the Court of King Charles VIII” on Feb. 11 at St. Philip’s. The band borrows its style from the late Medieval, Renaissance and early Baroque period wind bands.

Quicksilver, an ensemble comprised of some of North America’s most revered early music performers, brings “Early Moderns: Extravagant New Music from the Seventeenth Century” to Grace St. Paul’s on March 17. The concert borrows from the ensemble’s most recent recording, “Early Moderns: The (very) First Viennese School.”