Praised for performing intricate fifteenth-century counterpoint “with the ease of jazz musicians improvising on a theme,” Ciaramella brings to life medieval and early Renaissance music from historical events and manuscripts. Its members are united by the conviction that every composition conceals a rich story waiting to be unlocked through historical research and speculative performance. Founded on a core of winds—shawm, sackbut, recorder, and voice—Ciaramella takes its name from the Italian shawm and from a fifteenth-century song about a beautiful girl whose clothes are full of holes. When she opens her mouth, she knocks men flat.
Directed by Adam and Rotem Gilbert, from the Early Music Program at USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles, the ensemble has performed at major festivals throughout the United States, Italy, and Germany, and has recorded for Naxos and Yarlung Labels.
Ciaramella has received praise from Jeremy Barlow for their “expressive fluidity and rhythmic vitality”, and Toccata notes “…when these extremely talented musicians begin to play, their liveliness and freshness is almost palpable. This is not just dance music; at its best, this is living music, current, non-academic, and certainly not old. Dance music was there from the beginning. And when it is played like this, the sounds of 300 years ago sound as if they were made only yesterday”–Robert Strobl, Toccata-Alte Musik aktuell.
MEET OUR DIRECTORS
Adam Knight Gilbert has performed on recorder, shawm and bagpipes with New York's Ensemble for Early Music, The Waverly Consort, Ensemble for Early Music, and Piffaro. He co-directs ensemble Ciaramella with Rotem Gilbert. Recordings of his music can be heard on Deutsche Grammaphon’s Archiv, Dorian, Naxos, and Yarlung Labels. He is Professor, Director of the Early Music Program and Chair of Musicology at USC's Thornton School of Music. He is recipient of the 2008 Noah Greenberg Award and joint-recipient of the 2014 Thomas Binkley Award with Rotem Gilbert. Adam has published articles on instrumental performance practice, composed and extemporized counterpoint and ground-bass improvisation, the music of Henricus Isaac, fifteenth-century dance, songs, and Masses, and musical symbolism.
Recorder player Rotem Gilbert is a native of Haifa, Israel and a founding member of Ciaramella, an ensemble specializing in music of the 15th and 16th centuries. Ciaramella has performed throughout the United States, in Belgium, Germany, and Israel, and released a CD on the Naxos Label, and two recordings with Yarlung Records. Their CD Dances on Movable Ground earned five stars by the British magazine Early Music Today and was picked the Editor's Choice, lauded for its "expressive fluidity and rhythmic vitality". Rotem was a member of Piffaro (1996-2007), and has appeared with many early music ensembles in the United States and in Europe.
Rotem has performed in Juiz de Fora, Brazil in 2019 and in the 1º Festival América Barroca in Minas Gerais in 2023. After studies on recorder with Nina Stern at Mannes College of Music in New York, she earned her solo diploma from the Scuola Civica di Musica of Milan where she studied with Pedro Memelsdorff. She earned her doctorate in Early Music performance practice at Case Western Reserve University. She is Vice Dean of Research and Scholarly Studies Division at USC’s Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles and is Professor of Practice in Early Music and Musicology where she teaches early performance practice courses, Renaissance notation seminars, classes on women composers, and takes turns directing the USC Baroque Sinfonia. She leads USC students for a summer course in Paris on music, culture and art. Rotem received the 2012 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching at USC and is the joint recipient (with Adam Gilbert) of Early Music America’s 2014 Thomas Binkley Award for “outstanding achievement in performance and scholarship by the director of a university or college early music ensemble.” She has been a regular faculty member of early music workshops and can be heard on the Deutsche Grammophon's Archiv, Passacaille, Musica Americana, Dorian, Naxos and Yarlung labels.