A Solstice Gathering

The brilliant, sparkling and beautiful new CD with fiddle, bagpipes, harp, viola da gamba, recorder & bodhran, the incredible tenor, James Oxley, & NPR’s Neal Conan . . . so very Ensemble Galilei.

Ensemble Galilei and Friends 

Isaac Alderson, Uillean pipes & flute
Hanneke Cassel, fiddle
Neal Conan, narrator 
Ginger Hildebrand, guitar and fiddle 
Ryan McKasson, fiddle 
Kathryn Montoya, recorders & baroque oboe 
Jackie Moran, bodhran & baritone 
Sue Richards, Celtic harp 
Carolyn Surrick, viola da gamba 

with special guests: 

Jesse Langen, guitar 
Adaiha MacAdam-Somer, viola da gamba 
James Oxley, tenor

Gathering

December would have been our 30th Anniversary Winter Solstice/Christmas Concert in Annapolis. Indeed, we have done these concerts all over the country, from Jacksonville to Berkeley, Denver to New York, Chicago to Charlottesville. And let’s not forget Pinedale, Wyoming – perhaps the place we have visited the most at Christmas time. 

But this was a special year. We were going to assemble a prodigious assortment of current and former members of Ensemble Galilei. It was going to be amazing. 

Then there was February, followed by March. We thought about postponing the celebration. In the end, we realized that we what we wanted more than anything else was to record a CD for our friends from all over the country. 

Could we get together to record? Could we be safe? Could people travel? We needed a big, open, beautiful space, and the Church of the Nativity and Holy Comforter in Baltimore said, “Yes!” 

Jackie couldn’t leave Chicago and Kathryn couldn’t go there (travel restrictions) so we decided we would have three days of recording in Baltimore and one in Chicago. Where would we record in Chicago? Martyrs of course. The venue best beloved by many, agreed to open its doors at 8:00am on a Saturday morning. We were set. 

But if Sue couldn’t travel to Chicago who would accompany Isaac and Jackie? Jesse Langen on guitar was the instant answer from Jackie and Isaac. And Jesse said, “Yes!” 

James Oxley was going to join us from the UK, but then things got bad there and leaving the country was out of the question. Incredibly, in December of 2017, we spent a day at Sono Luminus recording four tracks with that year’s crew: James, Kathryn, Hanneke Cassel, Adaiha MacAdam-Somer, and of course Sue and me. That recording session was waiting for a reason to exist – and now it lives here, on this CD.