The Marlborough Arts Center welcomes the group Eclectica for the 4th Friday @ the Arts Center on February 24th, 2023. They are a very interesting and talented group, as is each one of them individually. Eclectica performs original arrangements of music from the Middle Ages to the present on an eclectic variety of instruments, including recorders, harp, violin, viola da gamba, hammered dulcimer, and more. Each program is a time-travel adventure, with historical commentary about the music. To learn more, continue reading below, and be sure to visit their Facebook page.
Kasha Breau (harp, percussion) plays original music and folk songs from around the world on modern reconstructions of medieval and renaissance harps, as well as the modern concert harp. A graduate of the Hartt School of Music, Kasha has taught harp, kantele, voice, piano, and organ, in addition to performing and conducting workshops in harp-playing technique throughout the United States. Music groups with which Kasha has played and/or sung include Wild Notes, CitySingers, Celtic Sessions, and Tree of Life (with Carrie Crompton). Kasha fills her life with more music as organist and music director at the Congregational Church in Portland, Connecticut. Kasha was an environmental teacher and educator for over 35 years, and is a state and federally licensed rehabilitator for injured and orphaned songbirds, raptors, various waterfowl, and bats.
Carrie Crompton (hammered dulcimer, bass viola da gamba, accordion) fell in love with the sound of the dulcimer in the 1970s at the beginning of a revival of the instrument in the United States. The dulcimer has been used in European folk music since the late Middle Ages, but it has no literature of its own – players create their own repertoire and arrangements. Carrie has explored many styles of music, from Medieval to pop, while finding ways to adapt the dulcimer to tunes written for other instruments. She has published numerous CDs and books for the dulcimer. An avid quilter, landscape designer and gardener, Carrie is also a Master Naturalist.
Monika Kinstler (bass viola da gamba, violin, viola, percussion) studied at the University of Cincinnati, receiving a Bachelor of Music in Music History and a Master of Science in Metallurgical Engineering. She is proficient on a variety of historical instruments and has performed with early music ensembles in Cincinnati, Phoenix, Hartford, and Buxtehude, Germany. Also a modern violinist, she has performed with orchestras in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Huntsville, Alabama, and is currently a member of the Manchester Symphony Orchestra. As a metallurgical engineer, she is employed as a manager in Pratt & Whitney’s Engineering department. Her musical and engineering interests collide in a passion for woodworking, and she has built several historical musical instruments, including a set of virginals and two vielles.
Deborah Robin (recorders) has played recorder with musical consorts around New England since the 1970s, including the Aston Magna Festival Orchestra, with whom she was featured recorder soloist in the first American recording on “original” instruments of Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 (Smithsonian Collection, 1978). Deborah performs regularly on programs with Eclectica and fellow members of the Musical Club of Hartford.
Eclectica will perform in the Charles W. Hall Gallery at 7:30 p.m. with the doors opening at 7:00 p.m. Admission remains $10 at the door. Masks are suggested but not required. The facility is fully accessible and there is ample parking.