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

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

-based

early music Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad musical era for the beginning of Western classical m ...

ensemble. 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 ''Revels'' is a contemporary series of American seasonal stage performances, incorporating singing, dancing, recitals, and theatrics loosely organized around a central theme or narrative. The folk-tradition-based performances started in 1957, we ...

. 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 Dorian Recordings was a record label based in Troy, New York, most noted for its extensive series of early music recordings. Dorian made many of its recordings at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, and supported the local all-classical radio stati ...

Newport Classic Newport Classic, Ltd, is a record label of classical music, founded by Larry Kraman, and is located in Newport, Rhode Island. In its catalog are recordings of both familiar and unusual works, including ''Casanova's Homecoming'', ''A Waterbird Talk ...

, Navona Records, and under their own label. The group's current Artistic Directors are Joan Kimball and Robert Wiemken. Priscilla Herreid will become Artistic Director for the group beginning with the 2022-2023 concert season. Regular members are Joan Kimball, Robert Wiemken, Grant Herreid, Greg Ingles, Erik Schmalz, and Priscilla Smith Herreid; Tom Zajac was a regular member until his death in August 2015. 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 Obrecht is a patronymic surname. Obrecht was a Germanic given name derived from Od-brecht, meaning "famed for his heritageNotable people with the surname include: *Jacob Obrecht (c. 1457/58 – 1505), Flemish Renaissance composer *Hermann Obrecht ( ...

: ''Chansons-Songs-Motets'',

Capilla Flamenca Capilla Flamenca is a vocal and instrumental early music consort based in Leuven, Belgium. The group specialises in 14th to 16th century music from Flanders and takes its name from the historical Flemish chapel (capilla flamenca), the choir of the c ...

, Piffaro (Eufoda EUF1361) *''Music from the

Odhecaton The ''Harmonice Musices Odhecaton'' (One Hundred Songs of Harmonic Music, also known simply as the ''Odhecaton'') is an anthology of polyphonic secular songs published by Ottaviano Petrucci in 1501 in Venice. It is the first book of polyphonic mu ...

'', 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)

Sources

Description and discography
on the

Goldberg Goldberg or Goldberger may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Goldberg Ensemble, a British string ensemble * ''Goldberg Variations'', a set of 30 keyboard variations by Johann Sebastian Bach * ''The Goldbergs (broadcast series)'', American radio ...

Early Music Portal (Archived version on

archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

retrieved 27 May 2015) *

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

, 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'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

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

External links

Official site

Piffaro, the Renaissance Band at Google Cultural Institute
Instrumental early music groups Musical groups from Philadelphia Musical groups established in 1980 {{Classical-ensemble-stub