2122 featured artists – Apollo's Fire

HADLEIGH ADAMS

Hailed a “comic tour de force” by Alex Ross of the New Yorker following last year’s performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, baritone Hadleigh Adams is a baritone with a very strong lower extension enabling him to perform many bass-baritone roles. With a repertoire spanning from Rameau and Vivaldi all the way to Ades and Francesconi, he is an artist equally at home on the opera stage as he is in concert.

This season’s highlights include the US premiere of Luca Francesconi’s Quartett (Valmont), San Francisco Opera’s new production of Tosca (Angelotti), his European debut with the Nederlandse Reisopera in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music (Carl Magnus), and a return to the Cincinnati Opera for Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette (Mercutio). On the concert platform he performs Carmina Burana with the San Francisco Symphony, The Messiah with Nashville Symphony, and The Messiah with the Milwaukee Symphony

Next Season, Mr Adams makes return performances to the San Francisco Opera In Handel’s Partenope (ormonte) Gounod’s Romeo and Juliette (Paris), and covers Britten’s Billy Budd (Mr Flint). Among other concert engagements, he will perform with the Colorado Symphony, Houston Symphony Orchestra, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Last season, highlights included Lou Harrison’s Young Caesar (Nicomedes), Annie Gosfield’s War of the Worlds (General Lansing), and Bernstein’s Mass (baritone soloist) with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers (Hawkins Fuller) at Minnesota Opera, Thomas Ades’ Powder Her Face (Hotel Manager/Duke) with West Edge Opera. He also covered in Matthew Aucoin’s Crossing (Walt Whitman). On the concert platform he performed Beethoven’s Mass in C with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Bach’s Cantata 80 with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, The Messiah with the American Bach Soloists, and Bernstein’s Candide with the San Francisco Symphony (Maximilian).

Prior to these seasons he has performed with the London Philharmonia Orchestra in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex (Creon/Tiresias), London’s Royal National Theatre in staged performances of Bach’s St Matthew Passion (Jesus), La Boheme with the San Francisco Opera (Schaunard), Agrippina with Opera Omaha (Claudio), and the title character in both Vivaldi’s Bajazet, and Castor et Pollux with Pinchgut Opera.

Born in Palmerston North, New Zealand, Hadleigh is a former Merola Opera artist, San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow, and studied at the Guildhall school of Music And Drama.

OLIVIER BRAULT

Violinist Olivier Brault hails from Terrebonne in Québec and brings communicative enthusiasm and scholarship to concerts throughout North America and Europe. In addition to directing the chamber ensemble Sonate 1704, he performs as Music Director with Les Goûts Réunis in Luxembourg, as a member of Four Nations Ensemble in New York, and as soloist with many Montréal-based ensembles including the Ensemble Caprice, Les Boréades de Montréal, Quatuor Franz Joseph, and Les Idées heureuses. He holds a Doctorate from the Université de Montréal, where he specialized in 18th-century violin repertoire. He has led workshops and masterclasses at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal, CWRU, Oberlin Conservatory, Penn State University, University of Michigan, the Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Bruxelles and The Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. He has participated in over 65 recordings, many award-winning. In 2011 he received the medal of the Assemblée Nationale de Québec for cultural contributions to his nation. Mr. Brault joined the early music faculty of McGill University in Montréal teaching baroque violin in 2017.

KRISTINE CASWELCH

Kristine Caswelch, soprano, grew up in a biracial family surrounded by black educators, activists, and trailblazers. Her favorite connection to Cleveland was learning that her grandparents traveled from Missouri to Cleveland in 1961 in order to get married, since it was still illegal for mixed-race couples to marry in Missouri. This fall, Kristine will begin graduate studies as a baroque soprano in Historical Performance at the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Boston. Kristine plans to focus her studies on examining the past histories and present experiences of being a Passing Person of Color through historically informed performance.

ALAN CHOO

Singaporean violinist Alan Choo has established himself on the global stage as a leading soloist, chamber musician and historical specialist. He made his solo debut with the Grammy Award-winning baroque orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, at the Tanglewood and Ravinia Music Festivals in 2017, and currently serves as Artistic Leadership Fellow for the ensemble, where he takes on soloist, concertmaster and guest director roles for the 2019-20 season. He is also Founder and Artistic Director of Red Dot Baroque, Singapore’s first professional period ensemble, which has enjoyed multiple sold-out concerts and critical acclaim since their formation in August 2018. In May 2019 he was invited as guest concertmaster and soloist with the Shanghai-based baroque ensemble, Shanghai Camerata.

