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Hana Blažíková; Bruce Dickey; Monica Huggett; Tekla Cunningham; Joanna Blendulf; Michael Sponseller; Stephen Stubbs
A co-production with Pacific Musicworks and Portland Baroque Orchestra
Hana Blažíková (soprano)
Bruce Dickey (cornetto)
Monica Huggett, Tekla Cunningham (violins)
Joanna Blendulf (viola da gamba)
Michael Sponseller (organ & harpsichord)
Stephen Stubbs (theorbo)
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the cornetto was fabled for its astonishing ability to imitate the human voice. This imitation encompassed not only its clear and bright sound, but also its agility, and expressive range, which could make it sound almost as though the player were speaking through his instrument.
The young soprano, Hana Blažíková, described as “one of the most exciting voices in the baroque scene today” joins Bruce Dickey and an all-star cast of instrumentalists.
“The plangent eloquence and dare-devil bravura of Bruce Dickey’s cornetto playing would charm the skin off a snake.” – BBC Music Magazine
Supported by the American Musicological Society
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Programme
Maurizio Cazzati (1616 – 1678)
Regina coeli
Nicolò Corradini (? – 1646)
Spargite flores
Biagio Marini (1594 – 1663)
Sonata seconda a doi violini
Sigismondo D’India (c1582 – 1629)
Dilectus meus
Langue al vostro languir
Giovanni Battista Fontana
Sonata 11 a 2
Tarquinio Merula (c1594 – 1665)
Nigra Sum
Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674)
Summi regis puerpera
INTERVAL
Calliope Tsoupaki (b. 1963)
Mélena imí (Nigra sum)
Gio. Battista Bassani (c1650 – 1716)
Three arias from La Morte Delusa (Ferrara, 1680):
Speranza lusinghiera
Se spende in un seno
Error senza dolor
Sonata prima a 3, Op. 5
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660 – 1725)
Three arias from Emireno (Naples, 1697):
Rosinda: Non pianger solo dolce usignuolo
Rosinda: Senti ch’io moro
Emireno: Labbra gradite
Vocal Texts
Cazzati Regina coeli
[one-half-first]Regina caeli laetare, alleluia:
Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia:
Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia:
Ora pro nobis deum, alleluia.
[/one-half-first][one-half]Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia.
For Him whom you were worthy to bear, alleluia.
He has risen, as He said, alleluia.
Pray for us to God, alleluia.
[/one-half]
Corradini Spargite flores
[one-half-first]Spargite flores, spargite lilia.
Alleluia.
Induimini omnes cum sanctis Angelis
vestimentis iucunditatis et laetitia.
Coronate vos rosis,
Victoriam dicite, triumphum ducite,
victoriam canite. Alleluia.
Prosperatus est Dominus in omnibus viis suis.
Dominus regnavit a ligno.
Regnavit et decorem induit.
Dominus fortitudine et precinxite virtute.
Alleluia.
[/one-half-first][one-half]Scatter flowers, scatter lilies!
Alleluia.
Let us all be clothed with the holy angels
In garments of pleasure and joy.
Crown yourselves with roses, proclaim victory, lead the triumph, celebrate victory in song. Alleluia.
The Lord has succeeded in all his ways.
The Lord has reigned from the Cross.
He has reigned and put on his adornment. The Lord has clothed himself with strength and girded himself with virtue.
Alleluia.
[/one-half]
D’India Dilectus meus
[one-half-first]Dilectus meus loquitur mihi,
Surge propera amica mea et veni.
Speciosa mea, columba mea
Quam pulchrae sunt mamae tuae.
Soror mea sponsa
Vulnerasti cor meum
Crine, colli tui,
Veni quia , Amore langeo. [/one-half-first][one-half]My beloved said to me,
Arise and come away.
My special one, my dove,
How beautiful are your breasts.
My sister, my spouse,
You have ravished my heart
with the locks on your neck,
Come here, I languish from love.
