We made it! Thanks to all who contributed to help underwrite the costs of this CD. Any additional contributions will now go to support of Piffaro's performance, education, and research initiatives.
Following is the original "pitch". If you'd like to see the original promotion video, in which Joan and Bob describe the CD and talk about Piffaro, go to the Gallery tab.
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Help Piffaro capture the joy of a decade of holiday concerts in time for gift-giving this season! We wish to replace our first holiday CD, which sold out last year, with a fresh compilation from our archives, which are bursting with wonderful music yearning to be released into the world!
Artistic directors Joan Kimball and Bob Wiemken have selected the choicest performances of music from 16th and 17th century Germany, England, France and Mexico, all brought to life as only Piffaro can, with its unique combination of Renaissance recorders, sackbuts, bagpipes, dulcians, shawms, lutes, guitars, harp and percussion. Featured guest artist Laura Heimes heads the roster of singers, instrumentalists, and choirs that join Piffaro on this recording. Joyous and reflective, sacred and profane, mass movements and dances, some familiar tunes and some new discoveries – this is music that will refresh and delight your ears.
You can help make this CD happen with your tax-deductible contribution.
With the holidays approaching so quickly, this campaign is only for 30 days, so please act now.
To encourage your help on this campaign, three friends of Piffaro have offered to match your contribution, dollar for dollar, for the first $3000 in contributions. In other words, for each $1 you give, Piffaro gets $2.
As further encouragement, we offer a range of perks, as shown in the sidebar.
About your gift
Even though the recordings were done live in concert, actually producing this CD incurs significant costs – mastering the concert recordings, designing the cover and booklet, duplicating the CDs and packaging them, making the promotional video, distributing perks, etc. In the end, we estimate total costs to be $6500. A board member is loaning Piffaro the upfront costs so the CD will be ready in time for this holiday season; your contribution will help repay that loan. We are very grateful to Piffaro friends Terry & Cindy Tobias, Deborah Malamud & Neil Plotkin, and Anthony Elitcher & Kathryn Andrea Taras, who graciously offered to provide the matching funds.
We hope to raise $3000 through this Indiegogo campaign, with matching grants and sales of the CD making up the rest of the costs of producing the CD. Since time is short, this campaign is only for 30 days, so please act quickly.
Piffaro is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, so your contributions are tax-deductible to the extent they exceed the value of any perks. We will send you a thank you letter that details your contribution.
This is a flexible funding campaign, meaning that all gifts will become available to Piffaro, even if we don't reach our goal. Anything that exceeds our goal will be used to support Piffaro's research, performance, and educational programs.
We give our deepest thanks to you for your contribution.
If you have any questions about the campaign or Piffaro in general, please contact us at info@piffaro.org.
More about the CD
We are extremely happy to be able to bring you these concert highlights. German chorale settings by Praetorius and English music for the winter solstice lead off the CD, and selections from a French Christmas mass and a Mexican Christmas Vespers round it out. Here is the complete track listing:
1. Dies est laetitiae/Psallite/In dulci jubilo - arr. Piffaro, after chorale settings by Michael Praetorius (c.1571-1621)
2. Frohlock o tochter – Praetorius
3. Es ist ein Ros – Praetorius
4. Intrada & Gaillard – Isaac Posch (c.1591-1623)
5. Frölich zu seyn – Posch
6. Ivy chefe of treis – anonymous, late 15th c.
7. Puzzle canon - John Lloyd (c.1475 – 1523)
8. Ivy is gode – anonymous, late 15th c.
9. Green growth the holly – Henry VIII (1491-1547)
10. Time to pass – Henry VIII
11. Noe noe, psallite noe – Jean Mouton (c.1459-1522)
12. Tant que vivray – noel set to chanson by Claudin de Sermisy (c.1490-1562)
13. O dulcissima Domine Jesu respicere – Philippe Verdelot (1475-1552)
14. Agnus dei from Missa “Voulant honneur” – Sermisy
15. Ilz sont bien pelles & Gentil pastoureau – Anonymous theatre chanson and noel based on that melody (c. 1500)
16. As I sat on a sunny bank & I saw three ships – anonymous, arr. Piffaro
17. Drive the cold winter away – anonymous, 16th c.
18. Fabordones I tono - Philippe Rogier (1561-1646)
19. Psalm 147: Lauda Jerusalem – Manuel Matco de Dallo y Lana (fl. late 17th c.)
20. Concertado à 3 - Dom Teotónio da Cruz (17th c.)
21. Avejuela que al jazmín - Manuel Machado (c1590 – 1646)
22. Villançico: Convidando esta la noche - Juan Garcia de Zespedes (1619-1678)
Piffaro is pleased to be joined by featured guest soprano Laura Heimes, soprano Julianne Baird, tenors Philip Anderson and Stephen Bradshaw, baritone Brian Ming Chu, and two fantastic choirs – Choral Arts Philadelphia and The Rose Ensemble.
Further enhancing the wide-ranging sonic landscape ideal for this music are guest instrumentalists Annette Bauer (recorder, dulcian), Martin Bernstein (recorder), Bryan Duerfeldt (recorder), Kris Kwapis (trumpet), Larry Lipnik (viol), Liza Malamut (recorder), Danny Mallon (percussion), Scott Metcalfe (violin), Rosamund Morley (viol), Mack Ramsey (sackbut), Erik Schmalz (sackbut) and Charles Weaver (guitar).
Our thanks go out to all our guests, including Matthew Glandorf, conductor of Choral Arts Philadelphia, and Jordon Sramek, conductor of The Rose Ensemble, for giving us permission to include their performances on this new CD.
More about Piffaro
Directed by Joan Kimball and Bob Wiemken, Piffaro has been called “one of the world’s top international [early music] ensembles” by the Detroit News. It is one of the few professional instrumental groups in the U.S. devoted to Renaissance music, especially as played by wind instruments. In addition to its regular concert series in the Philadelphia area, Piffaro tours regularly throughout North and South America and Europe; the band and its members are in high demand as performers and instructors at many early music workshops. Recordings are a significant part of the ensemble’s work, with 16 CDs released since 1992, including four on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon/Archiv Produktion label. Piffaro is self-producing this new holiday CD.
Find out more about Piffaro at www.piffaro.com. There you can view artist bios, learn more about the instruments, check the touring schedule, and listen to more Piffaro music (or even buy some of our earlier CDs).
Come see us live! Piffaro will be appearing on December 1-2 at Dumbarton Oaks, December 7 on the Renaissance and Baroque series in Pittsburgh, and December 27-28-29 in its home venues in Philadelphia and Wilmington.
Please tell all your friends on Facebook, Twitter, and in the physical world about us and this campaign!