Guests

Lisandro Abadie

Episode 1: The Musicians of the Ospedali

Born in Buenos Aires, he graduated as a singer at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and the Lucerne Conservatory. He was awarded the 2006 Edwin Fischer Memorial Prize. His activity as a bass-baritone has led him to collaborate with renowned ensemble leaders and conductors such as William Christie, Laurence Cummings, Rubén Dubrovsky, Václav Luks, Francesco Corti, Tōnu Kaljuste, Skip Sempé, Paul Agnew, Philippe Herreweghe, Paul Goodwin, Vincent Dumestre and many others. He has appeared at the Handel Festivals in Göttingen and Karlsruhe (SiroeTheodoraRiccardo Primo), at the National Theatre in Prague (Rinaldo), at the Opéra Comique in Paris (CachafazAlcione), and is a regular guest at the London Handel Festival. He appears in numerous CD and video productions. Since 2019, Lisandro teaches singing, musical and literary sources, in the Master of Advanced Studies, AVES (Advanced Vocal Ensemble Studies) at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

Jean Bernard Cerin

Episode 5: Finding Lisette

Praised for his “burnished tone and focused phrasing,” (Chestnut Hill Local) baritone Jean Bernard Cerin has charmed audiences throughout the United States, France, Austria, and his native Haiti. A gifted recitalist, Jean Bernard was awarded the 2022 Musical Fund Society Career Advancement Award in Philadelphia including a solo debut recital with the Philadelphia Chamber Music society. He won the Gerard Souzay Prize for best performance of a French Mélodie at the Joy in Singing International Song Competition in 2018. On the concert stage, Jean Bernard has appeared with leading early music ensembles throughout the United States including Philadelphia based Choral Arts, Piffaro Renaissance Wind Ensemble, Tempesta di Mare Baroque Orchestra, Night Music, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society’s Gamut Bach Ensemble, Louisville’s Bourbon Baroque, Classical Uncorked in Seattle, and American Bach Soloists in San Francisco.  Jean Bernard directed a documentary Lisette (2022) that explores the history of the oldest song in Haitian Creole.  This film had its west coast premier at the 2022 Berkeley Festival & Exposition.

Karin A. Cuéllar Rendón

Episode 7: Ximenez: Music & Politics

Karin A. Cuéllar Rendón is a Bolivian historical violinist and scholar currently residing in Montreal, Canada. Cuellar performs regularly with Montreal-based period ensembles such as Arion, Les Boreades, and L’Harmonie des saison. Past collaborations have included Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment, Florilegium, Oxford Bach Soloists, Ex Cathedra, American Bach Soloists, Apollo’s Fire, ARTEK, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Bolivia. Cuellar earned a Master of Arts degree in Historical Performance from Case Western Reserve University under the guidance of Julie Andrijeski and Ross Duffin, and obtained an Advanced Diploma on baroque violin from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she studied with Maggie Faultless, Rachel Podger, and Matthew Truscott as a beneficiary of the San Marino and Vincent Meyer scholarships. Cuellar is currently pursuing a PhD. in musicology at McGill University with a research focus on performance practices in South America in the first half of the 19th century, using as a case study the music of composer Pedro Ximenez Abrill Tirado.

Hannah De Priest

Communications and Special Projects Manager

Praised for her “impeccable” singing and “bell-clear” tone, soprano Hannah De Priest is internationally acclaimed for her interpretation of baroque music but sings an increasingly wide range of lyric repertoire. Recent career highlights include her European debut at the Innsbruck Early Music Festival as “Gilde” in a new production of Carlo Pallavicino’s L’amazzone corsara, multiple engagements with Les Délices, and debuts with Columbus Symphony Orchestra and Chicago’s Apollo Chorus & Orchestra for Bach’s St. John Passion. Recent accolades include the 2nd Prize at the 2021 International Cesti Competition for Baroque Opera, the Luminarts Encouragement Award, and being named a finalist in North America’s three major Bach Competitions, the Handel Aria Competition (2021), and Le Concours Corneille in Normandy, France (2019). With duo partner Michael Pecak, Hannah has performed art song as a young artist with Oxford Lieder, Cleveland Art Song Festival, and Pegasus Rising. She is proud to support Les Délices and SalonEra as Communications and Special Projects Manager. 

