REBEL

Named after the innovative French Baroque composer, REBEL was formed in The Netherlands in 1991 and immediately took first prize in the Van Wassenaer International Competition in Utrecht. Since their critically-acclaimed American début in New York City, the ensemble has garnered an impressive international reputation for their virtuosic, expressive, and provocative approach to the baroque and classical repertoire. Led by violinists Jörg-Michael Schwarz and Karen Marie Marmer, the ensemble includes John Moran, violoncello, and Dongsok Shin, harpsichord.

REBEL’s program alternates compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach and Johann Gottlieb Goldberg. Goldberg was a harpsichordist and composer of the late Baroque period, best known for lending his name to the renowned Goldberg Variations of J.S. Bach. Bach’s technically difficult compositions, performed by the 14-year-old Goldberg, helped the insomniac Count Keyserlingk fall asleep. As a composer, Goldberg was influenced by Bach, with whom he probably studied; his later works reflect the galant style popular in the Dresden court.