[/one-half]
D’India Langue al vostro languir
[one-half-first]Langue al vostro languir l’anima mia,
e dico: “Ah, forse a sì cocente pena
sua ferita la mena.”
O anima d’amor troppo rubella,
Quanto meglio vi fora
provar quel caro ardor che vi fa bella
che quel che vi scolora!
Perché non piace alla mia sorte
ch’io arda del vostro foco
E voi del mio.
[/one-half-first][one-half]My heart aches when I see you suffering,
And I think: “Ah, perhaps to this anguished state
Her own wound has led her.”
O spirit too resentful of Love’s power,
how much better it would be for you
to feel the sweet passion that enhances beauty,
rather than that which causes it to fade!
Why is it not to my darling’s liking
That I should be let by your flame,
and you by mine?
[/one-half]
Merula Nigra sum
[one-half-first]Nigra sum sed formosa filiae Ierusalem;
annunciate dilecto meo quam magnum caritatis
sit incendium et ingens amoris flamma.
Sum nigra sed formosa admiramini gentes
Alleluia.
[/one-half-first][one-half]Black am I, yet lovely, daughters of Jerusalem;
Announce to my beloved how great is the fire of charity and the flame of love.
I am black, yet lovely. Be amazed, O people!
Alleluia.
[/one-half]
Carissimi Summi regis puerpera
[one-half-first]μέλαινά εἰμι ἐγὼ καὶ καλή,
ὅτι παρέβλεψέ με ὁ ἥλιος·
υἱοὶ μητρός μου ἐμαχέσαντο ἐν ἐμοί,
ἔθεντό με φυλάκισσαν ἐν ἀμπελῶσιν·
ἀμπελῶνα ἐμὸν οὐκ ἐφύλαξα.
ἀπάγγειλόν μοι ὃν ἠγάπησεν ἡ ψυχή μου,
ποῦ ποιμαίνεις, ποῦ κοιτάζεις ἐν μεσημβρίᾳ,
ΕΓΩ ἄνθος τοῦ πεδίου,
ὡς κρίνον ἐν μέσῳ ἀκανθῶν,
στηρίσατέ με ἐν μύροις,
στοιβάσατέ με ἐν μήλοις,
ὅτι τετρωμένη ἀγάπης ἐγώ.[/one-half-first][one-half]I am black but beautiful,
because the sun hath altered my color:
the sons of my mother have fought against me,
they have made me the keeper in the vineyards:
my vineyard I have not kept.
Shew me, O thou whom my soul loveth,
where thou feedest, where thou liest in the midday.
I am the flower of the field,
As the lily among thorns,
Stay me up with flowers,
compass me about with apples:
because I languish with love.
[/one-half]
Bassani from La Morte Delusa
[one-half-first]
Giustizia:
Speranza lusinghiera tradisce in consolar
Promette pentimento ne momento può donar.
Pietà:
Se splende in un seno baleno di cara mercè
non ha più ritorte la Morte
per stringere l’alme bastante non è.
Sin dove il foco ardito per eccelsa possanza
aguzza il dente della pentita gente
l’anime stesse a lacerar vorace
è la pietade e refrigerio e pace.
[Adagio]
Error senza dolor un’Anima non hà,
dolor senza ristor non soffre la Pietà.[/one-half-first][one-half]
Justice:
Hope, flattering, betrays in consoling,
it promises repentance but not a moment can it grant.
Pity:
If it shines in a radiant breast of dear mercy, Death has no more bonds sufficient to bind the soul.
Wherever ardent fire whets the appetite for overweening power, pity is the solace and peace of the repentant, [otherwise] voracious to rend their very souls.
[Adagio]
A soul has no error without pain,
Pity does not abide pain without recompense.[/one-half]
Scarlatti from Emireno
[one-half-first]Rosinda:
Non pianger solo,
Dolce usignuolo,
Ch’ancor io bramo
Pianger con te.
