Agony and Ecstasy

With regret, this event has been canceled. All on-campus events at UMBC between March 12 through April 6 are also canceled due to COVID-19 health and wellness precautions implemented by the university. All tickets purchased in advance have been refunded. Please check back for updates regarding events scheduled beyond April 6.

The UMBC Collegium Musicum, together with guest artist Lindsey Strand-Polyak and Paula Maust, will present music from the extremities of religious devotion during the counter-reformation in Western Europe, centered around the meditative and rhapsodic sonatas of The Sorrowful Mysteries, composed by Heinrich Biber (1604–1704). Each sonata in the set is an evocation and meditation on the suffering and death of Jesus Christ: The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Scourging of Jesus, the Crowning with Thorns, the Carrying of the Cross, and ultimately, the Crucifixion. Each sonata has a unique tuning of the violin which highlights the affective qualities of the Sonata. In stark contrast to the visceral meditations on pain, the UMBC Early Music Ensemble will perform contrasting works of sacred love by Heinrich Schutz, Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, Johann Vierdanck, Dietrich Buxtehude and Johann Schmelzer, interspersed between The Sorrowful Mysteries.

This concert is the culmination of a week-long artist residency by Lindsey Strand-Polyak at UMBC, in which she will give masterclasses and lessons on solo and chamber music performance practices, speaking to student classes, giving workshops in professional development, and of course, working directly with the UMBC Early Music Ensemble.

Praised for her “rococo gracefulness,” Lindsey Strand-Polyak is active throughout the US as a baroque violinist and violist. Nationally, she performs with ensembles such as the American Bach Soloists, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Pacific MusicWorks and Bach Collegium San Diego, and Austin Baroque Orchestra; and has appeared at the Oregon Bach Festival, Baroque Music Festival- Corona del Mar, Twin Cities Early Music Festival, and the Fringe Series of both Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals. In her home base of Southern California, she can be heard with her own group, Ensemble Bizarria, as well as Musica Angelica, Con Gioia Early Music Ensemble, Tesserae, and Concordia Clarimontis. Strand-Polyak was the assistant director for the UCLA Early Music Ensemble from 2011–2015, and is artistic director of Los Angeles Baroque—Southern California’s first community Baroque orchestra. She has given masterclasses and lecture recitals at universities throughout the country, including include University of Oregon, California State University-Sacramento, University of Texas at Austin, Northern State University of Louisiana, and Michigan State University.

$15 general admission, $10 seniors, $5 students, free for UMBC music majors and music faculty/staff, available online or at the box office one hour prior to the performance.

Plan your visit
UMBC is located about 10 minutes south of the Inner Harbor along I-95. For this event, free visitor parking is available in Lot 8, directly adjacent to the Performing Arts and Humanities Building, where the entrance to the Earl and Darielle Linehan Concert Hall is located on the second floor.

Detailed directions and parking information >>
Detailed venue information >>

Major funding for this program was provided by the Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA).