Ayreheart Early Music Band
Friday, March 27, 2026 @ 7:30 PM
Robertson-Wesley United Church
Ayreheart was founded by Grammy-nominated lutenist/composer Ronn McFarlane. Performing with lute, vocals, colascione (a type of bass lute), violin, guitar, and percussion, Ayreheart offers a program of Renaissance music and traditional folk music from the British Isles.
Music of John Dowland and William Byrd are featured alongside anonymous ballad tunes and folk songs from Renaissance England, Scotland, and Wales.
This program explores the parallels between high art music and traditional folk music of the time, and includes original music steeped in traditions of the past.
Heather Aubrey Lloyd
vocals and guitar
Heather Aubrey Lloyd has travelled for two decades, playing anywhere that might make a good story: bait shops, biker weeks … even clothing-optional resorts. A recovering reporter whose love of the journey evolved into equally adventurous songwriting. Pat Wictor hails her “sing-me-the-phone-book” voice. “Janis Joplin meets Joni Mitchell,” says the Montgomery Caller. Comfortable in any genre, Lloyd blends folky finger-picked guitar with lyrical rhythms/hand percussion influenced by Baltimore’s diverse music scene. Best known as co-front of ilyAIMY, Lloyd’s solo efforts are gaining recognition: Falcon Ridge Folk Fest Most Wanted, National Women’s Music Fest Emerging Artist, No Depression-FreshGrass Finalist, and Top 4 Telluride Troubadour. She is also the 2019 Grand Prize Winner of the prestigious Bernard Ebb Songwriting Award. 2025 found her back on her beloved road, releasing her second studio album, Panic Room With A View, and as regular guest vocalist for Grammy-nominated lute-rocker Ronn McFarlane as part of Ayreheart.
Ronn McFarlane
lute
GRAMMY-nominated lutenist Ronn McFarlane strives to bring the lute – the most popular instrument of the Renaissance – into today’s musical mainstream and make it accessible to a wider audience. He has released over 40 recordings on the Dorian/Sono Luminus label, including solo albums, lute duets, flute & lute duets, lute songs, viola da gamba & lute, the complete lute music of Vivaldi, a collection of Elizabethan lute music and poetry, and recordings with the Baltimore Consort. Ronn has composed new music for the lute, building on the tradition of the lutenist/composers of past centuries. These original compositions are the focus of his solo CD, Indigo Road, which received a GRAMMY Award Nomination. In 2010 Ronn founded Ayreheart, an ensemble brought together to perform new compositions as well as early music. Ayreheart’s first CD release, One Morning, consists of all-original music by Ronn McFarlane. Ayreheart’s release, Barley Moon, blends folk music and art music from Renaissance and Medieval England, Scotland and Wales. Ronn’s most recent solo album, The Celtic Lute, features his arrangements of traditional Scottish and Irish music from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Willard Morris
colascione & violin
A fascination with early music came late in life for Will Morris, having studied music composition and arranging with an emphasis in jazz, he never imagined he’d play the colascione (bass cousin of the lute family) and enjoy performing Renaissance repertoire. When Ayreheart first set out to perform original music, Will joined to play electric bass. And with exposure to early music through Ronn McFarlane, it was a natural evolution to the colascione. Will Morris has deep experience with classical ensembles, jazz combos, rock and funk bands, which shaped his musical sensibilities in unconventional ways, but the common underlying principle is that the presentation of music should enable the listener awareness of the ensemble as a whole, while still being able to appreciate each individual voice and instrument.
Mattias Rucht
percussion
Mattias Rucht has been immersed in music his entire life. His father was a symphony conductor and his mother was a pianist. His first playground was in the midst of the orchestra and behind the stage. He started playing the drum-set at the age of twelve and began playing in southern rock bands at the age of fifteen. By college, he had advanced to jazz fusion. Mattias has been involved in multimedia development for many years. He has composed music for animation, games, film & video and has had a computer based studio since 1984. At one point, all the instruments that he used were MIDI and electronic. Around 2002, Mattias started listening to some of the masters of world percussion and what they were doing with acoustic instruments. A simple tambourine or djembe could be more expressive than a rack of electronic instruments. This sparked his interest in world percussion and getting back to basics. Since then, he has discovered the joy of ethnic percussion and world music, bringing a wide range of influences to his playing style. Mattias Rucht has been active in the Washington DC music scene for over 25 years as a drummer/percussionist, playing in various rock, jazz, folk and world ensembles. He has also performed in theatrical productions and accompanied dancers and storytellers.