Almen volando di ramo in ramo
Tu vai vantando libero il piè.
Se l’Idol mio non veggio
Ne pure ad uno speco
Palesar mi conviene i miei tormenti
Che per bocca d’un eco
A l’aure non ridica i miei lamenti.
Rosinda:
Senti, senti ch’io moro
Perché t’adoro,
Caro mio ben.
E come vivo
Se di te privo
Vesta il mio sen?
Emireno:
Labbra gradite,
So che a me dite,
“Caro mio ben,”
Onde contento nel suo tormento
Resta il mio sen.[/one-half-first][one-half]Rosinda:
Do not weep alone,
Sweet Nightingale,
For I desire
To weep with you.
At least when flying from branch to branch,
You may boast of being free of foot.
If I do not see my beloved,
Even in a mirror,
It behooves me to make my torments known,
So that by the mouth of an echo
My laments are not spoken again to the wind.
Rosinda:
Hear me, hear me that I am dying
Because I adore you,
My dear one.
And how shall I live
If my breast
Is adorned without you?
Emireno:
Beloved lips,
I know that you say to me:
“My dear one,”
Whereby my breast remains
Content in its torment.[/one-half]
Programme Notes
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the cornetto was fabled for its remarkable ability to imitate the human voice. This concert is a celebration of the affinity of the cornetto and the human voice—an exploration of how they combine, converse and complement each other, whether responding in the manner of a dialogue or entwining as two equal partners in a musical texture. This perceived similary of the voice and the cornetto encompassed not only the instrument’s clear and bright sound timbre, but also its agility, expressive range, dynamic flexibility, and articulation, which could make it sound almost as though the player were speaking through his instrument. Our program, which puts this imitation center stage, is called “breathtaking” both because the voice and the cornetto literally make music with the breath, and because the imitation, we hope, will literally take the listener’s breath away.
The Bolognese organist Maurizio Cazzati was an important, though controversial and sometimes polemical, figure in the musical life of his city. When he was appointed to the post of maestro di cappella at the basilica of San Petronio in the 1650s, he undertook a sweeping and brutal reform of the chapel, firing en masse all of the cornettists and trombonists, many of whom had given thirty or forty years of faithful service, and replacing them with violins and violoncelli. He was able, however, to attract excellent singers as well as string players to the basilica. His Regina coeli, from a collection of Marian antiphons published in 1667, alternates arioso-like sections with expressive accompanied recitatives, and demonstrates a virtuosity of vocal writing which is nearly instrumental in character. We could almost say that the imitation of the voice by the cornetto and the violin alternates with an imitation of instruments by the voice.
Nicolò Corradini was a Cremonese organist who held posts at several religious institutions in Cremona, including the Cappella delle Laudi at the Cathedral, where he succeeded Tarquinio Merula. His concertato motets are of particular interest here because they include examples with a high voice and a single high instrument, in this case cornetto. In his Spargite flores, the voice and the cornetto pass musical material back and forth in dialogue, with the instrument sometimes imitating and interweaving with the voice. Occasionally the cornetto elaborates the vocal figures, creating truly instrumental patterns.
The almost total lack of biographical information about Sigismondo D’India has led to a great deal of speculation concerning his origins and training. He claims on one of his title pages to be of noble Sicilian birth. Indications point to connections with the circle surrounding Don Fabrizio Gesualdo, which included innovative composers such as Giovanni de Macque. D’India travelled extensively, holding positions in Turin, Modena, and Rome. His monodies, for which he is primarily known, were said to be admired by Vittoria Archilei and Giulio Caccini, and he likely met Monteverdi in Mantua. We have selected a motet and a madrigal of his, both for two sopranos, because they allow the voice and the cornetto to entwine in expressive harmonies while giving the instrument an opportunity to imitate the words being sung.
