We are taking a well-needed break at the moment to recover from such a busy 2022 fall and winter, but we will announce our 2023 plans in mid-to-late February, so stay tuned!
Meanwhile, click on the photo postcard below to a Brasiles Arts Collective event that is set to run in the fall of 2023!
Photos by DeNittoArt
WE ARE BRINGING MUCH MERRYMAKING WITH DECEMBER CONCERT!!
The Brasiles Ensemble is offering a wonderful concert filled with warmth and cheer for the holiday season, which is set for Sunday, December 11th at 4pm at Howland Cultural Center. Performing in full Dickensian attire, the group will offer a variety of rare carols sung a cappella in several languages, as well as a few accompanied contemporary pieces. This year the group is thrilled to feature pianist, Alexandra Beliakovich. The program includes composers Morley, Debussy, P.D.Q. Bach, Williams, Barber and Stanford, just to name a few.
Wearing masks is recommended for attendance.
Tickets are $20 advance and $25 at the door. The direct ticket link is: TICKETS
Sunday, December 11, 2022 ~ 4:00pm
477 Main Street
Beacon, NY 12508
845.831.4988
MORE HOLIDAY PERFORMANCES ARE LISTED BELOW!
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If you scroll down to our most recent post before this one, you see that we recently are sand in a last minute gig called Hoot Festival at Stony Point State Park in Cold Spring, right on the Hudson River, marking our first performance for the busy months ahead to fill out the year.
As a teaser, we wanted to let you know that we have a the following performances coming up. Details for each performance will be announced on our website and social media as of October 5th. If you want to learn about our schedule sooner, our next newsletter is set to be sent out on September 30th. You can sign up for our newsletter HERE.
October 22 – “Our Greatest Hits” Concert @ Desmond-Fish Library – Garrison – 2pm
November 28 – Victorian Holidays @ Mohonk Mountain House Lake Lounge – New Paltz – 4pm
December 4 – Victorian Holidays @ Mohonk Mountain House Lake Lounge – New Paltz – 4pm
December 10 – Victorian Holidays @ Mohonk Mountain House Lake Lounge – New Paltz – 4pm
December 11 – Holiday Concert @ Howland Cultural Center – Beacon – 4pm
December 13 – Holiday Private Party @ Verplank Garden Club – Fishkill
December 17 – Victorian Holidays @ Mohonk Mountain House Lake Lounge – New Paltz – 4pm
We are singing at a music festival!!
In case you missed the news!!
HOOT – TODAY (rain or shine)!
Artist Lineup:
12:15 – Aria Anjali
1pm – Flippin Unicorns
2pm – Hudson Lovell
3pm – The Brasiles Ensemble
3:30pm – Raquel Vidal
4pm – ISH
5pm – LSPCA Allstars Band
Join The Brasiles Ensemble at the annual “Hoot” music festival at Little Stony Point State Park (Volunteer Center Building with adjoining park) on Sunday, September 11th, 2022 12-6pm. We will be singing there at 3pm with a playlist of tunes about water, earth, sky and love! This Pete Seeger-inspired event is free, the music is lively, and the scenery along the Hudson River can’t be beat!! The full festival runs from 12pm until 6pm, so feel free to come early and stay as long as you wish to hear up to six hours of live music from various musicians! Bring friends and family with chairs or blankets and a picnic to enjoy! Also, there will be refreshments available for purchase from Industrial Arts Brewing Company and Marbled Meat Shop. Here is the official event link!
There is exactly one more week until our big concert set for Sunday, June 26th at 4:30pm! Come to the historic Howland Cultural Center to join us for a very unique afternoon.
We have heard from a lot of you that you already have your tickets! That’s wonderful and we look forward to seeing you next Sunday afternoon!
If you haven’t reserved your spot for this very unique event, we wouldn’t want you to miss out, as ticket sales are gaining a lot of speed! Remember, you save $5 per ticket by ordering them in advance online.
$20 advance | $25 at the door
Here are more reasons and sneak-peek-teasers as to why you won’t want to miss this special show!
So, as you know realize, there are many reasons not to miss this particular event!
Remember, if there are any tickets left on Sunday, you can still take a chance and purchase one at the door for $5 more.
