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45th ANNIVERSARY SEASON

Welcome to the 2026 – 2027 Season Dear Friends, In 1981, a small circle of San Diegans who enjoyed early music decided to share it with anyone willing to listen. That circle became the San Diego Early Music Society, and this season is a celebration of everything that this grassroots spirit has grown into over the past four decades. This season, we celebrate 45 years of community, passion, and commitment to excellence. Season after season, the Society works to bring programs that are adventurous and illuminating, that spark curiosity and wonder, and that show us humanity and musicianship at their best. Every program on this season’s calendar was chosen because it has something true to say. Today, we celebrate the people and the music that bring us joy and hope. None of this happens without you. Whether you’ve been part of this community since 1981—playing in a workshop, singing at a Sing-Along, or simply in the audience—or are opening this brochure for the first time, thank you for making room in your life for our concerts and other programs. We’re glad to share this music with you. With gratitude and anticipation for the season ahead, The Board of Directors of the San Diego Early Music Society

45th ANNIVERSARY SEASON

MAIN SERIES

SOLO SERIES

ALL CONCERTS AT ALL SOULS’ EPISCOPAL CHURCH @ 7:30PM Jean Rondeau | November 11, 2026 Gabriel Smallwood | March 2, 2027 Mark Edwards | April 6, 2027

SPECIAL EVENT

CONCERT AT SAN DIEGUITO UNITED METHODIST CHURCH @ 7:30PM Ensemble Correspondances | December 9, 2026 Saint Brigid Parish 4735 Cass St, San Diego

All Souls’ Episcopal Church 1475 Catalina Blvd, San Diego

Subscriptions available now. Order form inside. For information about our venues and parking, please visit SDEMS.ORG

St James by-the-Sea 743 Prospect Street, La Jolla

San Dieguito United Methodist Church 170 Calle Magdalena, Encinitas

Performers, programs, locations, and dates are subject to change. We regret we cannot offer refunds unless the performance is cancelled.

PHOTO BY LESLIE ARTAMONOW

VOX LUMINIS

LIONEL MEUNIER, ARTISTIC DIRECTION NOVEMBER 17, 2026 | SAINT BRIGID PARISH

Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610) is one of the masterpieces of early Baroque sacred music, composed while Monteverdi was in the service of the Gonzaga court in Mantua. It combines traditional chant and the older style of Renaissance polyphony with the innovative compositional techniques of the emerging style known as the seconda pratica. Our 45th anniversary season starts with an audience favorite, Vox Luminis, in our most ambitious production to date, inside the superb acoustics of Saint Brigid Parish.

ENSEMBLE CORRESPONDANCES SÉBASTIEN DAUCÉ, DIRECTION DECEMBER 8, 2026 | ST JAMES BY THE SEA

Charpentier’s Midnight Mass Written in 1694 for the holy night of Christmas, the French Grand Siècle gem Messe de Minuit has made Marc-Antoine Charpentier known outside the early music world. Based on traditional French Noëls, this work will please everyone, from new listeners who will recognize familiar melodies to those who will admire its extraordinary craftsmanship. The candor of the original Noels gives the Messe a warmth and simplicity that is not without depth, speaking a universal language. Finally returning to San Diego, Ensemble Correspondances brings its profound affinity for and mastery of the French Baroque for a memorable evening.

PHOTO BY FRANÇOIS LE GUEN

LES DÉLICES FEBRUARY 23, 2027 | ST JAMES BY THE SEA

Moonlit Mozart Despite their rarity today, wind octets, also known as Harmoniemusik, were a relatively common ensemble in central Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. More nimble than a full orchestra, these ensembles performed nocturnes and serenades, dance music, or even operatic or symphonic reductions. An ensemble of eight woodwinds could cover most, if not all, bases. Soaring melodies were often split between first oboe and first clarinet, while inner parts were covered by other winds and horns. Bassoons would alternate between tenor solos and bustling bass lines, and a double bass often provided reinforcement on the low end. The music of Mozart can be revelatory, particularly when combined with the signature transparency and rhythmic verve of period instruments. Artistic Director Debra Nagy has assembled North America’s finest period-instrument woodwind players for this all-Mozart program including selections from The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni, plus Mozart’s transcendent Serenade in C minor “Nachtmusik” (K388) for pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and natural horns.