The Cremonese organist and violinist Tarquinio Merula was one of the most skillful and innovative composers of his generation. Outside of his native city, he was active in Lodi and Bergamo (where he succeeded Alessandro Grandi), and for a time was organista di chiesa e di camera in the service of Sigismund III, King of Poland. In Cremona, Merula was three times named organist of the cathedral and maestro of the Cappella delle Laudi. His works, both vocal and instrumental, are characterized by graceful and humorous rhythmic and melodic turns and frequently demand considerable virtuosity from both singers and instrumentalists. His setting of Nigra sum, with its especially fresh and arresting opening figure, is no exception.
Giacomo Carissimi was the most important composer of motets and cantatas in mid- seventeenth century Rome, and his influence spread rapidly to the rest of Europe. Summi regis puerpera is written for two sopranos and two violins. In our version, the cornetto takes over the role of one of the sopranos.
The sonatas on this concert are by three of the most important masters of the instrument in the seventeenth century. Biagio Marini was, together with Giovanni Battista Fontana, undoubtedly the most innovative composer for the violin in the first half of the Seicento, and his reputation as a violinist was considerable on both sides of the Alps. He held positions in his native Brescia, in Parma, at Saint Mark’s in Venice, as well as Milan, Vicenza, and Bergamo. He also served as Kapellmeister at the Wittelsbach courts in Neuburg an die Donau and Düsseldorf. He was among the first to write solo pieces for violin (or cornetto) with a basso continuo and pioneered many violin techniques such as double and triple stopping, scordatura, and tremolo con la’arco. Giovanni Battista Bassani was one of the most celebrated violinists in the generation after Marini. He is said to have studied in Ferrara with Giovanni Legrenzi, and was held by some to be an even better player than Corelli. Burney, in particular, felt that no one before him had written so idiomatically for the violin.
“…Among the best, excellent”: this is the way Giovanni Battista Fontana is described on the title page of his posthumous collection of sonatas for one, two, and three instruments published in Venice in 1641. We owe nearly all of our biographical information about Fontana, and indeed the very existence of his sonatas, to Giovan Battista Reghino, maestro di cappella in 1641 of the Chiesa delle Grazie at Padua. It was to the monastery of this church, presumably Fontana’s last place of employment, that he bequeathed his manuscripts upon his death, due probably to the plague, around 1630. According to Reghino, who wrote the dedication to the published collection, “Gio: Batista Fontana of Brescia was one of the most singular violin virtuosi of his age and was known as such not only in his native land but also in Venice, Rome, and lastly in Padua…” The Sonata 11 a 2 on today’s program truly has one foot in the sixteenth and the other in the seventeenth century. Slow-moving passages in long notes alternate with exuberant bursts of ornamentation which recall the written-out ornamentation examples of an earlier generation. The sonata carries the indication “per violino o cornetto” but it is not entirely clear whether this was Fontana’s preference or that of his editor.
As a centerpiece for our program, we invited the Greek composer Calliope Tsoupaki to write a new work exploring the affinity of the cornetto and the voice. This new composition, which sets the Song of Songs text Nigra sum in Byzantine Greek (Mélena imí), is inspired by the seventeenth-century idea of a voice and a cornetto in dialogue. The composer has described the piece as a “serene antiphonal lyric moment” between the cornetto and the voice.
For many days in September of 1686, the city of Ferrara celebrated the defeat of the Turks in a great battle at Budapest. Prominent among the musical works performed in honor of the dead was the oratorio La Morte Delusa by the Paduan composer Giovanni Battista Bassani. Bassani, already maestro di cappella of the famous Accademia della Morte in Ferrara, attained the same position at the Ferrarese Cathedral in the year 1688, very likely as a result of the success two years earlier of his oratorio, standing as it did at the center of those important celebrations. Thus La Morte Delusa is not only of great historical interest for its connection to the Battle of Budapest, but also because it represents a high point in the musical output of a composer who, although relatively unknown today, was greatly celebrated by his contemporaries. At the time this music was written, the cornetto was already beginning its long slide into obsolescence, and yet Bassani gives great prominence to the instrument, prefacing each aria with a sinfonia in which the cornetto, accompanied by two violins and basso continuo, anticipates the melody to be sung. We have created a small suite of arias and sinfonie from this oratorio.