As a modern violinist, Alan has appeared as a soloist with the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Orchestra of the Music Makers and more. A proponent of contemporary music, Alan is co-founder of SG Inspirations, a project dedicated to performing works by Singaporean composers. In 2015, he recorded the SG Inspirations commemorative CD album with pianist Lin Hengyue as a gift to their nation on Singapore’s 50th anniversary. His piano trio Trio Phoenix combines both worlds of early and contemporary music by performing works by living composers and exploring the wealth of baroque repertoire performed with stylistic awareness on modern instruments. The trio completed their Asia Summer Tour in 2015 to critical acclaim, with repertoire ranging from Jean-Philippe Rameau to Alfred Schnittke, and were guest artists at the Lexington Bach Festival 2017.

Alan’s achievements in all areas of performance have earned him awards such as the Early Music Award 2016 from Peabody Conservatory, the Paul Abisheganaden Grant for Artistic Excellence 2015, the Goh Soon Tioe Centenary Award 2014, the Grace Clagett Ranney Prize in Chamber Music 2014 and 1st prize in the National Piano and Violin Competition 2011, Artist Category. He has also given masterclasses and lectures in violin performance, performance practice and stage presence to college students at Baldwin-Wallace College, Bowling Green State University, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

A graduate of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory and Peabody Conservatory, Alan is currently in his final year at Case Western Reserve University pursuing a Doctorate in Historical Performance Practice under Julie Andrijeski. His past teachers include Victor Danchenko, Alexander Souptel and Risa Browder.

THOMAS COOLEY

Praised by the New York Times for his “sweet, penetrating lyric tenor with aching sensitivity,” and by San Francisco Classical Voice as “an indomitable musical force,” Thomas Cooley is a singer of great versatility, expressiveness, and virtuosity.

He has collaborated with conductors Teodor Currentzis, Nicholas McGegan, Robert Spano, Manfred Honneck, Donald Runnicles, Helmuth Rilling, Osmo Vänskä, Eji Oue, David Robertson, Markus Stenz, Bernard Labadie, Jane Glover, and Franz Welser-Möst.

Internationally in demand for a wide range of repertoire in concert, opera, and chamber music, Cooley performs regularly with major orchestras such as the Atlanta, St. Louis, and National Symphonies; the Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec; Copenhagen Philharmonic; Bavarian Radio Symphony; the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig; and the Osaka Philharmonic.

Thomas Cooley’s repertoire on the symphonic stage includes works such as Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis; Berlioz’s Requiem; productions of Britten’s Peter Grimes and War Requiem in Carnegie Hall as part of the Britten Centennial; Haydn’s Creation; Britten’s Serenade and Les Illuminations; Mendelssohn’s Elijah; Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius; Rihm’s Deus Passus; Mahler’s Lied von der Erde; Penderecki’s Credo, and Kodály’s Psalmus Hungaricus. Recent highlights include Mozart’s Requiem with musicAeterna, and the world premiere and recording of Christopher Theofanidis’s Creation/Creator with Atlanta Symphony. Other important recordings include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Copenhagen Philharmonic and the title role in Handel’s Samson with Nicholas McGegan and the Festspiel Orchester Göttingen.

Renowned for his agility and skill in Baroque music, Mr. Cooley is in demand, particularly as an interpreter of the works of Bach and Handel. This summer he returns for his 9th season as the tenor soloist at the Carmel Bach Festival. He was named Artist-in-Residence by Music of the Baroque in Chicago in the 2015-16 season. Of his Evangelist with Jane Glover, the Chicago Tribune wrote, “In the stylish tenor Thomas Cooley she had an ideal Evangelist, firm of voice and commanding of expression. So intensely did he penetrate the long and demanding narration that the familiar saga took on the urgency of on-site reportage.” He appears regularly with such groups as Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Boston Baroque, Handel and Haydn, Akadamie für Alte Musik Berlin, Les Violons du Roy, and the Göttingen Händelfestspiele.

