Concerts On The Hill: St. John’s Selects
Joel Spears, lute
St. John’s Selects presents:
The Great Mystery: Old Music for a New Advent
An intimate evening of Advent-themed music to bring joy and wonder into the beautiful Roberts Recital Hall at historic St. John’s Episcopal Church.
So many of the best loved Advent songs come from the middle ages and renaissance, when the lute was popular and in many ways the most important instrument in Western Music.
In this inaugural concert in Roberts Recital Hall, Joel Spears will play original Advent pieces and Noels for lute, theorbo (the 6-foot long mega lute) and electric guitar, including his own arrangements of pieces by Tomás Luis de Victoria, Francois Couperin, and others.
6:00pm on Sunday, December 1, 2024 in beautiful Roberts Recital Hall
101 Chapel Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801
NOTE: THIS EVENT WILL BE HELD IN INTIMATE ROBERTS HALL, A VENUE WHICH HAS A MAXIMUM SEATED CAPACITY OF 40.
About The artist
Joel Spears began his creative life at 3, when he began drawing and making little illustrated books, inspired by his mother. Later on, he taught himself to play the guitar, first acoustic and then electric. Inspired by the sound and the vast repertoire of the lute, he began studying the instrument years later in all its various forms.
Today Joel is much sought after as a soloist, continuo player, lecturer and teacher. He is a founding member of the ensemble Black Tulip, and has performed with Lyric Opera of Chicago (including on-stage appearances), Chicago Opera Theater, The Marion Consort, SDG Chicago Bach Project, Seraphic Fire, and many more.
In addition to producing and playing for numerous live radio broadcasts on 98.7, WFMT, Chicago’s Classical and Folk Music Radio Station, he has appeared at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Chicago Cultural Center’s Preston Bradley Hall, the Bach Week in Evanston Festival, and the Handel Week Festival.
As a lecturer and performer, he has appeared at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Madison Early Music Festival, and as Guest Artist and Lecturer at Grand Valley State University. Joel is currently Lute Instructor at the Music Institute of Chicago, and founded The Early Music Series at the Byron Colby Barn in Grayslake, Illinois. He is also the first theorbo and baroque guitar teacher in the nation at the high school level, teaching at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, IL.
Joel currently lives in Portsmouth, NH with his wife Heidi.