2026.03.18 & 2026.03.19

Dowland 400 - A life told through music:
Tales, Songs, and Sounds of an Age

Roque Deschamps & Caroline Jou Armitage

Opening remarks by K. Dawn Grapes, PhD, author of the biography “Dowland”

 

Concert #1 - Salt Lake City, UT

Date: March 18, 2026
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
261 S 900 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84102

Concert #2 - Logan, Utah

Date: March 19, 2026
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: St. John’s Episcopal Church
85 E 100 North, Logan, UT 84341

This concert is conceived as a musical biography of the English composer and lutenist John Dowland (1563 - 1626), as we honor 400 years of his enduring legacy. Rather than presenting a selection of works, the program traces Dowland’s life chronologically, using music to illuminate the most important personal and professional moments of his life, from his early emergence as a composer and lutenist, through his years of travel and professional struggles, to his eventual recognition at the English court in his final years.

K. Dawn Grapes, Professor of Music History and author of the biography, “Dowland”, will offer opening remarks with some historical notes.

The Program will include

  • Praeludium — John Dowland

  • His Golden Locks Time Hath to Silver Turned — John Dowland

  • Fantasie — Gregory Huwet

  • Amarilli, mia bella — Giulio Caccini

  • Flow My Tears — John Dowland

  • In Darkness Let Me Dwell — John Dowland

  • And more!

Roque Deschamps is a Utah State University Master of Music alumnus and current Faculty Associate. He previously studied Jazz Guitar at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música de Santo Domingo (Berklee Global Partner) (2018), where he also studied classical guitar with Rubén Gonzáles. Here, he was selected by Berklee to participate in three of their programs in Santo Domingo, where he earned a scholarship for the Guitar Sessions summer program (2016) in Boston, MA. He later earned a Contemporary Music Bachelor from Universidad Pedro Henríquez Ureña (2021) with a major in Composition, Arrangement, and Production, and participated in an exchange program at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg (2018–2019) through UNPHU.

Roque pursued early music at the Fundación de la Villa de Santo Domingo (2022–2023), where he studied the lute, theorbo, and Baroque guitar with Cameron Welke and Richard Stone (Peabody Institute Faculty). Roque is a founding member of the early music group Musicos de La Villa. In 2025 he was clinician and performer at the American String Teachers Association Utah Midwinter Workshops, and he was awarded a full-tuition scholarship from the Lute Society of America to attend the Amherst Early Music Festival’s Baroque Academy, where he had lute lessons with Paul O’Dette and played theorbo in the opera Dafne by Georg Reutter der Jüngere.  He has also performed continuo on baroque guitar and theorbo for the long-standing Vivaldi by Candlelight concert series in years 2024 and 2025.

In addition to his academic work, Roque maintains an online private music studio through Lessonface, where he has been recognized on the platform’s Teacher of the Year list every year since 2020.

California Bay Area soprano Caroline Jou Armitage is known for her “absolutely beautiful” performances sung with “pitch-perfect clarity and affecting intensity” (San Francisco Classical Voice). As the newest member of Vajra Voices, a medieval vocal ensemble, her solo voice appears during the opening credits on the soundtrack of the feature film Outerlands. She has been a featured soloist with the California Bach Society, Chora Nova, UC Alumni Chorus, Harmonia Felice, Bay Choral Guild, Berkeley Baroque Strings, and LA Baroque. A multi-instrumentalist, she performs on the violin (modern and Baroque), vielle (medieval fiddle), viola da gamba, piano, harpsichord, and organ. You’ll also find Caroline performing as a Baroque dancer in Japan in May, and at the Berkeley Festival and Exhibition in June. This concert will be Caroline’s debut on the lute.