Esteban La Rotta is one of Canada’s leading lutenists. In demand as both a soloist and continuo player, he studied at the Civica Scuola di Musica di Milano under the guidance of lutenist Paul Beier, and in Montreal with Sylvain Bergeron where he received his doctorate in performance degree in 2008 concentrating on the baroque guitar. Since 2012, thanks to support from the Canada Council for the Arts, he has studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis focusing on the repertoire of the late Middle Ages for solo lute under the guidance of Crawford Young and the renaissance guitar with Hopkinson Smith. As a specialist in a variety of early plucked instruments, La Rotta has extensive experience with renaissance repertoire as well as with the early Baroque Italian and French repertoire for solo theorbo. He is a regular participant at Festival Montréal Baroque and has performed with ensembles such as the Copenhagen Soloists, Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Les Violons du Roy, Les Voix Humaines, La Nef, the SMAM, and Ensemble Caprice. He has appeared in numerous festivals including Musique Royale, Boston Early Music Festival, Seattle Early Music Guild, Tage Alter Musik (Regensburg), Lamèque Early Music Festival, Stratford Festival, the National Arts Center in Ottawa, and the Orford Music Festival. His performances have been broadcast on the CBC in Canada and the BBC in England. He can be heard on the Atma label, both as a soloist and with Pallade Musica, and on the Passacaille label with the cellist Elinor Frey.
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Esteban La Rotta, lute and vihuela
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Camille Zamora, soprano
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"A singer blessed with intense communicative ability who blazes with passion" (Opera Magazine, UK), Camille Zamora balances a vibrant career of opera, recital, and concert performances. In collaboration with artists ranging from Plácido Domingo to Yo-Yo Ma to Sting, Camille has garnered acclaim for her “dramatic and nuanced" (New York Times) interpretations of repertoire ranging from Mozart to tango. Recent highlights include the world premiere recording of Scott Gendel's "At Last" with Yo-Yo Ma; Twin Spirits: Robert and Clara Schumann with Sting and Joshua Bell at Lincoln Center; The Countess in Die Verschworenen with American Symphony Orchestra; Elle in La Voix Humaine at Auckland Opera, Bay Chamber Festival, and Phoenicia International Festival; Ilia in Idomeneo at Boston Lyric Opera; Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at Anchorage Opera; Despina in Così fan tutte at Glimmerglass Opera and Virginia Opera; and Amore/Valetto in L’incoronazione di Poppea at Houston Grand Opera. Other signature roles include Blanche (Dialogues des Carmélites), The Governess (The Turn of the Screw), The Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro), and the title role in Anna Bolena, of which the Houston Chronicle wrote, "Camille Zamora digs deep into Anna Bolena with the richness of her colorful and unwaveringly powerful soprano instrument... a consummate actress whose ability to get inside her character is phenomenal." A champion of zarzuela, she has been cited by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and NBC Latino as a leading interpreter of classical Spanish vocal repertoire. Named one of CNN's Most Intriguing People, Camille is a graduate of The Juilliard School and Co-Founder of the NYC-based “arts peace corps” Sing for Hope. www.camillezamora.com
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Noted as “the compelling guitarist” by the New York Times, Arash Noori performs throughout North America and Europe on lutes and guitars as both a recitalist and accompanist. He has been a top-prize winner at several national and international competitions, including the Great Lakes International Festival and Competition and Guitare Montréal. Arash has appeared in performances with Les Arts Florissants, Early Music New York, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Piffaro: The Renaissance Band, the Sebastians, ARTEK, and NOVUS NY of Trinity Wall Street amongst others. He is a core and founding member of Cantata Profana, acclaimed for its “intrepid and unexpected concerts” by The New Yorker and the recipient of Chamber Music America’s Award for Adventurous Programming in 2016. Visit www.arashnoorimusic.com for more information. |
Arash Noori, lutes and guitars
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Josh Lee, viola da gamba
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Josh Lee's viol playing has been called “a tour-de-force” (Vancouver Classical), and has garnered acclaim from audiences across five continents. Founder of Ostraka, Josh is sought after as a soloist and chamber artist, appearing with Portland Baroque Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Musica Pacifica, Orchester Wiener Akademie, Festival Casals, Les Délices, Pacific Music Works, Boston Early Music Festival, Four Nations, TENET, and the Seattle Symphony. Praised as “a master of the score’s wandering and acrobatic itinerary” (Cleveland Plain Dealer), Josh’s performances have been heard on Performance Today, FluxFM, Harmonia, and Österreichischen Rundfunk, and RAI. Josh collaborates with Radical Face, whose songs have been featured in prime time tv, film, and ad campaigns across the globe. Josh lives by the ocean in Florida.
