AZ Early Music hosts biggest season of 41-year Tucson run

Arizona Early Music opens what promises to be the biggest season in its 41 years when the critically acclaimed ACRONYM ensemble makes its Tucson debut on Sunday, Nov. 13.

AEM Executive Director Dominic Giardino attributed part of that to rescheduling a pair of 2021-22 concerts and the launch of the group’s Tucson Baroque Music Festival to this season after they were postponed when COVID cases started to rise early this year.

“This season actually is our biggest season yet in part due to the remounting of the festival,” Giardino said. “We have five season concerts in addition to the festival. We are just excited to be bringing these people to Tucson.”

The season opens with the dynamic young string ensemble ACRONYM making its Tucson debut with “Dreams of the Wounded Musketeer.” The performance, featuring music by Baroque composers Valentini, Bertali, Schmelzer, Rosenmüller, and others, will feel more like a musical narrative than a concert, Giardino said.

The storyline follows an imperial military trumpeter who has been shot and lies dying while his life in music flashes before him, from the wild mood swings music took in his childhood to the enormous transformation music underwent in his teens and adulthood.

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The 11-member ACRONYM, formed in 2012, was one of the two groups whose 2020 AEM concerts were canceled at the height of the pandemic.

Their concert on Sunday begins at 3 p.m. at Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 2331 E. Adams St. Tickets are $30.90 through azearlymusic.org or by calling 520-314-1874.

The season also includes the dynamic duo Twelfth Night on Dec. 11; Ars Lyrica Houston’s “Crossing Borders: Music of 17th- and 18th-century Latin America,” on Jan. 22 as part of the 2023 Tucson Desert Song Festival; the inaugural Tucson Baroque Music Festival Feb. 10-12; the avant garde quartet Les Délices on March 26; and the French-Canadian Ensemble Caprice on April 23.

“It’s really a heavy-hitter season,” Giardino said.

For tickets and details, visit azearlymusic.org.