A musical journey will come full circle for flutist Dennette McDermott when she performs with the Austin Baroque Orchestra on Jan. 20-21. The Jan. 20 concert is at 7 p.m. at Redeemer Presbyterian Church at 2111 Alexander Ave. in Austin. The Jan. 21 performance is at 4 p.m. at Mission Concepcion at 807 Mission Rd. in San Antonio. For ticket information, go to austinbarqueorchestra.com.
McDermott, a professor of flute at Northwestern State University, traveled to Copenhagen eight years ago to examine an 18th-century manuscript of an anonymous flute concerto. She felt the work was by the Czech baroque composer Jiri Čart, a flutist and violinist employed by Frederick the Great. The following year, she published a modern edition of the work and performed it with the NSU Chamber Orchestra. Then in 2012, she was invited to perform the work with a chamber orchestra in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Three years ago, McDermott started learning the 18th century baroque flute, studying with world-class experts at the Tafelmusik and Minneapolis Baroque Institutes. She will perform the Čart concerto with the Austin Baroque Orchestra on the instrument for which it was intended.
Recently, after nearly 17 years of collecting manuscripts of this Czech 18th-century composer, she published the first thematic catalog of this composer’s works.
McDermott, along with husband Douglas Bakenhus, have been performing with the Austin Baroque Orchestra the past few years. The orchestra is a professional ensemble of musicians who perform on 18th-century antique instruments or replicas from the time period. McDermott plays a one-keyed replica of an 18th-century Belgian instrument, recently made in Austria.
