 In August, 2000 the Early Music Guild appointed
August Denhard to the position of Executive Director. Gus came to
Seattle from the Bloomington (Indiana) Early Music Festival where he
served as Education Director, Assistant Director and Opera Producer
during his five-year tenure. Before his activites with BLEMF, he served
as Education Director of the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic, where he
developed string and choral programs as well as other adult education
offerings for the Columbus community. While involved with these
organizations, he pursued his doctoral studies in early music
performance practice at the Early Music Institute of the Indiana
University School of Music, studying lute with Thomas Binkley, Paul
O'Dette, Lyle Nordstrom and Nigel North. His doctoral
dissertation, Lute Realizations for the English Cavalier Songs,
has been published online by the Lute
Society of America.
Prior to his work in Indiana, Gus lived in Chicago where he earned
his masters degree in tuba perfomance at Northwestern University. He
made his living as a freelance tuba player, performing with Chicago
Lyric Opera, the orchestra at the Auditorium Theater, Chicago
Sinfonietta, and various chamber music ensembles. He also taught
ensemble classes in the Chicago public school system and was an adjunct
professor at St. Xavier University.
Gus has been an active performer on lute, theorbo and baroque guitar,
and performs regularly with Baroque Northwest, Seattle Pro Musica, the
Concord Ensemble, and other notable early music ensembles. His solo lute
CD, Cusp of the Baroque,
was recorded in 2006 with funding from the Jack Straw Productions Artist
Support Program.
Gus brings his broad background as an administrator, performer and
scholar to his position with the Early Music Guild. "... it's not
enough for the EMG to present concerts that are historically significant
and brilliantly performed with regard to performance practice. We also
have a responsabilty to sell early music to the general concert-going
public if our artform is to thrive." Gus feels this
"selling" of early music can be accomplished by an active
education program that forms lasting partnerships with our schools,
combined with an aggressive marketing campaign designed to get the word
out to wider audiences.
EMG has a history of programing the finest ensembles in the world of
early music, a tradition Gus plans to continue as he searches out new
talent. "As we plan our coming seasons we need to be aware that
many young American performers are now on par with the older more
established groups. They have the potental to energize our organization
and our audience, and need to be paid attention to." |