LA FONTE MUSICA MARCH 16, 2027 | ST JAMES BY THE SEA

The Rise of European Music: From Ars Nova to Renaissance This intriguing and exciting program borrows the title of an important essay by the musicologist Reinhard Strohm, “The Rise of European Music. 1380–1500.” Focusing on these pivotal years in Western music, La Fonte Musica will tell the fascinating story of national traditions and schools of Ars Nova developing into a European and international music, thanks in part to the Council of Constance (1414–1417), which allowed English, Flemish, Italian, and northern and southern French musicians to meet and learn from each other. Don’t miss your chance to experience the shawm, recorders, dulcian, lute, trombone, and voices of La Fonte Musica, and the rarely perfomed music by Johannes Ciconia, Matteo da Peruggia, John Dunstaple, John Plummer, Guillaume Du Fay, and others.

PHOTO BY EDUARDUS LEE

THE ROYAL WIND MUSIC APRIL 27, 2027 | ST JAMES BY THE SEA

Lamentation and Celebration The eleven members of The Royal Wind Music, performing on an astonishing collection of Renaissance recorders from tiny sopraninos to a nearly three-meter-long sub-contrabass, will present a captivating program that highlights the irresistibly memorable melodies of the Renaissance by composers such as Josquin de Prez, Jean de Castro, Cristóbal Morales, Michael Praetorius, Nicolas Gombert, Eustache Du Caurroy and Girolamo Frescobaldi, alongside a contemporary composition by Raivis Misjun. Step into the world of Renaissance music, where the vibrant exchange of melodies spanned courts and churches across Europe. In the 16th and early 17th centuries, secular chansons and madrigals found new life in sacred music through the art of parody masses—innovative compositions that reimagined familiar polyphonic works, transforming them into striking new creations.

Jean Rondeau, harpsichord

NOVEMBER 11, 2026 ALL SOULS’ EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Around Louis Couperin Few artists today have devoted themselves to a single composer the way Jean Rondeau has to Louis Couperin. Several years ago, at the height of a rising international career, Rondeau stepped back for a full sabbatical to live inside Couperin’s music. The result was a landmark ten-disc recording surveying Couperin alongside the composers who shaped and surrounded him: Ennemond Gaultier, Chambonnières, D’Anglebert, and Dufaut. This program is drawn from that same world: the unmeasured, improvisatory tombeaux—musical elegies mourning departed friends and teachers—alongside two of Couperin’s own harpsichord suites, in D and in G. It’s a program built on memory, mourning, and homage, played by an artist who has made that language entirely his own. One of the most eagerly awaited returns of the season that is not to be missed!

PHOTO BY CLEMENT VAYSSIERES

Gabriel Smallwood, harpsichord

MARCH 2, 2027 ALL SOULS’ EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Juvenilia – Music by J.S. Bach Making his San Diego debut, Gabriel Smallwood presents a program built as a conversation across generations: works by Bach set directly against the composers who formed him as a young musician— Dietrich Buxtehude, Georg Böhm, Christian Ritter, and Johann Adam Reincken. In Smallwood’s words, it’s “a dialogue between student and teacher,” an unusually vivid way to hear exactly what Bach absorbed, and what he transformed, on his way to becoming the towering figure we know today.

PHOTO BY PATI GRABOWICZ

Mark Edwards, harpsichord

APRIL 6, 2027 ALL SOULS’ EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Young Bach: Toccatas and Other Works Mark Edwards makes his San Diego debut with an all-Bach program that continues a thread running through this season: the young Bach, before he became an institution. Alongside the famous keyboard toccatas that are bold, free, and almost theatrical works that show Bach testing the limits of the form, Edwards includes lesser-known early keyboard pieces that reveal a composer still finding his voice.

