AGAR's mission is to bring, commission and develop or present programs in professional arts, humanities, design, historic architecture, arts for young people, arts education, and arts in healthcare to residents of Amherst County, Virginia, and others around the world.

Circa 1700: European Treasures for two Violas da Gamba

​On Sunday, October 22, 2017 at 4 PM,  Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. (AGAR) will present. Circa 1700: European Treasures for two Violas da Gamba.  Musicians are Amy Domingues and Donna Fournier, violas da gamba, and Anthony Harvey, theorbo. This program will feature works of French masters Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, Marin Marais, and Robert de Visée; Dutch-born Johannes Schenck, and German native August Kühnel. The performance will take place at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Clifford, 670 Patrick Henry Highway, Amherst, VA 24521. The women of St. Mark’s will host a “Meet the Artist” supper after the concert to benefit Amherst Cares, to benefit food-insecure children.
 
The viola da gamba was an exceptionally popular instrument in Germany and France at the cusp of the 1700s. Virtuoso players wrote droves of high-quality, exceptional music in such forms as sonatas, suites, and character pieces for themselves and their proteges to perform at court. These pieces were played with continuo accompaniment of keyboard, theorbo, and/or another gamba, but many of these composers also wrote for two equal instruments. This program presents works of French masters Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, Marin Marais, and Robert de Visée, Dutch-born Johannes Schenck, and German native August Kühnel.
 
Amy Domingues of Washington, DC, has a passion for performing music new and old on the cello and viola da gamba. Her journey started with an undergraduate degree in cello performance from James Madison University, leading to a freelance performance career in the DC area. Amy honed her ensemble skills as a session cellist, recording and touring with rock and experimental bands in the United States, Europe, and Japan. After more than a decade of singing and playing cello in her  “chamber rock” band, Garland of Hours, Domingues turned to the viola da gamba, an instrument with which she had long been fascinated.  Following years of study, including master classes with Wieland Kuijken, Paolo Pandolfo, and Philippe Pierlot, she earned a master’s degree in Early Music from Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. 

Since then, Amy has enjoyed an ambitious career as an early musician, performing on baroque cello and viola da gamba with groups as varied as The Folger Consort, Hesperus, The Washington Bach Consort, and co-founded Corda Nova, a baroque string trio with Edmond Chan, violin, and Anthony Harvey, theorbo. Amy also currently performs with the early music ensemble Sonnambula and with Dennis Kane in the experimental/neo-classical duo Domingues & Kane.
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​ Amy has received the Peabody Career Development Grant and is a multiple recipient of the Artist’s Grant in Aid from the Viola da Gamba Society of America.  She is an avid educator and maintains a private studio of both cello and gamba students of all levels and ages. As a recording artist, Amy appears on over 70 albums, spanning genres as varied as indie rock and classical, folk and experimental.
 
Donna Fournier, a Philadelphia-based gambist and baroque cellist is a member of La Bernardinia Baroque Ensemble, Mélomanie, and Triomphe de l'Amour and has been a guest artist with such groups as Opera Lafayette, Tempesta di Mare, Brandywine Baroque, The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and The Philadelphia Classical Symphony. The Philadelphia Inquirer acclaimed her solo work as "poised, soulful ... [and] played with particular depth." She specializes in repertoire from the French Baroque period as well as works featuring solo viola da gamba by J.S. Bach. Donna has recorded Buxtehude cantatas for PGM, Telemann trio sonatas for Lyrichord, Boismortier trio sonatas for A Casa Discos, Jaquet de La Guerre and Bousset cantatas for Plectra Music, and new music for baroque ensemble for Meyers Music and Furious Artisans.
 
Anthony Harvey (Theorbo) has been Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. Music Program Development Director and Artistic Director of Middleburg Music for the past five years.  He performs regularly as soloist and as a continuo player on theorbo, baroque guitar and baroque lute. He recently has performed with North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Vermillian, The Washington Bach Consort, Chatham Baroque. He has co-directed James Madison University's The Valley Collegium and served on faculty at Washington College. Mr. Harvey holds multiple degrees from the Peabody Conservatory, where he studied theorbo and baroque lute with Richard Stone.
 
Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. (AGAR) brings its 2017-2018 chamber music season with partial general operating support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Virginia Commission for the Arts.