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Dylan Sauerwald is a distinctive continuo player, soloist and music director. As a member of Ensemble la Félicité, he won first place in chamber music at the Concours de Musique du Canada 2009 and has been a finalist at the Mathieu-Duguay Early Music Competition 2015 and Montreal Baroque/CBC chamber music competition 2007. He is featured on harpsichord, organ and lautenwerck on the world premiere recording of David Funck's Stricturae Viola di Gambicae (New Focus recordings), and on fortepiano in the Handel & Haydn Society's latest recording of Haydn's orchestral music (Coro records). His harpsichord playing is featured in the BBC historical drama Poldark. Dylan has a special interest in baroque opera; he has been music director of critically acclaimed staged productions for Helios Early Opera, Ensemble Musica Humana and Ensemble la Félicité. He directs Polyphemus, an early music collective, and can be heard performing with with the Handel & Haydn Society, Emmanuel Music, TENET and others. He holds degrees from McGill and Boston University.
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Dylan Sauerwald, keyboard
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Liv Heym, baroque violin
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Liv Heym, whose chamber music playing has been described as "elegant and sensual, stylishly wild" by The New Yorker, enjoys a versatile career on both the modern and baroque violin and viola. Recent projects include choreographed performances of H.I.F. Biber's "Passacaglia" for solo violin with BalletNext and performances of J.S.Bach's Goldberg Variations arranged for String Trio at the Berlin Philharmonic Lunch Concert Series. During the season 2012/13 she created the concert series "Music in Dialogue" at WMP Concert Hall, New York. Liv collaborates with various ensembles such as the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, the Four Nations Ensemble, Handel & Haydn Society, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Les Passions and Les Arts Florissants. A native of Berlin, she studied Violin and Chamber Music with Ulrike-Anima Mathé, Eberhard Feltz and Daniel Phillips and Baroque Violin with Monica Huggett and Cynthia Roberts at the Juilliard School. |
Lutenist Christopher Morrongiello, a former British Marshall Scholar, is a graduate of the Mannes College of Music, the Royal College of Music, and the University of Oxford, where he earned a doctorate in musicology. As a recitalist, Christopher has performed to critical acclaim throughout Europe and the United States. In 1993 he was a prizewinner in the BBC Radio Two Young Musician of the Year Competition and in 1996 was awarded a Marco Fodella Foundation Scholarship for studies and research in Milan, Italy. In 2006, the Lute Society of America conferred upon him its first Patrick O’Brien LSA Seminar Lectureship. Heralded as an innovative music director and creator of large-scale dramatic works, Christopher has a gift for bringing music of the Renaissance and Baroque to life in its literary and social context. His musical portrait of the Elizabethan muse and songstress Penelope Devereux, created for soprano Emily Van Evera (My Lady Rich, Avie Records 0045), has been described by Renaissance Magazine as “a presentation of unusual quality and beauty” and by the NY Times as “an inspired idea . . . a vivid and touching portrait.” He is a professor in music history at Hofstra University and teaches lute and related historical plucked instruments in his private studio in Long Island, New York. A member of the Venere Lute Quartet and ALBA Consort, he directs the Bacheler Consort and Hofstra Collegium Musicum. Recently, he has been exploring the efficacy of Renaissance lute music in helping people ameliorate emotional problems and deal with stress. He is a pioneer in this area of music therapy and has taken the phrase “Musica mentis medicina maestae” from an Elizabethan lute manuscript as his motto. Music is often the only medicine for a sorrowful soul.
