La Fiocco Period Instrument Ensemble - Artist
Artist Bios
Artists for La Fiocco's 2012 Season
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LEWIS R. BARATZ, Artistic Director, recorder, and harpsichord Lewis studied harpsichord with David Fuller, Larry Palmer, and Gwendolyn Toth, and recorder with David Hart and Rachel Begley, participating in master classes with Marion Verbruggen and Peter Sykes. Performances with the New Brunswick Chamber Orchestra, Biber Baroque, Le triomphe de l'amour, Ensemble Impromptu, Virtuosi de seicento, VOICES, and La Fiocco. Lewis has a Ph.D. in musicology from Case Western Reserve Unversity; Master's degrees in music history and harpsichord performance from Southern Methodist University, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degee from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Lewis has to his credit over 20 publications on a wide range of topics, including performance of 15th-century dance music, biographical studies, the boy choristers of the Brussels Collegiate Church of SS Michael and Gudula, c. 1550 to 1793, a critical edition, an 18th-century continuo treatise translation, and numerous entries in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Lewis was a Fulbright Scholar and Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation. |
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ANTONIO AROSEMENA, recorder and baroque bassoon Antonio Arosemena is an accomplished bassoonist and recorder player whose repertoire spans the Renaissance through modern music. Antonio studied bassoon with Monica Ellis and recorder with Rachel Begley. He has attended the Amherst Early Music Festival for three years, where he was coached in baroque bassoon with leading performers and directors including Dominic Teresi and Michael McCraw. Antonio is graduate of the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music. He studied recorder performance at the Aaron Copland School of Music, and is currently working towards the Master of Music in Bassoon Performance. As an advocate for music education, Antonio is on the faculty of PS 139 in Brooklyn, New York. An active recitalist on recorder and historical and modern bassoons, this is second season with La Fiocco. Visit Antonio’s website at antonioarosemena.com. |
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BENJAMIN T. BERMAN, harpsichord Benjamin T. Berman, earned the Bachelor of Music degree in performance from the Mason Gross School of the Arts (Rutgers), where he is currently pursuing a master's degree in vocal performance. He studies harpsichord with Lewis R. Baratz, and organ with Mark Trautman. As a lyric tenor and keyboard artist, Benjamin is active in the central New Jersey area. He has received praise for his stylistic performances of Baroque music, and portrayals of character tenors in operas such as Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Die Zauberflöte, Il Campanello di Notte, and the Beggar's Opera. Benamin is the organist and choir director of the historic First Reformed Church of New Brunswick where he frequently performs as a recitalist and accompanist on organ, piano, and harpsichord. He has twice performed on harpsichord with La Fiocco at the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey. Benjamin is also the founder and conductor of the Trinity House Bach Society. |
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RACHEL EVANS, baroque violin Rachel Evans has performed with the Sante Fe Opera; the jazz group String Fever; the contemporary music ensemble Continuum, and the Meridian Quartet. On period instruments, she has performed across the globe with medieval ensemble Sequentia and La Stravaganza Köln, and has been a principal player with Apollo’s Fire, Concert Royal, Washington Consort, the Dryden Ensemble, Publick Musick, Rebel, the New York Collegium, Foundling, and La Fiocco. She has played with the Carmel Bach Festival for 11 years, and appeared at the Boston, Berkeley, and Utrecht Early Music Festivals, and the Victoria Festival in Australia. Rachel can be heard on more than 20 recordings, spanning the middle ages to the present. A recipient of the Coleman Chamber Music Award, she holds BM and MM degrees from the Julliard School of Music. |
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LYNN FERGUSSON, baroque cello and viola da gamba A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Lynn Fergusson spent 30 years living and working in Switzerland. She holds a degree in Baroque performance practice from the Schola Cantorum in Basel, with a major in viola da gamba and minor in Baroque cello. She has concertized as soloist and chamber/orchestral musician with numerous early music ensembles throughout Europe, and founded her own viol consort, Chelyos. Lynn was also active as choir conductor, teacher, and ensemble coach. In 2005 Lynn returned to the United States and now lives in Yardley, Pennsylvania. Her credits include performances with Tempesta di Mare, the Washington Bach Consort, the Dryden Ensemble, Le triomphe de l’amour. She has performed with La Fiocco since 2007. |
