Seicento conducting search for its next artistic director

Evanne Browne, artistic director for Seicento Baroque Ensemble, retired from the baroque ensemble she founded in 2011 following the group’s “Prima Melodia” concerts April 26-28. Browne’s final concerts focused on the musical revolution that took place in the city-states of Florence, Venice, and Rome in the early 1600s, the seicento. This then-new style emphasized singing and the singer’s ability to express emotion and emphasize melody, rather than focusing on the counterpoint and polyphony that characterized music of the Renaissance.

To find Seicento’s next artistic director, the ensemble’s board of directors solicited applications, with top candidates to conduct audition rehearsals with the Seicento choristers in early May in Boulder. The chosen new artistic director will take over the ensemble this summer.

Criteria and plans for finding Seicento’s new artistic director

Founded in 2011, Seicento Baroque Ensemble is a semi-professional, 36-person auditioned chamber choir performing lesser-known music of the 17^th and 18^th centuries using historically informed performance practices and period instruments. Seicento’s repertoire favors early and middle Baroque composers who inspired the more familiar masters whose music Seicento also performs. 

Concerts may include collaborations with other period instrumentalists or other musical genre ensembles, dancers, actors, choirs, artwork, or film. Seicento’s mission emphasizes education for choristers, audiences, and students. We also engage and mentor emerging professional musicians in baroque vocal and instrumental technique.

Seicento presents two projects per year (fall and spring), and one to two outreach workshops or presentations. Regular rehearsals are held in Boulder, Colorado, on Mondays from 7:15 p.m.–9:30 p.m., with a hiatus in the summer.

Read the full position announcement.