Connect with Ronn

Fermi's Paradox

Released 2020

We had all the time in the world. We had three months. Our Saturday rehearsals turned into Saturdays and Sundays. Week after week we scoured our memories, stacks of books, piles of sheet music, and beloved recordings for pieces we might include on this CD.

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The Celtic Lute

Released July 27, 2018

The Celtic Lute includes new arrangements of music by Irish composer Turlough O'Carolan, as well as other popular Irish and Scottish folk tunes. This album represents a new take on these pieces, some of which have previously been recorded by Celtic music legends like The Chieftains and The Bothy Band.

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Barley Moon

Released June 24, 2016

This brand new album, featuring music from the live program Will You Walk the Woods so Wild, is comprised of Renaissance music and old traditional folk songs, showcasing the surprising parallels between high art music and folk music.

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Nine Notes that Shook the World

Released June 25, 2013

GRAMMY nominated Ronn McFarlane is joined by Mindy Rosenfeld to present Nine Notes that Shook the World.

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Two Lutes

Released July 31, 2012

Lute Duets from England's Golden Age, a wonderful collection of enchanting music performed by lute virtuosos Ronn McFarlane and William Simms.

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The Art of Vivaldi's Lute

Released May 31, 2011

Vivaldi’s complete music for lute and strings is included on this album, along with two Vivaldi Sinfonias for strings and the Vivaldi motet “In Turbato Mare Irato."

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Blame Not My Lute

Released February 23, 2010

The poetry of William Shakespeare, Thomas Wyatt, Richard Barnfield and the bawdy Thomas d’Urfey intertwine with the music of John Dowland, William Byrd and the prolific Anonymous.

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One Morning

Released May 25, 2009

The follow-up release to his wildly popular original music album Indigo Road, Ronn continues to show the world that the lute is a living instrument suited for more than just classical performances by past composers, but is ready to introduce new music into the world.

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Adio España

Released April 28, 2009

This program will take you on a musical journey through the fascinating intercultural history of the late 15th and early 16th century Spain.

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Bright Day Star

Released April 16, 2009

This traditional music, with roots going back many centuries, revives our spirits and evokes a festive mood.

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Live in Concert

Released October 14, 2008

Take a journey back in time with a visit to the First Scots Presbyterian Church in Charleston, S.C., during the Piccolo Spoleto Festival for the location of this live recording.

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Gut, Wind, and Wire

Released November 13, 2007

In true English Consort style, the Baltimore Consort, America's most popular early music ensemble, mixes instruments from different families.

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Indigo Road

Released November 1, 2007

Historically the lute player and the composer of lute music were one and the same. Ronn McFarlane has returned to that time, with this dazzling and beautiful recording of his own compositions for the lute.

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Adew Dundee

Released September 30, 2003

The lure of Scottish melody with its gapped scales and "scotch snaps" (short-long rhythms) motivated the English to set new words to Scottish tunes or to write new tunes in imitation of Scottish style.

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The Best of the Baltimore Consort

Released January 28, 2003

Two musical traditions - one as old as the other is new - characterize this ensemble.

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The Art of the Lute

Released January 1, 2003

"The first time I picked up a lute was at a local music store," says Ronn McFarlane. "I'd been studying guitar, and I'd already learned a lot about the lute, so I was surprised to discover how awkward it was to hold and how disappointing and difficult it was to try to play."

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Amazing Grace

Released May 1, 2001

This is the music of the Old-Time Religion - the expression of country folk and poor yoemen who fled to America primarily from the British Isles.

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The Mad Buckgoat

Released October 12, 1999

The initial spark for this program was a landmark publication called A Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes, published in Dublin in 1724 by John & William Neal.

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Highland King

Released January 1, 1999

Little is known of the earliest history of the Lute in Scotland, though it was clearly an important instrument for centuries before the first lute manuscripts appeared.

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The Ladyes Delight

Released March 17, 1998

Recordings such as this--and many others by the Baltimore Consort--remind us where many of our American folk music traditions come from, and reveal just how strongly connected we still are to European traditions many centuries old.

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Tunes from the Attic

Released April 10, 1997

Tunes from the Attic returns to the central repertory of the Baltimore Consort: popular and courtly music from Elizabethan England and Renaissance Scotland.

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A Distant Shore

Released January 1, 1997

The revival of the lute and its repertoire in the later twentieth century has been so thorough that it is difficult now to remember how much a "distant shore" the instrument seemed to musicians even a few generations ago.

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The Italian Lute Song

Released July 1, 1996

The Italian Lute Song

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Between Two Hearts

Released January 1, 1996

The title Between Two Hearts symbolizes the magnetic pull between the hearts of a pair of dancers, and especially the music connecting these hearts.

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A Trip to Killburn

Released January 1, 1996

The English Dancing Master, first published by John Playford in 1651, is an anthology of top tunes from the 17th century.

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The True Lover's Farewell

Released March 28, 1995

‍The majority of pieces on this disc come from the 1932 publication of English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians

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The Renaissance Lute

Released January 1, 1994

When first conceiving this recording, I imagined myself as a first time listener to the lute. I have tried to bring together a collection of pieces that capture some of the variety and range of styles of the Renaissance lute.

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La Rocque 'n' Roll

Released September 28, 1993

All of the song and dance arrangements on this CD are the creation of the members of the Baltimore Consort.

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The English Lute Song

Released August 22, 1993

Throughout the Renaissance and early Baroque, in England as in no other country, song was shaped by the firm authority of poets, who took a dim view of the singer who might "hide the light of sense with divisions.

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Custer LaRue Sings the Daemon Lover

Released August 2, 1993

Traditionally, art music is a diversion for the educated classes, while folk music is one of the most intimate, reassuring and embellishing possessions of the poor

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The Art of the Bawdy Song

Released February 11, 1993

Through these bawdy catches and ballads we journey to the taverns and other social gathering-places of the real Merry Old England.

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Watkins Ale

Released May 22, 1992

The English mixed consort is fascinating for several reasons, not the least of which is its multi-colored sound.

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Lute Music of John Dowland

Released January 1, 1991

John Dowland stands out as the most tuneful Elizabethan lute composer. Whether creating tunes for dances, variatons on popular ballads or weaving a contrapuntal fantasia, his melodies lodge in the memory and resound there long after the music has stopped.

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The Scottish Lute

Released January 1, 1990

These dance tunes and songs were the pop music of their time, now turned into "classical music" entirely by the aging process.

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On the Banks of Helicon

Released January 1, 1990

Most of the Scottish music on this disc is over 400 years old, and yet it strikes our ears as contemporary in its freshness and originality.

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O Mistress Mine

Released December 11, 1986

Frederick Urrey and Ronn perform a collection of English lute songs.

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Greensleeves

Released November 26, 1985

Julianne Baird (soprano) and Ronn (lute) perform a collection of English lute songs

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Fermi's Paradox

Released November 20, 2020

We had all the time in the world. We had three months. Our Saturday rehearsals turned into Saturdays and Sundays. Week after week we scoured our memories, stacks of books, piles of sheet music, and beloved recordings for pieces we might include on this CD.

Learn More