Early Music
The Early Music Program at UNT
The UNT Baroque Orchestra and Early Music Ensembles are open to all members of the student body by audition. Participation is required for the MA and PhD in Musicology with an Emphasis in Early Music Performance as well as for Early Music Related Fields for the MM, DMA and PhD degrees. Participation in the UNT Baroque Orchestra can also be applied as a chamber music requirement for Master’s students, and ensembles can fulfill the requirement for several Artist Certificate programs.
Private instruction is offered on the following instruments: baroque violin and viola (Cynthia Roberts); baroque cello, viola da gamba & double bass (Allen Whear); voice (Jennifer Lane); baroque oboe and recorder (Kathryn Montoya); baroque bassoon (Keith Collins); baroque flute (Lee Lattimore); baroque trumpet (Adam Gordon); sackbut (Julie Gray); natural horn (Stacie Mickens); lute, theorbo & baroque guitar (Arash Noori); harpsichord & basso continuo (Brad Bennight); double bass & chamber music (Gudrun Raschen). Private instruction is required in the degrees listed above.
The ensembles within the Early Music Studies Area offer one of the largest and most active performance activities of its type in North America. With a collection of over 260 instruments, nearly any ensemble performing 16th-, 17th- and 18th century repertoire can be assembled. Ensembles perform regularly throughout Texas and the United States and at the Boston & Berkeley Early Music Festivals.
UNT's flagship early music ensemble 'Fantasmi' has toured Brazil, Peru, Puerto Rico, Germany, Austria, Croatia, Vietnam, Taiwan and China during the past eight years.
![UNT Baroque Ensemble 'Fantasmi' photograph](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20191121190841im_/https://music.unt.edu/sites/default/files/fantasmi_at_the_passau_rathaus_juni_2018.jpg)
Performances and masterclasses with notable early music specialists such as Christoph Hammer, Phoebe Carrai, Monica Huggett, Manfredo Kraemer, Miloš Valent, David Douglass, Arthur Haas, Barbara Willi, Ellen Hargis, Bruce Dickey, Charles Toet, John Thiessen, Kiri Tollaksen, Paula Fagerberg, Julianne Baird, Hanneke van Proosdij, William Skeen, Bart van Oort and Catherine Turocy have been a regular event.
In cooperation with the UNT Collegium Singers, directed by Richard Sparks and UNT Opera, major productions have been presented, such as Bach's St John Passion, Handel's Theodora, Rousseau’s Le Devin du Village and Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea (2003 & 2016)
UNT Graduates are performing in some of the most prestigious baroque orchestras and ensembles in North America and Europe.
For an article on the history of Early Music at North Texas by Andrew Justice, click here:
https://blogs.library.unt.edu/unt125/2016/01/10/early_music/
Faculty
- Paul Leenhouts- director, conductor of UNT Baroque Orchestra
- Brad Bennight - harpsichord and basso continuo
- Adam Gordon- baroque trumpet
- Julie Gray - sackbut
- Allen Hightower - conductor early music choir 'Vox Aquila"
- Jennifer Lane -voice
- Lee Lattimore -baroque flute
- Stacie Mickens - natural horn
- Kathryn Montoya -baroque oboe and recorder
- Arash Noori - lute, theorbo and baroque guitar
- Gudrun Raschen - double bass and chamber music
- Cynthia Roberts -baroque violin & baroque viola
- Allan Whear -baroque cello & viola da gamba, and double bass