While the history of seventeenth-century Italian opera does not often involve the cornetto, Naples presented a surprising exception in the last decade of the century. Both Giovanni Bononcini and Alessandro Scarlatti included arias in a handful of operas with obbligati for the cornetto of extreme difficulty and displaying an unusually high tessitura. Among these is L’Emireno, o vero Il consiglio dell’ombra, composed by Scarlatti and first performed at the Teatro Bartolomeo in Naples in 1697. Though this opera survives in a Viennese manuscript bearing an attribution to Giacomo Antonio Perti, its true authorship was recognized as early as 1976. The existence of this cluster of operas in Naples in the last decade of the century leads to the intriguing question of who this late cornetto virtuoso may have been, a question we are not yet able to answer. From this opera we perform a selection of three arias including the cornetto, two of Rosinda and one of her lover Emireno. In the first Rosinda shares her lovelorn weeping with a nightingale, whose sound is evoked by the high cornetto.
Hana Blažíková
Hana Blažíková was born in Prague. As a child she sang in the children’s choir Radost Praha and played the violin. Later she turned to solo singing, graduating in 2002 from the Prague Conservatory in the class of Jiří Kotouč and undertook further study with Poppy Holden, Peter Kooij, Monika Mauch and Howard Crook.
Today Hana has achieved high acclaim as a leading specialist in the interpretation of Baroque, Renaissance and medieval music, performing with ensembles and orchestras around the world, including the Collegium Vocale Gent, the Bach Collegium Japan, Sette Voci, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, L’Arpeggiata, Gli Angeli Genève, La Fenice, Nederlandse Bachvereniging, Tafelmusik, Collegium 1704, Collegium Marianum, Musica Florea, L’Armonia Sonora and others.
In 2010 and 2013 she took part in a highly praised world tour of the St. Matthew Passion under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe and in 2011 she made her debut in Carnegie Hall with Masaaki Suzuki´s Bach Collegium Japan. In 2017 she appeared in major venues all over Europe and North America in the trilogy of Monteverdi operas mounted by John Eliot Gardiner for the composer’s 450th birthday. In the three operas she sang six roles including the title role in Poppea.
Hana appears on more than thirty CDs, including the well-known series of Bach cantatas with the Bach Collegium Japan. She also plays gothic and romanesque harp and presents concerts in which she accompanies herself on this instrument. In addition she is a member of the Tiburtina Ensemble, which specializes in Gregorian chant and early medieval polyphony.
Bruce Dickey
Bruce Dickey is one of a handful of musicians worldwide who have dedicated themselves to reviving the cornetto – once an instrument of great virtuosi, but which lamentably fell into disuse in the 19th century. The revival began in the 1950s, but it was largely Bruce Dickey, who, from the late 1970s, created a new renaissance of the instrument, allowing the agility and expressive power of the cornetto to be heard once again. His many students, over more than 30 years of teaching at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, have helped to consolidate and elevate the status of this once forgotten instrument. For his achievements the Historic Brass Society awarded him in 2000 the prestigious Christopher Monk Award for “his monumental work in cornetto performance, historical performance practice and musicological scholarship.” In 2007 he was honored by British conductor and musicologist Andrew Parrott with a “Taverner Award” as one of 14 musicians whose “significant contributions to musical understanding have been motivated by neither commerce nor ego.”
In the course of his long career as a performer and recording artist he has worked with most of the leading figures in the field of early music, including the legendary pioneers of historically informed perfomance, Gustav Leonhardt, Frans Brüggen and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. He was a member for over ten years of Jordi Savall’s Hesperion XX , and has frequently and repeatedly collaborated wth Ton Koopman, Monica Huggett, Philippe Herreweghe and many others. Of special importance has been his long-time friendship and collaboration with Andrew Parrott, and in more recent years with Konrad Junghänel.
