My Blog

TRF 3rd weekend with Istanpitta

istanpitta — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:22:27 GMT

Istanpitta just finished their 3rd weekend at Texas Renaissance Festival. We have been experiencing excellent Wx and good crowds at the fair. The 2nd weekend was supported by Joachim Zwick on vielle who is local to the Houston area. This is Joachim's first year with Istanpitta at TRF and did an excellent job. The 3rd weekend was supported by Michelle Levy on Vielle who has done quite a number of gigs with Istanpitta and she will be with us for 3 weekends. 4th weekend will be performed by Annette Bauer on recorder, Abby on Lavta and vocals and Michelle Levy on Vielle. The director, Al Cofrin will be missing that weekend as he supports a Shuttle launch in the mission control centre for STS-126 mission to the International Space Station. Of course there many favourites back on the stages of TRF. I have to admit I do miss the Flying Fish Sailors out at TRF. They were such a stable diet of fun music at this faire for so many years. Sigh! And of course we have Wyndnwyre back performing on the Dove Meadow stage which is a large sound stage at TRF. For some reason, TRF has been going in the direction of amplified stages for their musical acts which is not exactly the best way to "Maintain the Illusion" in my opinion but I guess the dollar sign makes all original concepts and ideal goals take a back seat. Loud sells CDs. At the same time I can understand the concept of amping soft instruments to balance them up to your loudest instrument. Istanpitta did something similar for a little while when we were using a vielle that was really really quite but lately we have been using vielles that are a little louder and do not require any extra push for our acoustic festival shows. I am going to try to stay a purest with regard to acoustical un-amped sound for as long as I can. I realize it won't sell CD's but I still like the idea of bringing to a pre-16th c. festival a taste of what music was actually performed during this time period. Its the educational side of me. Maybe because I think it is important that our patrons know the difference between what is really the authentic stuff that properly fits a renaissance/medieval festival and modern music that your regular everyday fair goer tends to have a better identifying with. Early music, sadly does not fall in that category. E-Muziki came out with their new CD which is killer. An excellent selection of tunes with some innovative approaches to some traditional favourites. Wyndnwyre also being on the Dove Meadow stage also went amplified as the trend being started with E-Muziki. Each using their own system. The logistics involved are extensive and I am glad we have not gone down that road yet, but The new sound system for Wyndnwyre did do the trick and after a couple of weeks has finally narrowed down to a well balance sound. A. Cofrin/director

Texas Renaissance Festival 1st weekend

istanpitta — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 13:43:41 GMT

Well Istanpitta has returned to TRF for their first weekend and it felt great to be back. Although very few of the players of this ensemble actually live in Texas, the fact that the director does makes this Istanpitta's home festival. This past weekend was supported by Abby Green on vocals and percussion, and Ginna Watson on Vielle. It was a surprising low gate count but we are hoping it will pick up as the month gets cooler. And of course we were presenting our brand new CD "Exiled" for the first time at this fair so we did a lot of playing from that new release. Definitely come out and hear us. Al Cofrin

September Concerts

istanpitta — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 23:31:20 GMT

Istanpitta has been involved with several concerts this past month whereupon we performed the Pilgrimage program for Cleveland State University and Delaware Valley College near Philadelphia. Both concerts were very successful. As you can imagine I am worn out with regards to so much travelling and am very glad to stay home for awhile. Although we will be involved with Texas Renaissance Festival for the next two months but it is relatively local and for me, involves no air travel. I must be getting more picky with regards to hotel accommodations of late as the Days Inn that we stayed in near Philadelphia Airport had some type of bugs in the bed (not bed bugs thank goodness) that totally grossed me out. It was only in one of our rooms so the other room was okay. Still at $80 a night you would expect better. Fortunately the other 2 rooms including mine were okay. 2 of my players changed rooms and all was well. The Delaware Valley College was the first time for Megan Beller to perform with us on vielle. A most excellent and accomplished player out of Eastman School of Music. Her little one, name Naftali, was singing "Santa Maria" over and over after the concert. I promise not to tell their Rabbi :) Not sure he would be pleased. I think it is almost funny that of all the viellist that perform with Istanpitta, only one is a gentile (goya) which is Ginna Watson. All the rest are Jewish. Just interesting. Of course finding fiddle players that fit the criteria is not at all easy. Classically trained with folk music experience. Not always an easy combination to fit. Prior to the Delaware College gig, I had been in Bethlehem PA for 2 gigs associated with the Celtic Classic Festival. I performed as an octave mandolin player for a group called Clandestine. http://clandestineceltic.com/ What a rush that was.

