Duke University Musical Instrument Collections

On February 18, 2020, the Rare Music Series (sponsored by Duke University Musical Instrument Collections) presented members of the early music chamber group Sonnambula in a concert titled "La Paix du Parnasse: French and Italian masterworks of the Baroque" in the Rubenstein Arts Center at Duke. Italian and French musical fashions wrestled for dominance in Europe throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Sonnambula violinist Jude Ziliak and gambist Amy Domingues, joined by guest harpsichordist Gabriel Benton, presented a rich sampling of each nation's most characteristic offerings, from the fiery and idiosyncratic works of the little-known Nicola Matteis to the sublime pathos of Couperin's chamber music for Louis XIV. Praised as "remarkable" and "superb" by the New Yorker, Sonnambula is a historically-informed ensemble that brings to light unknown music for various combinations of early instruments with the lush sound of the viol at the core. Sonnambula held the position of Ensemble in Residence at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2018-2019, where they designed a site-specific series at The Cloisters Museum; the group is the first historically-informed ensemble to hold this position, typically given to a string quartet.