(upbeat music) - Utopia Early Music Ensemble invites audiences on a musical journey through centuries of Madrigal tradition in the Fa-La-La Follies, and joining us to share more as co-founder and soprano Emily Nelson.

Hey Emily, welcome back.

Always nice to have you.

So let's talk about this concert of Madrigals.

And what exactly are Madrigals?

- Madrigals go from the Renaissance era, so kind of like the 1400s all the way into the Baroque.

So the early 1600s.

And typically they are funny, they're playful.

A lot of them were done socially back in the day when people didn't have Netflix and they needed something fun to do.

And so a lot of these pieces of music were written to just be sort of like light entertainments with your friends.

And yeah, a lot of them imitate things like animal sounds or one of the pieces that we're doing on the concert imitates sounds of war.

So like, you know, the swishing of arrows going through the air and trumpet fanfares.

And these are all being imitated with voices and instruments.

- Right, right.

So tell us a little more about who's in the ensemble.

I know you're the soprano.

- I'm one of the sopranos.

We have two this time.

No, it's nice, I got a little backup.

It's great.

Yeah, we have six singers this time, which usually we just have four.

But sometimes, some of these pieces were written for as many as six voices, so we didn't wanna miss out on that fun.

And then we've got two violins, Baroque violins and harpsichord and Baroque cello.

- Okay, okay, and I wanna know a little more about why you started the ensemble.

- Oh my goodness.

I love this kind of music.

I love early music and I just wanted, me and Chris LeCluyse, the other co-founder, just wanted a chance to bring more of this style to our Salt Lake audience.

And it's chamber music.

It's a small ensemble and we have a lot of fun.

- And you do a wonderful job.

And I always like your concerts.

So thanks for being here.

- Thank you so much.

- And if you'd like to know more about that upcoming concert, it is the Utopia Early Music Ensemble.

"The Fa-La-La Folies: Madrigals Through the Ages."

October 25th at 7:30, October 26 at five at the Cathedral Church of St.

Mark.

It's utopiaearlymusic.org.

I'm Mary Dickson.

Thanks for watching "Contact."

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