Since our founding, over 60 artists and 25 students coming from 10 states have performed with La Fiocco. For several, it was their first professional experience with a period instrument ensemble. La Fiocco’s track record in providing opportunities for students and early-career musicians is exemplary, and it is in this spirit that we are delighted to have initiated our “The Next Generation” (TNG) project in the summer of 2023.
La Fiocco TNG is a smaller, more agile ensemble, featuring young artists Nathan Bishop and Elaine Yao as core players, joined by violist da gamba Srish Jawadiwar, a recent graduate of Temple University. We will be adding more players shortly, including high school and undergraduate college students.
Our first performance was at Old Greenwich Presbyterian Church in Stewartsville, New Jersey on June 19, 2023, where 17th-century Italian music was incorporated into a worship service. We next performed at St. Mary Church in South Amboy, NJ, on June 24, 2023 and at First Presbyterian Church of Metuchen, NJ on November 5, 2023.
In March we performed at The Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township, 240 Southern Blvd., Chatham, NJ. The program included works by Dario Castello, Diego Ortiz, Biagio Marini, and traditional music from Norway and Ireland.
We had a really fun evening concert at Trinity Episcopal Church in Asbury Park, NJ on Saturday, May 4th. Nathan Bishop, Elaine Yao, Shrish, and Lewis Baratz performed works of Salamone Rossi, Dario Castello, and Johann Heinrich Schmelzer. Nathan demonstrated his Norwegian Hardanger fele, and we then played music associated with the black fiddlers of Monticello, and ended the program with the trio sonata soprano la Monica of Biagio Marini.
We concluded the Next Generation season on Saturday, May 18, 2024 with a performance at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Wilton, CT. This program features Nathan Bishop & Mariamagdalena Faulkner, baroque violin, Benjamin Rechel, viola da gamba, Owen Davitt, recorder, Lewis R. Baratz, harpsichord & recorder, and guest artist Andrew Leslie Cooper, countertenor. Works by Salamone Rossi, Dario Castello, Giovanni Paolo Colonna, Johann Christoph Pepusch, and music from Colonial America and the Black Fiddlers of Monticello. In 2025 we had high school and college students join us apprentice artists on our holiday show.
MOVING FORWARD
Please contact us if you are a church music director or presenter in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, or New York, and would like to sponsor a performance by La Fiocco TNG. Your sponsorship helps support the next generation of early music professionals and provides opportunities for our young artists to perform in public. We do not receive any grant funding for this project; it is funded entirely through concert engagements and by donations from individual sponsors.
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