Brattleboro native Nathaniel Cox and British-American soprano Agnes Coakley return this month for a series of concerts in the Brattleboro area.
Three Brattleboro-area homes will host benefit concerts for local arts organizations: Friends of Music at Guilford on Monday, July 7; New England Youth Theatre on Sunday, July 13; and the Brattleboro Music Center on Tuesday, July 22.
In addition, they will perform at the First Universalist Parish in Chester at 3 p.m. on Sunday July 27. The house concerts will begin promptly at 7:30 p.m.
Cox and Coakley founded the group In Stile Moderno in Basel, Switzerland in 2012 to explore the music of the “new style” that had its origins in late 16th century Florence and spread throughout Europe at the beginning of the 17th century.
They perform as a duo and also with other early instrumentalists. Their trio ensemble, with harpsichordist Benjamin Katz, performed last summer for a large, enthusiastic audience at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Brattleboro.
For these concerts, Cox will accompany soprano Coakley on theorbo, a form of bass lute developed at the end of the 16th century. Throughout most of the 17th century, the theorbo was considered the ideal instrument for song accompaniment because of its wide range of expression and dynamics.
The program,”Music for a While” takes its name from a song by Henry Purcell, the most famous English composer of his day. The song is a haunting ode to music's power to make the listener forget all earthly cares - but only for as long as the music lasts: “Music for a while will all your cares beguile.”
The program features solo songs from 17th-century Italy and England, including music by Claudio Monteverdi and Henry Purcell as well as less well known but equally appealing composers such as Giulio Caccini, Sigismondo D'India, and the brothers Henry and William Lawes.
Cox came of age in the Brattleboro arts community, participating in school bands under Jim Kurty and Steve Rice, studying trumpet with Dan Farina at the Brattleboro Music Center, performing with the New England Youth Theatre, and clowning in Russia with Stephen Stearns.
He received his B.A. in Russian and B.Mus. in trumpet performance from Oberlin College and Conservatory in 2008. He began cornetto studies with Bruce Dickey at the Schola Cantorum in Basel in 2009, and took graduate degrees in 2012 and 2014.
He began to play theorbo in 2011, and since then has performed regularly both as a cornettist and theorbist across Europe and North America with groups such as the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg, Ars Leonis Basel, Apollo's Fire, and Profetti della Quinta.
Coakley grew up in Watertown, Mass., and took her B.A. in music in 2008 from Yale University, where she discovered her love of early music as a member of the choir of Christ Church New Haven and as a cellist in numerous ensembles.
After two years of teaching English in Berlin, she began voice studies with Evelyn Tubb at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, where she received her master's degree in vocal performance in 2013. She is active as a singer and choral conductor and is completing a master's degree in musical pedagogy.