To welcome audiences back to in-person performances, the Academy of Sacred Drama will present a concert celebrating emergence from darker times. Bass-baritone Jonathan Woody will join the Academy in performing Alessandro Stradella’s Crudo mar di fiamme orribili, a cantata about holding on to hope in order to weather storms. This work was first performed by the Academy in their initial virtual format concert in fall 2020 and will be revived here for the return to live performances. Stradella’s motet Exultate in Deo will offer a celebratory note along with instrumental selections by Giovanni Legrenzi and Massimiliano Neri.

Scarsdale presenter: Harry and Misook Doolittle Foundation
season sponsor: BY Wound Care Internal Medicine

Jonathan Woody, bass-baritone

Bass-baritone Jonathan Woody is an active performer of early and new music, in NYC and across North America. He has performed as a soloist with historically-informed orchestras such as Tafelmusik, Apollo’s Fire, Boston Early Music Festival, Washington Bach Consort and New York Baroque Incorporated, and sings regularly with many ensembles including the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, the Clarion Music Society, and TENET Vocal Artists. Jonathan is also immersed in the world of new music and has premiered several major works including Ellen Reid’s p r i s m, Ted Hearne’s The Source, and Du Yun’s Angel’s Bone. In the last few years he has also been commissioned as a composer and has written for Lorelei Ensemble, Cathedral Choral Society of Washington DC, Handel & Haydn Society and the Uncommon Music Festival of Sitka, Alaska.

Adam Cockerham, theorbo and leader
Jeremy Rhizor, violin I (artistic director)
Leah Gale Nelson, violin II
Arnie Tanimoto, viola da gamba
Marc Bellassai, virginal

The concert will feature two pieces of Baroque vocal music in Italian and Latin sung by Jonathan Woody as well as Italian instrumental music. The concert will run approximately 1 hour.