Important recent engagements of Baroque music include Telemann’s Tag des Gerichts in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; the Evangelist in St. John Passion on tour in Italy with the Munich Bach Choir; Purcell’s Indian Queen with musicAeterna, Bach’s Lutheran Masses with Violons du Roy in Montreal, Evangelist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Seattle Symphony, Handel’s Joshua with Philharmonia Baroque and created the role of Acis in a new production of Acis and Galatea with the Mark Morris Dance Group. A program of Handel arias and duets entitled “As Steals the Morn” with San Francisco’s Voices of Music was selected as the best Early/Baroque performance in the Bay Area in 2019.

On the operatic stage he has performed many of the great tenor roles in the operas of Mozart, including Tamino, Belmonte, Ferrando, Don Ottavio and the title role in Idomeneo. Other roles include Count Almaviva in Rossini’s Barbiere di Siviglia, the title role in Bernstein’s Candide, and Bajazet in Handel’s Tamerlano. He was a member of the ensemble at the Gärtnerplatz Theater in Munich for four years. Additionally, he has performed at the Bavarian State Opera, the Krakow State Opera, Cincinnati Opera, and the Göttingen Händelfestspiele, where he returns in 2020 as Grimoaldo for their 100th Anniversary production of Rodelinda. Of his performance in Turn of the Screw with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Pioneer Press wrote, “Thomas Cooley proved breathtaking as Peter Quint, a ghost seemingly able to hypnotize his victims with, in Cooley’s case, a velvety voice”.

Highlights of the 2019-2020 season include a tour of the Netherlands and Belgium with Orchestra of the 18th Century in the role of Don Ottavio for their production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Orchestral highlights include Bach’s Phoebus und Pan in Hamburg, and the title role in Handel’s Samson with the NDR Hannover, Messiah performances with Seattle Symphony and Boston Baroque and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi in Milan and Lucerne, Britten’s War Requiem in Koblenz, Frank Martin’s Golgotha with the Bremer Philharmoniker, a Beethoven Celebration with Cincinnati Symphony and at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. In the 2020-2021 season, he returns to the Atlanta Symphony for Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and performs Britten’s Serenade with the Bayerische Kammerorchester.

ASHLEE FOREMAN

Ashlee Foreman, soprano and AF’s MOSAIC Artist Fellow, has been hailed as “a real discovery… an important new singer. Her voice has a tremendous range and is deployed with theatrical assurance” (Seen & Heard International, UK). Her solo debut performance with Apollo’s Fire in 2020 was called “a tour-de-force” by ClevelandClassical.com. She is a Master’s candidate in vocal performance at the University of Akron, where she recently sang the lead in Menotti’s opera The Telephone. She received her Bachelor’s in music from Cleveland State University, where she studied voice with Amanda Powell.

While an undergrad, Ashlee served as AF’s first Artistic Outreach Intern, singing the role of Princess Pamina in AF’s in-school workshops and performances. She has performed with the Akron Symphony Orchestra and Cleveland Opera. In 2020 she joined AF’s professional chorus, Apollo’s Singers, with whom she has performed in Cleveland and New York City.

FRANCISCO FULLANA

Spanish-born violinist Francisco Fullana, winner of the 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant, has been hailed as a “rising star” (BBC Music Magazine), an “amazing talent” (conductor Gustavo Dudamel) and “frighteningly awesome” (Buffalo News). His Carnegie Hall recital debut was noted for its “joy and playfulness in collaboration … it was perfection” (New York Concert Review).

A native of Mallorca in the Balearic Islands of Spain, Francisco is making a name for himself as both a performer and a leader of innovative educational institutions. As an orchestral soloist he has performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Bayerische Philharmonie led by the late Sir Colin Davis, the Sibelius Concerto with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, and the Brahms Violin Concerto with Venezuela’s Teresa Carreño Orchestra under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel. He has also soloed with the City of Birmingham, Vancouver, Pacific, Alabama and Madrid Symphonies as well as the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Spanish Radio Television Orchestra, and has worked with such noted conductors as Hans Graf, Carlos Izcaray, Alondra de la Parra, Christoph Poppen, Jose Luis Gomez, Jeannette Sorrell, and Joshua Weilerstein.

Active as a chamber musician, Francisco has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival and its Musicians from Marlboro tours and is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program. Upcoming festival appearances this summer include St. Petersburg White Nights, Moab, Music in the Vineyards and Saratoga Springs’s SPAC among others, as well as recital debuts at Mecklenburg-Vorpommen Festival & Formentor Classics. His musical collaborators have included Midori, Viviane Hagner, Nobuko Imai, Charles Neidich, Mitsuko Uchida, and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Takács and Cleveland quartets.