ENSEMBLE CORRESPONDANCES SÉBASTIEN DAUCÉ, DIRECTION

DECEMBER 9, 2026 | SAN DIEGUITO UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

Bach’s Beginnings: Cantatas & German Motets Long before the Well-Tempered Clavier or the Mass in B minor, there was a young organist in Mühlhausen, absorbing everything the German motet and cantata tradition had to offer. This program traces that inheritance directly: chorale-based motets by Johann Christoph Bach and Franz Tunder, the very models the teenage Bach studied, set alongside three of his own earliest cantatas, Aus der Tiefen rufe ich (BWV 131), the funeral cantata Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (BWV 106, the “Actus Tragicus”), and the Easter cantata Christ lag in Todesbanden (BWV 4). Returning to San Diego for the second of two concerts this season, Ensemble Correspondances is joined by star mezzo-soprano Lucile Richardot, whose singing in the Tunder and J. C. Bach motets promises to be one of the most affecting moments of the SDEMS season. Hearing Correspondances twice in one residency is a rare chance to experience the depth of an ensemble that lives inside this repertoire.

PHOTO BY FRANÇOIS LE GUEN

Pricing & Subscriptions Subscribing is the best way to experience the full season—you’ll enjoy meaningful savings over single tickets, as well as priority seat selection if you order by September 1, 2026. Below is everything you need to choose the option that fits you best. If you require accommodations with your subscription, please contact our box office for options or note your request on the order form.

Subscription Packages Subscriptions include Main Series and/or Solo Series concerts only. The Special Event is not included in any subscription and may be added on separately at $40. Subscription

Includes

Discount

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Full Subscription

5 Main + 3 Solo

15%

$399.50

$314.50

$229.50

Main Subscription

5 Main concerts

10%

$315.00

$225.00

$135.00

Solo Subscription

3 Solo concerts (GA)

10%

$108.00 — all seats

Single Ticket Prices

Choose 4 Subscription (10% off)

Main Series concerts offer three seating tiers; Solo Series and our Special Event are general admission.

Build your own package of any 4 concerts from our Main and Solo Series. Pricing below reflects Main Series seating tier.

Program

Your Mix

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

4 Main concerts

$252.00

$180.00

$108.00

3 Main + 1 Solo

$225.00

$171.00

$117.00

2 Main + 2 Solo

$198.00

$162.00

$126.00

1 Main + 3 Solo

$171.00

$153.00

$135.00

Main Series (5 concerts)

Solo Series (3 concerts)

Special Event (1 concert)

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

$70

$50

$30

$40 General Admission

Donor Levels & Benefits

Please help us to continue bringing the best early music performers in the world to our beautiful city! With rising production costs, your financial gifts are now more essential than ever. Since we are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, your donation may be tax-deductible to the extent allowed by the law. It also brings you the benefits shown below:

FRIEND ($50-$99)

Name listed in concert programs

SUPPORTER ($100-$249)

Friend benefits, plus invitation to annual SDEMS House Concert

SUSTAINER ($250-$499)

Supporter benefits, plus invitation to receptions*

SPONSOR ($500-$999)

Sustainer benefits, plus reserved seating at Solo Series and Outreach events*

PARTNER ($5,000-$9,999)

Benefactor benefits, plus choice of concert for shared or partial underwriting credit and meet-and-greet with artists* ^+

UNDERWRITER ($10,000-$19,999)

All benefits, plus choice of concert for exclusive underwriting credit* ^+

PRODUCER ($20,000 AND UP)

All benefits, plus option to underwrite special events and special acknowledgment on all programs and SDEMS website as a season producer *^+

PATRON ($1,000-$2,499)

Sponsor benefits, plus reserved seating at Special Events*

BENEFACTOR ($2,500-$4,999) Patron benefits, plus access to rehearsals*^

* Donors at the SUSTAINER level and above are invited to lively wine receptions before every Main Series concert at St James by-the-Sea. More information on our website. ^ Invitations to rehearsals and meet-and-greet opportunities are by request only and will be limited to a small number of guests. If you are a BENEFACTOR or above and wish to attend a rehearsal or meet the artists, please contact our artistic director Laurent at laurent@sdems.org. + To arrange your partial or exclusive underwriting credit, please contact executive director Pamela at pamela@sdems.org.