POTSDAM -- SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music will offer a unique opportunity for the public to experience early musical instruments and styles firsthand through its first-ever Early Music Day, on Saturday, Nov. 4, from 2 to 4 p.m.

Both children and adults are welcome to visit Crane to interact with performers, try out instruments and experience early music in a totally new way.

Each room in the Crane School of Music complex will host a different presentation, including demonstrations on choir and solo voice performance, as well as demonstrations of many instruments used in the performance of early music, such as the guitar, harpsichord, clavichord, violin, viola da gamba, viola, cello, marimba, oboe and sackbut.

Early Music Day will be an informal setting, with guests able to enter and exit rooms at their own pace, with ongoing presentations taking place throughout the two-hour event. Student greeters will be on hand to provide event schedules and guide visitors around the building, and Crane faculty and music majors will be available to answer questions. This event is free, and the public is invited to attend.

The music featured at Crane's Early Music Day will include selections from the Renaissance (1450 to 1600) and Baroque (1600 to 1750) eras. For example, music by the Italian Baroque composers Tomaso Albinoni (his "Concerto for Two Oboes") and Claudio Monteverdi (madrigals and canzonetta) will be featured.

A variety of instruments from these time periods will also be introduced and compared to their modern counterparts. For instance, the sackbut is the type of trombone that was played during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, and is rarely heard today. The viola da gamba is played similarly to a cello, but has six strings rather than four. The harpsichord, predecessor instrument to the piano, was widely played from the 16th to 18th centuries. The clavichord, which will also be displayed, is a quiet keyboard instrument that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart preferred to practice on.

For more information about Early Music Day at The Crane School of Music, please contact Visiting Assistant Professor Dr. Bethany Cencer, at cencerbn@potsdam.edu.

For more information about SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, please visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.