Bio Category: 2122 featured artists

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.

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MIMÉ YAMAHIRO BRINKMANN

Mimé Yamahiro Brinkmann is one of the most active freelance cellist/gambist playing both as soloist, and as chamber and orchestra musician in the early music field.

After receiving a Performance Diploma on modern cello at Toho Gakuen School of Music Tokyo, Japan, she received a scholarship from The Netherlands government and came to study historical performance, both cello and viola da gamba at The Royal Conservatory in the Hague where she graduated with a soloist diploma.

Mime has been the prize winner of some of the most important early music competitions such as “Musica Antiqua Brugge Soloist Competition” in Belgium and “The international competition for original string instruments” in Brescia, Italy.

Her performance can be heard regularly in different parts of the world – both as a solo recitalist and with some of the world leading orchestras such as Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (Canada), Apollo’s Fire-Cleveland Baroque Orchestra (USA), Concerto Copenhagen (Denmark), Drottningholm Slott Opera orchestra and ensemble (Sweden), and the Paul Hillier Ensemble (Denmark).

In between her busy touring life, Mime enjoys teaching at The Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. She has also given master classes at Early Music Festival Juiz de Fora, Brazil, Tchaikovsky Conservatory Moscow, Russia and enjoys working with the promising next generations.

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

Violinist Alan Choo, whose performances have been described by The Straits Times Singapore as “an intoxicating brew of poetry and dare-devilry,” performs on the global stage as a leading soloist, chamber musician and historical specialist. He made his solo debut with Apollo’s Fire at the Tanglewood and Ravinia Music Festivals in 2017, and currently serves as Concertmaster and Assistant Artistic Director for the ensemble. He is also Founder and Artistic Director of Red Dot Baroque, Singapore’s first professional period ensemble and Ensemble-in-Residence at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. In May 2019, he was invited as guest concertmaster and soloist with the Shanghai-based baroque ensemble, Shanghai Camerata. He has also appeared as a soloist with the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Orchestra of the Music Makers and more.

Alan is the recipient of 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 the Cleveland Institute of Music, Michigan State University, Baldwin-Wallace College, Bowling Green State University, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

Alan holds a Doctorate in Historical Performance from Case Western Reserve University, as well as degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory. His teachers include Julie Andrijeski, Risa Browder, Victor Danchenko and Alexander Souptel. He is currently recording an album of the complete Rosary Sonatas by Heinrich Biber with Apollo’s Fire.

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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.

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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

Artist-in-Residence

“A continuous display of nuanced genius playing” – El Mundo

“A rising young virtuoso of outstanding potential” – The Violin Channel

Spanish-born violinist Francisco Fullana is one of the first international solo violinists to fully embrace and absorb the baroque language of historical performance. Hailed as a “rising star” (BBC Music Magazine), he is the winner of four international violin competitions as well as an Avery Fisher Career Grant. His Carnegie Hall recital debut was noted for its “joy and playfulness in collaboration … it was perfection” (New York Concert Review).

As Artist-in-Residence with Apollo’s Fire, he performs with the GRAMMY-winning period band in 17 concerts during 2021-22, including at Carnegie Hall in March and at Cleveland’s Severance Hall in May. He also shares his love of music and his immigrant story with youth at several Spanish-speaking public schools in Cleveland and Chicago, in collaboration with AF musicians.

Fullana’s recent solo debut album, titled “Bach’s Long Shadow,” was chosen by BBC Music Magazine as “Instrumental Album of the Month” in July 2021.

Born into a family of educators, Francisco was raised in Mallorca and Madrid and was recognized in Spain as a prodigy. He moved to the U.S. at the age of 16 (as an unaccompanied minor) to study at The Juilliard School. His primary teachers and mentors for the next 8 years were Donald Weilerstein, Masao Kawasaki, and Midori.

His lifelong fascination with baroque music has influenced both of his prior recordings: his 2018 debut album, Through the Lens of Time (Orchid Classics) and his 2021 solo album, Bach’s Long Shadow, which juxtaposes Bach Partitas on gut strings and baroque setup with virtuoso solo violin works from the next three centuries.

As a concerto soloist, his engagements have included the Bayerische Philharmonie, the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, the City of Birmingham Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, among others.

As a chamber musician, Francisco is a Bowers Program Artist at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. His many performances have included the Marlboro Festival and the Perlman Music Program, as well as collaborations with Mitsuko Uchida and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Pacifica, Takács, and Cleveland quartets.

Using gut strings and a baroque bow, Francisco performs on the 1735 “Mary Portman” ex-Kreisler Guarneri del Gesù violin, on loan from Clement and Karen Arrison through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

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FIONA GILLESPIE

Fiona Gillespie is a folk and classically-trained singer, songwriter, composer, and music educator. Raised in a family of traditional Celtic musicians Fiona grew up step dancing, singing ballads, and playing the Irish whistle, on which she competed nationally and internationally until 2006. She holds degrees in voice performance from Westminster Choir College (BM) and the University of North Texas (MM).

Fiona’s debut, full-length compositional recording with collaborator Elliot Cole released with a premier performance in New York City on October 31, 2021. The half-hour folk-rock cantata, scored for voices and 12-piece band of historical, modern, and electronic instruments, recreates the ancient Scottish ballad of Tam Lin. Her album of Scottish folk songs arranged by composers of the Viennese School, “Wisps in the Dell” released in 2019, and a “prequel” disc, “The Gallant David Rizzio” releases in 2022, all three of which are with the ensemble Makaris. As a featured performer Fiona’s recent and upcoming engagements include The Baroque Orchestra of Colorado, Musica Sierra, Carmel Bach Festival, Five Boroughs Music Festival, Labyrinth Baroque Ensemble, The Washington National Cathedral, Mountainside Baroque, The Academy of Sacred Drama, The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Fire and Grace, and ALKEMIE. She sings regularly as a professional chorister with Skylark Ensemble, Apollo’s Fire, Kinnara Ensemble, Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity, and St. Tikhon’s Choir, and with churches in both New York City and Philadelphia.

Fiona is a co-founder and manager of the band The Chivalrous Crickets, the Baroque-Folk crossover duo, Disordering the Attic. She teaches voice at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA, where she has led opera workshop and music directed main stage productions (recent: Gilbert & Sullivan’s Trial by Jury, 2019). Fiona taught voice at Lycoming College from 2013-2017, as well as directed opera (stage & music: Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel), co-taught courses on Baroque music and art that traveled to Italy, Germany, and Austria, and helped coordinate and lead choir tours to Washington DC, Florida, and China. She has led folksong arranging and group singing workshops at the Big Sur Fiddle Camp, and for Bethlehem PA’s Celtic Cultural Alliance.

SUSANNA PERRY GILMORE

Violinist Susanna Perry Gilmore enjoys a multifaceted career as solo artist, chamber musician, and orchestral concertmaster. Performing on both modern and period instruments and versatile in diverse styles from classical to fiddling, she is hailed as a player who is both “thrilling and sensitive” by the Memphis Commercial Appeal, “luminous and hypnotic” by the Omaha World-Herald, and “authentic with exquisite good taste” and “rich in tone, bringing musical depth and a human touch” by the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Ms. Gilmore frequently appears as a soloist with the Omaha Symphony on the Master Works, Joslyn, and Symphony Pops series. Recent performances include the Scottish Fantasy by Max Bruch and Celtic Journey: Magic of the Emerald Isle. In recent seasons Omaha audiences have heard Ms. Gilmore perform the Tzigane by Ravel, Berg’s Violin Concerto, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5, and the Korngold Violin Concerto as well as major concertmaster solos such as Rimsky Korsakov Scheherazade and Strauss Ein Heldenleben.

After beginning her career as a chamber player, at the age of twenty-six Ms. Gilmore became concertmaster of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. She joined the Omaha Symphony as concertmaster in 2011. Since 2014 she has been a frequent soloist and co-concertmaster on baroque violin and fiddle with the acclaimed period instrument ensemble and Grammy Award winner Apollo’s Fire (Cleveland), with whom she tours nationally and internationally and appears on the CD Sugarloaf Mountain: An Appalachian Gathering (Billboard Top 10 classical bestseller), the CD Sephardic Journey: Wanderings of the Spanish Jews (Billboard Top 10 classical bestseller), and Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain.

Ms. Gilmore holds a Bachelor’s degree from Oxford University (UK), where she studied musicology and performed both early music and symphonic repertoire while studying privately with Yfrah Neaman. She spent a post-graduate year in the Advanced Solo Studies Program at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Upon returning to the United States, she earned a Master’s in Violin Performance from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with James Buswell. Prior to her studies in England, Ms. Gilmore studied with Christian Teal at the Blair School of Music in the pre-college program and as a child began her violin studies with Mimi Zweig at Indiana University. Ms. Gilmore learned to play Celtic fiddle in her youth through sitting in on Irish sessions during her years living in Nashville and England.

