Tunes the bard would have put on his playlist

Shakespeare’s plays are packed with songs and musical moments like Hamlet’s advice to the recorder players. But what did Shakespeare’s musical world sound like? Piffaro continues its season-long exploration of Tudor music with a program devoted to the music Shakespeare knew: songs, ballads, instrumental fantasies, and country dances played on the kind of instruments actually used in Shakespeare’s day. Piffaro’s lute and guitar specialist, Grant Herreid, will contribute the vocals. Arrive half an hour early and you can hear Grant and Priscilla Herreid recount their experiences playing onstage in the Globe Theater’s recent Broadway productions of Twelfth Night and Richard III. What’s it like to share a stage with renowned British actors like Stephen Fry?

Piffaro, the Renaissance Band’s The Band and the Bard is coming up on Friday, March 28 at 8pm at the Trinity Center for Urban Life, 22nd and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia. There will be another performance on Saturday, March 29 at 8pm at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, and another on Sunday, March 30 at 3pm, Christ Church Christiana Hundred, Wilmington, DE. For tickets ($15-$40) and more information, call 215-235-8469 or visit www.piffaro.org.