News of the Week of June 17, 2025

Adriaen Brouwer Peasant with Bicorne and Tankard (1630s) Kunstmuseum Basel

Schedule

We meet on Tuesdays at 7:45 pm, at 233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA. Let me know if you want to come.

Our current warmup piece is Weelkes, O now weepe, now sing. If you’re coming, also let me know if you need me to print it for you.

Politics

The two city council orders which would have stopped or delayed the removal of parking on my street both failed. So sometime this summer, it will be harder to park here. People with no mobility issues who aren’t carrying heavy instruments will probably be able to just park at meters or in loading zones a block or two away.

Other people may need some assistance getting their instruments in from a temporary spot in a driveway or double parking. Please feel free to request the assistance.

News of the Week of June 3, 2025

City Hall - Cambridge, MA - IMG 3958

Schedule

We meet on Tuesdays at 7:45 pm, at 233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA. Let me know if you want to come.

Our current warmup piece is Morley’s “It was a lover and his lass”. If you’re coming, also let me know if you need me to print it for you. We are thinking of switching to another piece soon, so I’ll email the regular attenders if I get around to doing anything about that before Tuesday. Otherwise, it’s a good piece and another week on it won’t kill us.

BEMF

I blogged on Tuesday morning about the events I went to on Monday night, and intend to add more items after I recover from the strenuous week. You should be able to see anything that’s up at the time you look at the BEMF 25 category on my blog.

Politics

I don’t normally discuss my political views on this list, and I wouldn’t be doing it now, except that this particular political crisis may well pose an existential threat to the continuation of this group.

The problem is that the Cambridge project for increasing bicycle safety, which originally did not include changes to my street (Broadway), is now scheduled to install Protected Bike Lanes and remove over half the parking on my block by the end of the summer. I believe that reasonably mobile people will still be able to park within four or five blocks of here, but someone with less mobility because of either physical impairment or carrying heavy instruments or both, will stop coming. We’re none of us as young as we used to be.

The last chance to stop this project is tomorrow, Monday, June 16, because the Cambridge City Council stops meeting for the summer, and the work is scheduled to happen before it resumes.

If you want more information about this, let me know and I will send you both the email I wrote to the councillors and the one from the “The Coalition to Save Broadway Parking”. This is especially true if you might want to write a councillor, since the one from the Coalition had a suggested cut-and-paste mail and all the relevant email addresses.

I think it would help if everyone signed the Petition, maybe with a comment if you aren’t a resident of Cambridge saying that you’re a regular visitor.

Everyone who’s a Cambridge voter should also consider writing any city councillors they have a relationship with. The organizers of the group trying to block this project believe that Councillors Nolan and Siddiqui are the ones that aren’t on board yet, but might be convinced by a demonstration of voter support.

If you’re near Central Square tomorrow afternoon, there will be a demonstration in front of City Hall starting at 4:45 and ending some time before 6, when the Council meeting starts. The more people show up for that, the better. I have seen on-the-fence councillors about the cast their votes, and it’s obvious that one of the pictures going through their minds is the mass of people asking them to vote right.

News of the Week of May 27, 2025

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Schedule

We meet on Tuesdays at 7:45 pm, at 233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA. Let me know if you want to come.

Our current warmup piece is Morley’s “It was a lover and his lass”. If you’re coming, also let me know if you need me to print it for you.

We will not meet on Tuesday, June 10, the week of the Boston Early Music Festival.

BEMF

I’ve been saying, “We may organize a field trip to one or more of the concerts that week [of BEMF].” So far nobody’s done anything about that. I have gotten as far as buying my own tickets for the events I want to attend for sure. Several of these are for 10:30 concerts, which don’t have assigned seats, so if we want to go to those together, we just have to organize meeting up and going in together, or even just waving and sitting in some kind of proximity with no organization at all. So those are:

I don’t know how many of the fringe events I’ll get to, but I recommend:

  • Wednesday, 2pm, Judith Conrad, clavichord
  • Wednesday, 1pm and Saturday, 1pm, Hesperus and Renaissonics, Improv jam
  • Friday, 3:30pm, In Stile Moderno

We can discuss the earlier concerts and other events like the exhibition and masterclasses on Tuesday night, if people want to be organized about those. Otherwise, we’ll probably all be running into each other all week and maybe managing to find time to go have a drink.

News of the Week of May 20, 2025

Israfel, blowing 7-belled trumpet

Schedule

We meet on Tuesdays at 7:45 pm, at 233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA. Let me know if you want to come.

Our current warmup piece is Morley’s “It was a lover and his lass”. If you’re coming, also let me know if you need me to print it for you.

We will not meet on Tuesday, June 10, the week of the Boston Early Music Festival. We may organize a field trip to one or more of the concerts that week.

News of the Week of May 13, 2025

Lavender field in bloom

Schedule

We meet on Tuesdays at 7:45 pm, at 233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA. Let me know if you want to come.

Our current warmup piece is Morley’s “It was a lover and his lass”. If you’re coming, also let me know if you need me to print it for you.

We will not meet on Tuesday, June 10, the week of the Boston Early Music Festival. We may organize a field trip to one or more of the concerts that week.

News of the Week of April 29 2025

The Month of May: An Elegant Man Holding a Flower and Lute, drawing, attributed to Erasmus Hornick (MET, 37.68.63)

Schedule

We meet on Tuesdays at 7:45 pm, at 233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA. Let me know if you want to come.

Our current warmup piece is Morley’s “It was a lover and his lass”. If you’re coming, also let me know if you need me to print it for you.

News of the Week of April 15, 2025

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Schedule

We meet on Tuesdays at 7:45 pm, at 233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA.

Please let me know if you would like to come. Also let me know if you want me to print you a copy of the warmup piece.

We will be moving on to a new warmup piece soon, so let me know of you have ideas about what to do. Ideally it should be a three part piece with 2 or 3 clefs and ranges that aren’t too extreme for our singers.

News of the Week of April 8, 2025

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Schedule

We meet on Tuesdays at 7:45 pm, at 233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA.

Please let me know if you would like to come. Also let me know if you want me to print you a copy of the warmup piece.

News of the Week of April 1, 2025

Dorpskermis, RP-T-1931-175

Schedule

We meet on Tuesdays at 7:45 pm, at 233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA.

Please let me know if you would like to come. Also let me know if you want me to print you a copy of the warmup piece.

News of the Week of March 25, 2025

Annunciation (Leonardo) (cropped)

Schedule

We meet on Tuesdays at 7:45 pm, at 233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA.

Please let me know if you would like to come. Also let me know if you want me to print you a copy of the warmup piece.