When not working as a classical and baroque violinist and fiddler, Ms. Gilmore spends time with her two daughters, Katy and Zoe, and her husband, Viseslav Drincic. She performs on a 1776 Joseph Odoardi violin.

MARGARET CARPENTER HAIGH

Praised as “fiery, wild, and dangerous” (Classical Voice North Carolina) with “a talent for character portrayal” (Chicago Classical Review), soprano Margaret Carpenter Haigh captivates audiences with her “flawless intonation” and “perfect vocalism” (CVNC). Commanding “expressive power, exquisite diction, and a clear, flexible voice” (Cleveland Classical), Margaret is in demand as a soloist and chamber musician throughout North America. Her dazzling technique and formidable skill as a collaborative artist shine in performances of repertoire spanning from the Renaissance and Baroque to the modern day.

Recent solo engagements include Handel Messiah with Memphis Symphony and Winston-Salem Symphony, Bach St. Matthew Passion with Bach Akademie Charlotte and Messiah Festival of the Arts, Bach B minor Mass with Bach Akademie Charlotte and American Bach Soloists Academy, Del Tredici’s An Alice Symphony with Portland Symphony, Vaughan Williams Benedicite and Bach Jauchzet Gott with Arizona MusicFest, and Rutter Requiem with Evansville Philharmonic.

2019-2020 season highlights include appearances with Bach Akademie Charlotte, Handel and Haydn Society, The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Newberry Consort, Alchymy Viols, GRAMMY©-winning Apollo’s Fire, Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival, and a solo Canadian début with Scaramella, presenting original work on Baroque gesture and the Ferrarese concerto delle donne. With her own ensemble L’Académie du Roi Soleil she looks forward to performing Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres, 16th-century Italian musica reservata in a program entitled “Secret Music 1580: Music for the Three Ladies of Ferrara,” and one-voice-per-part program of Parry’s Songs of Farewell and Howells’ Take him, earth, for cherishing.

Margaret has been privileged to perform as a Britten-Pears Young Artist under Mark Padmore at the Aldeburgh Festival (UK) and at the American Bach Soloists Academy under Jeffrey Thomas (San Francisco, CA). Touring engagements have taken her to Israel, Germany, and France under the baton of Timothy Brown, and she has been featured as a soloist in the Easter at King’s Concert Series in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge.

As a choral conductor, Margaret was Artistic Director of Nova Voce, Charlotte’s premier women’s choral ensemble, from 2018-2020. She has served on the faculty of the Oklahoma Arts Institute in Quartz Mountain and the Bach Akademie Charlotte Vocal Fellows Program. She has previously served as Director of Youth Education Projects for Apollo’s Fire: The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra and has also held positions as assistant chorus-master to the Winston-Salem Symphony Chorus and acting director of the Keele Bach Choir, Keele Philharmonic Choir, and Keele Philharmonic Orchestra in Staffordshire (UK); and she was selected as a conducting fellow at the Yale Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in Norfolk, CT.

A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, Margaret holds the D.M.A in Historical Performance Practice from Case Western Reserve University; the M.Mus in Choral Studies from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Gates Cambridge Scholar; and the B.M. in voice and B.A. in organ from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She has held faculty positions at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Bach Akademie Charlotte’s Summer Festival, and Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute. Recent scholarship includes work on physical gesture in the madrigal repertoire of the concerto delle donne in late sixteenth-century Ferrara, and she frequently lectures on physical gesture for singers. Margaret lives in New York City and is a full-time member of The Choir of Trinity Wall Street.

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SONYA HEADLAM

Born of Jamaican parentage, soprano SONYA HEADLAM has been praised as “an entrancing soloist… with elan, flawless intonation, a velvety middle voice, and on-the-mark coloratura” (South Florida Classical Review).  Engagements in 2022 include her Philadelphia Orchestra debut in Handel’s Messiah; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Handel’s Messiah with the North Carolina Symphony; Bach’s B Minor Mass with the Grand Rapids Symphony; a much praised debut with the New World Symphony (Miami) in Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate; and her Severance Hall debut with Apollo’s Fire, with critics calling her “the highlight of the concert… she sang flawlessly and with seeming abandon” (ClevelandClassical.com).  

