Newport Baroque

Newport Daily News, January 2006

Conductor goes for baroque
By James J. Gillis/Daily News staff

NEWPORT - When Paul Cienniwa proposed the Newport Baroque Orchestra five years ago, skeptics shook their
heads.

"Au contraire," the conductor/harpsichordist responded.

As the troupe's busiest season yet unfolds, Cienniwa is getting the last word. The orchestra has scheduled three
local concerts for the first half of 2007 and is in demand in other areas.

"Things have really exploded in the past two years," said Cienniwa, whose organization received federal nonprofit
status last year. "It's very encouraging. Now we're looking at concerts for 2009, where before we were looking
ahead no more than three months."

In performances at Trinity Church in 2005 and Emmanuel Church last year, the orchestra sold more than 200 tickets to each. On Friday, it plays a smaller venue, the Edward King House at 35 King St., at 7:30 p.m. The
program features baritone Aaron Engebreth, oboist Lani Spahr, Paul Cienniwa on harpsichord, and his wife, Audrey, on cello performing compositions by Bach, Handel, Telemann and Rameau.

The group relies on grants from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, from ticket sales and private donations.

"A lot of our musicians are from the Boston area, so we end up paying Boston rates," Paul Cienniwa said. "It would be less expensive to pay Providence wages, but it's working out well. We've had a lot of support from
private donations. And we work with a lot of the same musicians, so there's a sense of consistency."

In addition to Newport area concerts, the orchestra also has performed at Providence College and Tufts University
in Medford, Mass., and has collaborated with the Providence Singers. "We draw people from parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut," Cienniwa said. "But our main audience is our year-round Newport people. We have a steady base of people from Newport."

Cienniwa, 35, and his wife lived in Newport for four years but moved to Fall River, Mass., in 2004 for money reasons. "We wanted to be able to buy a house," he said.

Each teaches and Paul Cienniwa serves as organist in a Boston church. Both devote a lot of time to the orchestra.

They use their carriage house as rehearsal space, squeezing in as many as 14 musicians to a practice. Cienniwa said the goal is to provide chamber-flavored baroque music on a year-round basis. The Swanhurst
Chorus presents classical concerts and the Jamestown-based Music for A While folded in 2005. The Newport Music Festival runs for three weeks in July, when Cienniwa's orchestra tends to rest.

"The humidity doesn't work so well with our instruments," Cienniwa said, adding with a laugh, "the way it's going, humidity could be a problem in the winter, too."

The group has concerts scheduled at Emmanuel Church in March and in June, as well as a performance at Tufts University. Cienniwa said he knew the local fan base was developing when he noticed familiar faces in the crowd as he conducted.

"That's not something you're going to get with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, that's for sure," he said.

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