ROOK

Rook is a mixed instrumental ensemble dedicated to the music of the 16th and 17th centuries. Rook explores this music with a surprising combination of brass and string instruments that, while popular 400 years ago, creates colors that are missing from modern music making. The core of the ensemble is comprised of accomplished musicians from Chicago’s new generation of period style performers and collaborates regularly with vocalists and other instrumentalists to present this exciting music to modern audiences. In addition to performing at universities and other venues all over the Chicagoland area Rook has presented concerts at Oberlin Conservatory’s Historical Performance Department Recital, the Madison Early Music Fringe Festival and a series of concerts with pioneering 16th and 17th century violinist David Douglass. In March of 2012 Rook was selected as one of three ensembles to participate in the Carnegie Hall Professional Training Workshop to work with L’Arpeggiata.

Jakob Hansen, violin; Paul Von Hoff, trombone; Jeremy David Ward, bass violin; Mark Shuldiner, harpsichord