Catherine Motuz - Trombone
Catherine Motuz has pursued an active career as an interpreter, teacher and scholar. She is co-director of Ensemble Fedeli, and plays with ensembles from Japan to Vancouver, including the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, and La Cetra. In recent years she has performed as a soloist at the Midsommer Barock Festival in Copenhagen as well as in Austria and Switzerland with countertenor Alex Potter. Catherine has taught at McGill University, Université de Montréal, and the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague and is currently a lecturer in historical trombone at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.
Catherine Motuz comes from Ottawa, Canada, and studied historical trombone with Charles Toet at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis from 2004 to 2011. As a researcher, she focuses on historical improvisation pedagogy and ideas about musical expression and aesthetics in the 16th century.
Course description
The course is aimed at students and professional musicians in the field of trombone in old scale. We will mainly investigate the question of how to imitate a singer on the trombone, e. g. by using historical articulations to express text, and by imitating vocal ornaments, including Passaggi and Grazie. We will work on different levels of diminution on the trombone: for advanced trombone players who want an introduction, we will build a base in the styles of Giovanni Bassano and Girolamo Dalla Casa, and for those who already have experience, we will also explore the decorative styles of Giovanni Bovicelli and Francesco Rognoni. As a repertoire we will play the multi-choral sonatas and canzons from Venice (by Gabrieli and others) as well as lesser-known genres such as the Canzon motet from Milan decorated with vocal music from Mantova and Bologna.
