I FURIOSI: Press

Defiled is My (Middle) Name
I Furiosi Baroque Ensemble
I Furiosi IF 001

This self-produced recording offers a great variety of mostly 16th and 17th century repertoire along with an Irish traditional tune, Johnny, I hardly knew ye, and a haunting 13th-century lauda, Cristo è Nato, not to mention a surprise bonus track.

The program is beautifully paced. Beginning with the lyrical Defiled is my name (words by Anne Boleyn), they take advantage of the contrasting slow and fast movements of Rosenmüller’s Sonata Prima. Following a cello solo Ricercar, there’s a setting of Psalm 112 Beatus vir qui timet Dominum by Tarditi, and then Uccellini’s Aria sopra la Bergamesca, a fiery flurry of frothy variations on a ground, played by violinists Julia Wedman and Aisslinn Nosky, with cellist Felix Deak and harpsichordist Olivier Fortin providing the continuo.

In the solo cantata Morte di Lucrezia by Montéclair, Gabrielle McLaughlin’s intensely-focused voice finds warmth, meaning, and expressive purpose, accompanied with likewise passion by the ensemble.

The pyrotechnic Partita VI from Harmonia Artificioso-ariosa by Biber provides a dazzling showcase for I Furiosi. It’s about as close as one gets to hearing early music played by a rock group like, say, Led Zeppelin! Put on this CD and turn up the volume.

