Coming up in Philly music: Piffaro’s post-season popup

Piffaro models itself on the town bands that played at festivals, religious services, weddings, and other events that enlivened urban life in Renaissance Germany. Its regular season is over but, like the original town bands did, it’s popping up in a spectacular post-season happening. On June 30, Piffaro’s Renaissance instruments will join the Westminster Summer Choral Festival in a performance of Claudio Monteverdi’s biggest masterpiece, his 90-minute Vespers for the Blessed Virgin, generally known as the Vespers of 1610.

The Westminster Summer Choral Festival is an annual event presented by Rider University’s Princeton-based Westminster Choir College, the mecca of choral singing in the United States. Choristers and choir leaders from all over the country sharpen their skills preparing a major choral work under the direction of the Westminster faculty. Monteverdi’s Vespers was the first large-scale Baroque choral work, the opening blast in a history that culminated in the oratorios, masses, and passions of Handel and Bach. Monteverdi’s mixture of Baroque and Renaissance style, with elements of opera and ballet, produced a work that has entertained audiences for over 400 years.

Piffaro and the Westminster Summer Choral Festival will present Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 at the Episcopal Cathedral, 23 S. 38th Street, Philadelphia, at 7pm on Friday, June 30 (tickets $30; $15 for students and seniors). There will be a second performance in New Jersey on Saturday, July 1, at 7pm at the Miller Chapel of the Princeton Theological Seminary, 64 Mercer Street, Princeton (admission is a free-will offering). Tickets are available at the door, online, or by calling 609-924-7416.