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SONYA HEADLAM

Soprano Sonya Headlam has performed across the United States and around the world, in South America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia. She is active in the New Jersey area as a music educator and singer of a diverse range of repertoire from the Baroque to the 21st century. Sonya began 2019 in the recording studio as the soprano soloist on the Trinity Wall Street Choir’s soon-to-be-released recording of Dreams of the New World, by Los Angeles-based composer Ellen Reid. Upcoming performances include a recital of art songs, folk songs and spirituals by African American and Caribbean composers, and, in April, the role of Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte with Light Opera of New Jersey. Sonya holds performance degrees from Miami University of Ohio, and she received additional training at Mannes College of Music in New York City. She is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Vocal Performance at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.

NICHOLAS MCGEGAN

As he embarks on his sixth decade on the podium, Nic McGegan — long hailed as “one of the finest baroque conductors of his generation” (The Independent) and “an expert in 18th-century style” (The New Yorker) — is recognized for his probing and revelatory explorations of music of all periods. The 2019/20 season marked the final year of his 34 year tenure as Music Director of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale. He is Principal Guest Conductor of the Pasadena Symphony.

Best known as a baroque and classical specialist, McGegan’s approach — intelligent, infused with joy and never dogmatic — has led to appearances with many of the world’s major orchestras. Also at home in opera houses, McGegan shone new light on close to twenty Handel operas as the Artistic Director and conductor at the Göttingen Handel Festival for 20 years (1991-2001) and the Mozart canon as Principal Guest Conductor at Scottish Opera in the 1990s.

His guest-conducting appearances with major orchestras — including the New York, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong Philharmonics; the Chicago, Dallas, Milwaukee, Toronto, Sydney, and New Zealand Symphonies; the Philadelphia Orchestra; the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Scottish Chamber Orchestras; and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw — often feature Baroque repertoire alongside Classical, Romantic, 20th-century and even brand-new works. He has led performances of Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Britten, Bach and Handel with the Utah Symphony; Poulenc and Mozart with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; and the premiere of Stephen Hough’s Missa Mirabilis with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, paired with Haydn, Brahms and Mendelssohn.
One of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra’s greatest successes was the recent fully-staged, modern-day premiere of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s 1745 opera-ballet Le Temple de la Gloire. A recording of the live performance was released in summer 2018, produced on the Philharmonia Baroque Productions label. Highlighting PBO’s 2019/20 season is the world premiere of a new piece by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, The Listeners, as well as a fully staged production of Leclair’s Scylla et Glaucus. Major Handel works this season include Judas Maccabaeus and Aci, Galatea e Polifemo. McGegan also conducts a special program featuring violinist Alana Youssefian. As part of their initiative of performing new music written for period instruments, PBO gave the world premiere of Sally Beamish’s The Judas Passion in 2017 and more recently presented a PBO-commissioned song cycle by Caroline Shaw featuring mezzo Anne Sofie von Otter at Alice Tully Hall.

McGegan’s prolific discography includes more than 100 releases spanning five decades. Having recorded over 50 albums of Handel, McGegan has explored the depths of the composer’s output with a dozen oratorios and close to twenty of his operas. Under its own label, Philharmonia Baroque Productions (PBP), Philharmonia has recently released acclaimed albums of Handel, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Brahms, Haydn, Beethoven, and more. McGegan’s latest release with PBO is Handel’s rarely performed Joseph and his Brethren. His recordings with PBO have received two GRAMMY nominations: one in 1991 for Best Choral Performance (Other than Opera) for Handel’s Susana; and one in 2012 for Best Orchestral Performance for Haydn’s Symphonies 104, 88, and 101. The orchestra also received a Gramophone Award for Baroque Vocal in Handel’s Susana.

Since the 1980s, Nic has released more than 20 recordings with Hungary’s Capella Savaria on the Hungaroton label, including groundbreaking opera and oratorio recordings of repertoire by Handel, Monteverdi, Scarlatti, Telemann and Vivaldi. Recently, the collaboration has produced albums of Kraus, Mendelssohn, Schubert, a 2-CD set of the complete Mozart violin concerti, and Haydn’s Symphonies 79, 80, and 81. McGegan has also released two albums with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra under the BIS label: Josef Mysliveček’s Complete Music for Keyboard with soloist Clare Hammond and an album of early horn concertos with soloist Alec Frank-Gemmill.