Here are more photo teasers. If you follow our social media pages, you can find more photos, bios and teaser video clips this week! Please like and follow our pages! FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM
| Bad News First… Exactly four days after our last newsletter was sent out on February 16th, Madeleine, who had already started sewing on six costumes for our next performance, fell on black ice, broke her wrist and had to have emergency surgery. However, between moments of excruciating pain, she was able to return to sewing and had two volunteers help her on a couple of costumes that needed immediate attention. Between all else in her life as well as countless sessions with her occupational therapist, we are happy to report that Madeleine has still been able to find time to finish working on all six costumes. Everyone is asking about the costumes! Below are sneak peeks of four small parts of the colorful and rather ornate costumes. The first image is of the cuff to Paul’s Baroque jacket, followed by Speare’s Medieval vest. Paul’s jacket is actually a woman’s jacket from a thrift store with added tail and cuffs and lots of gold trim, designed by Madeleine. Speare’s vest is also from a thrift store and made for a woman. The yellow sleeve shown here is actually a Star Trek shirt that Madeleine was also able to modify. Along with the cross pendant for Kim, the Renaissance “Juliet-jeweled” cap was a tedious task using small pieces to embellish a small pie-shaped hair piece that she had to construct from scratch. She also constructed a tall steeple hennin in spun gold fabric for Laura’s Medieval costume. (Incidentally, the photo of the Medieval gold hennin is pictured on top of Kim’s Renaissance costume.) Creating the costumes is great fun for Madeleine. She is currently finishing up two Medieval, two Rennaisance and two Baroque costumes and quite thankful that her wrist is almost back to normal. You can follow along with progress of each of the costumes by connecting with our official Facebook and Instagram pages on a regular basis for photos. You will find bios about each performer between now and the date of the concert and there will also be tiny rehearsal clips of some of the music we are working on, so listen out for some teasers!! |
| And Now for the GREAT News!! Tickets are now available for our Early Music Concert & Period Costume Fashion Show at Howland Cultural Center on Sunday, June 26th at 4:30pm! Come listen to the music, learn about the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque eras and see the vibrant garments of the past. Tickets go fast at this wonderful venue so make sure you reserve your spot today! TICKET DIRECT LINK About the Performance… We are very pleased to announce that Howland Cultural Center board member, Tom Conroy will be our master of ceremonies for this special event. This concert is filled with some of the most beautiful music ever composed and will feature three accompanists who are each quite exceptional. Joining us are Richard Kolb on lute and theorbo, James Fitzwilliam on harpsichord and organ, as well as Holly Mentzer on Medieval harp, viola da gamba and recorder. We will have more vocalists for this concert than usual, so there will be plenty of solos, duets, quintets and even an octet, which will be a first for us as we continue to grow! This concert holds a good bit of complicated pieces that we are all very eager to share. Ranging from von Bingen to Dowland to Monteverdi to Bach, we will cover all emotions, tempos and volumes. And, if you particularly enjoy the likes of Monteverdi or Purcell, then this concert is definitely not one to be missed! |
| MORE EXCITING NEWS! What is the new Brasiles Arts Collective? The Brasiles Ensemble is also pleased to announce the new Brasiles Arts Collective. You can find out more about this new part of the Ensemble from the special tab recently added to our website. The Brasiles Arts Collective We will be adding more and more information about BAC in the coming weeks, so please follow the official Facebook page. Can you help us with our growth? In addition to creating The Brasiles Arts Collective, we have also started a volunteer group, Friends of The Brasiles Ensemble, to help us with our growth! On this new website tab, VOLUNTEER, you can find out what we sometimes need assistance with and easily print up a form with your contact information and checking off what areas you are interested in. We really appreciate your time and interest! We hope to see you at the concert! Here is just one of the beautiful pieces to hear us perform live! |
1. We hope that you will join us in celebrating our return to the stage! In our last blog post we left off with the question “What’s in store for 2022?” We mentioned something about planning a concert at Howland Cultural Center… and that’s exactly what we are doing!
Early Music Concert & Fashion Show
Howland Cultural Center in Beacon
Sunday, June 26, 2022 ~ 4pm
Please join us for a late afternoon of Medieval, Renaissance and early Baroque pieces, complete with a bit of a “fashion show” with costumes from these eras. You will enjoy masterpieces from Purcell, Händel, Monteverdi, von Bingen, Dowland, Bach and Palestrina— just to mention some of the composers included in the program.
Speaking of Dowland, here’s an a cappella teaser of a piece that we plan to include in the concert.
Come Again
2. We are GROWING! If you attend our June concert, one of the first things you will notice is that there are not four or five or even six of us… there are nine of us performing. You will hear an a cappella octet and you will notice that some of us are doubling up on singing and playing instruments and there may even be a moment of dancing here and there.
We are happy to announce this new growth with our extended group The Brasiles Arts Collective. The Brasiles Ensemble is honored with this growth as we begin inviting a selective group of visual, literary, dance and theatrical artists to collaborate with for very special performances throughout the Hudson Valley Region, as well as in New York City. Be sure to check out our social media pages regularly in the coming weeks and months as we begin to spotlight those who have been invited to collaborate with us.
3. We have new tabs on our website! One in particular, the wishlist tab, is proving to help us with our June concert. Here is where we list various items that we may be in need of and if anyone has such items that they are willing to donate, we would be most appreciative! Here is the direct link: wishlist
4. We are seeking outside assistance. Another tab that you will notice that’s ready for action is our volunteer page where you can read through multiple bullet points of what we might need physical assistance with in the future. We are happing to announce the Friends of The Brasiles Ensemble and hope that some of you will be interested to help us out ever now and then and join the fun that we have!
