Downland Mini Festival Part 2: Paul O'Dette, Lute

Name: Downland Mini Festival Part 2: Paul O'Dette, Lute
Start: 2026-02-22T16:00:00-05:00
Location: Downtown United Presbyterian Church

Schedule

Sun, 22 Feb, 2026 at 04:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Downtown United Presbyterian Church | Rochester, NY

Dowland Mini-Festival Part 2:
Commemorating the 400th anniversary of the death of John Dowland in February 1626
The many moods of Dowland, merry to melancholic, played by our local world-renowned lute maestro.
Paul O’Dette, lutenist, theorbist, conductor, and scholar, has been described as “the clearest case of genius ever to touch his instrument.” (Toronto Globe and Mail) One of the most influential figures in early music and historical performance, O’Dette infuses his performances with a perfect combination of historical awareness, idiomatic accuracy, and ambitious self-expression. His appearances at major international festivals worldwide have often been singled out as the highlights of those events. O’Dette is widely known for his performances and recordings of solo lute and chamber music, and as conductor of Baroque operas in North America and Europe. He has made more than 155 recordings, with 2 Grammys, 8 Grammy nominations, and numerous other awards. In addition to his activities as a performer, O’Dette is Artistic Co-Director of the Boston Early Music Festival and an avid researcher. He is an international expert on 17th-century Italian and English solo song, Italian, German and French Baroque opera, basso continuo practices and instrumental music. A recipient of the Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching, O’Dette is Professor of Lute and Director of Early Music at the Eastman School of Music.