Mr. McGegan is committed to the next generation of musicians, frequently conducting and coaching students in residencies and engagements at Yale University, the Juilliard School, Harvard University, the Colburn School, Aspen Music Festival and School, Sarasota Music Festival, and the Music Academy of the West. He has been awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Music by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music; an honorary professorship at Georg-August University, Göttingen; and in 2016 was the Christoph Wolff Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Harvard. McGegan’s fun and informative lectures have delighted audiences at Juilliard, Yale Center for British Arts, American Handel Society, and San Francisco Conservatory.
English-born, Nic McGegan was educated at Cambridge and Oxford. He was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) “for services to music overseas.” Other awards include the Halle Handel Prize; the Order of Merit of the State of Lower Saxony (Germany); the Medal of Honour of the City of Göttingen, and a declaration of Nicholas McGegan Day, by the Mayor of San Francisco in recognition of his work with Philharmonia.

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REGGIE MOBLEY

Reggie Mobley, countertenor and AF’s Visiting Artist for Outreach, is in demand as a soloist on both sides of the Atlantic. His European engagements include the Academy of Ancient Music, the English Baroque Soloists & Monteverdi Choir (John Elliot Gardiner), the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, BachAkademie Stuttgart, and Bachfest Leipzig. In North America, he has performed with the Seattle Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque, the Handel & Haydn Society (Boston), Calgary Philharmonic, and the Boston Early Music Festival, among others.

With roots in the Deep South and the struggles of the black community, Reggie is dedicated to helping the classical music industry overcome its inequality issues regarding race, gender, and sexuality. A strong devotion to social and political activism is part of Reggie’s everyday life, adding to his strength in reaching diverse communities. His outreach experience includes designing programs of music by 18th-century African composers who worked in Europe. A versatile artist, Reggie worked for two years as a singer/actor for Tokyo Disney in Japan. He has performed cabaret shows of gospel, jazz, and torch songs in jazz clubs. He serves as a programming consultant for the Handel & Haydn Society, where he directs the “Every Voice” program.

DANIEL MOODY

Countertenor Daniel Moody has garnered widespread acclaim for his “sweet and melancholy sound” (The Washington Post) and his ability to “pierce hearts” and “utterly silence a room” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer). Cited for a “vocal resonance, [that] makes a profoundly startling impression” (The New York Times) and for his “vivid and powerful” voice (The Boston Musical Intelligencer), Mr. Moody is equally celebrated for his interpretations of contemporary and baroque works.

Moody’s opera appearances have included the title roles in Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Rinaldo, Arsamene in Xerxes, Lichas in Hercules, Didymus in Theodora, Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, L’Enfant in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortileges, and as the “eerie yet forceful” (Broadway World) leading role of Man #1 in the world premiere of Desire by composer Hannah Lash. Moody recently appeared as Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at Cincinnati Opera. American Record Guide raved about “how versatile (Moody) and his voice have become,” and spoke of “numerous moments of utter beauty…where he would start singing ever so sweetly and then just let his voice blossom out into something big and round and smooth.”

Moody’s upcoming performances include debuts with Opera Lafayette (Venus and Adonis) and Minnesota Orchestra (Messiah), a tour of St. Matthew Passion with Apollo’s Fire, Handel’s Orlando at Staunton Festival and the premiere of Elena Ruehr’s Cosmic Cowboy, to be performed in the fall of 2020 with White Snake Projects.

“Moody delivered a combination of tenderness and theatrical verve” (San Francisco Chronicle) in his recent duet concert with mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (Nicholas McGegan), and his performance of the title role in Handel’s Rinaldo led the San Diego Story to declare, “Moody’s voice grows stronger and brighter as it ascends. He may help create a new operatic vocal category: Helden Countertenor.” Daniel has also performed roles in Mark Morris’ productions of Britten’s Curlew River and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at BAM (Howard Gilman Opera House) and at the Tanglewood Music Festival where the Financial Times noted his “inspired and absorbing performances.”

Moody recently made his Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium debut with Oratorio Society of New York and also with Musica Sacra (Kent Tritle), and has performed as soloist with the Atlanta Symphony (Thomas Søndergård conducting), Les Violons du Roy in Québec City, (Bernard Labadie), Apollo’s Fire, The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra (Jeannette Sorrell), the Portland Baroque Orchestra (David Hill), and symphonies of Illinois, Charleston (Ken Lam), and Winston-Salem (Robert Moody). He gave the American premiere of George Benjamin’s intricate Dream of the Song (Stefan Asbury) at the Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood Festival. He has also appeared with numerous early music groups including Boston, Indianapolis and Washington Early Music Festivals, renowned group Acronym at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Mountainside Baroque (Maryland) and La Fiocco (Pennsylvania).