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Christopher Morrongiello, lute
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Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, mezzo-soprano
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Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, mezzo-soprano, was a member of the world renowned vocal quartet Anonymous 4 from 2000 to 2015. She recorded twelve award-winning CD’s with the group, including American Angels, which twice topped Billboard’s classical music charts, and The Cherry Tree, one of the top selling classical CDs of 2010. Anonymous 4′s collaboration with composer Christopher Tin, singing the Irish lament “Caoineadh” on his album Calling All Dawns, with Jacqueline as featured soloist, led to a Grammy for Best Classical Music Crossover Album. She has a reputation as a versatile and accomplished soloist, specializing in early and new music. She has collaborated with many composers including Judith Weir, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, Orlando Gough, Richard Einhorn, Andrew Toovey, Andrew Lovett, Louis Conti, Daniel Thomas Davis, Gregory Spears, Phil Kline and David Lang, singing with such distinguished new music ensembles such as Ensemble Modern Frankfurt, Ensemble Intercontemporain Paris, Singcircle, Continuum, Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, Ixion, Dogs of Desire, Ekmeles, S.E.M. Ensemble and the Locrian Chamber Ensemble. She has premiered roles in several operas, including Bacchant in THE BACCHAE (John Buller) for English National Opera London, Monk in GAWAIN (Sir Harrison Birtwistle) for The Royal Opera Covent Garden, Jeannie in THE JUNIPER TREE (Andrew Toovey) for Broomhill International Opera , Jackie Kennedy in JACKIE K (Andrew Lovett) for English National Opera Contemporary Opera Studio, Eliza Doolittle/Scheherazade in THE LOATHLY LADY (Paul Richards) at University of Pennsylvania and Bleiddwen in WOLF-IN-SKINS, an opera ballet by Gregory Spears and choreographer Christopher Williams for American Opera Projects. She also premiered the mezzo solos in Richard Einhorn’s new oratorio THE ORIGIN, based on the life of Charles Darwin at SUNYOswego, and in Irish composer Philip Hammond’s REQUIEM FOR THE TITANIC, a performance that was broadcast live from St Anne’s Cathedral Belfast throughout the whole of Ireland. She is currently singing the role of Katherine in an opera in development, TESLA, by composer Phil Kline and film-maker Jim Jarmusch, directed by Robert Wilson and recently performed excerpts from the piece at the Winnipeg New Music Festival and in New York with American Opera Projects. Other future projects include the role of Alcina in Jonathan Dawe’s CRACKED ORLANDO, a new as yet untitled monodrama being written for her by Phil Kline and the role of Gertrude Stein in a new chamber opera by Daniel Thomas Davis for Canada Public Radio. She has appeared as a guest soloist with many early music and choral ensembles both in Europe and the US, including Jordi Savall,The Washington Bach Consort DC, The Sixteen, The Bach Sinfonia, Carmel Bach Festival, St. Thomas Church NYC, Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity Lutheran NYC, Baltimore Consort, Bach Festival of Philadelphia, Armonia Nova, The Folger Consort, Parthenia, Sonnambula, Abendmusik, Hudson Chorale and Fairfax Choral Society. Jacqueline is also a voice teacher, maintaining a private studio in New York in addition to being an adjunct voice instructor at Columbia University Teachers College and Fordham University. She has given residencies and master classes at Universities all over the US and has been a Visiting Artist at Duke University NC, The Catholic University of America D.C. and Binghamton University New York, collaborating with student composers to develop and perform new pieces for the voice. She also gives lectures on vocal heath, vocal pedagogy and Extended Vocal Techniques, and gives Ensemble Technique workshops with groups ranging from trios to choirs with 100+ members. She holds degrees from Queens University Belfast and Teacher’s College Columbia University and is currently a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow and a Teaching Fellow at The Juilliard School. Her website is Jacquelinehorner.com.
