The vision of HESPERUS is innovative, multi-cultural and historically informed. Its musicians bring the energy and spirit of traditional music to virtuoso performances on folk and early musical instruments. With impressive credentials in early music, they are one of the nation"s first, and most important, performers of "chamber folk" music. Early American Roots features spirited new sounds from early Colonial America - from the arrival of the first colonists to the American Revolution and the birth of our republic. Performing on recorders, Baroque violin, viola da gamba, flageolet, hammered dulcimer, cittern and Baroque guitar, the musicians perform high energy improvisations, lively country dance tunes, elegant French cotillions and early American shape-note hymns.