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REBECCA MYERS

Soprano Rebecca Myers is a celebrated performing and recording artist who specializes in a comprehensive variety of repertoire including early, contemporary, and chamber music.

Recent seasons have seen solo engagements with Seraphic Fire, Tempesta di Mare, Lyric Fest, Opera Philadelphia, Apollo’s Fire, the CalPoly Bach Festival, and Philadelphia’s Bach @ 7 series. Also a highly sought after recital artist, Rebecca has been featured in art song recitals with pianists Laura Ward and Benjamin C.S. Boyle presented by the European American Musical Alliance (EAMA), The Woodmere Art Museum, and Opus Opera.

Acclaimed for her work in the field of new music, Rebecca is a core member of The Crossing, the two time GRAMMY winning ensemble dedicated entirely to new music. She has premiered works by the top living composers around the world and she was a soloist on the 2016 GRAMMY nominated Bonhoeffer, released by The Crossing. She is also a founding member of the cutting edge vocal sextet Variant 6.

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JACOB PERRY

Jacob Perry Jr., tenor, based in the Washington Metro Area, receives praise for his “gorgeous and stylish” interpretations of Renaissance and Baroque repertoire. He has been featured as a soloist with Apollo’s Fire, Handel Choir of Baltimore, Mountainside Baroque, Tempesta di Mare, The Thirteen, Washington Bach Consort, and The City Choir of Washington. Mr. Perry was selected as the tenor participant of the Virginia Best Adams Masterclass of the 2020 Carmel Bach Festival (postponed).

Deeply immersed in vocal chamber music, Mr. Perry enjoys playing with Les Canards Chantants, a soloist-ensemble based in Philadelphia, as well as engagements with ensembles such as The Thirteen, the Art of Early Keyboard, New Consort, and Cathedra. Additionally, he can be heard singing with larger choirs such as Yale Choral Artists, The Clarion Choir, Washington Bach Consort, and the Choir of Washington National Cathedral. He has explored vocal works by contemporary composers through engagements with Third Practice, hexaCollective, and Great Noise Ensemble. As Co-Artistic Director of Bridge, a genre-defying vocal ensemble based in Washington, he draws on his instincts for theatricality and story-telling, as the group explores the connections between early masterpieces and ground-breaking new works.

ERICA SCHULLER

Praised for her “lively personality, abundant charm, and luscious vocalism” and “crystalline voice,” soprano Erica Schuller is a versatile performer, recognized for bringing committed artistry to a broad musical repertory. Her particular affinity for Baroque repertoire has brought her increasing attention from some of the country’s finest Early Music ensembles.

This past season, reprised her role as Livietta in Pergolesi’s Livietta e Tracollo with the Boston Early Music Festival. She also performed supporting roles in the Festival’s centerpiece opera, Campra’s Le Carnaval de Venise. A frequent artist with The Haymarket Opera Company, she sang the role of the vengeful goddess, Juno in Marin Marais’ Ariane et Bachus. Her performance was described as “wonderfully venomous” by the Chicago Tribune. In a departure from Baroque music, Ms. Schuller starred in the premiere performance of the newly formed company Theatre Comique in San Francisco. Presenting the works of Jerome Kern and Victor Herbert, she was hailed as “brilliant” by San Francisco Classical Voice. She appeared as the soprano soloist with Apollo’s Fire in their presentation of G.F. Handel’s Israel in Egypt, and joined the company again this Spring for their tour of a semi-staged production Monteverdi’s Orfeo, singing the roles of La Musica and Euridice. Her performances were praised as “powerful” and “radiant.”

Recent projects of note include performances with Apollo’s Fire, The Boston Early Music Festival, Ars Lyrica Houston, New Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Great Lakes Baroque and The Lincoln Trio.