José Manuel Izquierdo König

Episode 7: Ximenez: Music & Politics

José Manuel Izquierdo König is a musicologist from Valdivia, in the south of Chile, andcurrently a PhD in Music student in Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, with supportfrom the prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship. José Manuel has published several books and peer-reviewed articles, with his main interest being composers and music-making in the long Latin American nineteenth century. He has developed variousprojects on the musical heritage of Latin America, including concerts and theorganization of new music archives and collections from Chile, Peru and Bolivia. For hispatrimonial and scholarly work, he has received multiple awards.

Kane Mathis

Episode 3: Ottoman Influence (rebroadcast)

Kane’s Oud study began with Mutlu Torun of the I.T.U. conservatory in 1998 in Istanbul and continued with 5 and a half years of courses with Oud virtuoso Münir Nurttin Beken. Since completing his study Kane has been sought after as a soloist and accompanist internationally. As a composer Kane is generating new works for both instruments as well as experimental work for electronic fixed media for film and modern dance. Kane is the recipient of a Chamber Music America award as well as an Earshot Jazz “Album of The Year Award.” 

Elijah McCormack

Episode 4: No Straight Answers

Praised for his “radiant soprano” and “expressive sophistication” (Dallas Morning News), male soprano Elijah McCormack performs both concert and opera all over the United States, with a particular focus on baroque music. He has performed as a soloist with the Dallas Bach Society, Washington Bach Consort, and American Bach Soloists, in works such as Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, St. John Passion, and St. Matthew Passion. On the opera stage, he most recently appeared as Miles in “The Turn of the Screw” with IlluminArts Miami and Bell* Cohen in Lowell House Opera’s world premiere of “NIGHTTOWN”. The coming season includes his debuts with Haymarket Opera and Seraphic Fire. He received his Master’s degree in Historical Performance at Indiana University, where he sang roles in Giulio Cesare (Tolomeo) and Hansel and Gretel (Dewman).

Daphna Mor

Episode 3: Ottoman Influences (rebroadcast)

Daphna Mor (recorders, voice, ney) has performed throughout Europe and the United States as both a soloist and ensemble player. Mor’s “astonishing virtuosity” (Chicago Tribune) has been heard in solo recitals in the United States, Croatia, Germany and Switzerland. She has performed as a soloist with the New York Collegium, the New York Early Music Ensemble, Little Orchestra Society, Apollo’s Fire and more, and as a member of the orchestra with the New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera and Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Mor was awarded First Prize in the Settimane Musicali di Lugano Solo Competition and the Boston Conservatory Concerto Competition, and has appeared in a duo with Joyce DiDonato on the singer’s promotional tour for the album In War and Peace. Devoted to new music, Mor has recorded on John Zorn’s Tzadik label, and has performed the world premiere of David Bruce’s Tears, Puffes, Jumps, and Galliard with the Metropolis Ensemble. She co-composed WAVES- for recorders, voice, cello and a beat boxer for Carolyn Dorfman Dance and performed it in summer 2017 in New York’s Summer Stage among other venues.

Arwen Myers

Episode 1: Musicians of the Ospedali

Praised for her “crystalline tone and delicate passagework” (San Francisco Chronicle), soprano Arwen Myers captivates audiences with her timeless artistry and exquisite interpretations. Transmitting a warmth and “deep poignancy” (Palm Beach Arts Paper) onstage, Arwen shines in solo performance across the US and beyond. With outstanding technique and mastery of a wide range of vocal colors, her dazzling oratorio and solo appearances feature repertoire from the Baroque to modern day, and everything in between. Recent & upcoming performances include solo appearances with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Early Music Vancouver, Pacific MusicWorks, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Lorelei Ensemble, Seraphic Fire, and Third Angle New Music, working with such notable conductors as Nicholas McGegan, Monica Huggett, David Fallis, John Butt, David Hill, Beth Willer, Erick Lichte, and Matthew Dirst.

Debra Nagy

“A baroque oboist of consummate taste and expressivity” (Cleveland Plain Dealer) with a musical approach that’s “distinctly sensual…pliant, warm, and sweet,” (New York Times), Debra Nagy, director, is one of North America’s leading performers on the baroque oboe. She plays principal oboe with the American Bach Soloists, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, and Apollo’s Fire, and is a regular guest with the Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Early Music Festival, and Portland Baroque Orchestra, among other ensembles. Following studies at the Oberlin Conservatory, Conservatory of Amsterdam, and Case Western Reserve University, Debra has received many awards for her creative and scholarly pursuits including first-prize in the American Bach Soloists Young Artists Competition, a 2009 Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a 2010 Creative Workforce Fellowship from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. She has recorded over 30 CDs with repertoire ranging from 1300-1800 on the Chandos, Avie, CPO, Capstone, Bright Angel, Naxos, and ATMA labels, and has had live performances featured on CBC Radio Canada, Klara (Belgium), NPR’s Performance Today, WQXR (New York City) and WGBH Boston.