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JOSEPH HILL, Countertenor Joseph Hill earned the BM degree from Furman University and MM in voice from the Mason Gross School of the Arts of Rutgers University. He has appeared as soloist with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, the Rutgers Symphony Orchestra, and with members of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. Joseph peformed the title role of Handel’s Solomon, Mopsa in Purcell's The Fairy Queen, and Joad in Handel’s Athalia. In 2011 he was Il Destino and Satirino in Vertical Player Repertory’s production of Cavalli’s La Calisto, and Mrs. Peachum in the Beggar’s Opera. In 2010, Joseph made his NYC debut to critical acclaim originating the singing role in 16 performances of The Last Castrato, by Guy Fredrick Glass. He performs regularly with Vox Fideles, maintains a private voice and piano studio and is organist/director of music at the Community Presbyterian Church in Mountainside, New Jersey. Joseph was chosen as a finalist for the 2012 Orpheus National Voice Competition, where he was awarded the Orpheus Handel Award. |
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RICHARD KOLB, archlute, theorbo, and baroque guitar Richard Kolb has performed extensively in North America and Europe on lute and guitar family instruments of the Baroque and Renaissance periods. He has participated in many opera productions with companies including Les Musiciens du Louvre, New York City Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, and Opera Atelier, and in orchestral and chamber concerts with Concert Royal, Waverly Consort, Handel & Haydn Society of Boston, and many other ensembles. He was principal lutenist of the Carmel Bach Festival for eight years (1999-2007), and a founding member of the Pegasus Ensemble. Richard recently completed a Ph.D in musicology at Case Western Reserve University. His current scholarly work focuses on Roman arias and cantatas of the mid-17-century. He has published two widely used editions of works by Barbara Strozzi (Furore Verlag), and his critical edition of arias by Antonio Francesco Tenaglia was recently published by the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music. Richard Kolb has held teaching positions at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, the University of Toronto, and the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto. He currently teaches music history at Lake Erie College. |
Guest Artists for 2012
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ROCHELLE REED, Soprano (June 10, 2012) BM in Vocal Performance and BA in Music, University of Washington in Seattle; MM in Vocal Performance, New England Conservatory of Music. Rochelle has been as a soloist with Princeton Opera, Piccola Opera of Philadelphia, Amato Opera of New York, Opera North of Vermont, Princeton Pro Musica, Princeton Chamber Orchestra, Palisades Symphony, Philomel, the Choir of Saint Paul’s Church, and the Chamber Arts Guild. Solo engagements include Bach’s Magnificat, Cantatas 140 & 161, and Easter Oratorio, Mozart Requiem, Solemn Vespers, and Coronation Mass, Handel Messiah, Haydn Lord Nelson Mass, Nicolai Mass and Organ Solo Mass, Beethoven Mass in C Major and Missa Solemnis, Faure Requiem, Williams Walton’s Façade, and Ravel’s Sheherazade. Musical theater work includes Saint Paul’s Theatre Group Oliver!, The Sound Of Music, It’s A Grand Night For Singing, and directing productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Music Man, and The Sound Of Music. A full-time faculty member at Bucks County Community College, she conducts the Concert Choir and Madrigal Singers, and also teaches applied voice. |
| EDMOND CHAN, baroque violin (April 15, 2012) |
| Edmond Chan, a native of Corpus Christi, TX, received the BS in Biochemistry in 2005 from the University of North Texas where he studied both modern and baroque violin with Julia Bushkova and Cynthia Roberts and has also studied with David Douglass and Emlyn Ngai. He performs with many early music ensembles including Tempesta di Mare: Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra, the Washington Bach Consort, the Handel Choir of Baltimore, Opera Lafayette, Brandywine Baroque, and La Fiocco. As a soloist he has played with the St. Cecilia Baroque Music Festival orchestra in Austin, TX and has led the baroque orchestra and opera orchestra at the Amherst Early Music Festival. Edmond participated in this past summer’s American Bach Soloists Festival and Academy where he worked closely with principal players from ABS and played the solos in Bach’s Cantata 76 and Handel’s Ariodante in concerts for the San Francisco Bach Festival. |
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JILL CRAWFORD, baroque flute (June 10, 2012) Jill Crawford is on the faculty of Westminster Choir College Conservatory and regularly performs in various concert series in Princeton. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree from New England Conservatory and Master of Music from Mason Gross School of Arts, Rutgers University. Her principal teachers were Louis Moyse, Lois Schaefer and James Scott. She has studied baroque flute in master classes and privately with Sandra Miller and Jed Wentz. She currently performs with Volanti Flute Quartet, and the chamber music trio, Trillium. Jill has played in various festival orchestras including the Westminster Bach Festival and Lehigh University Oratorios. Playing baroque flute, she is a member of the ensemble, Col Legno. In addition to instructing flute students, she teaches elementary music classes at Albrook Montessori and is the music director at Union Village United Methodist Church. |