The Bach, Baroque, and
leather clad world of I Furiosi
TheWeekMay 8 2008

Page 73
Galway
Advertiser

ARTS AND
ENTERTAINMENT
BY KERNAN ANDREWS
“I ALWAYS wondered whether I could combine
my love of masochism with my love of
historically informed baroque performance.
Now I have the answer...”
Thus read a note from a fan on the website of
Canadian Baroque ensemble I Furiosi - three
leather clad femme fatales and a dude who
might have stepped straight out of the moshpit
from the nearest Mastodon concert.
I Furiosi will make their Galway - and Irish -
debut next week, when perform their show
Addicted To Love in St Nicholas’ Collegiate
Church on Friday May 16 at 8pm. The show is
part of the Galway Early Music Festival and is
presented in association with Music For
Galway.
Baroque
I Furiosi - Gabrielle McLaughlin (soprano),
Julia Wedman (violin), Aisslin Nosky (violin),
and Felix Deal (cello) - have taken the classical
and early music world by storm with their
dazzling musicianship, energetic search for lost
or neglected gems from the Baroque era,
meticulous research, theatrical stage shows,
and those figure hugging S&M outfits!!!
Given their penchant for dominatrix
costumes, leather, studded belts, tattoos, and
black stockings, it’s no surprise Addicted To
Love will be all about love, lust, and decadence.
Being obsessed with the music and the ‘bizarre
and unnatural’ aesthetic of the Baroque era
(c1600 - 1750) has a lot to do with it too.
“The Baroque era was named such after the
fact in a derogatory way,” Gabrielle tells me. “It
referred to the asymmetry and over-the-top
garishness that was present in the music,
architecture and general living of the time. I
Furiosi loves to play on the decadence and the
sensibilities of the Baroque that would now be
considered too much.”
On the night I Furiosi will perform a Handel
Trio Sonata, Dowland lutesongs, some
Monteverdi, and “a few surprises that will be
fun for the audience”.
“There will be a
dramatic element
to the show,”
Gabrielle says,
“but expect a
great deal of
humour.
We would
not want
to be mistaken for a group that takes itself too
seriously. We take the music very seriously, but
the performance is always great fun.”
An example of how seriously they take music
is the high level of research - historical as well
as musical - that goes into unearthing all kinds
of music from the Baroque era.
“We try to make sure that we keep ourselves
and our fans on our/their toes,” says Gabrielle.
“We do a great deal of historical research to
determine what events were happening in the
Baroque era so we can relate it to the
underlying themes of today. That is coupled
with musical research as well as literary and
poetic research to find the right combination of
pieces that create a well-balanced programme.”
Leather clad vixens
It’s a testament I Furiosi’s talent and
musicianship that they can flaunt and revel in
their sexy leather clad vixen look without it
ever detracting from their music. So given all
that dominatrix gear, what are the women of I
Furiosi telling us about themselves?
“I’m sure everyone has a dark side - our trick
might be in finding our light side...” is
Gabrielle’s enigmatic reply. “We are never
offensive - only suggestive. All of our concerts
at home take place in a church and we have yet
to receive a complaint. We do, however, make
the most of what we can while we’re still young
and sometimes that means taking all of the
meanings of the texts to their fullest extent...
“Leather is the most common ‘uniform’ we
wear. It was something we all had in common
that we knew would make us look good. We are
all in our 30s and don’t want to be made to
dress older than we are just
because we do
classical
music.”
I Furiosi’s love of dressing up is a way of
shedding classical music’s image of bow-tie and
starched suit sobriety, a look that is de rigueur
when Gabrielle and co are involved in other
projects.
“We are all members of other groups that
have far more conservative dress-codes,” she
says. “Since we are so used to the black velvet
and tuxedos we just like to have an opportunity
to do something different. We always have
guests in our concerts who are also thrilled to
have an opportunity to wear something they
have been keeping in the back of the closet for
the right occasion.”
I Furiosi’s alternative look has also been a
starting point to attract people to Baroque
music.
“Our alternative look certainly attracts
people who would not otherwise listen to
Baroque music,” says Gabrielle. “Our fan base
in Toronto is probably the youngest group of
classical listeners in Canada.”
Despite all the black leather and Gabrielle
admitting the band “enjoy the occasional metal
tune”, they draw the line at being called Goth.
“We are not Goth - we are just pale,” she says.
However while the Dominatrix gear is the
group’s most common ‘uniform’, they have also
performed in straitjackets, shark suits, deepsea
flippers, and Star Wars gear!
“It was a space themed concert,” laughs
Gabrielle. “There was a mix of Star Wars, Star
Trek, Buck Rogers and just weird space Bmovies.
I was Princess Leia and our guest
violist was a Jedi knight.”
Crazy
Was that Princess Leia’s metal bikini or the
donuts hair and white gown of Episode IV? The
mind could linger on the thought of Gabrielle
resplendent in either but, back to the music...
I Furiosi released their debut album Defiled
is My (Middle) Name in 2005 (“The title track is
a piece written by Robert Johnson on a poem
by Queen Anne Boleyn written during her
confinement in the tower before she was
beheaded,” says Gabrielle) and are due to
follow it up in the autumn with the Crazy.
“It is based on the theme of insanity,” she
says. “There are piece about craziness, by
crazy people and from the
perspective of insane people.”
Tickets are €18/14/7
from Music for Galway
(091 - 705962 or
info@music
forgalway.ie) and
Opus II, St Augustine
Street. See also
www.galway
earlymusic.com

I FURIOSI BAROQUE ENSEMBLE
Defiled is My (Middle) Name

THREE OUT OF FOUR STARS


The four core members of I Furiosi Baroque Ensemble-violinists Aisslinn Nosky and Julia Wedman, cellist/gambist Felix Deak and Soprano Gabrielle McLaughlin-make a point of stressing their alternative roots and unearthing interesting yet neglected repertoire. Yet they are remarkably good musicians. Nosky and Wedman are now full-time members of Tafelmusik and Deak can be seen regularly with other ensembles around town. This, their debut disc is an excellent effort, recorded at Grace Church-on-the-Hill. Supplemented by four extra players, the instrumental tracks are especially well-wrought. The only quibble is McLaughlin's voice, limited in dynamic range and often sounding more like a reed than a flute.

FIVE STARS OUT OF FIVE

Everything I want in a CD and more.