Nicholas Phan

Described by the Boston Globe as “one of the world’s most remarkable singers,” American tenor Nicholas Phan is increasingly recognized as an artist of distinction. Praised for his keen intelligence, captivating stage presence and natural musicianship, he performs regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies. Also an avid recitalist, in 2010 he co-founded the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (CAIC) to promote art song and vocal chamber music, where he serves as artistic director.

A celebrated recording artist, Phan’s most recent album, Clairières, a recording of songs by Lili and Nadia Boulanger, was nominated for the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. His album, Gods and Monsters, was nominated for the same award in 2017. He is the first singer of Asian descent to be nominated in the history of the category, which has been awarded by the Recording Academy since 1959.

Jessica Peritz

Jessica Gabriel Peritz is Assistant Professor of Music and Affiliated Faculty in Early Modern Studies and Italian Studies at Yale University. She is a cultural historian of music, literature, and philosophy in the long eighteenth century, focusing on representations of bodies and politics in Italian opera. Her first book, entitled The Lyric Myth of Voice: Civilizing Song in Enlightenment Italy, was published in November 2022 by the University of California Press. The book traces how the singing bodies and cultural performances of women and castrated men in eighteenth-century Italy turned “the voice” into an enduring metaphor for subjectivity. Her work has won numerous awards including the Rome Prize, the Pisk Prize from the American Musicological Society, and, most recently, the Scaglione Prize from the Modern Language Association. She is also a trained (though now lapsed) operatic mezzosoprano with a penchant for travesti and castrato roles.

Marie Ross

Marie Ross is Lecturer of Music at The University of Auckland in New Zealand, teaching both modern and historical clarinets. She is Associate Principal Clarinet with the French historical orchestra, Ensemble Matheus, where she performs everything from Mozart to world premieres of contemporary works. She also performs and records regularly with leading early music orchestras such as Concerto Köln, Musica Aeterna, and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. Marie has given masterclasses at some of the most prestigious musical institutions including The Juilliard School, The Eastman School of Music, and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Her recording of the Brahms Clarinet Sonatas and Trio on original instruments for Centaur Records has been called “groundbreaking” by Gramophone Magazine UK and “essential listening for any clarinetist” by the International Clarinet Association journal. She can be heard chatting about her performing experiences and interviewing colleagues on her podcast, Fidelio. 

Maria Ryan

Assistant Professor of Musicology at Florida State University, musicologist Maria Ryan researches and writes about how African and African-descended people in the Americas theorized, performed, and listened to music with European origins in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She holds the B.A. degree from the University of Nottingham, the M.Mus. degree from King’s College London, and the Ph.D. in musicology with a certificate in Africana studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Ryan’s current project investigates the relationship between racialization and music in the British colonial Caribbean, exploring the many ways that African-descended musicians and listeners engaged with music with European origins. Sometimes this engagement functioned as a way to assert their intellectual and aesthetic capabilities, while simultaneously learning, theorizing, and subverting the music of those who enslaved and subjugated them. Early work from this project can be seen in the article “‘The influence of Melody upon man in the wild state of nature”: Enslaved Parishioners, Anglican Violence, and Racialized Listening in a Jamaica Parish” in the Journal of the Society for American Music (Summer 2021).

Stephen Schultz

Stephen Schultz, called “among the most flawless artists on the baroque flute” by the San Jose Mercury News, and “flute extraordinaire” by the New Jersey Star-Ledger, is solo and co-Principal flutist with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and performs with other leading early music groups such as Musica Angelica of Los Angeles, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Chatham Baroque, and American Bach Soloists. Concert tours have taken him throughout Europe and North America with featured appearances at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York, the Musikverein in Vienna, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall in London, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Library of Congress in Washington D.C., and the Tage Alter Musik Festival, Regensburg. Currently he is a Teaching Professor in Music History and Flute at Carnegie Mellon University and director of the Carnegie Mellon Baroque Orchestra.

Henry Stoll

Henry Stoll is a musicologist who specializes in the cultural history of Haiti and the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French Atlantic. His research and teaching interests include global musicology, Afro-diasporic music, music in colonial Latin America and the Caribbean, and opera. Much of his current research focuses on the intellectual and aesthetic legacies of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804). His first book project, The Unsung Revolution, examines how the nation of Haiti, having fundamentally altered its Atlantic world, used music to express the joys, concerns, desires, and ambitions of its people. He is also engaged in the reconstruction and performance of Haitian classical music (mizik klasik), primarily opera and song. 