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ROBERT GIGLIO, cornetto (April 15, 2012) Robert Giglio is a recent graduate of the Purchase College Conservatory of Music where he studied musicology and historical performance. Robert was awarded the Artist-in-Residence Full Tuition Scholarship to study with Bruce Dickey at the 2011 San Francisco Early Music Society Medieval/Renaissance Workshop, and has been coached with prominent cornetto players Matt Jennejohn, Allan Dean, and Michael Collver. Robert's article on early 17th-century Italian cornetto repertoire will soon be published in the International Trumpet Guild Journal. He is currently applying to Master of Arts programs in musicology for Fall 2012 admission. |
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DOUGLAS KELLEY, viola da gamba (June 10, 2012) Douglas Kelley has performed on viola da gamba throughout Europe from Amsterdam to Zagreb, and has made numerous tours in Asia including award-winning performances at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition (Japan). He has taught at summer courses in Italy and for the German, Austrian and Swiss viola da gamba societies (Viola da gamba-Gesellschaft), and was teaching assistant at the Vienna Musikhochschule. In 2000, he was awarded a career grant by Early Music America. He is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and returns to his alma mater as a member of the Oberlin Consort of Viols. Since 2009, he has made his home in rural Connecticut, which allows him to be closely involved with projects in both Boston and New York City, as well as further afield. Please visit his website: www.douglaskelley.us. |
| REBECCA STUHR, baroque flute (June 10, 2012) |
| Rebecca Stuhr plays modern and baroque flute. She has three recordings with Centaur Records and a solo album on her own Lebende Music label. Rebecca recently moved to Philadelphia and is Coordinator for the Humanities at the Van Pelt Library at the University of Pennsylvania. She performs a wide range of music from the 20th century concentrating on French music for flute and piano and flute and guitar. She performs on baroque flute with La Fiocco, the Kansas City Early Music Consort, and Basically Baroque, and American and Celtic folk music with the duo New House. |
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AGNES SIMKENS, baroque violin (April 15, 2012) Agnes is a native of Belgium, is an active performer on both Baroque and modern violin. She is a co-founder of Biber Baroque, and has performed with Rebel, Opera Lafayette, American Classical Orchestra, and Princeton Symphony. She earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Moores School of Music of the University of Houston, with a specialization in historical performance. Agnes holds a Master of Music degree from the Yale University School of Music studying with Erick Friedman, and a Bachelor degree from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Antwerp, Belgium. Besides her performing activities, Agnes has a passion for teaching, and is strongly driven to share her knowledge and experiences with her students. She holds a private studio in Cliffside Park, NJ. |
Guest Artists for October 29, 2011: J. S. Bach, Concertos for One and Two Harpsichords.
| Elizabeth Weinfield, baroque viola |
| Elizabeth is the founder and director of the New York-based viola da gamba ensemble Sonnambula, and is a member of the viol consort Long & Away. She has appeared as a baroque violist and viola da gambist with Anonymous 4, Lionhart, The New York Consort of Viols, Siren Baroque, Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Festival, Parthenia and others. Currently she is a doctoral candidate in historical musicology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York where she is writing on 17th-century French pastoral music and iconography, and she holds a Master’s degree in music from Oxford University. A former researcher at the Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments, she is the content editor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Helibrunn Timeline of Art History, a publication to which she contributes as a writer on music, and Adjunct Professor of Music at Yeshiva University. Her recent credits on modern viola include a recording of Gregory Spears’s Requiem (New Amsterdam Records, forthcoming 2011). |
| Andrew Trombley, double bass |
| Andrew Trombley, a native of Monticello, New York, earned the BM degree in double bass performance at the Juilliard School, where he studied with Timothy Cobb, principal bass of the Metropolitan Opera. He has performed with world-renowned conductors Christoph Eschenbach, Christoph von Dohnányi, Andreas Delfs, Herbert Blomstedt, Mikhail Pletnev, and James DePriest, and has participated in workshops with Franz Welser-Möst, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Kurt Masur. Andrew has performed with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Symphony in C, Camerata New York, the New Juilliard Ensemble, and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchestra. He has new premiered works by contemporary composers and has performed on baroque bass with William Christe’s Les Arts Florrisants. A recipient of numerous awards, he is a recent winner of the Lillian Fuchs Chamber Music Competition and was a finalist in the International Society of Bassists orchestral competition in 2009. Andrew is currently studying for a master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Timothy Cobb, and teaches double bass at the Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academy II. |
Guests Artists for June 5, 2011: Music of the English Restoration through the Age of William and Mary.
