Holy Comforter Concert Series: Gut, Wind and Wire

Sunday, October 4 @ 4:00 p.m.

The next concert in the Holy Comforter Concert Series will present the trio Gut, Wind, and Wire in a program of music from the 16th and 17th centuries entitled “Ancient Airs and Dances.”

Using instruments of the period including lute, cittern, viol, and assorted wooden flutes, they will perform works by composers from the British Isles (notably John Dowland, honoring the 400th anniversary of his death) and several European countries.

The concert is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception to meet the artists. Learn more about the group.

The trio Gut, Wind, and Wire is named for the natural elements that bring their instruments to life: gut strings on Ronn’s lute and Mark’s viol, wire strings on Mark’s cittern, and wind (breath) blown into Mindy’s assortment of flutes. Since its beginning, Gut, Wind and Wire has explored a wide variety of music from the 16th and 17th centuries, music from folk traditions, and even original music. Mark, Mindy, and Ronn have been making music together for over four decades, including as longtime members of The Baltimore Consort.

Mark Cudek (bass viol, cittern, percussion) is the former Chair of the Historical Performance Department at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, Artistic Director of the Indianapolis Early Music Festival, and a founding member of the Baltimore Consort. In recognition of his work as Founder/Director of the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble and also the High School Early Music Program at the Interlochen Arts Camp, Mark received from Early Music America the 2001 Thomas Binkley Award and the 2005 Award for Outstanding Contribution to Early Music Education. He has toured and recorded with Apollo’s Fire and Hesperus, and regularly performs with the Folger Consort. In his youth, Mark worked as a café guitarist in the Virgin Islands. He is the 2014 recipient of the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association’s Global Achievement Award and in 2018 was promoted to full Professor. Mark retired from Peabody in 2024.

Ronn McFarlane (lute) has released over forty CDs on Dorian and Sono Luminus, including lute solo collections, lute songs, lute duets, music for flute and lute, viola da gamba and lute, the complete lute music of Vivaldi, and Baltimore Consort albums. In the tradition of the lutenist/composers of past centuries, Ronn has composed new music for the lute. These original compositions are the focus of his solo CD, Indigo Road, which received a Grammy Award Nomination. Other CD releases, One Morning and Barley Moon, feature "Ayreheart," an ensemble brought together to perform Ronn's original music. Ronn's most recent solo album, The Celtic Lute, features his arrangements of traditional Scottish and Irish music from the 17th and 18th centuries. Visit www.ronnmcfarlane.com.

Mindy Rosenfeld (flutes, fifes, bagpipes) plays historic and modern flutes, recorders, whistles, crumhorns, bagpipe, and early harp. Mindy is a member of San Francisco's Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and a guest artist with American Bach Soloists, Apollo's Fire, Carmel Bach Festival, Catacoustic Consort, Musica Angelica, Opera Lafayette, Oregon Bach Festival, Portland Baroque Orchestra, San Diego Bach Collegium, among others. She has an undergraduate degree from the Peabody Conservatory and a graduate degree from the San Francisco Conservatory. Mindy is a founding member of the Baltimore Consort and divides her time between performing, teaching, and a crazy amount of driving to and from Mendocino, her coastal Northern California home.