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Doug Balliett is a prolific musician whose career has spanned composition, performance of classical, new and early music, rap, rock, and conducting. His compositions have been heard around the world, ranging from works for solo instrument in Lincoln Center to full-scale hip-hopera in Lucerne. His bass playing has been described as “elegant” (New York Times) and his compositions have been critiqued as “brilliant and witty” (New York Times) and “weird in the best possible way” (I Care if You Listen). Mr. Balliett has written for some of New York's best singers, including Charlotte Mundy, Davone Tines, Ariadne Greif, and grammy-winners Esteli Gomez and Dashon Burton. Recent projects have included the evening-length A Gnostic Passion, written with his twin brother and commissioned by CANTORI NYC, a cycle of songs based on The Brothers Grimm premiered at the Lucerne Festival, and a series of rap cantatas based on Ovid, which have been commissioned from musicians across New York City. Other New York ensembles that have recently performed Mr. Balliett's work include Ensemble ACJW, the Millenials, the Colonials, the Deviant Septet, and DZ4. Recent premieres have included several new rap cantatas for New Vintage Baroque, the Millenials, and Resonant Bodies, and a work for brass trio performed in Carnegie Hall. Mr. Balliett holds a B.M. in music from Harvard University and an M.M. in historical performance from the Juilliard School. As a double bassist he has performed as solo or principal bass with Ensemble Modern, the San Antonio Symphony, the Metropolis Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Talea Ensemble, Contemporaneous, Ensemble ACJW, NOVUS, Trinity Wall Street Baroque Orchestra, Handel & Haydn Society, Arcadian Players, Pink Martini, and many more. Recent double bass engagements have included concerts with Steve Coleman at the Newport Jazz Festival and with William Christie in Thire, France. As a member of the band Oracle Hysterical he and his collaborators have presented hip-hoperas, art rock song cycles, rap cantatas, and other genre-bending works all over America and Europe. Doug co-hosts a radio show, The Brothers Balliett, with his twin brother on New York City WQXR’s Q2 new music channel.
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Doug Balliett,
historic bass, composition |
![]() Rachel Begley, recorder
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Rachel Begley performs as a soloist and with ensembles across North America, and has been hailed for her virtuosic and sensitive playing on both recorders and historical bassoons. Recent engagements include Boston Early Music Festival, Utrecht Early Music Festival Fringe, Houston Bach Society, Mercury, Alba, Clarion Society, Early Music New York, Sonnambula, The Play of Daniel at The Cloisters, and Wolf-in-Skins at Temple University. She is a founding member of two new ensembles, the chamber music group Fire & Folly and the oboe band Symphonie des Dragons, both of which have already garnered both audience and critical acclaim. Though her musical focus is currently in early music, she has premiered solo works for recorder by such luminaries as Leonard Bernstein and Joan Tower, and was recorded as part of the soundtrack for “Casanova”. A native of England, she holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in recorder and early music from SUNY Stony Brook, and teaches at festivals and workshops in both the US and Europe. She was a Visiting Professor of Recorder at Indiana University and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Queens College (CUNY), and is currently early music coach for the SUNY Stony Brook Community Chamber Music Program. www.rachelbegley.com
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Aaron Brown studied violin at the Juilliard School, Mannes and Hunter Colleges. He has been a regular performer in the US east coast early music scene for the past 15 years, performing with such groups as the Clarion Music Society, Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity, Early Music New York, Mark Morris Dance Group, The Four Nations Ensemble, Opera Lafayette and the New York Collegium. He has been a member of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra since 2009, touring with such artists as Christina Pluhar, Philippe Jaroussky and Maurice Steger. He is co-founder of the early music group Guido's Ear, presenting programs at the Cambridge Society for Early Music, New York Public Library, Vanderbilt University, City University of New York, Connecticut Early Music Festival and the Strathmore Mansion. |
Aaron Brown, violin
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