A passion for the past

Vashon United Methodist Church will be the scene of a rare musical trip back in time at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 6, when Salish Sea Concerts presents “A New Year’s Concert: Chamber Music 1800,” featuring three acclaimed musicians who use period instruments to play chamber music written by colleagues of Mozart and Haydn.

The concert will feature Martin Bonham, a cellist from Victoria, British Columbia, Stephen Creswell, a violinist and violist from Seattle, and flutist Jeffrey Cohan, from Fir Island, near Mount Vernon.

The trio’s repertoire includes unpublished works from both the Library of Congress and the Danish National Library.

Cohan, who is the organizing force behind Salish Sea Concerts, will perform on a wooden flute with eight silver keys.

“The flute I’ll be playing is very different from the modern flute,” said Cohan, who described his instrument as being similar to the flute used in Irish folk music.

Cohan has performed as a soloist in 25 countries, and currently directs Concert Spirituel in Seattle, Cascade Early Music Festival in Leavenworth, Blackhawk Chamber Music Festival in Davenport, Iowa and Capitol Hill Chamber Music Festival in Washington, D.C.

A first-prize winner of the Olga Koussevitzky Young Artist Competition in New York and recipient of grants from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music and the French government, Cohan has garnered international acclaim and rave reviews both as a modern flutist and as one of the foremost specialists on transverse flutes from the Renaissance through the early 19th century.

Cohan will perform with Bonham and Creswell, who are specialists in the performance of the stringed instruments of the baroque and classical periods.

Bonham has been a member of the Victoria Symphony since 1978 and is past Music Director of the Pachelbel Players, Island Chamber Players, Chamber Music Victoria and Eine Kleine Summer Music. He is also a faculty member of the University of Victoria and the Victoria Conservatory of Music, and he annually directs the Baroque concert of the Victoria Symphony’s Cathedral Summer Series.

Creswell has performed and recorded across North America, and toured Europe and Japan over the last 14 years. He plays both early and modern violas and violins, and has worked extensively with Seattle Baroque, the Vancouver Baroque Orchestra, the Portland Baroque Orchestra and other noted music ensembles. He teaches at Seattle University.

Salish Sea Concerts is planning several more concerts on Vashon in 2009, including a program featuring Cohan and harpsichordist and pianist George Shangrow in late January, a mid-March program featuring harpsichordist Hans-Jürgen Schnoor and soprano Maike Albrecht, both from Lübeck, Germany, and a concert in May with clavichordist Owen Daly, who is from Salem, Ore.

Concert details

The concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 6 at Vashon Methodist Church. A free-will donation of $15 is suggested. Youth 18 and younger are admitted free. For information, call 463-9804.

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