Early Music Missouri presents “Sweet Discord” by Chicago Recorder Trio

Early Music Missouri’s 2023-2024 Main Stage Series continues with a program of old and new music for recorder. Chicago Recorder Trio offers a program of music ranging from the Middle Ages into the 21st Century. Lisette Kielson, Mirja Lorenz and Patrick O’Malley bring recorders large and small to the stage, playing Baroque music by J.S. Bach, Johann Mattheson and Matthew Locke; Medieval and Renaissance works by Giovanni da Firenze and Elway Bevin; contemporary works by Pete Rose and the trio’s own Patrick O’Malley; and much more.

Early Music Missouri presents all of its Mainstage Concert at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in St. Louis, a beautiful venue with an acoustic ideally suited to such intimate music. Parking is free and the venue has reserved parking and ramps for listeners needing special access accommodations. Early Music Missouri’s 2023-2024 season is supported by a generous grant from the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission.

Soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player Lisette Kielson has been described in the press as “sparkling with life” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) and with “dazzling natural technique and brilliant interpretation…performing with true character and style” (Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace). A regular performer throughout the Midwest on concert artist series and at early music festivals, she has appeared with, among others, Bach Institute at Valparaiso University, Chicago Opera Theater, Chicago’s Bach Week Festival, Early Music Missouri, Haymarket Opera Company, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Madison Bach Musicians, Madison Early Music Festival, Music of the Baroque, Peoria Bach Festival, and many Chicago-area early music ensembles, including as founding member L’Ensemble Portique and Chicago Recorder Trio.

Past President of the American Recorder Society and former Director of Bradley University’s Collegium Musicum, Lisette serves as Music Director of the ARS Chicago Chapter, as faculty member of the Whitewater Early Music Festival, and maintains a private studio and an active schedule as workshop presenter, in person and via Zoom, across the country. Lisette holds B.Mus. and M.Mus. degrees in flute performance from Indiana University, studying recorder with Eva Legêne, and a post-master’s Diploma in recorder performance with Michael Barker from The Royal Conservatory of The Hague, The Netherlands. She has released recordings of Bach and Boismortier with Centaur Records as well as CDs on her own label, including Telemann: Canons and Duos with Patrick O’Malley.

Mirja Lorenz, born and raised in Luebeck, Germany, learned her first little melodies on the recorder when she was about five years old, on Sunday mornings in her mother’s bed (who also was a recorder player.) As an adult, Mirja studied the recorder at Folkwang Musikhochschule in Duisburg/Germany with Gudrun Heyens, and later at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Utrecht/the Netherlands with Heiko ter Schegget. She also took master classes with Marion Verbruggen, members of the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet, and others. Mirja has performed in concerts in Germany, Sweden, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Chicago and is a founding member of several ensembles, including Trio Vertical Total, with whom she recorded a CD.

After moving to the Chicago area, Mirja first focused on a Bachelor’s Degree in English literature which she earned with honors from Roosevelt University. After returning to her music, Mirja quickly gained ground in the Chicago Early Music scene. She has performed with groups such as Music of the Baroque, Haymarket Opera, Vox Collective, and the Callipygian Players. She has repeatedly appeared at the Bach Week Festival in Evanston. She is a founding member of both ensembles Black Tulip (heard in concerts and “Live from WFMT”), Chicago Recorder Trio, with whom she enjoys rehearsing, performing, recording, and drinking tea.

Mirja has long experience as a recorder teacher, beginning in Germany where she helped numerous students succeed in the “Jugend Musiziert” recorder competition. In this country, Mirja has taught at the American Recorder Society in Chicago and at Crystal Lake Montessori School.

Hailed as “distinguished” by the Chicago Tribune, Patrick O’Malley has performed from California to New York, as well as in Europe. He frequently plays recorder with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Music of the Baroque, Haymarket Opera Company, Bach Week Festival Orchestra, Chicago Opera Theater, Baroque Band, Rembrandt Chamber Musicians, Chicago Chamber Orchestra, Rockefeller Chapel, and “Live from Studio One” on WFMT.

A founding member of the Chicago Recorder Trio, Patrick has presented a number of American and world premieres of contemporary works for recorder. Patrick is also an in-demand interpreter of the recorder parts in J.S. Bach’s cantatas, appearing with the Bach Institute of Valparaiso University, Grace Lutheran Church (River Forest), St. Luke’s Episcopal Church (Evanston), St. Luke Lutheran Church (Chicago), and the American Choral Directors Association’s 2022 Midwest Regional Convention. With Lisette Kielson, he has released a 2-disc recording, Telemann: Canons and Duos.

Patrick earned a M.M degree in recorder from Indiana University, studying with Eva Legêne and teaching as Associate Instructor in the pre-college program. As the recipient of a Netherlands Fulbright Fellowship, he studied with Han Tol at the Rotterdam Conservatory. An early adopter of online recorder teaching, Patrick teaches on the faculty of the Music Institute of Chicago, where he also serves as Campus Director. He was the first registered Suzuki recorder teacher in Illinois, formerly at the Suzuki Music School of Lincoln Park. In addition to teaching workshops across the U.S., Patrick has taught masterclasses at Northwestern University, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and at the Suzuki Association of the Americas National Conference.