Ensemble Toss the Feathers (2007-2015)

Tra2 cropped copyditional and early music from Ireland and Scotland on early instruments

“…Cette fusion riche d’inspiration populaire et savante offre un répertoire où se mélangent gout raffiné et énergie éclatante, élégance et enthousiasme endiablé, complexité harmonique et spontanéité rythmique… ” – La Tribune, Buis-les-Barronies (26)

Founded in 2007, Ensemble Toss the Feathers (Dimitri Boekhoorn, early harps, whistle & flute; Tina Chancey, viol & renaissance fiddle; Valerie Loomer, theorbo, cittern, renaissance guitar & podorhythmie) plays Irish music from the original 17th and 18th c. sources on instruments the composers knew; a fusion of roots music and early instruments that acts as your passport back to the birthplace of Irish music. The group performed together for eight years, recorded two CDs (Feileacan (Butterfly) and Rira), and went on hiatus in 2015. In the summer of 2023, Dimitri and Tina reunited for a 22-concert tour of France and Switzerland.

Our repertoire includes

  • Pieces from Scottish lute manuscripts written in tablature
  • Works for wire-strung harp by Turlough (O’) Carolan and his contemporaries
  • Airs and dances from early sources such as the Niel Gow collection
  • Northumbrian bagpipe tunes from William Dixon’s Nine Notes that Shook the World
  • Reels, jigs and hornpipes from Edward Bunting’s harp publications and the collections of George and Robert Petrie

Ensemble Toss the Feathers also performs traditional tunes that are popular today. We take the unaccompanied melodies typically found in our musical sources and arrange them; adding harmonies, bass lines, descants and counter melodies to the original tunes, and then creating medleys from them. This inspired fusion of popular and early music offers modern audiences a repertoire that blends refined taste and sparkling energy, elegance and vibrant enthusiasm, harmonic complexity and rhythmic spontaneity. On the cusp between the traditional Irish and Scottish repertoires and early music, Ensemble Toss the Feathers offers a musical program that’s rich and varied.

The group has two recordings, Feileacan and RíRá, both available on CDBaby.comFor more about Ensemble Toss the Feathers, contact Tina Chancey at tinachancey@cs.com .