Piffaro, The Renaissance Band, originally called "The Philadelphia Renaissance Wind Band", is a

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

-based

early music Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750) or Ancient music (before 500 AD). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad Dates of classical ...

ensemble.

History

The group was founded in 1980, and performs music of the late Medieval and Renaissance periods. Piffaro's instrumentarium includes shawms, dulcians, sackbuts, recorders, krumhorns, bagpipes, lutes, guitars, and a variety of percussion. Piffaro generally performs a concert series of four to five concerts a year in Philadelphia, in addition to touring throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and elsewhere. They regularly perform onstage with the Washington Christmas Revels. The ensemble also has extensive recordings with

Deutsche Grammophon Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...

, Dorian Recordings, Newport Classic, Navona Records, and under their own label. The group's founding Artistic Directors were Joan Kimball and Robert Wiemken. Priscilla Herreid became Artistic Director beginning with the 2022-2023 concert season. Regular members are Priscilla Herreid, Grant Herreid, Greg Ingles, and Erik Schmalz. Tom Zajac was a regular member until his death in August 2015. Joan Kimball and Robert Wiemkem retired in 2022. Early Music America has awarded Piffaro's founders and co-artistic directors, Joan Kimball and Robert Wiemken, their 2021 Howard Mayer Brown Award for lifetime achievement in the field of early music.

Selected recordings

* Obrecht: ''Chansons-Songs-Motets'', Capilla Flamenca, Piffaro (Eufoda EUF1361) *''Music from the Odhecaton'', Piffaro (Dorian XCD 90301) * ''Stadtpfeiffer: Music of Renaissance Germany'', Piffaro (Dorian XCD-90292) *''Chansons et Danceries - French Renaissance Winds'', Piffaro (Deutsche Grammophon DGG 4471072) *''Los Ministriles: Wind Music of the Spanish Renaissance'', Piffaro (Archiv 4543441-2)

References

Sources

Description and discography
on the Goldberg Early Music Portal (Archived version on

archive.org The Internet Archive is an American non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including websites, software applic ...

retrieved 27 May 2015) *

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

, Madison Early Music Festival 2007
Artists-in-Residence
(Retrieved 4 November 2007) *Daniel Webster
"Piffaro performs Renaissance airs with a fine flourish"
''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...

'', October 30, 2007 (Retrieved 27 May 2015)

External links

Official site

Piffaro, the Renaissance Band at Google Cultural Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Piffaro, The Renaissance Band Instrumental early music groups Musical groups from Philadelphia Musical groups established in 1980