First Public Performances of Orchestra of the Moon

Portland-based early music project Orchestra of the Moon recently gave its first public performance, on April 22nd, at the gallery where Jessica Beer’s exhibition of photographs, On My Walks, premiered.

The 8-piece Orchestra featured vielles, doucaine, hurdy-gurdy, krummhorns, recorders, bagpipe, shawm, shryarpfief, and three percussionists.

The program was drawn from the corpus of instrumental dance music from before the year 1400, with a couple additions of instrumental arrangements of sacred music sources of the same period.

The audience was rapt and appreciative, and several people were moved to inquire about how to join the orchestra, part of whose mission is to “get people playing medieval music together.”

The band then played two days later at the salon of Emily Lau, held at Zoomtopia, offering Istanpitta Ghaetta and La Tierche Estampie Royale.

Many thanks to the band, for their hard work and dedication, and thanks to our wonderful and appreciative first audiences!