Nancy Kito meets Emmy-award winning Director Paul Feig!

The one where baroque musician Nancy Kito meets film director / author Paul Feig…

As you may know, in 2019 a little thing called COVID disrupted the world and everything that we knew as “normal”. Emmy-award winner Paul Feig (Freaks & Geeks, Bridesmaids, and more) did a “quarantine cocktail” Instagram show every week, and highlighted worthy causes / charities to donate to as the world was reeling, all the while dancing his way to Italian pop or other popular songs, broadcasting to our homes every week through the magic of social media. I first came across his posts because The Washington Post did an article on entertainers who took to online shows thinking the pandemic would soon be over and our own gamba player, Sarah Stone, was mentioned in the same article.

Paul’s come out with a book, “Cocktail Time!”, as well as launching his own brand of gin, Artingstall’s which is as smooth as he is (almost). Here is a little video we did after his booksigning. See his world and mine cross paths, as Paul dances to a 17th century minuet. Click on the link below to watch me and my partner in crime Paul Feig, classical music mixes well with cocktails!

“Classical Keyboardist Meets the King of Cocktails”

“By George, They’ve Got It!” - return to in-person concerts

Had a blast playing our concert on Oct. 23, 2022 at the historic French Church du St. Esprit. Featuring the music of the 2 Georges, Handel & Telemann. L-R: Susan Graham, flute; Nancy Kito, harpsichord; Nathan Whittaker, cello; Dan McCarthy, viola d’amore.

Our first live-streamed virtual concert!

L-R: Susan Hahn Graham, Nancy Kito, Claire Smith Bermingham, Cullen O’Neil, Dan McCarthy

So there we were on Sunday Feb. 20, 2022, streaming live from my living room in NYC! We were not quite ready for an in-person recital so we brought the music to you. Streamed across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twtich TV, and Twitter, our concert featuring Dan McCarthy on viola d’amore was watched by people near and far, California, Cape Cod, Asia (Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong).

For us, ‘twas interesting talking to an audience we couldn’t see, but we’ve leapt into the 21st century, availing ourselves of the technology that helped us during the COVID era.

Watch on YouTube, click here: “That’s d’Amore” live-streamed concert

Winter Concert: Wonder Women! on March 2, 2020 at 8pm

It’s the year 2020 and Ensemble Leonarda is celebrating the 400th anniversary of Isabella Leonarda, the Italian Ursuline nun / composer (born 1620), our namesake. We have a very special concert on Monday, March 2, 2020 at Marc A. Scorca Hall at The National Opera Center, entitled “Wonder Women”!

Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre was a contemporary of Francois Couperin; among her works were pieces for harpsichord, instrumental sonatas and 3 books of cantatas. She played for Louis XIV at a young age and was accepted at the French court, and her education supervised by Madame de Montespan. The cantata “Le Sommeil d’Ulisse” will be performed, with artwork by Victor Varnado (cartoonist for The New Yorker).

We are also pleased to collaborate with composer Elizabeth Brown in a preview performance of her new work for baroque band, voice, and shamisen. This piece, “A Glimpse at Dawn” will feature shamisen player & vocalist Yoko Reikano Kimura.

What is a shamisen? you may well ask. It is a traditional Japanese 3-stringed instrument. Did you know? Its strings are made of silk, which are dyed with turmeric. Also, it is played with a plectrum called a bachi.

Wonder Women of the Baroque…& beyond!

Come see for yourself on March 2nd !

Mon. March 2, 2020 at 8pm, Marc A. Scorca Hall at The National Opera Center, 330 Seventh Avenue, NYC

Tickets: $20/ $15

Ensemble Leonarda in concert: "Czech " it out!

Ensemble Leonarda explores baroque music played at the Court of Dresden.  Here, Casey Ann Reinke explains why you should be intrigued...

<<Dresden. No, not just fine china. The court of Dresden & music. Where do we begin? Dresden was the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany, near the border of the Czech Republic (remember this for later). Augustus II nicknamed "The Strong"  (a.k.a. known as Friedrich Augustus I Elector of Saxony) caused quite a stir when he converted to Catholicism in 1694 in order to become King of Poland. A patron of the arts, composers, instrumentalists, and singers flocked to Dresden to hear and to be heard. These included Bohemian composers Jan Zelenka, Johann Benda, Frantisek Tuma, and Biber. Heinrich Biber, not Justin.  [I say Bohemia and you think "Rhapsody", but Bohemia is the westernmost and biggest historical part of what is now the Czech Republic]. 

Telemann, Handel & Bach also visited Dresden. The court orchestra featured such musical talent as violinist Pisandel (who'd studied w/ Torelli & had met Vivaldi); Quantz, the most outstanding flutist of his time; Hasse whose passion was opera, and others.

There's a whole lot more to discover (and hear!) >>      -C.A.Reinke

"Mad About You" [La Folia]

On Nov. 2, 2017 at The National Opera Center, Ensemble Leonarda presented a concert in collaboration with Adam Grannick's Filmelodic "La Folia" project.  A 12-minute visual anthology of 24 vignettes, featuring live music of Francesco Geminiani.  The concert also featured works by some of the 150 other baroque composers who wrote works on the theme.

Concert: May 17, 2015 ("A Baroque Band in Brooklyn!")

The period instrument group Ensemble Leonarda will be performing at St. John-St. Matthew-Emanuel Lutheran Church (283 Prospect Avenue, Brooklyn) on Sunday, May 17 at 4:00pm.  Pianist and freelance journalist Casey Ann Reinke interviews harpsichordist Nancy Kito.

For those readers who are not musicians, what is baroque music?
Briefly put, it's music composed 1685-1750.

Why play in Brooklyn? I mean, if you say Brooklyn, it conjures up images of hipsters and good food and the Museum and Grand Army Plaza and Coney Island, not necessarily classical baroque music!
Ensemble Leonarda is a sponsored project of the service organization Fractured Atlas and every year we do 1 outreach concert (somewhere that isn't Manhattan), to places that don't usually get to hear that kind of music.  Last year we were in Hoboken, NJ, and this year we're playing at Brooklyn’s historic St. JME Lutheran church, 3 churches that merged, the oldest of which was founded in 1859. 

How is this concert different from other classical music concerts, and why should people want to go?
We try and present good music in a non-stuffy way that engages everyone, musicians and non-musicians alike.  Look, I'm a conservatory graduate and sometimes I go to my friends' concerts, and even I would be afraid to ask a question!  It’s hard to strike a balance between oversimplifying (in which case any musicians in the audience are bored) and having a “traditional” concert (where people are too intimidated to actually enjoy it).   We explain things like: “If it’s a trio sonata, why are 4 people playing?” and “Why do organists wear funny shoes?” 

The trend nowadays is to have a “theme”.  Our theme is “A Baroque Band in Brooklyn!”, which is going to sound more interesting to the average Joe than “Glorious Wonders of the Transalpine Baroque Cantata”.  We’re musicians playing pieces which move us, and hopefully the audience will want to go home afterwards and Google keywords to learn more about the music that we played.

On this concert, there's literally something for everybody. The church's organ is in front, so you can see it, instead of it being hidden in the back up in the loft.  I’ll be doing a brief speech/demo about organs and you can actually see it up close.  Most people have seen a piano before, but an organ and what makes it tick?  There's a soprano, and both a cello AND a viola da gamba. Plus Brooklynite Rob Paravonian on guitar.  (Seriously!)

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