Every single piece played by this group is done perfectly. The musicians are fantastic and the arrangements are really worth listening to. Gabrielle McLaughlin's voice is so good it made my father cry. This is one of those CDs you can just play over and over again and never get sick of. These guys are going to go far.

Leather, tattoos, and Monteverdi

Toronto’s I Furiosi Takes the purity of baroque music very seriously, but that doesn’t mean they can’t jazz up the staid classical look, Guy Dixon writes

If baroque ensembles such as Toronto’s Tafelmusik are like exclusive clubs among the classical set-with their period instruments and heavily researched period music-then I Furiosi is the clique within the clique.
They are the baroque community’s arty in-crowd. They’re young, ranging in age from 25to31. Apart from the cellist, they perform standing up. They have visible tattoos. If they were a rock band-which they practically are-they could easily pass for trendy 1980’s post-punk revivalists.
Instead, they are reviving Monteverdi, Handel, and Merula, lending an art-rock sensibility to their otherwise serious baroque performances. The aim, they say, is to create shows that allow for the same kind of ruckus that public concerts of the period would have had.
“We pride ourselves on not just turning the concert into a lesson in classical music, but something anybody can enjoy,” said soprano Gabrielle McLaughlin, in a moment if unusual seriousness as she tucks her legs under her while sitting on her living-room couch. The group takes their music seriously, but not themselves.
They aren’t the only young classicists adding a degree of punk to their performances. But they aren’t Bang On A Can-type experimentalists, nor would they ever think of wielding music-destroying pop gimmicks such as England’s the Opera Babes’ use of world-music dance beats. Instead, I Furiosi maintains the pureness of the baroque but add jabs of visual flamboyance and irreverent themes.
I Furiosi-the Furies, whose name is taken from the epic poem Orlando Furioso-may, be the only baroque ensemble that a non-classically trained musician would yearn to join, if for no other reason than to sit in on their jokes.
“We have a very wide cross-section of people, fans,” said violinist Aisslinn Nosky, with close-cropped, slightly spiky hair and a piercing glance. Although it’s not just Nosky saying this. All are interjecting words into the same sentence. She added: “We seem to bring out…”
“The freaks,” said cellist Felix Deak quietly. Or maybe it was one of the other four, as their words intermingle. With large star-shaped tattoos on both elbows, Deak is the soft-spoken foil for the three women. In fact, they came together in part because McLaughlin and Nosky dated Deak during separate spells years ago. Violinist Julia Wedman simply knew him from their time playing in the National Youth Orchestra.
“I have not dated Felix!” Wedman exclaimed.
“So that’s how we all know each other,” Nosky shrugged.
“You asked,” McLaughlin said, shaking her head mock-disparagingly.
The appeal of I Furiosi is easy to understand. They have given their concerts names such as Italian Psycho, Gloriously Drunk and, for a Halloween performance, Mere Oblivion: I Furiosi Goes to Hell. Instead of boring evening gowns for the women and a tuxedo for Deak, they tend toward black leather and punk accessories. Often these are embellished with priests’ collars, high-baroque makeup or Mafia suits, which they joked made them look more like Don Cherry. For one concert called Mad Naked Summer Night, they wore next to nothing except for sheer white outfits.
“It’s a matter of slightly accentuating the theme,” McLaughlin said.
“I think it also puts us in the mood,” said Wedman. “Something about dressing up and getting ready for a concert, finding all these things that would be perfect for the theme of the concert, helps us to express ourselves.”
“The base of our costuming is leather and PVC [the shiny vinyl fabric that’s a staple at erotic lingerie stores].”I mean, sometimes it’s hard to breathe and move,” McLaughlin said, brushing back her wedge of dark hair. “It may be a little bit daunting to audiences when we first walk out.”
There’s also an added lightness to their performances. They often include standards such as Dream a Little Dream, Summertime, and the Irish folk song The Foggy Dew to their concerts.
Even Nirvana’s All Apologies and the disco anthem I Will Survive have crept in. Still, with all their years of classical training, the group is shy about their non-classical tastes, even if they can’t help showing them off in concert. These may come from Deak’s rude-boy punk days, McLaughlin’s Bauhaus and Art of Noise dalliances, Wedman’s Saskatchewan-bred familiarity with 1980’s power ballads and Nosky’s “I can’t help it” taste in Led Zeppelin and classic rock.
“The thing is, you never talk about this with classical musicians!” Wedman said.” I think that’s what gives us the impulses to create.
“I mean, we grew up watching music videos. We go to a concert and we want to see something happening.” I Furiosi is a creative outlet that, truth be told, probably most classical performers would love to have if it weren’t for the long hours needed to arrange the concert, find the venue, rehearse and research the music-all for no pay. The quartet’s members make there living as freelance musicians, sometimes performing with other baroque groups such as Tafelmusik. And although I Furiosi gets grant support, those funds are only enough to prevent the group from having to pay all the costs themselves. Yet they attract appreciative, die-hard, blue-haired fans, from punks to grannies, McLaughlin said, who are known to stop them on the street. “The people who like us most are the old ladies.”
“We give ourselves lots of licence to try out different ideas,” Wedman added. “We have this amazing audience that keeps coming back to our concerts, no matter what crazy ideas we try.”
“We get the panty-throwing types,” McLaughlin said.

