THE NAUGHTY LIST: Music By Braggarts, Hotheads, Curmudgeons and Snobs

Not all composers are nice guys. Although some, like Henry Purcell, were sociable optimists, others, like Matthew Locke, acquired a menagerie of unflattering adjectives. Disagreeable. Vitriolic. Ill-tempered. Spiteful. Atrabilious. Locke was called all of these things. And Locke was not alone. As interpreted by Wayward Sisters, The Naughty List is a program of music penned by difficult men. Matthew Locke, Tarquinio Merula, William Brade, Nicola Matteis, and even Dario Castello left evidence of both their challenging temperaments and their prodigious musicianship. Wayward Sisters explores this intersection, bringing centuries-old composers vividly to life.



ASHES, ASHES: Music and Plague

Although it was no longer known as the Black Death, plague plagued seventeenth-century Europe. It struck everyone: rich, poor, old, and young. And musicians were not exempt- plague snaked through the lives of the finest musicians of the day. Some fled. Some were inspired. And some died. Ashes, Ashes: Music and Plague explores the intersections -some fateful, some incidental- between disease and the creative process.



MUSICK FOR SEVERALL FRIENDS: Locke's London

Matthew Locke was thorny, unpredictable, and obsessed with beauty. So is his music. Wayward Sisters dives into the instrumental music of one of the seventeenth century's genuine mavericks, a man who believed so profoundly in what he thought was right that he dueled -in person and on paper- for most of his life. Along the way we brush up against the music of Locke's more cheerful contemporaries before returning to dwell on the quicksilver shifts and shimmering textures of the master.



A RESTLESS HEART: Music of Exiles, Emigres, and Nomads

We travel for love, for money, for refuge, for learning, for joy. And baroque composers were no different. A seventeenth-century music maker couldn't hop on a jet or board a train, but nonetheless, many of the most important composers of the day were on the move. Matthew Locke, Biagio Marini, Francesco Geminiani, James Oswald, Georg Muffat, and even Johann Sebastian Bach undertook journeys of months, years, or decades. Wayward Sisters embarks on an exploration of who we become when we live as strangers in a strange land.