by Daniel Hathaway
The Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute faculty concert on Tuesday afternoon, June 20 featured flutist Michael Lynn, harpsichordist Mark Edwards, and gambist Rebecca Reed in recently-discovered works by Marin Marais and Michel de la Barre.
The pieces were drawn from a large collection of dance suites offered for sale at a book auction earlier this year in Paris. Lynn learned about it in an email from the auctioneer, who wrote that there was “something related to the flute” in the collection being sold.
“As it turned out there was only a single music book in a very large library of books described as being from the Chateau de Champagne, but it is a superb collection of the earliest traverso solo and duo music written and published in France,” Lynn said during a recent conversation in the Special Collections room at the Oberlin Conservatory Library prior to Tuesday’s concert. “The composers, de la Barre, Hotteterre, and Marais, were all employed by Louis XIV and the music is all from his lifetime.”
Oberlin’s historical flute professor Michael Lynn has devised a whole day of events celebrating the little-known world of 19th century French flute music. On Saturday, October 31, Lynn will team up with flute professor Alexa Still, fortepianist David Breitman, the Conservatory’s music history department, the Conservatory Library, and the Frederick R. Selch Center for Music History, to shine light on a neglected subject through lectures, a concert and an exhibition.
Michael Lynn, Oberlin Conservatory Professor of Recorder and Baroque Flute, founded the Medici Charitable Foundation in 2012 following a liver transplant that restored him to health and allowed him to continue his career as a performing artist and teacher. The organization presents concerts by distinguished musicians to help raise funds for medical charities and research organizations. “Encore,” Medici’s next concert at Akron Civic Theatre on Saturday, October 18 at 7:30 pm, will benefit Lifebanc, a non-profit organization devoted to organ, eye and tissue recovery in Northeast Ohio. The performers will be the husband and wife piano team of Antonio Pompa-Baldi and Emanuela Friscioni. 
Michael Lynn, Oberlin Conservatory Professor of Recorder and Baroque Flute, founded the Medici Charitable Foundation in 2012 following a liver transplant that restored him to health and allowed him to continue his career as a performing artist and teacher.