Bruce Dickey can be heard on countless recordings. His solo CD (“Quel lascivissimo cornetto…”) on Accent with the ensemble Tragicomedia was awarded the Diapason d’or and was chosen in 2017 by Diapason Magazine as one of the 100 best CDs of Baroque Music of the past half century. His second solo CD, entitled “La Bella Minuta”, was released on the Passacaille label in 2011, and was described as, “simply a brilliant recording”.
In addition to performing, Bruce Dickey is much in demand as a teacher, both of the cornetto and of seventeenth-century performance practice. In addition to his regular class at the Schola Cantorum he has taught at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, and the Early Music Institute at Indiana University, as well as master classes in the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan. He is also active in research on performance practice, and has published, together with Michael Collver, a catalog of the surviving cornetto repertoire, and, together with trumpeter Edward Tarr, a book on historical wind articulation. In 1997, together with his wife Candace Smith, he founded Artemisia Editions, a small publishing house which produces editions of music from17th-century Italian convents.
For more information, please visit brucedickey.com.
Monica Huggett
From age seventeen, beginning as a freelance violinist in London, Monica Hugget has earned her living solely as a violinist and artistic director and, in 2008, was appointed inaugural artistic director of The Juilliard School’s Historical Performance Program, where she continues as artistic advisor. Monica’s expertise in the musical and social history of the Baroque era is unparalleled among performing musicians today. This huge body of knowledge and understanding, coupled with her unforced and expressive musicality, has made her an invaluable resource to students of baroque violin and period performance practice through the 19th century.
Over the last 40 years, Monica co-founded, with Ton Koopman, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra; founded her own London-based ensemble, Sonnerie; worked with Christopher Hogwood at the Academy of Ancient Music and Trevor Pinnock with the English Concert; toured the United States in concert with James Galway; co-founded, in 2004, the Montana Baroque Festival; and has served as artistic director of Portland Baroque Orchestra since 1994, where she made her first appearance in 1992 playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. From 2006 to 2017, she was also the artistic director for Irish Baroque Orchestra, where she recorded Flights of Fantasy, named by Alex Ross in the New Yorker as Classical Recording of the Year for 2010.
Monica’s recordings, numbering well over 100, have won numerous prizes and acclaim throughout her career. In addition to her baroque violin recordings, she recorded “Angie” with The Rolling Stones in 1972. Monica lives in Portland, where she enjoys cycling and gardening (somewhat compulsively).
Tekla Cunningham
Praised as “a consummate musician whose flowing solos and musical gestures are a joy to watch”, and whose performances have been described as “ravishingly beautiful”, “stellar”, “inspired and inspiring”, violinist Tekla Cunningham enjoys a multi-faceted career as a chamber musician, concertmaster, soloist and educator devoted to music of the baroque, classical and romantic eras. She is concertmaster and orchestra director of Pacific MusicWorks, and is an artist-in-residence at the University of Washington. She founded and directs the Whidbey Island Music Festival, now entering its fourteenth season, producing and presenting vibrant period-instrument performances of music from the 17th through 19th centuries, and plays regularly as concertmaster and principal player with the American Bach Soloists in California.
Tekla’s first solo album of Stylus Phantasticus repertoire from Italy and Austria will be released next year – music by Farina, Fonatana, Uccellini to Biber, Schmelzer and Albertini, with an extravagant continuo team of Stephen Stubbs, Maxine Eilander, Williams Skeen, Henry Lebedinsky.
Tekla received her undergraduate degree in History and German Literature at Johns Hopkins University while attending Peabody Conservatory. She studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna Austria with Josef Sivo and Ortwin Ottmaier, and earned a Master’s Degree in violin performance at the San Francisco Conservatory with Ian Swenson.
