Glimpses in Time

Ensemble Soleil's Performance Arts Events add new dimensions to traditional concerts, giving audiences a historical context for the music. From 1997 to 1999 the ensemble was named Artists in Residence at Colby-Sawyer College through grants from the New Hampshire Humanities Council and the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. During the two-year residency, the directors researched and directed four events combining live music, historical narratives, Baroque dance, and art images with the assistance of Dr. Donald Beecher, University of Ottawa. These events sought to illuminate the life and times of early Renaissance Spain and Italy in the era of Christopher Columbus; the Shakespeare era in England; musical life in France in the time of Louis XIV; and the culture of the court at Vienna under the Habsburgs. After the residency, the events toured to colleges and universities in New England.

Today you can hear Ensemble Soleil performing through its youtube channel in a collection of recorded music spanning three centuries, six different countries and cultures, and two continents.