Donning red, yellow and blue, Ensemble Affect graced Fairchild Theatre’s stage Tuesday night to explore the history of America’s soundscape. The program, "Colonial Baroque," commenced the 2026-2027 Taylor Johnston Early Music Series.
For the past 10 years, Johnston’s three part series has brought in outside ensembles to perform music from the 16th through 18th centuries or earlier. For the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, director of choral programs David Rayl found that Ensemble Affect’s program was the “perfect opportunity” to blend the anniversary and the culture of colonial America.
Ensemble Affect performed a version of the program twice before in the summer which, prior to Tuesday’s show, they expanded for time to get a broader view of what they are presenting and inclusion of influences on compositions.
“It is just interesting, the theme of the 250th anniversary, because we don't think of early American music that often and I think they made a real effort in putting a program together that really, you learned something,” crowd member Rick Laub said. “It's not often these series have a vocalist, and she was excellent. It's great to hear younger musicians do this kind of music and sort of keeping it alive, in a sense.”
The group of two violinists, one viola, one cello, one harpsichord and one vocalist, all performed on either authentic instruments or replicas from the period right before and after the American Revolution, “to recreate historically informed performances of that repertoire” and “bring to life this music more or less as it was heard in the 18th century,” Rayl said.
As some of the earliest music made in the United States was from the Moravian Church, a Protestant denomination which heavily focused on music within its worship services, their musical tradition was “really important in creating an American musical voice and sound,” co-director and violinist of Ensemble Affect, Phoebe Gelzer-Govatos said.
With a hearty meal of American history served on a musical platter, the event was a learning opportunity for both performers and guests.
“Some of the stuff that we play is known to people, a lot of it isn't,” Gelzer-Govatos said. “There's a lot of music that we uncover in the process of creating programs that I didn't even know existed or had never heard of this person before and then relating it to something that we already did know.”
Along with the research and investigation that went into creating this program, it was also an opportunity for the artists to indulge in their craft and create a sense of collaboration with the audience.
“The act of making music for me, especially collaborative chamber music with other people, I might even say it's a sacred experience for me,” Gelzer-Govatos said. “To be up there doing that, it's the best thing I do.”
Along with the anniversary of the country’s birth, the year celebrates the 20th anniversary of the MSU College of Music as an independent college in the school, leading to improvements in facilities such as the Fairchild Theatre. Inside Fairchild, Rayl has noticed the “wonderful acoustics” and said they always have an “enthusiastic” audience for these concerts.
Laub is an enjoyer of the Early Music Series and the Fairchild Theatre which he calls a “perfect venue for music.” Laub sang with Johnston for around 30 years in Lansing’s Lange Choral Ensemble and noted that Rayl’s programming of the series “really respected Taylor’s (Johnston's) sensibility for music.”
The Fairchild will host the remaining two installments of the series Les Délices: Bach’s Musical Offering on Oct. 6 and Cappella Pratensis and Piffaro on March 2, 2027.