Joanna Blendulf
Joanna Blendulf is associate professor of music in baroque cello/viola da gamba at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Blendulf has performed and recorded with leading period-instrument ensembles throughout the United States and abroad. She is currently co-principal cellist and principal viola da gamba player of the Portland Baroque Orchestra. She has also performed as principal cellist of Pacific MusicWorks, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra, and the New York Collegium.
She was a principal cellist of the New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas and has performed with other modern orchestras, including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra. Blendulf is an avid chamber musician, performing regularly on major concert series and appearing on numerous recordings with her groups, including the Ensemble Electra, Ensemble Mirable, Music of the Spheres, Nota Bene Viol Consort, and Wildcat Viols. She appears as a frequent guest viol player with the Catacoustic Consort and Parthenia, and has collaborated with acclaimed artists such as Monica Huggett, Stephen Stubbs, Matthias Maute, Bruce Dickey, and Joan Jeanrenaud. Blendulf’s world-premiere recording of the complete cello sonatas of Jean Zewalt Triemer with Ensemble Mirable was released in 2004. Blendulf’s festival engagements have included performances at Tage Alter Musik Regenburg, Musica Antigua en Villa de Leyva in Colombia, the Bloomington, Boston, and Berkeley early music festivals, and the Ojai Music Festival, as well as the Carmel and Oregon Bach Festivals. She is also sought after as a teacher and chamber music coach and has served as a classroom and private instructor at the University of Oregon and the Berwick Academy. As an active member of the Viola da gamba Society of America, she teaches regularly at viol workshops such as the annual Conclave, Viols West, and Young Players Weekend, and has served as a national Circuit Rider teacher. She holds performance degrees with honors from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Jacobs School of Music, where she earned a Performer’s Certificate for her accomplishments in early music performance.
Michael Sponseller
Michael Sponseller is recognized as one of the outstanding American harpsichordists of his generation. Since graduating from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, studying with Lisa Goode Crawford, and the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, he has taken several prizes including being a rare two-time winner at the Bruges Competition in 1998 and 2001.
Mr. Sponseller now enjoys a highly diversified career which brings him to concert venues and festivals as harpsichordist and continuo organist to several of today’s finest musicians, with regular appearances in many of America’s Baroque orchestras and chamber groups, including the Boston Early Music Festival, Bach Collegium San Diego, Les Délices, Tragicomedia, and the Aston Magna Festival.
He has taught at the Longy School of Music, Baldwin Wallace University, and Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute, and given numerous masterclasses throughout the U.S. In 2014, he was named Associate Director of Bach Collegium San Diego. His recordings are on the Delos, Centaur Eclectra, Vanguard Classics, RMAP, and Naxos labels.
Stephen Stubbs
Stephen Stubbs, who won the GRAMMY® Award as conductor for Best Opera Recording 2015, spent a 30-year career in Europe. He returned to his native Seattle in 2006 as one of the world’s most respected lutenists, conductors, and baroque opera specialists.
In 2007 Stephen established his new production company, Pacific MusicWorks, based in Seattle. He is the Boston Early Music Festival’s permanent artistic co-director, recordings of which were nominated for five GRAMMY awards. Also in 2015 BEMF recordings won two Echo Klassik awards and the Diapason d’Or de l’Année.
In addition to his ongoing commitments to PMW and BEMF, other recent appearances have included Handel’s Amadigi for Opera UCLA, Mozart’s Magic Flute and Cosi fan Tutte in Hawaii, Handel’s Agrippina and Semele for Opera Omaha, Cavalli’s Calisto and Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie for Juilliard and Mozart’s Il re pastore for the Merola program in San Francisco. He has conducted Handel’s Messiah with the Seattle, Edmonton, Birmingham and Houston Symphony orchestras.
His extensive discography as conductor and solo lutenist includes well over 100 CDs, which can be viewed at stephenstubbs.com, many of which have received international acclaim and awards.
Stephen is represented by Schwalbe and Partners (schwalbeandpartners.com).
