échappée • [eʃape] n. fem.

  1. : (music) a melodic ornament that moves in
 the opposite direction from the main line
  2. : a breakaway, as in a runner from the pack
  3. : a view that draws the eye outward
  4. : a flash of fantasy or genius

Ensemble Échappée is a flexible chamber ensemble that stretches expectations and stylistic boundaries.

The ensemble brings together a generation of musicians whose virtuosity is embodied in their ability to move between historical and contemporary modes of expression. The ensemble makes music from this expanded musical palate.

Ensemble Échappée draws on a combination of historical research and fantasy to create concerts that invite new perspectives and revel in ephemeral moments.

Projects

Sweet Dissonance

Jenna Sherry, violin
Sophia Prodanova, violin
Elisabeth Smalt, viola
Lucile Perrin, cello

Dissonance — a word that conjures up discord, disagreement, and avant-garde outbursts! But behind this negative reputation, it is actually dissonance that holds the keys to communicating emotion in music. The rubber band stretch of dissonance not only pulls on our heartstrings, but without it, there would be no sweet release. Within the frame of Mozart’s “Dissonance” Quartet, famous for a particularly shocking note, Ensemble Échappée takes listeners on a journey to experience dissonance and consonance as it was pushed further and further in Vienna, culminating in Fritz Kreisler’s nostalgic String Quartet and Webern’s Bagatelles, which use sound to create pure expression, and according to his teacher Arnold Schönberg, “a novel in a single gesture, joy in a single breath.”

Programme includes:

Mozart: String Quartet in C Major, K. 465 “Dissonance” (1785)

Webern: Six Bagatelles Op. 9 (1911-13)

Kreisler: String Quartet in a minor (1919)

Ravel & Rameau: The Collectors 

Jenna Sherry, baroque & early 20th cent. violins
Anthony Romaniuk, harpsichord & piano

Both Jean-Philippe Rameau and Maurice Ravel were fascinated with musical materials from far away lands and cultures. They were collectors who stand out for the artful ways they integrated, rearranged, and at times even misunderstood these materials. From Rameau's evocations of far-flung (sometimes imagined) musical styles from The Ottoman Empire, Persia, Peru, and the Native American “Indies”, to Ravel's fascination with gamelan, the habanera, and early jazz, both composers drew inspiration from the edges of the musical world as they each knew it.

Perhaps most surprising, both Rameau and Ravel drew on pieces of New Orleans’s musical heritage — a city whose complex history as a place of both positive and violent cultural interface has produced an intricate residual web of musical influence. In this programme, structured like a Rameau opéra-ballet in four acts or Entrées, New Orleans native and violinist Jenna Sherry and keyboard polyglot Anthony Romaniuk delve into the entangled connections between Europe, the “Orient” and the New World, revealing intricate layers of borrowing — while swinging and dancing all the way.

Programme includes:

Ravel: Violin & Piano Sonata No. 2 (1923-27) & Vocalise-étude en forme de Habanera

Rameau: Concert no. 4 in B-flat major RCT10 & Selections from Les Indes Galantes

WC Handy: St. Louis Blues & other selections

Interludes & improvisations

Calendar

18 January 2025, 19:00 PM — Sweet Dissonance
Keizerspoort, Amsterdam (by invitation only—please email for more information)

19 January 2025, 16:00 PM — Sweet Dissonance
Muziekkamer Oegstgeest, De Paulus, Oegstgeest NL