Medieval Songs and Dances Volume II

istanpitta — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:44:31 GMT

So I have been getting grief from folks that ask about the second volume to the Medieval Songs and Dances book. So in order to stop the complaining, I am starting to work on this project as there is a bunch of tunes that are extremely cool that I want to publish in the next book. Mind you these are Cofrin interpretations of the manuscripts which are not always easy to decipher. Also included in the second volume will be more works from the Sephardic tradition and perhaps another traditional middle Easter tune thrown in hear and there. So more cantigas, troubodor songs and a few instrumentals. When will be ready? ...... you can ask ........ Give me some time, this stuff is hard to read.

Crossroads in Time Event (July 2007)

istanpitta — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 19:53:29 GMT

Back in July Istanpitta was hired to be the house band to a hard core re-enactment group called Compaigney du Chalis. http://www.mron.org/ The event was located in Sydney Valley, UT up in the mountains about 9K ft. It was beautiful and we watched the company do some fighting and launch a 1/3 size trebuchet. Totally Cool. We spent 4 days at this event and enjoyed the outdoors, got overfed with some amazing food, and very much enjoyed performing pre 15th c. music to this group. The event was supported by Heather Gilmer on Vielle and Abby Green on Vocals and percussion. This event is not open to the public but is a private event for this organization. It is definitely a very specific 14th c. English company with all the authentic trimmings. What breath of fresh air. These folks were the inventors of the word pleasant, nice, intelligent and engaging. And definitely pegged the historical geeko meter. Cannot wait to do it again. 4 days in the mountains? Sign me up coach! Al Cofrin

Wichita State University Gig

istanpitta — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:51:00 GMT

Istanpitta performed the Pilgrimage program for the Wichita State University Concert series in Kansas. This was the first concert of their series and they asked us to start it off with a bang which I think we were very successful. Pilgrimage is one of our most popular programs as it captures the interest from all ages. Especially with our theatrics and props. The concert was supported by the greatest Viellist in North America, Shira Kammen (also one of my teachers), Abby Green on Vocal and percussion, and amazing Annette Bauer on recorders and percussion. Our hosts showed us around the old part of Wichita, got to see a very nice jazz trio for dinner and stayed at a pretty nice hotel. We gave a lecture in the afternoon on Medieval music and then performed the concert program in the evening to a great crowd who stayed afterwards and asked a lot of questions which is always a good sign of success. The audience was very receptive and involved themselves in the program with our little bit of audience participation. We had them gasping, shouting and laughing. There was a reception afterwards at a catering shop with the board of directors of the series. Schmooze time a-plenty. Food a-plenty! Wine a-plenty. This was also the first appearance of one of my new toys: a 12th c. citole which is an early medieval guitar. See below for Citole info: http://www.crab.rutgers.edu/~pbutler/citole.html CD sales were excellent. Next weekend we are at Maryland Renaissance Festival for the weekend.

Camlann Festival

istanpitta — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 22:33:44 GMT

Istanpitta is back from doing 4 concerts at the Camlann Medieval Festival in Carnation, WA. Of all the Medieval/Ren type festivals that we sometimes do, I have to say that this festival is the most authentic with regards to detail and accuracy which is similar to what you would find in European Medieval festivals. http://www.camlann.org/ This is definitely the only Early Period festival for the public in the US that goes to such seriously great lengths to present to the public a very realistic living History representation of 14th c. life. And with Istanpitta being one of the few ensembles that perform authentic early music at festivals our fit to this festival is a perfect match. The festival juries their participants very strictly which results in a magnificent atmosphere that gives the general public a true representation of Medieval life which is normally not found at most festivals. This festival is an absolute piece of work and we loved performing at it. Of course performing in Washington state isn't all that bad either. No sweating involved. One word would describe this very well ...GREEN! Washington, looks green, and smells green. We performed shortened versions of our Pilgrimage and Chevrefoil programs for the patrons twice a day. We also met up with another set of Early Music musicians who I found had similar history with teachers. Their duet group was Sub Tilia who were well versed in Medieval musicology which gave us lots of geek time and they are fine musicians with excellent performance practice skills for this time period. It was so much fun jamming with them. The festival is absolutely one of our favorite festivals and extremely unique with regards to the efforts of detail that it goes through. The villagers are extremely well versed in their time period which is well represented in their mannerisms. The permanent structures are magnificent replicas of English cottages with extremely historical food for the 14th c. And it rained a couple of times ... just like England. The highlight of the day was the villager’s full blown professional production of the medieval play: Sir Orfeo complete with a musicians gallery, very medieval props and masks to tell the story of Orfeo's journey to the underworld to retrieve his love. It was amazing, the artwork, the backdrops, the costumes, the masks, and the music. Each scene made my jaw drop. Everyone was extremely nice and helpful. The ground slugs in this state are HUGE. The festival was supported by Michelle Levy on vielle and Abby Green on vocal/percussion. Al Cofrin/director