Additional past performances include the roles of Oriana in Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula, Vespetta in Telemann’s Pimpinone and Lisetta in Scarlatti’s Gli equivoci nel sembiante, all with The Haymarket Opera Company; Livietta in Pergolesi’s Livietta e Tracollo with the Boston Early Music Festival; Marzelline in Beethoven’s Fidelio and Soprano 2 in Glass’s Hydrogen Jukebox with Skylight Music Theater; she created the roles of Joan Strasinsky and The Princess for the world premiere of The Snow Dragon, by award winning novelist and composer Somtow Sucharitkul; Elvira in Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri and Second Woman in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with The Florentine Opera Company.

As a concert soloist, Ms. Schuller has appeared with Apollo’s Fire, Ars Lyrica Houston, New Trinity Baroque, Great Lakes Baroque, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Bach Choir, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Elgin Symphony Orchestra, Second City Musick and Bella Voce.

In addition to her work on the stage, Ms. Schuller can be heard as the voice of Marte in Duron’s Salir el Amor del Mundo, recorded for Dorian Record Label with Richard Savino and El Mundo. She can also be heard on the Boston Early Music Festival’s Grammy-nominated recording of Lully’s opera Psyché.

Originally from Wisconsin, Ms. Schuller received her Master of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and holds degrees in Vocal Performance and Music Education from the Eastman School of Music. She currently lives and teaches in Chicago, where she founded the Cantabile School for Voice and Piano.

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RENÉ SCHIFFER

Cellist René Schiffer is praised for his “interpretive imagination and patrician command of the cello” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer). He is a native of Holland where he was a protégé of Anner Bijlsma. He later studied baroque cello with Jaap ter Linden and viola da gamba with Catharina Meints. As a member of Sigiswald Kuijken’s La Petite Bande for sixteen years, he toured four continents and appeared many times on European television. He has also performed with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Les Musiciens du Louvre, and in over forty projects with Tafelmusik of Toronto. As a concerto soloist, he has appeared throughout North America and Europe, including such venues as the Royal Theatre of Madrid, and can be heard on acclaimed CD recordings of the Vivaldi Concerto for Two Cellos and the Tango Concerto for Two Gambas (his own composition) on British label AVIE. As a chamber musician, he has performed at the renowned baroque festivals of Utrecht and Bruges, as well as the Flanders Festival and Versailles. He can be heard on more than forty CD recordings, on the Harmonia Mundi, Philips, Virgin Classics, Erato, Sony, and AVIE labels. He serves on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music as Teacher of Baroque Cello, and has given masterclasses and coachings for the New World Symphony (Miami), the University of Michigan, Oberlin Conservatory, and Cincinnati College-Conservatory.

SARAH STONE

A curiosity in the cultural background behind the music she plays led Sarah Stone to baroque cello and viola da gamba. Starting March 19th, 2020 Sarah recorded a movement of Bach daily from her NYC apartment as the city sheltered in place, in a solo project that she calls Bach Everyday. “The show is not over… Questlove keeps spinning into the early morning. Sir Patrick Stewart has been reading a Shakespeare sonnet every day. Sarah Stone, who plays cello and viola da gamba, has stuck to her “Bach Everyday” performances from her apartment in New York City. Since March 19, she’s done a Bach Chorale each day.” (Geoff Edgers, The Washington Post, June 10, 2020). Bach Everyday has included all the chorales from the St. John Passion for Easter, a movement from every Bach Cantata in order of BWVs, the 6 parts of the Christmas Oratorio BWV 248 for the holiday season, The Magnificat, Art of the Fugue, Two-Part Inventions, the Sarabandes from the 6 Cello Suites, and for her finale, the B Minor Mass. After over 375 days, her ritual of recording and sharing Bach daily has been featured in the Washington Post, The Greene Space (WNYC) and Early Music America.

In 2019 and 2020, she brought early music into the classroom, playing in New York City and Connecticut public schools through the outreach program of The American Classical Orchestra. Recent seasons have included performances in the Kennedy Center with Opera Lafayette and Vivaldi Double Cello Concerto on tour with Apollo’s Fire. Sarah performs around the country with Seraphic Fire, Washington National Cathedral, Repast Baroque, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, and New York Baroque Incorporated. During the summer months, Sarah is a part of Teatro Nuovo, performing unconducted bel canto operas, and travels to Portland, Maine, where she makes music in unconventional venues as a part of The Portland Bach Experience.

Sarah thinks bringing early music to unexpected places is important; she is an active board member of Bitterroot Baroque, a presenting organization in Hamilton, Montana that brings in period ensembles and musicians to perform and work with locals in early music workshops. In her home-base of Long Island City, Queens, she curates a free monthly series, Communitea Chamber Music.

