Released: March 11, 2025
Label: Ruckus Records
Composer: Neil Gow
Released: June 28, 2019
Label: Arezzo Music
Composer: Bach
Featuring Lily Hammond, Linnea Sablosky, Tim Eriksen, & John Taylor Ward
American Harmony explores the depths of one of America’s earliest repertoires: the New England Hymn. In 18th-century New England, small towns forged their own musical identities through hymn books—collections of homegrown counterpoint that served as the communal heartbeat of a nascent nation. When these songs emerged in the founding decades of the Republic, they were born of necessity: they are a means to process collective grief, navigate the fragility of life, and articulate the moral responsibilities of a society in flux.
Reginald Mobley, Emi Ferguson, Rachell Ellen Wong & Ruckus
Strawberry Fields is a joyous feast of rustic dances from the 18th century. Featuring Ruckus’ dazzling arrangements of Ignatius Sancho’s 12 Country Dances for the year 1779 and the evergreen trio sonatas of George Frederic Handel, this program will have audiences craving to get on their feet. The program features soloists Rachell Ellen Wong (violin), and Emi Ferguson (flute). [project page]
Emi Ferguson & Ruckus
A collaboration with flutist Emi Ferguson, Fly the Coop is a joyous, kaleidoscopic romp through some of Bach’s most playful and transcendent works. The program features new arrangements of Bach’s Flute Sonatas and Keyboard Preludes, orchestrated for baroque flute and the forces of Ruckus that include theorbos, baroque guitars, baroque bassoon, cello, viola da gamba, harpsichord, organ, bass, and the occasional banjo.
Emi Ferguson & Ruckus
Emi Ferguson and Ruckus reimagine the music of Georg Philipp Telemann and György Ligeti. By George! features Ligeti's Musica Ricerata, a 25-minute monument of varied, miniature structures, and Telemann's Fantasias for Flute without Bass, a Baroque landmark with crystalline precision paralleling the Ligeti. [project page]
Featuring Keir GoGwilt & Fiona Gillespie
Ruckus and violin virtuoso Keir GoGwilt celebrate the legacy of Niel Gow (b. Perthshire, 1727-1807), one of Scotland’s most important musicians, in this dynamic folk-Baroque feast of Scottish dance music. Weaving together these jubilant, hard-driving and nostalgic tunes into large-scale dramatic forms, Ruckus and GoGwilt bring the 18th-century tradition of blending folk and art music to the present day.
Featuring Keir GoGwilt & Fiona Gillespie
As early as the 17th-century, Italian musicians began working in the courts of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. And so, the radiant sonatas of Arcangelo Corelli make for a thrilling partner to the earthy dances of Niel Gow, who earned the nickname of “The Scottish Corelli." Ruckus highlights this historical bridge between two seemingly disparate worlds, uniting the energy of the pub with the elegance of the court.
Featuring Manami Mizumoto & Keir GoGwilt
From the fierce and dark to the glittering and resplendent, Ruckus explores music from Germany at the dawn of the Enlightenment. The program is structured around the brilliant music of Heinrich Biber, whose Harmonia Artificiosa-ariosa sonatas are like miniature sonic dramas. Alongside these are J.S. Bach’s majestic organ works, made intimate in fresh arrangements for the ensemble. Ruckus caps it off with the lively and playful music of Dietrich Buxtehude, full of joy, contrapuntal flow and surprising twists.
Featuring the music of Bach, Biber, Cowell, Nancarrow, and Purcell, Ruckus finds inspiration in the baroque concept of the ‘Mechanical Universe’ – and mines connections from 20th-century North America and baroque Europe.