Post Pennsic 2007

istanpitta — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 15:03:34 GMT

Istanpitta is back from Pennsic and in the process of recovering. There was lots of rain which made performing very difficult for historical instruments as they cannot handle even a sprinkle. So we did not do as much busking as prefered. However the crew did great with the liminted sets that we did. We did pretty well on CDs. Not so much on Tips as SCA did not seem to be a tipping type crowd but definitely a CD buying crowd. The busking spots shuffling with other groups worked out pretty well this year (better then last year). And there was very little complaints as far as I could tell. We camped in Calontir and right next to Wolgemut which made the stay lots of fun as the two crews interacted with each other. Michael Gartner had a good fun loving crew this year and it was a blast hanging out with them. Wolgemut's midnight streaking run through the campsite will keep us in therapy for a while. The big drag again, was the rain and the extreme heat which made for difficult playing conditions where not optimal for historical instruments. However, the crowds responded well and the performing sets were well received. In the process of the rain, we had a violin sound post pop out of position, 2 gut strings break and 2 gut frets break on my vielle. Did I bring too many instruments ... duh! The Dual concert with Teribus was a great success and the crowds loved us. We ended the concert with a both bands performing a loud band tune off of Istanpitta's latest recording release whereupon we had on stage 3 Medieval greatpipes and 2 shawms. Abby and Alesha both were on Shawms. It was a wall of sound. Cercemon also attended Pennsic and Istanpitta hung out with these guys quite a bit. Some partly due to the fact that the Pitta girls were all gagga over "da boys". Cercemon is an amazing set of musicians from Montreal performing Medieval and Breton music. And entertaining as hell. It was interesting to have brought 3 players who are not familiar with the SCA world and to hear their thoughts on this organization. As in any large organization you get to meet a lot of fun and interesting well adjusted people. But of course its the creepy ones that are memoreable as they make for a good laugh. One in particular kept trying to separate our flute player/dancer from the ensemble by inviting her to late night parties even after being told several times politely that it was not possible. And tended to make inappropirate and suggestive comments to her whilst attempting to get her personal contact information. She tried to be nice about it but the guy just did not get it. This kind of stuff gives SCA a bad impression to folks outside this organization. At the same time it made for some pretty laughable memories that will have plenty of mileage afterwards. Calontir was very gratious in hosting us and treated us very well. More later on the Pennsic experience. Al Cofrin/director www.istanpitta.com

Off to Pennsic

istanpitta — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 02:08:28 GMT

Istanpitta is off to Pennsic this week and will start playing in the streets starting Saturday morning. The compliment this year is myself on Lute, Michelle Levy on Vielle, Abby Green on vocals and percussion and Alesha Herrera on transverse flutes. We be performing a concert with another ensemble called Teribus on August 7th in the evening and we will be the dance band for the 16th c. ball in the dance tent on the evening of August 6th. Our latest CD, "EXILED" has just been released and will be available at Pennsic. Al Cofrin

Crossroads in Time Event

istanpitta — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 01:43:02 GMT

Istanpitta just came back from a 4 day gig in Dixie Nationale forest at 10,000 ft in souther Utah mountains with a private Living History group called Compaigniye du Chalis which is a very specific 14th c. English related company. This was a private event by members of the company only that hired istanpitta as the house band to perform periodically during the day and evening. The company provided us with our own pavilion and we played to our hearts content. Mountain camping is fantastic. Nice and chilly in the evening. If you are a hard core member of the 14th c. Mafia then this group is right up your alley. We learned alot about the 14th c. as we ate well and enjoyed wonderful companionship and did some birdwatching as well. Saw a Nutcracker and Western Tanager. Players for this event were Abby Green on vocals and percussion and Heather Gilmer on vielle. Cannot wait to do this gig again. Al Cofrin/director www.istanpitta.com

