Ensemble Galilei

Ensemble Galilei revives the essence of ancient Celtic Isles music by merging classical and folk instruments with extensive improvisation. This Washington, D.C.-based all-woman group produces a seamless fusion of historical traditions and contemporary influences through its distinctive interpretations of eighteenth-century Irish airs, jigs, and reels alongside Welsh songs and Breton dance tunes. In 1994 the ensemble received a WAMMIE award from the Washington Area Music Association for Best Chamber Ensemble. The Washington Post highlighted the musicians’ “Virtuoso technique, an instinctive feeling for the idiom and the courage to improvise.” After one concert, The San Francisco Bay Guardian observed, “medieval and renaissance tunes, beautifully rendered.” The group draws its name from sixteenth-century composer Vincenzo Galilei and was originally assembled by Maggie Sansone on hammered dulcimer, Carolyn Anderson Surrick on viola de gamba, Sue Richards on Celtic harp, Marcia Diehl on recorder, pennywhistle, and bowed psaltery, together with Jim Brooks. Following several membership shifts, the current lineup consists of Nancy Karpeles on percussion, Liz Knowles on fiddle, Deborah Nuse on pipes, Sarah Weiner on oboe and pennywhistles, along with Surrick and Richards. The ensemble’s first recording, Music In The Great Hall, captured a live Washington, D.C. performance. Its follow-up, Ancient Noels, moved more than 17,000 copies within three months of its 1994 release. Four years afterward the musicians issued The Mystic And The Muse, a full-length homage to women composers spanning the previous six centuries.