Return to the court of Louis XIV with New York dancers Carlos Fittante and Caroline Copeland, who will join the Kingsbury Ensemble — St. Louis’ premiere early-music group — for a special, one-night-only concert, “A French Baroque Carnaval” at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 19, in Holmes Lounge, Ridgley Hall.
Founded in 1999, the Kingsbury Ensemble specializes in Baroque, Classical and early Romantic music, employing historically accurate practices and instruments and performing in acoustically appropriate settings.
Harpsichordist Maryse Carlin, instructor in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, directs the ensemble, which draws on a pool of early music specialists both regionally and nationwide.
The concert will feature Fittante and Copeland performing courtly chaconnes and minuets designed to transport viewers to the island of Cythere, in mythology the birthplace of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love.
The program is set to music of Baroque composers Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Jean-Joseph Mouret and Andre Campra.
Copeland is a member of the New York Baroque Dance Company, directed by Catherine Turocy, where her featured roles included the title role in Handel’s “Terpsicore,” Euridice in Gluck’s “Orphee” and the Galant in Mozart’s “Les Petits Riens.” Most recently, she and Turocy co-created a show for the reopening of the historic Federal Hall in downtown Manhattan.
She also has appeared as a guest artist with the Boston Early Music Festival and Company Rindfleisch, The Metropolitan Opera, The New York Collegium, The Maffei Dance Company and the Trebien Pollard/Skeleton Dance Project.
Fittante is artistic director of BALAM Dance Theatre, a contemporary company inspired by Balinese theatre, and previously spent 14 years with the New York Baroque Dance Company.
He has been featured in numerous period operas, including the New York City Opera’s production of “Rinaldo,” the Boston Early Music Festival productions of “Ariadne” and “Thesee” and productions of “Ariodante” and “Arianna in Creta” at the Handel Festival in Gottingen, Germany. He teaches extensively and is on faculty at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and at Peridance Center in New York.
Tickets — $15 to the public, $10 for seniors, faculty and staff and $5 for students — are available through the Edison Theatre box office, 935-6543, and at the door.
For more information, call 862-2675 or visit kingsburyensemble.org.