Saint Louis Festival

istanpitta — Wed, 23 May 2007 17:55:50 GMT

5-23-07: This past weekend Istanpitta performed at the Greater Saint Louis Renaissance Festival (GSLRF). Istanpitta has been doing partial weekends at this fair for 5 years and we absolutely love this festival. The management is great to work with, the staff is fun with a great sense of humor and the folks that we share stages with are friendly and very easy to work with. This year we were only able to fit 1 weekend into our schedule for GSLRF. For the last 4 years we had been at the Marco Polo stage but when we showed up we learned that we got moved to the Joan of Arc stage. I can tell you that I am not thrilled about last minute changes, so this was a bit of unpleasant shock. The Arc stage is a sound stage environment and not being told, we were not prepared with appropriate equipment to utilize the sound system. So we ended up actually not performing on the stage but on the ground in order to get closer to our audience as this stage area is HUGE and there is no way Istanpitta's sound would be able to fill it. Still, we did not do too badly on CD sales but our audiences were pretty small due to our regular fans not being able to find us. Even the other regular acts on the Marco Polo stage came by to say that they missed us. And we missed them.... sniff. I am hoping that we get back to our regular stage next year and honestly not sure why this was done. Also we ran into one of our favourite acts at this stage which is the Juniper Consort. A trio of recorder players that use any opportunity to turn into a drinking game. "Santa Maria" ...chug! Also the Limey Birds, are a trio of singers that put on a great show and are really wonderful girls and missed sharing the stage with them along with the belly dance troup that is on the Marco Polo stage. .... sniff! We will be back to this fair next year for hopefully the 1st two weekends of the run. Still, overall a fun time. The compliment for this run was Abby Green/vocal, Heather Gilmer/Viellest and Al Cofrin/Lute/Bagpipes. Al Cofrin/director, www.istanpitta.com

utah Festival and Traveling

istanpitta — Fri, 18 May 2007 18:06:39 GMT

5-15-07: Just spent the weekend up near Salt Lake City for a beginning Renaissance festival that did a great job of putting on their first weekend run for this year. Istanpitta participated by providing authentic Early Music for the masses as they came in through the gate. The hard part of this run was that it was frickin' hot with some record highs. Also we made the mistake of not purchasing a humidifier for the hotel rooms that contained the instruments. The vielle (Medieval fiddle) opened up a seam on day two so it goes into the shop this week for repair. Part of all the job I guess. I don't think I will make that error again but who knows. The fair was run but some really really nice people that were excellent to work with and very accommodating in regards to last minute changes to fit the venue. Which, by the way, the site had to change a couple of months prior to the opening of the run which was not easy to deal with. But they pulled it off with minimal impacts. The players for this run were Abby Green, myself and Michelle Levy on Vielle. An interesting thing happened on the way back. Normally I don't have any problem carrying on an instrument on to the commerical aircraft but I was flying a puddle jumper back to Houston (ERJ express jet, you know the kind that has 1 seat in one isle and 2 seats in the other isle). Well I was carrying a small tiny violin case with the vielle which I knew would fit in the overhead. The overhead is very tiny, but I had done it before with no problem, and I did not have too many items with me. Sure enough right at the gate where they scan your ticket, the steward wanted to tag my vielle for a hand check into the cargo. I told her that it fits into the overhead even for this small aircraft. She said she wanted to tag it anyway. I said "fine, whatever". She put the tag around the vielle handle. I walked down the ramp and as soon as I am out of her sight, I ripped off the tag and from there on everything was fine. Word to the wise about instruments carrying on: if you are absolutely sure your instrument will fit in the overhead (and that is the main important criteria since the puddle jumpers will only fit a small violin case at the most), Just nod your head anytime they want to tag it for hand check or if they tell you that it cannot go on board just say that you are carrying it for handchecking at the gate and then as soon as you start going down the ramp, rip off the tag and walk onto the aircraft with the instrument. That is my recommendation. The other thing to remember is always make sure you are one of the first group of people that board the aircraft. That means for Southwest airlines, be in the "A" boarding group, or for all other airlines, choose a seat in the back of the aircraft since they always board the rear rows first. These steps will help insure that your instrument will have a place in the overhead. If you board last you are screwed and could possibly have to hand check the instrument simply because there is no room in the overheads anymore since you did not plan ahead. Al Cofrin/director/istanpitta

Istanpitta blog

istanpitta — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 21:48:03 GMT

Well lets see if I can keep this up and running in regards to interest about Istanpitta Early Music Ensemble