Here’s how we spent our time together on the afternoon of Christmas Eve in 2021, performing at the Ice Pavilion at Mohonk, complete with White Christmas Winter Wonderland of Snow!! It was a very dreamy moment, though a bit chilly, of course! We had a great audience of skaters and resort overnighters who sipped hot chocolates by the enormous fireplace next to us. It was a very memorable event!
PHOTO -courtesy of TBE founding member, Speare Hodges ©2021
Incidentally, catch Speare’s return to singing with us on June 26th!!
The Brasiles Ensemble is happy to announce a full holiday season of performing!
Please check out our PERFORMANCES & SPECIAL EVENTS to learn where you can find us live during the month of December. This page will be updated more often as the holiday season is just around the corner. Also, we will make announcements about what we are planning for in 2022 on the tab, so please come back regularly for more details as they become available. We are super excited about returning to the music that we love so dearly.
We are coming up for air from 2020 and though we are still not quite able to offer much for 2021, we are very, very busy behind the scenes as we return to regular rehearsals, administrative meetings and even some adventurous field trips to explore more venues for potential concerts in the future.
Stay tuned for more news to be announced as early as late July on our website, as well as through our Mailchimp newsletter.
The photo below is from our only live performance of 2020, as we were hired by Mohonk Mountain House to sing on weekends during the holidays at the Ice Pavilion while guests skated around the lovely outdoor rink. We were pleased to be able to offer to sing as a quartet while Kim was away. We look forward to returning to offer performances as a quintet, sextet up to an octet in 2022, if not by the end of 2021.
So, on that note… keep us alive in your thoughts as well as your inboxes as we will have more news about our fresh plans for the future!! For now, enjoy this Early music tune from our special 2019 gig in Tarrytown at Jazz Forum for what was the First Annual Sleepy Hollow Literary Festival. It is our hope that the festival will return in 2022, after being on pause from the obvious pandemic restraints. Come Again
Once again, the time is nearing for us to push our holiday CD that never goes out of date! Our 2018 CD, “A Christmas Feast” was recorded by Grammy Award winner, Jody Elff, sound engineer for Yo-Yo Ma. The album rings in the season with holiday fare from around the world and across the centuries. Celebrating the wassail, flaming pudding and other foods that bedeck a Yuletide table, we bring beloved English carols, international gems and traditional works together in this merry feast of song. You can always buy a hard copy from us in person at our concerts and other events or by using these links to CDBaby, or on Amazon Prime. You can also stream the CD on Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon or Deezer. Here’s a sample: Carol of the Meal
EVENTS – 2019
We may have been quiet lately, but we have been super busy behind the scenes! In addition to working on our new education programs, we have been rehearsing for several events and planning a special 2020 concert. Please view our remaining 2019 schedule below.
NOVEMBER
November 16, 2019 – 12:30pm – Cold Spring – Marinella Senatore and The School of Narrative Dance Performance
Join Kim, Laura and Madeleine as a trio singing in Gregorian Latin at the special outdoor procession event right in the heart of Cold Spring. Commissioned by Magazzino Art Foundation, Marinella Senatore and The School of Narrative Dance Performance, will be interpreting music through dance, right on Main Street in the Village of Cold Spring, NY. Find more details here: Marinella Senatore in Cold Spring
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DECEMBER
December 7, 2019 – 4pm – Peekskill Tree Lighting
The location is at the gazebo right in the middle of downtown Peekskill at North Division and Park Streets. You can catch us caroling at the lighting an then we will stroll through several restaurants within walking distance from the tree, offering diners a special treat of our Dickensian food carols, many of which can be found on our 2018 CD.
December 8th, 2019 – 11am – 12pm – Mohonk – Hudson Valley Annual Gingerbread Competition
As people enjoy viewing many gingerbread scenes, sip hot chocolate or ice skate, we will be offering a festive assortment of Dickensian carols to enhance a brilliant New York mountain holiday season! Details on event fees and directions to the wonderful Mohonk Mountain House are here: Mohonk – Gingerbread Competition Day
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Hire Us!
Did you know that you can hire us as a quintet, quartet, trio, duet or as soloists for special events, private parties, weddings or funerals?
Also, maybe you have a last minute idea about hiring us for a holiday party or event?
We may be able to fit you in if you contact us as soon as you can. You never know… it might just work out as long as it’s before December 22nd, which is our 2019 cut-off date.
Check out our hiring page for more information and contact us at thebrasilesensemble@gmail.com or call 917.536.2033.
Follow Us!
You can follow us on social media for the most updated news, photos and videos!
Yes, we are a known as a group of classical vocalists, but we are eager to show off our versatility with this new program of somewhat tweaked classical pieces all the way to some funky soul! We have some surprises for our audience that we cannot wait to share! Below are some of the psychedelic shots from our recent groovy photo shoot! We have plenty more to reveal soon!
Photography by Clay Scales
Photo editing by Madeleine DeNitto
©2019 Scales/DeNitto Photos are property of The Brasiles Ensemble
The Brasiles Ensemble 