At the National Gallery, London

"Ensemble Chaconne was a true highlight of the season!...The audience was especially responsive to not only the wonderful music performance, but to the educational component...The commentary provided by the musicians was especially engaging for all of us who attended the performance that evening. The standing ovation that Ensemble Chaconne received is a true indication of the level of excellence of that special evening."
~ Kimberley Bush Tomio, Director, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, TX

“The ensemble plays with unleashed passion...an enchanting and fully satisfying performance.”    ~ Ron Sherhofer, Director of Performing Arts Center, Washington & Jefferson College

"The music was enchanting and beautifully played, the dancing and period costumes were elegant and each one special,...The audience was transfixed and transported..." ~ Claudia Thompson, Executive Director, Springstep

"The program was brilliantly created and exquisitely performed with both historical integrity and musical virtuosity….In the 22 year history of our arts series we have presented many nationally and internationally renowned artists. We have presented numbers of early music groups and artists. The Ensemble Chaconne performance can certainly be considered a highlight among these numerous concerts."         
                 ~ James Johnson, Music Minister, Ebenezer Lutheran Patrons and Friends of the Arts, Columbia SC 

The Ken Pierce Baroque Dancers, guest artists with Ensemble Chaconne

Performing on renaissance instruments with vocalist Burcu Gulec

“Ensemble Chaconne lived up to its reputation as an outstanding professional ensemble devoted to exquisite performance of seldom-heard music. Many of the large number of students that were attracted to the concert had never heard early music at all, and it was clear that all were drawn magnetically to the sounds and sights of instruments new to them.  But it was the outstanding artistic quality of the performance that cemented a memorable event in the lives of us all…All in all, it was one of the most memorable musical events we have had here at UCM.  Bravo, Ensemble Chaconne!  ~ Dr. Les Brothers, University of Central Missouri
 
"The performances are excellent" 
                                                    ~ The Flutist Quarterly

"Carol Lewis’ solo produced a palpable gasp in the audience...Bloom’s quicker lines were sprightly played and articulate, while slower passages added an almost ethereal quality ...gave a heightened awareness of his exemplary skill...Henriksen’s playing was smooth, fluid and so wonderfully executed that one wondered how he could give the audience only a single morsel of Dowland’s genius.”   ~ Gary Beckman, The University of Texas at Austin

"Two albums, both American, both featuring fine lute playing and mezzo-soprano vocals, both intimately bound up with Shakespeare's plays, make an interesting comparative study…"O Mistress Mine" in Morley's setting is a lively opening to Ensemble Chaconne's disc….Both [Robert Johnson's] Tempest settings are here, along with Hark, Hark the Lark (with wonderful flute birdsong obligato) to go with the masquing dances. Carol Lewis does brilliantly in Corkine's lyra-way divisions on Walsingham and Come Live with Me and Be My Love…splendidly handled…the recording balances are excellent…delightful." ~ Lute News (The English Lute Society)

"If there had been a blaze in the granite fireplace of Bowdoin's Moulton Union, it would have been a perfect Elizabethan evening--viola da gamba, lute, soprano voice and wooden transverse flute delivering authentic music from Shakespeare's plays. The Ensemble Chaconne is known not only for meticulous musicology, but also for its ability to bring Renaissance and Baroque music to life….Each player was given an opportunity to show off his or her virtuosity. Of particular note were the lute solo by John Dowland that followed "If Music and Sweet Poetry agree," a viola da gamba piece by William Corkine; and the flute calls that accompanied "Hark, Hark! The Lark" from Cymbeline. The entire evening was characterized by balance and charm…" ~ The Portland Press Herald  

At Shorter College (Rome, Georgia)

Photos:  Robert Bigio, Heloise Tanglewood, courtesy Ken Pierce, Shorter College, Onondaga Community College