Debra Nagy, Director

Debra Nagy is one of North America’s leading performers on the baroque oboe and has been called a “musical polymath” (San Francisco Classical Voice) for her accomplished performances as a singer and historical wind player. She is the founder of acclaimed chamber ensemble Les Délices and indulges her love of late-medieval music as a regular guest with Boston’s Blue Heron and Chicago’s Newberry Consort. Inspired by a creative process that brings together research, composition in historical styles, improvisation, and artistic collaboration, highlights of Debra’s recent projects include a critically-acclaimed multimedia production of Machaut’s medieval masterpiece Remede de Fortune and a Baroque-Jazz crossover program called Songs without Words. Debra’s passion for unearthing little-known works caused The New York Times to dub Les Délices “an early music group with an avant-garde appetite,” adding “concerts and CDs by Les Délices are journeys of discovery.” She has received many awards for her creative and scholarly pursuits and her discography includes over 30 CDs with repertoire ranging from 1300-1800. Debra is also an unabashed foodie and loves commuting by bike from her home in the heart of Cleveland’s historic Ohio City neighborhood.

Kathryn Montoya, Oboe

Oboist Kathryn Montoya appears with a variety of orchestral and chamber ensembles including the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Tafelmusik, Bach Collegium San Diego, Apollo’s Fire, Ars Lyrica, and H&H among others. She currently teaches historical oboes at Oberlin Conservatory and has been faculty of Longy's International Baroque Institute, the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin, SFEMS Baroque, and has given masterclasses in the US, Costa Rica, and China. Past projects include
the Globe’s Tony award winning productions of Twelfth Night and Richard III on Broadway, and a Grammy-winning recording with the Boston Early Music Festival. Kathryn enjoys time in Hereford, England, converting an 18th century barn into a home with her husband, James.

Katherine Spencer, Clarinet

Clarinettist Katherine ‘Waffy’ Spencer is the newly appointed principal clarinet of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, a position she also holds with The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music, Gabrieli Consort and Players, The Irish Chamber Orchestra, and the City of London Sinfonia. Katherine has played for Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace and at a private performance for the Emperor of Japan. Katherine made her concerto debut at London’s Royal Festival Hall aged 14. She has made numerous BBC Radio 3 solo broadcasts, performs at the BBC Proms, and has presented BBC radio programmes. A believer that music is for everyone, Katherine leads the education and outreach departments of most of her orchestras. Katherine studied at Chethams School of Music (Manchester), The Royal Academy of Music (London), Hannover Hoschule für Musik, and is completing a doctorate at Stony Brook University, New York. This season Katherine will tour the Mozart Clarinet Concerto as part of OAEs 40th birthday celebrations.

Maryse Legault, Clarinet

Clarinettist Maryse Legault is a clarinettist and musicologist whose work sits at the intersection of performance practice and philosophy. A graduate of the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag, where she earned her master's degree studying with Eric Hoeprich, she holds a Ph.D. in musicology from McGill University. Celebrated for her "transcendent playing" (Wall Street Journal), her research explores the impact of Idealist philosophy on solo concerto performance in the nineteenth century. She has lectured at Oxford University, the Conservatoire national supérieur in Paris, and the Hochschule der Künste Bern. Legault performs regularly with ensembles such as The Handel & Haydn Society, Teatro Nuovo, Arion Orchestre Baroque, and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and has collaborated with European orchestras including MusicAeterna and Les Siècles. In 2023, she was named an Emerging Artist by Early Music America. Her debut solo album, Around Baermann (Leaf Music, 2023), received critical acclaim.

Stephanie Corwin, Bassoon

Bassoonist Stephanie Corwin enjoys playing music of the past five centuries on modern and historical bassoons. Praised for her “warmth and composure” (Wichita Eagle), Stephanie has performed throughout the US and abroad, appearing as a soloist at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall and performing with renowned ensembles, including Tafelmusik, Piffaro, Apollo’s Fire, and the Handel and Haydn Society. The inaugural winner of the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition, Stephanie has received prizes at the Fischoff, Coleman, and Yellow Springs chamber music competitions. After graduating from Davidson College, Stephanie earned her MM from Yale and DMA from Stony Brook, studying with Frank Morelli at both institutions. Intrigued by performance practice, she completed a Performer Diploma at Indiana University with Michael McCraw. Stephanie has served on faculty at the University of Virginia, the Chamber Music Conference, Amherst Early Music Festival, and the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute. She lives in New York City.

Nathan Helgeson, Bassoon

Nathanael Udell, Horn

Nathanael Udell is a graduate of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, earning his Doctor of Music under the tutelage of the former principal horn of the Chicago Symphony, Dale Clevenger. A graduate of both Rice University and The Juilliard School, he studied with William
VerMeulen and David Wakefield. Aside from modern horn, Nathanael also studied natural horn with R.J. Kelley, Richard Seraphinoff, and Anneke Scott, and has performed with The Boston Early Music Festival, Bach Collegium San Diego, Handel and Haydn Society, Trinity Wall Street, Musica Angelica, Mercury Baroque, Ars Lyrica Houston, and Jubilate Baroque. Currently, he is principal horn of WilliamCrutchfield’s opera company, Teatro Nuovo, and has also worked with the American Ballet Theatre, Sarasota Orchestra, the Staunton Music Festival, and was on Broadway for Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Lincoln Center Theatre’s Camelot, and the 2024 revival of The Who’s Tommy.

Sadie Glass, Horn

Sadie Glass leads a career as a performer and educator. She performs with period-instrument ensembles across North America, including Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Portland Baroque, American Bach Soloists, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, and Seattle Baroque. Sadie is on faculty at the Conservatory of Music at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA where she serves as Brass-Percussion Program Director. She has also held teaching positions at Pacific Union College, Chabot College, and El Sistema music programs. During the summer, she is on faculty at the Kendall Betts Horn Camp as the natural horn specialist. Outside of music, Sadie enjoys spending time with her family, is a DIY enthusiast, and loves to travel.

Nathaniel Chase, Double Bass

Double bassist Nathaniel Chase performs a wide range of music, from early music performances with the Sebastians, Boston Early Music Festival, and Tafelmusik, to orchestral repertoire as a member of the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and new music with NOVUS NY. He performed on Broadway in the critically acclaimed production of Farinelli and the King with countertenor Iestyn Davies. He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory and the Yale School of Music, where he was a winner of the 2010 Woolsey Hall Concerto Competition.