Early Music Series presents PS 24 - Shakespeare's Stage Band - The Spartina Consort
An afternoon of Elizabethan Music

Shakespeare's Stage Band

Shakespeare’s plays were originally laced with music. This program features instrumental and vocal selections by composers well known to Shakespeare such as John Dowland, Tobias Hume,  and Robert Johnson. The Spartina Consort will feature treble viol, bass viol, voice,  recorder,  and harpsichord. The sounds and rhythms of Renaissance England will come back to life in this delightful program.

Marcy Jean Brenner (bass viola da gamba) returned from 28 years freelancing and teaching in Europe (which started with a Fulbright to Austria) to find that there is plenty of interest in baroque music in the States. She worked in New England before moving South and is now ensconced in Charleston, playing viol and vielle for numerous specialized groups in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. In her free time she translates texts from German to English and gathers trash on beaches for The Ocean Conservancy.

Susan Conant (Baroque flute and recorder) enjoys playing a diverse range of chamber music and partnering with musicians from all genres. Besides playing with Spartina Consort, Conant is a member of Charleston-based Brazilian band, Porto Seguro and Celtic band, Zephyr. She recently retired as the Music Director at the Unitarian Church in Charleston and has published two discs of her own chamber music compositions. Conant studied classical flute performance with Claude Monteux at the New England Conservatory.

Julia Harlow (harpsichord) is Director of Music and Organist at Second Presbyterian Church, Charleston and adjunct faculty at the College of Charleston, where she teaches organ, harpsichord, music history and survey of women composers.   She is organist at Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim synagogue and teaches organ and harpsichord privately.  Her degrees are from U. of Iowa (BM, organ) and U. of Oregon (Eugene - MM Early Keyboard Performance and DMA, organ).  Active in the Charleston musical scene, she has performed as harpsichordist or organist in Piccolo Spoleto, with Charleston Symphony, Chamber Music Charleston, La Belle Musique, College of Charleston, Spartina Consort and Taylor Festival Choir.  

David Hunt (treble and bass viola da gamba, bass soloist) is a native of Seneca, SC and attended the Governors’ School for the Arts & Humanities. A passionate advocate for Renaissance and Baroque music, he has studied the viol with Gail Ann Schroeder and Jane Hershey and has appeared with a range of ensembles—most notably Harvard Baroque, Grand Harmonie, Boston Camerata, and the Cavalier Consort. He has edited a number of historic collections of music, including the Psalterium Carolinum and Philippe de Monte’s Madrigali spirituali for 5 voices. He lives in Charleston, where he is Cantor at the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist.

Joshua Overby is a conductor, singer, and instrumentalist based in Charleston, SC. and currently serves as the Director of Music at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Beaufort, SC.  He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music (vocal Performance) from the College of Charleston where he also studied choral conducting under Dr. Robert Taylor and William Bennett. Joshua has performed with ensembles across the Eastern United States including the Taylor Festival Choir (TFC), Charleston Opera Theatre (COT), and the Franklin Chamber Choir (FCC). He was most recently featured as a tenor soloist/evangelist in J.S. Bach's “Christmas Oratorio”, and as the Tenor Narrator in Bach’s “Coffee Cantata.” Other notable performances include Alfred in Johann Strauss' "Die Fledermaus” and Guillot in Offenbach’s “The Lantern Marraige"