Sarah holds a Masters in Historical Performance from the Juilliard School, a Masters from San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and a Bachelors of Music from Rice University with studies with Norman Fischer, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Mara Finkelstein, Elizabeth Reed, Sarah Cunningham, and Phoebe Carrai.

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ELISA SUTHERLAND

Known for her “soul-infused expressiveness and unselfconscious joie de vivre” (New York Music Daily), mezzo-soprano Elisa Sutherland is dedicated to detailed, stylistic interpretations of early and new music. This upcoming season, Elisa will appear as a soloist with TENET Vocal Artists in the role of “Conversation” in Charpentier’s opera Les Plaisirs de Versailles, and with Apollo’s Fire in a program of Buxtehude and Bach cantatas. She also will dance and sing in a new collaboration with New Chamber Ballet, and perform in the NY premiere of Daron Hagen’s latest song cycle with Brooklyn Art Song Society.

Elisa sings frequently with the top ensembles of the United States, including The Crossing, TENET Vocal Artists, Roomful of Teeth, Seraphic Fire, and Clarion Choir. She has a special passion for one-on-a-part vocal chamber music, and is a core member of Ekmeles, a sextet dedicated to exploring microtonal tuning and extended techniques, and a co-founder of the early and new music sextet, Variant 6.

Elisa has appeared as a soloist with American Bach Soloists, Apollo Chorus of Chicago, and Quicksilver Baroque, singing Bach’s Mass in b minor, Handel’s Messiah, and Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri. She was a soloist on The Crossing’s GRAMMY-nominated album, “Boenhoffer,” and has sung on two other GRAMMY®-winning records. Elisa has a special love for art song, and in addition to performing with her recital partner, pianist Wei-Han Wu, has sung with LyricFest, Philadelphia’s premiere art song concert series, and Brooklyn Art Song Society.

In addition to winning the Philadelphia District of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in 2015, Elisa is the 2014 winner of the Lynne Harvey Cooper Award, and was the first-place winner of the inaugural Handel Aria Competition at the Madison Early Music Festival in 2013. Recent opera roles include Hera in Chris Cerrone’s All Wounds Bleed, Ensemble in Michael Gordon’s Acquanetta with the Prototype Festival, Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, Meg in Little Women, Ottavia in L’incoronazione di Poppea, and Nancy in Albert Herring. Elisa is also remembered for her Blazing Saddles – Madeline Kahn impression in a production of Die Fledermaus.

Elisa graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing, a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance, and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance. She lives in Brooklyn.

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EMI TANABE

Violinist Emi Tanabe holds a Professional Diploma from Roosevelt University and a Master’s degree in music from the University of North Texas. She is an adjunct faculty member at Benedictine University in Chicago. She enjoys a multifaceted career as a violinist – performing not only with baroque ensembles but also with modern groups including jazz, Latin, world music, and theatrical Cirque-style dinner theater shows, among others.

JONATHAN WOODY

Jonathan Woody, bass-baritone and composer, has been praised as “charismatic” and “riveting” (New York Times). In addition to performing in two national tours with Apollo’s Fire – the Monteverdi Vespers in 2014 and Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo in 2018 – he has appeared as soloist with period groups such as the Boston Early Music Festival, Tafelmusik, Trinity Wall Street, New York Polyphony, Bach Collegium San Diego, and New York Baroque Incorporated. Festival appearances include the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme at the Aldeburgh Festival (UK), Carmel Bach Festival (as 2013 Adams Fellow), and the Oregon Bach Festival (as 2014 Vocal Fellow).

An avid performer of new music, Jonathan has premiered Ted Hearne’s The Source (2014), a seminal work on the subject of Chelsea Manning’s actions regarding the leak of classified U.S. documents. He is also featured on the cast recording of that work (New Amsterdam) and has reprised it in 2016 at LA Opera’s REDCAT and SF Opera Lab in 2017. Other recent premieres include works by Ellen Reid (p r i s m); the NYC premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves, and Du Yun’s Pulitzer-Prize winning Angel’s Bone. Jonathan can be heard on CD recordings with the Boston Early Music Festival, New York Polyphony, and Trinity Wall Street. As a composer, he has been commissioned for groups including the Handel & Haydn Society and the Uncommon Music Festival.

“The U.S.A.’s hottest baroque band.” –CLASSICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE (UK)