Music For A Special Day: Harpsichord Music Of Rena CD

Dorothy Rice, harpsichordist and Vermont Touring Artist, perofrms widely throughout Vermont and New England. Initially a pianist and music major at Vassar College, she grew to love the harpsichord and studied harpsichord at Yale University with Richard Rephann and Lola Odiaga.She currently lives in North Shrewsbury, Vermont, teaching early childhood music,playing harpsichord concerts of Renaissance and Baroque music, and developing her particular skill and joy in music improvisation.The instrument used in this recording was built by Walter Burr in the Boston shop of William Dowd in 1968. A copy of a harpsichord designed by the Ruckers family in Antwerp in the early 1600's, this instrument, named Caroline Elizabeth Claire, has two manuals and three sets of strings with a lute stop on the upper 8'.During the Renaissance and Baroque Period composers were employed by courts, churches, and households to write and perform music for all special occasions. For example, Johann Kaspar Ferdinand Fischer was Kapel Meister to the Margrave of Baden, Henry Purcell was a composer for Charles II's string orchestra and organist at Westminster Abbey, and William Byrd was composer and organist for the Chapel Royal in London under Queen Elizabeth I. In France Louis Couperin performed frequently for Louis XIV, and Francois Couperin, Louis Couperin's nephew, was composer and performer in Louis XIV's court and teacher of the royal children.Enjoy this Music for a Special Day every day!