Sonya’s previous solo performances include Carnegie Hall, Trinity Wall Street, Bang on a Can All-Stars, and venues in South America, Europe, and Asia, as well as a Caribbean tour with members of the Cuban Philharmonic. On the opera stage, her favorite roles have included Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte with Light Opera of New Jersey. Sonya holds a Doctorate in Vocal Performance from Rutgers University, where she has also held a visiting scholar appointment.

CAITLIN HEDGE

Violist, violinist, and folk musician based in Youngstown, Ohio, Caitlin Hedge serves as Principal Viola of Opera Western Reserve and the Warren Philharmonic, and performs with the Youngstown Symphony, Wheeling Symphony, Butler County Symphony, Ashland Symphony, and Mansfield Symphony. She has performed with Celtic Woman, Evanescence, and Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and has won several awards for her fiddle playing, including first place in the 2013 Edinboro Scottish Highland Games Regional Competition. Her locally-based Greek blues/Americana group, Demos Papadimas and His Band, have recorded three studio albums together and were featured artists on Canton Symphony Orchestra’s 2019 Divergent Sound Series. Ms. Hedge is an alum of Youngstown State University and Baldwin Wallace University, and has served on faculty at YSU’s Dana School of Music and the Aurora School of Music. She is currently pursuing her MA in Historical Performance Practice at Case Western Reserve University, studying baroque violin with Julie Andrijeski. She will release her debut album of original folk music in 2022.

BRADLEY KING

Bradley King, tenor, guitar, and bouzouki, is quickly establishing himself as one of the most versatile young singers on the East coast. As an early-music tenor, he has performed with the Boston Early Music Festival, the Rose Ensemble, the renowned renaissance vocal ensemble Pomerium, and the period ensemble Mountainside Baroque (Maryland), among others. He joined the Apollo’s Fire chorus in 2021 for Messiah performances in collaboration with the New York Philharmonic. On the opera and musical theatre stage, he has performed diverse roles ranging from Colin in the 18th-century opera Le Devin du Village by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, to Anthony in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. Bradley holds degrees in vocal performance and choral conducting from DePauw University and the University of North Texas.

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.

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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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MOLLY NETTER

A versatile and joyous musician, Canadian-American soprano Molly Netter enlivens complex and beautiful music, both old and new, with “a natural warmth” (LA Times) and “clear, beautiful tone and vivacious personality” (NY Times). She can be heard on five GRAMMY-nominated albums since 2017 and has performed as a soloist with ensembles such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, the Boston Early Music Festival, Apollo’s Fire, Musica Angelica, Contemporaneous, Juilliard415, Heartbeat Opera, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. She has been a full-time member of the Choir at Trinity Wall Street since 2015.

Molly is an active performer, curator, educator and advocate of new music, regularly commissioning new works by living composers. Recent collaborators include David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Amy Beth Kirsten, Doug Balliett, Katherine Balch, Molly Joyce, and Jessica Meyer, among others. Notable chamber performance highlights include inaugural casts of Pulitzer-winning operas Angel’s Bone (Du Yun, 2015) and PRISM (Ellen Reid, 2017). She was a featured curator/performer on Trinity Wall Street’s 2018 acclaimed “Time’s Arrow Festival,” programming an eclectic evening of Barbara Strozzi paired with newly commissioned contemporary works. In 2020 she began commissioning an entirely new repertoire for self-accompanied singer and clavicytherium, emphasizing the florid voice, early music vocal techniques and improvisation as a bridge between style and genre.

Molly holds a BM in composition and contemporary voice from Oberlin Conservatory and an MM in early music voice from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. She is currently on voice faculty at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute.

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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.

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RACHEL BARTON PINE

“An exciting, boundary-defying performer – Pine displays a power and confidence that puts her in the top echelon.”
– The Washington Post –

“Striking and charismatic…she demonstrated a bravura technique and soulful musicianship.”
– The New York Times –

In both art and life, violinist Rachel Barton Pine has an extraordinary ability to connect with people. A leading interpreter of great classic and contemporary works, her performances combine her gift for emotional communication and her fascination with research. She plays with passion and conviction, thrilling audiences with her dazzling technique, lustrous tone, and infectious joy in music-making.