Cheap Queers go for Baroque
I Furiosi join eclectic Pride-themed cabaret

Quartet keeps it raucous for new fans

Glance at musician Felix Deak, with his punk hair and tattoos, and you might think drummer, or maybe bassist. But he’s a classical cello player-a baroque cello player to be precise. And when he tells you he didn’t fit well into the early-music program, at University of Toronto, you know it’s true.
But he does fit into the spirit of Cheap Queers, an eclectic series of revues that have become and annual fixture of Pride week.
Organized by a funny fivesome which calls itself The Hardworkin’ Homosexuals, Moynan King, Keith Cole, Jonathan Da Silva, Georgia Kirkos and Sharon DiGenova are dab hands at creating three cabaret-style evenings of music, dance, comedy and any other performance-art pursuit you can imagine.
Oh, and there is always a healthy contingent of drag queens in the wings.
In the same way that Sam the American Eagle tried to raise the tome of The Muppet Show, the organizers include “classical” performers in every night’s lineup. Tomorrow, the task falls to I Furiosi Baroque Ensemble, of which Deak is a member.
In an interview earlier this week, Deak and fellow I Furiosi member, soprano Gabrielle McLaughlin, talk about how their offbeat musical taste initially brought them together seven or eight years ago at U of T and how they went on to craft their own early-music study program at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s professional school shortly afterward.
“Our program included a lot of recitals,”says Deak. McLaughlin adds how the two sometimes performed every day sometimes creating their own soprano-cello duets.
“I played the continuo part,” Deak explains. “There was nothing historically correct about this whatsoever.”
The duo has picked up extra members since, as I Furiosi, forming a core quartet of violins, cello and voice which performs an eclectic program of baroque pieces out of Calvin Presbyterian Church in the Yonge St. and St. Clair Ave. area every year.
Tomorrow night, McLaughlin will perform one of the favourites of baroque opera: the dramatic “Piangero, la sorte mia” aria from Handel’s opera Julius Caesar. This will highlight her clear, steady voice and the skills of the three string players.
“We try to make things as raucous as possible,” says McLaughlin of her group’s decidedly un-stuffy attempts to reach out to new audiences-and their decision to heed the Cheap Queers invitation from Cole and King.
The group itself has a queer connection, but when asked for specifics, Deak laughs, then replies,” you’d need a road map to figure out all the connections.”
But you won’t need a map to appreciate the quality and dedication behind their music-making. For more information in the group and their programs, visit www.ifuriosi.com