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Join us at the Elmendorph Inn at 3 PM on Sunday, August 6, for Ruff’s performance of early Scottish music composed, collected, or inspired by women.
This concert is being presented and produced by the Hudson River Consort as a benefit for Historic Red Hook.
The Highland Oral Tradition encompasses an impressive range of poetry and music. Though officially excluded from the bardic orders, women increasingly became important bearers of tradition in Scotland as harpers and singers, and as poets and composers of song—fully employing the intricate bardic poetic forms. In recent centuries, women proved important collectors of traditional song. In this performance, James will explore the rich Highland repertoire of the 16th to 18th centuries—composed, collected, or inspired by women. Come experience these songs, in Gaelic and Scots, where women lament their dead husbands, brothers, and kinsmen, nobly celebrate their clan chiefs, and even beautifully bid farewell to the “Music of the Clarsach.” Interspersed with haunting early harp repertoire from Scottish lute manuscripts, this rarely heard repertoire is sure to transport you.
Tenor James Ruff has received critical praise for his versatile singing on both the concert and operatic stage. Since 2005, he has focused his energies on researching and performing early Gaelic courtly repertoire from Scotland and Ireland for voice and early Gaelic harp, also reaching fluency in the Scottish Gaelic language. He has presented concerts of this music at festivals and on music series such as the Scoil na gCláirseach Festival of Early Irish Harp in Kilkenny, Ireland, the Boston Early Music Festival Fringe, Gotham Early Music Scene Midtown Concerts in New York, Beacon Hill Concerts in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, Stone Church Arts Concert Series in Bellows Falls, Vermont, and the Vassar College Concert Series. He studied Gaelic Song with Kenna Campbell in Scotland and early Gaelic harp with Siobhán Armstrong in Ireland. In both 2016 and 2017 he won first prize in Gaelic singing at the U.S. National Gaelic Mòd, and in 2018, won second place in Scotland’s Royal National Gaelic Mòd, Silver Pendant competition. Since 2017 he has performed and taught each summer at Scoil na gClairseach – Festival of Early Irish Harp in Kilkenny, Ireland. He can be heard in this repertoire on his recording: The Gaels’ Honour. He has made numerous tours singing the title role in The Play of Daniel, with Early Music New York and GEMS, at the Spoleto Festival in Italy as well as in Florida, Tennessee, Missouri, and New York City. He has taught voice at Vassar College since 2009. For more information, visit his website at: www.jamesrufftenorharper.com.