Pine’s 2021-22 season includes offering the world premiere “Violin Concerto No. 2,” written for her by Billy Childs through a co-commission by the Grant Park Music Festival, the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, and the Interlochen Orchestra. Her orchestral appearances include concerts with Apollo’s Fire, the Mississippi Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique Quebec, the Tel Aviv Soloists, the Pacific Symphony, and Vancouver (WA) Symphony. She’ll perform in recital with Lara Downes at Ravinia, for Matinee Musicale with Matthew Hagle, and will join harpsichordist Jory Vinikour for concerts presented by Chamber Music Charleston and Chamber Music Columbus.

Pine’s past chart-topping albums include Dvořák and Khachaturian Violin Concertos (Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Teddy Abrams); Mozart: Complete Violin Concertos, Sinfonia Concertante (Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner); Bel Canto Paganini, and Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos (BBC Symphony, Andrew Litton).

Pine has appeared as soloist with prestigious ensembles including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, and the Chicago, Vienna and Detroit Symphony Orchestras.

An active philanthropist, Pine has led the Rachel Barton Pine (RBP) Foundation which assists young artists since 2001. Over the last 20 years, the RBP Foundation’s Music by Black Composers (MBC) project has collected more than 900 works by 450+ Black composers from the 18th–21st centuries; curated free repertoire directories, published print resources, including pedagogical books of music exclusively by global Black classical composers and a coloring book of Black classical composers.

She performs on the “ex-Bazzini ex-Soldat” Joseph Guarnerius del Gesu (Cremona 1742).

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ERICA SCHULLER

ERICA SCHULLER, soprano, brings vocal artistry, theatricality, and panache to baroque opera and concert performances across North America. She is a frequent soloist with Haymarket Opera in Chicago, the Boston Early Music Festival, Ars Lyrica in Houston, and New Trinity Baroque Orchestra, as well as Apollo’s Fire. Much admired for her comic acting, she won high kudos for two productions of Telemann’s Pimpinone with Haymarket Opera, where she played the lead female character, Vespetta. Her performance was described as “show stealing” by CHICAGO CLASSICAL REVIEW.

Erica was featured in Apollo’s Fire’s national touring production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo in 2018, singing the roles of La Musica and Euridice. She recently made her debut with Chicago’s Third Coast Baroque Ensemble in Handel’s Lucrezia. Upcoming engagements include the role of Poppea with Haymarket Opera in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea.

 

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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.

EZRA SELTZER

Hailed for his “scampering virtuosity” (American Record Guide) and “superb” playing (The New York Times), cellist Ezra Seltzer is the principal cellist of the Trinity Baroque Orchestra, New York Baroque Incorporated, and Early Music New York and a founding member of the Sebastians. He has frequently appeared as guest principal cellist of Musica Angelica and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, where he earned praise for his “delicate elegance and rambunctious spirit” (Twin Cities Pioneer Press) in performances of all six Brandenburg Concertos. Other performances with the SPCO include Handel’s Messiah with Jonathan Cohen and J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Paul McCreesh. With Musica Angelica, he appeared in performances of J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion in Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and also performed in an international tour with soprano Emma Kirkby and countertenor Daniel Taylor. He attended Yale University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in history and Master of Music in cello, and graduated from the inaugural class of Juilliard’s historical performance program.

WILLIAM SIMMS

William Simms is an active performer of early music. Equally adept on lute, theorbo and baroque guitar, he regularly performs with Apollo’s Fire, The Washington Bach Consort, Tempesta di Mare, Modern Musick, Ensemble Vermillian, Heartland Baroque and Three Notch’d Road. He has performed numerous operas, cantatas and oratorios with such ensembles as The Washington National Opera, The Cleveland Opera, Opera Lafayette, Opera Philadelphia and American Opera Theater. Venues include The National Cathedral, The Kennedy Center, The Kimmel Center for the performing arts and The Barns at Wolftrap. Summer festival performances include Tanglewood, Caramoor and Ravinia. He has toured and recorded with The Baltimore Consort and Apollo’s Fire. His recording with Ronn Mcfarlane, Two Lutes, was CD pick of the week on WETA in 2012. He has recorded for the Centaur, Sono Luminus and Eclectra labels. Mr. Simms received his Bachelor of Music from the College of Wooster in Ohio and his Master of Music from Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. He is Instructor of Guitar at Mt. St. Mary’s University and Hood College, where he is founder and Director of the Hood College Early Music Ensemble.

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