You’ve probably seen and heard a guitar before. And bagpipes. But what about an oud? Or a hurdy gurdy?
These are musical instruments you might see gathering dust in a museum, but the Folk Orchestra of Santa Barbara is giving audiences a chance to hear them played live by musicians as part of a unique concert.
The local, mostly volunteer musicians are performing three concerts of Medieval-era music this weekend, featuring rare and unusual instruments alongside more familiar ones.
"The audience gets to see and hear all these things that they didn't actually know existed or had only maybe heard mentioned in a random song or in a book. And then they get to come and hear them in the context of the melodies that they would have played, but also in this kind of new formation of an orchestra," explained Adam Phillips, the Folk Orchestra of Santa Barbara's musical director.
"I have a bunch of different medieval instruments, (such as the ) shawm, hurdy-gurdy, the Swedish nyckelharpa, bagpipes, and recorder. So all these really cool, old instruments that fit in with the classical strings, and harp, and guitar, and mandolin.
Added Phillips, "The vast majority of the melodies that we are playing are 600 to 900 years old. So it's all stuff from medieval England, France, Italy, and Spain. And then there's just one that's only a couple of years old, and it's one that I wrote for bagpipes. That is the newest one. Everything else is six to nine hundred years old."
The orchestra has been going for 9 years and is unique in the U.S.
"We're a 30-piece orchestra, and it's half classical strings, and the other half is all folk instruments. The folk instruments change depending on what culture or theme that we are putting in concert," said Phillips.
"The real mission is to get people to fall back in love with folk music. And so a lot of people just find that they can come and listen and enjoy it and be moved right away. We always end our first half with a sing-along. They teach it right there, and then people join in. I think that it's easy for people to just come and get right into it," he said.
The shows are on Friday, January 30, at 7 p.m. at Presidio Chapel in Santa Barbara, Saturday the 31st at 7 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal in Santa Barbara, and 4 p.m. on Sunday, February 1, at St. Marks in the Valley in Los Olivos.
