Submitted by the Salish Sea Early Music Festival

The Salish Sea Early Music Festival presents “Songs without Words: 1550 to 1750” at noon on Saturday, April 14, at Grace Church. The event features Montreal’s viola da gambist Susie Napper and Renaissance and Baroque flutist Jeffrey Cohan. This program will include Renaissance two-part settings of 16th-century French songs, including selections from Giovanni Paulo Cima’s “Concerti Ecclesiastici,” examples of the luscious airs de cour from the time of Louis XIII and Louis XIV, and favorite Scottish and Irish airs as rendered by 18th-century instrumentalists.

Admission is by suggested donations of $15, $20 or $25, and those 18 are under are free.

A performance will also be held at 7 p.m., Friday, April 13, at Brickworks in Friday Harbor and 7 p.m., Saturday, April 14, at the Orcas Adventist Fellowship Church. Brickworks is located at 150 Nichols Street in Friday Harbor.

Cellist, gambist and continuo player par excellence, Napper is known for her colorful, even controversial performances of both solo and chamber repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries. Having spent her childhood in an artistic milieu in London, in her late teens she moved to New York to study at the Juilliard School, then to the Paris Conservatoire. San Francisco followed, where, after a foray into contemporary music, she co-founded and directed the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.

For more info, visit www.salishseafestival.org/sanjuan.

Contributed photo Susie Napper has a chamber repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries.