All ticket sales are final. If you can not attend an event please contact us at office@imtfolk.org.
Mon 10/27 - Ensemble Galilei
Monday, October 27th Institute of Musical Traditions presents Ensemble Galilei at 7:30pm. Tickets : $20 advance (+$2 box office fee) / $25 door ($15/20 for children and students with ID) - this performance will be held in the SANCTUARY at Saint Mark Presbyterian Church.
If you're a federal worker and have been laid off - folk angels on behalf of Ensemble Galilei and Institute of Musical Traditions are offering this show to you FREE OF CHARGE. Please bring your ID!
Saint Mark Presbyterian Church
10701 Old Georgetown Road, Rockville, MD
35 Years of Ensemble Galilei!
October of 2025 is Ensemble Galilei’s 35th anniversary and while coral and jade are beautiful (think wedding anniversary) instead ...
...instead of gussying up, we are releasing a two- CD set, playing everywhere we can, and doubling down on our guiding principles. Play music that excites you. Put the very best people in the room. Leave it all on the field. Let boredom be the enemy and creativity be unbridled. Play with wild abandon or go home. And if that’s not enough, when was the last time you heard the uillean pipes with guitar, bodhran and viola da gamba? – Isaac Alderson, Uillean pipes and Irish flutes, Jesse Langen, guitar, Jackie Moran, bodhran and banjo, and Carolyn Surrick, viola da gamba with Evelyn Thom, fiddle.
The principal is simple and exquisite: put five, brilliant and collaborative musicians in a room, empower them equally, and then set them free. And when they choose a piece of music, it is not the tune’s provenance that matters, not its musicological era, nor its country of origin. It is the story being told, leading to the journey that the musicians embark upon, together.
Predictably, Scottish fiddlers will bring Scottish music. Irish pipers may bring slow airs, jigs and reels. Early music wind players might bring 17th century variations. But then, the harper brings a Polska from Sweden. The gamba player brings a drone that apparently has its origins at the center of the earth, and after 35 years of being an instrumental ensemble, someone starts to sing. Go figure.
A new melody shows up, written in grief. Another, written in love. The words of Frederick Douglass are set to a tune by Turlough O’Carolan, a poem by Jim Harrison, set to a hymn from Southern Harmony.
The connective tissue is not a genre, it is a passion. Theirs is commitment to remarkable music making, and indeed, this is where Ensemble Galilei dwells, sharing the journey with audiences, decade after decade.
TICKETS ARE ALWAYS AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR unless otherwise noted. Doors open half an hour before showtime, online ticketing ends at 2pm day-of show. After 2pm please purchase tickets at the door.
THIS IS A TICKET FOR THE VIRTUAL PERFORMANCE. All ticket sales are final. If you can not attend an event please contact us at office@imtfolk.org. Tickets are non-refundable for ticket-holder's technical limitations.
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