A Lady at the Virginals

Tickets: $15 -$25 – $50
Available through Gotham Early Music Scene:
https://gemsny.org/events/artek/

Recognized as one of America’s leading early music performers, Gwendolyn Toth is a conductor and early
keyboard artist based in New York City. “Her interpretive skills are sensitive and intelligent, and she clearly has
a gift for program conceptualization.” (The New York Times). She has conducted at Sadler’s Wells Theater in
London, BAM and Bach Vespers in New York City, Skylight Theater in Milwaukee, Washington Bach Consort
in Washington, DC, Astoria Music Festival in Oregon, Carmel Bach Festival in California, and for the German
Radio network in Cologne, Germany.
Ms. Toth is the founder and director of New York City’s period instrument ensemble, ARTEK, specializing in
music of the early baroque. Under her direction, the ensemble released the first North American recording of
Monteverdi’s opera, Orfeo, to outstanding critical acclaim. Other CDs include Love Letters from Italy, I Don’t
Want to Love, Monteverdi’s Madrigals Book 5, and Solo Cantatas of Rosenmüller. ARTEK recently released
Monteverdi’s complete Madrigals Book 7, another landmark North American recording, in fall 2020. Ms. Toth
and ARTEK have appeared at Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum, and major churches in New York
City; at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; and at the Regensburg Tage Alte Musik Festival in
Germany and the Boston, Berkeley, Bloomington, and Indianapolis early music festivals in America. ARTEK
was privileged to tour throughout America, the UK and Europe with the Mark Morris Dance Group in the dance
“I Don’t Want to Love” for several years, receiving numerous accolades for their fine performances. ARTEK’s
early music theater show, “I’ll Never See the Stars Again” at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, UK
was lauded as “a stark reminder of just how rich and passionate, as well as achingly sad, Monteverdi’s songs can
be.” (The Stage, UK). ARTEK’s latest theatrical venture under her direction is the one-woman show,
“Artemisia: Light and Shadow” on the life of female artist Artemisia Gentileschi with music by baroque female
composer Barbara Strozzi. Opera News has honored Ms. Toth as an “Outstanding Young Conductor” and she
was the recipient of the “Newell Jenkins Prize” for excellence in early music performance.
As a soloist on historical organs, Ms. Toth has performed on the 1434 organ in Sion, Switzerland; the 1457
organ in Rysum, Germany; the 15th-century organ in Oosthuizen, Netherlands; the 1509 organ in Trevi, Italy;
the 1531 organ in Krewerd, Netherlands; the 1649 organ in Zeerijp, Netherlands; the 1655 organ in the
Nieuwekerk, Amsterdam, Netherlands; the 1696 Arp Schnitger organ in Noordbroek, Netherlands; and the 1714
organ in St. Michael’s Church, Vienna, among many others. Her numerous CD recordings of Renaissance and
baroque music have been recorded on historic Dutch organs in Noordbroek, Zeerijp, Oosthuizen, Eenum, and
Krewerd. Ms. Toth’s upcoming CD releases include recordings on the 1434 organ in Ostönnen, Germany and
the 1435 organ in Sion Switzerland. Ms. Toth also has a solo recording of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations
performed on a lautenwerk, a reconstruction of Bach’s lute-harpsichord, strung in both gut and metal strings.
Ms. Toth’s interests also extend to contemporary music. Ms. Toth has worked and recorded with eminent
composer/performers such as John Cage, Rhys Chatham, Petr Kotik, Dave Soldier, Louis Andriessen, and Elliot
Sharp at BAM Next Wave Festival, The Kitchen, Bang on a Can Festival, Cage Nachttage in Köln, Germany,
and others.
Ms. Toth holds the D.M.A. in organ performance from Yale University and did post-graduate study with Ton
Koopman at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She is Adjunct Professor of Historical
Performance at The Graduate Center, CUNY; and in 2017 she was Music Director of the Virginia Best Adams
Master Class at Carmel Bach Festival. She is also currently Music Director at Saint Ignatius of Antioch
Episcopal Church in New York City, where she oversees a professional choir that performs Renaissance masses
and motets weekly.

Muselar
William Byrd (c.1540-1623): Qui passe, from My Ladye Nevells Booke
John Bull (c.1562-1628): Galliarda Lord Lumley, from Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625): Fantasia in d
Regal
Orlando Gibbons: The Italian Ground
William Byrd: The Earle of Oxford’s Marche, from Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
Virginal (large rectangular)
Heinrich Scheidemann (c.1595-1663): Ballett in F; French Allemand in d; French Courant & Variatio in d
Orlando Gibbons: French Coranto
Lautenwerk
Anonymous (Scheidemann?): Pavana Lachrimae (after John Dowland)
Virginal (small pentagonal)
Anonymous: The Nightingale (Creighton Virginal Book)
Anonymous: Fantasia cromatica (Oxford music ms. #89)
Harpsichord (Italian)
Peter Philips (c.1560-1628): Bon Jour mon Cueur di Orlando di Lasso, from Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
Jan Pietersoon Sweelinck (1562-1621): Praeludium Toccata in a, from Fitzwilliam Virginal Book