Vicki St. Pierre

Contralto Vicki St. Pierre’s voice “invitingly combines clarity of expression and beauty of tone,” and is described as “rich with both a darkness and brightness.” As a specialist in early music, she has performed internationally with such groups as the Academy of Ancient Music, Tafelmusik, Les Violons du Roy, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Sacabuche, and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra. She has also performed with Symphony Nova Scotia, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Victoria Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared on the operatic stage with Opera Atelier, Ensemble Masques de Montreal, Toronto Masque Theatre, and Early Music Vancouver, among others. Vicki has a doctorate in vocal performance from the University of Toronto, and has been a faculty member at Mount Allison University in Sackville, NB since 2015. In 2020, Dr. St. Pierre was appointed Interim Dean of Arts, and in early 2021, she was offered the position of Dean of Arts for a 5-year term.

Ceren Türkmenoglu

Violinist, multi-instrumentalist and composer Ceren Türkmenoğlu studied in Ankara State Conservatory and Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig. She worked in the Ankara State Opera and Ballet and then the Istanbul State Symphony until she moved to Boston in 2017 to attain her master’s degree, where she pursued an active musical life. Ceren received the grant award of The Boston Foundation two years in a row with her project “Music from Where the Sun Rises”, in which she examines Ottoman – Turkish Classical Music from a historical perspective. She performed in institutions such as the Harvard University, MIT, TUFTS and Boston Museum of Fine Arts. She performed alongside the members of the Silk Road Ensemble in various concerts and music events. Currently, Ceren holds a position as a violinist in the Ankara Opera and Ballet Orchestra and continues working on her music. Her début album Mâî, released in July 2021, consists of her compositions and arrangements.

Marc Vallon

Episode 2: Harmonie

Marc Vallon is Professor of Music, Bassoon at the University Of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music since 2004. A native of France, he received his musical education at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur. “Enfant prodige,” he began playing professionally at the age of 18, and had the privilege of performing with the top Parisian orchestras under legendary conductors such as Sergiu Celibidache, Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, and Karl Boehm. His interests lead him later to work with contemporary music groups that culminated in the 1980s in a 5-year period of collaboration with Pierre Boulez’s Ensemble Intercontemporain.
Marc’s early music career began in 1982 when he joined the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, where he was principal bassoon for 20 years. Marc was also principal bassoon of Philippe Herrewheghe’s Orchestre des Champs Elysées for 12 years and has participated in concerts worldwide with early music leading ensembles like Tafelmusik, La Petite Bande, Les Musiciens du Louvre and Concerto Köln. He is also a keen composer and arranger as well as an occasional conductor of early and contemporary music.

Todd Williams

Episode 2: Harmonie

An active performer and educator based in Philadelphia, Todd Williams is a preeminent exponent of the Natural Horn in America. He currently serves as Principal Horn of numerous ensembles across the country including Philharmonia Baroque, the Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Trinity Baroque, Apollo’s Fire, Mercury, Opera Lafayette, Tempesta di Mare, and more. Past seasons have seem him as guest principal for Tafelmusik (Toronto), American Bach Soloists (San Francisco), Bach Collegium San Diego (San Diego), and Musica Angelica (Los Angeles). On the topic of the Natural Horn, he has conducted lectures and Masterclasses at the music schools of Curtis, Eastman, and Oberlin and in 2018, joined the faculty of The Juilliard School.

Shelby Yamin

A native New Yorker, violinist Shelby Yamin has earned distinction for her sparkling, vivacious performances. Equally adept as a modern and period violinist, Shelby was the winner of the Juilliard415 concerto competition, and has been featured as a soloist with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, San Francisco Academy Orchestra, the Tafelmusik Winter Institute, and the Oregon Bach Festival Berwick Academy, where she returned as guest concertmaster in 2019. Shelby was the first prize winner of the Berkeley Piano Club’s Barbara Fritz Chamber Music Competition and the first prize winner of the Virtuoso e Belcanto competition in Lucca, Italy, where she was a recipient of the Luigi Boccherini Award. 2020 will see the releases of both her recording of contemporary works for harpsichord, violin, and flute, by Paladino Records, as well as her album of Maddalena Lombardini Sirmen’s Six Duets for Two Violins, Op. 5, which is the first to be recorded on historical instruments.