| Nicholas Tamagna, Countertenor (Guest Artist for June 5, 2011) |
| Nicholas Tamagna is the recent winner of the Nico Castel International Mastersinger Competition at Carnegie Hall. He made his debut performance as Orpheus in Orfeo ed Euridice with Brooklyn Repertory Opera (2008) and reprised the role with Opera Memphis (2010). Opera Now described him as "exquisite, combining perfect tonal quality with substantial power…a silky beauty, giving a glimpse, perhaps, of why castrati voices became the divos of the Baroque era." Other roles include Cesare (Giulio Cesare in Egitto) Bel Cantanti Opera and Tolomeo (Giulio Cesare in Egitto) Opera London, The Sorceress (Dido and Aeneas) STC Series, Ulrica (Un Ballo in Maschera) Brooklyn Repertory Opera and Edgar and Friends Opera Concerts, Ruggiero (Alcina) PONY, Farnace (Mitridate, Re di Ponto) LOTNY. Nicholas has performed regularly with Amor Artis, Fairfield Chorale Society, and the ARTEK Midtown Concert Series. He is the CEM of Counterpoints Publishing.com, providing quality vocal scores and countertenor resource materials. Visit his website at nicholastamagna.com. |
| Reid Powell, Tenor (Guest Artist for June 5, 2011) |
| Reid Powell holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Furman University where he studied voice with soprano Tamara Matthews. He was a member of the Furman Singers and Chamber Choir, and sang with the male a capella ensemble. He also played lead roles in various musicals with Furman's Pauper Players, including Guys and Dolls, Fiddler on the Roof, and Ragtime. Professional credits include tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Asheville Symphony, tenor section leader for the Washington Master Chorale, with which he performed major choral works with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, including Verdi’s Requiem, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, and Grieg’s Peer Gynt. Reid is currently a member of the Community Presbyterian Church Chancel Choir in Mountainside, NJ, and a recitalist. Reid is also studying at Fordham University School of Law, where he is a Mary Daly Scholar and senior notes editor of the Fordham Journal of Corporate and Financial Law. |
| David Clark Little, harpsichord & organ (2011 Season) |
| David Clark Little studied organ, harpsichord, and composition at West Chester University, and in the Netherlands, at the conservatories of Hilversum, Amsterdam, and Utrecht. Among his teachers were harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt and organist Keith Chapman. David has performed widely solo and in ensembles in the United State, the Netherlands, France, and Indonesia. He is currently Organist/Choir Director at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and teaches organ, harpsichord, and piano privately, and at the Settlement School in Philadelphia. Running a private studio, he produces CDs with the Adnarim label. Among these are his performances of harpsichord sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti and his own arrangement of the Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach. Click here to visit David's homepage. |
| David Walker, theorbo & baroque guitar (Guest Artist for June 5, 2011) |
| David Walker, lutenist and guitarist, has performed extensively throughout the United States earning praise for his “surety of technique and expressive elegance,” (Columbus Dispatch) as well as his “tremendous dexterity and careful control” (Bloomington Herald Times). David has appeared with such groups as Chatham Baroque, Clarion Music Society, Early Music New York, the Newberry Consort, Tempesta di Mare, the Wolf Trap Opera Company, and Glimmerglass Opera. David is a member of the chamber ensemble Ostraka, whose 2010 debut release Division has been called “an utter aural and intellectual delight” (Examiner San Francisco). He holds degrees from Indiana University and the University of Louisville, and has studied lute and guitar with Patrick O’Brien and Nigel North. |
Artists for March 27th and April 2nd 2011: Two-in-One: Secular and Sacred Chamber Music of the High Baroque Era.
| Michelle D. Cosgrove (March 27th & April 2nd) |
| Michelle studied with Dent Williamson at The College of New Jersey, where she earned a bachelor of music education degree. Under the tutelage of Kimberly Reighley, she earned her master’s degree in flute performance at West Chester University in 2007. During this time she became acquainted with the baroque flute, and is currently coached by Eve Friedman. Michelle maintains a private flute and piano studio, teaches student chamber ensembles and classes, and is Senior Tour Coordinator at the Community Conservatory in Doylestown, PA. She performs on modern and baroque flute as a soloist and La Fiocco and the guitar/flute duo Strings & Wind, and is founder of Ensemble Impromptu. |
| Eric D. Johnson, composer (March 27th) |
| Eric D. Johnson is a composer and music educator based in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. As a composer of mainly vocal and choral music, Eric’s works have been performed in Japan, Belgium, and throughout the United States. He has been commissioned by Westminster Choir College, Rutgers University, and La Fiocco with performances by Westminster Schola Cantorum, Western Michigan Cantus Femina, YLJ, and the Westminster Vocal Institute Chorus. His current projects include choral works for Kantorei and the Westminster Chapel Choir. |
