Artists

Learn more about our music directors and artists.

Equally at home with period- and modern-instrument ensembles, he has earned an outstanding reputation as a solo organist, an orchestral and opera conductor and composer. Haselböck's main focus lies in works of the Baroque and Classical periods.

As a solo organist, he has performed under the direction of conductors Abbado, Maazel, Muti, and Stein, has won numerous competitions and has made more than fifty solo recordings. Additionally, he has conducted over 60 recordings, with repertoire ranging from Baroque to 20th Century vocal and instrumental works. This prodigious output has earned him the Deutsches Schallplatten Critics' Prize as well as the Hungarian Liszt Prize.

While in his official role as Court Organist for Vienna, where he was responsible for an extensive repertoire of classical church music, Haselböck began an intense commitment to conducting, which led to his founding the now-famous Vienna Akademie Ensemble in 1985. With this period instrument orchestra, Haselböck established a year-round cycle of concerts for the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in the Great Hall of the Vienna Musikverein.

Haselböck frequently guest conducts major orchestras including the Vienna Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Dresden Philharmonic, Hamburg Symphony, Flemish National Philharmonic, Radio Orchestra Hilversum, the Toronto Symphony and the National Philharmonics of Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Slovenia. In the United States, he has conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, the Detroit Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has also been a guest with his Vienna Akademie as Artist-In-Residence with numerous festivals including those of the Cologne Philharmonic, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and MozartFest in Würzburg.

As an opera conductor, he made his debut with the Handel Festival in Göttingen. He regularly appears at the Zürich Opera and he conducted new productions of Mozart operas at the Theatre im Pfalzbau Ludwigshafen, using historic instruments for the first time in Germany’s modern history. In 2000-01 he created new productions of Händel's "Acis and Galatea," Gassmann's "La Contessina," and Haydn's "Die Feuersbrunst" with his Vienna Akademie, following in 2002 with productions at the Festival in Schwetzingen (Benda's "Il buon marito") and Salzburg (Händel's "Radamisto"). In 2004, he led productions of Händel's "Il trionfo del tempo" (Salzburg Festival), Mozart's "Il re pastore" (Klangbogen Wien), and Händel's "Radamisto" (touring to Spain, Istanbul, Venice, Israel, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam). He also conducted the U.S. premiere of Porpora's "Il Gedeone" in a concert version with Musica Angelica in Los Angeles.

When not conducting, Haselböck is busy unearthing long lost vocal/instrumental works in the dusty archives of Kiev and Vienna, finding unpublished gems by Biber, Porpora, Fux, Muffat, and the Bach family, which he transcribes and resurrects in historical re-creations for his Vienna Akademie Ensemble and festivals around the world.

Gonzalo X. Ruiz, Associate Music Director

BAROQUE OBOE - Gonzalo X. Ruiz is a founding member of Musica Angelica and has been its Associate Music Director since 2012. He made his conducting debut at age twelve, and has for decades been one of the world’s foremost historical oboists, performing as principal and soloist with many top ensembles, such as Philharmonia, The English Concert, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Wiener Akademie, and many others. In New York he performs regularly with Trinity Wall Street, and his chamber group, House of Time, has produced ten seasons of concerts in Manhattan.

Equally accomplished on the modern oboe, he is principal of the Carmel Bach Festival, a position he held with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic and the New Century Chamber Orchestra. He’s a professor at The Juilliard School and his students fill the ranks of top groups across the country. Mr. Ruiz is featured on dozens of recordings, has earned a Grammy nomination and a Gramophone Award, and received the KQXR Record of the Year Award (NYC) as well as the ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming in contemporary music. He has performed more works by Bach than any oboist in history. In recent years he has concentrated on the guitar with a focus on jazz. Examples of his reeds are on permanent display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Ilia Korol, Concertmaster

Concertmaster, Ilia Korol, hails from Kiev and studied violin under Abraham Stern and Marina Iashvili at Moscow's Music Academy. Since 1997 he has lived in Austria where he performs regularly with Wiener Akademie and Martin Haselböck. In recognition of his artistic achievements he received Austrian citizenship in 2001. He has performed as concertmaster of the Musica Antiqua Köln filling in for the famous Baroque violinist Reinhardt Goebel on their tour of the United States, which included a performance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

He has also performed with The Bach Ensemble with Joshua Rifkin, the Spanish Baroque Orchestra RCOC and is member of the ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria and the Clemencic Consort. He has performed in many important festivals and concert halls in the United States including the Boston Early Music Festival, Carnegie Hall, Berkeley Festival, and Salt Lake City. Ilia Korol has also been featured on numerous CD recordings.

Cynthia Roberts, Concertmaster

Cynthia Roberts is one of America’s leading period instrument violinists, appearing as soloist, concertmaster, and recitalist throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. She is a faculty member of the Juilliard School. She specializes in classical chamber music performance with historic keyboards and has performed throughout the world with fortepianist Christoph Hammer. She appears regularly with the Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Smithsonian Chamber Players, Tafelmusik, and the Boston Early Music Festival.

She has performed as concertmaster of Les Arts Florissants with William Christie and appeared with Orchester Wiener Akademie, the London Classical Players, and the Bach Collegium Japan. She was featured as soloist and concertmaster on the soundtrack of the Touchstone Pictures film Casanova, and accompanied soprano Renee Fleming on Late Night with David Letterman.

Ms. Roberts also teaches at the University of North Texas and the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute and has given master classes at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Indiana University, Eastman, the Cleveland Institute, Cornell, Rutgers, Minsk Conservatory, Leopold-Mozart-Zentrum Augsburg, Shanghai Conservatory, Vietnam National Academy of Music, and for the Jeune Orchestre Atlantique in France. Ms. Roberts made her solo debut at age 12 playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Grant Park Symphony of Chicago. Her recording credits include Sony, CPO, and Deutsche Harmonia Mundi.

Janet Strauss, Violin

Janet Strauss enjoys an active career as a Baroque violinist. As a leading violinist in Los Angeles, she has appeared with the Los Angeles Opera, and Los Angeles Master Chorale; and is a principal member of Los Angeles-based Musica Angelica. She often appears with Seattle Baroque Orchestra and Portland Baroque Orchestra where she has worked with Monica Huggett, Eric Milnes, Reinhard Goebel, Paul Goodwin, and Richard Egarr. Ms. Strauss has performed with American Bach Soloists, Musica Pacifica, San Francisco Bach Choir, Magnificat, Camerata Pacifica, and Galanterie.

She has performed at the Indianapolis Early Music Festival, Tage Alte Musik Regensberg, Brighton Early Music Festival, Renaissance and Baroque Society Pittsburgh, and Corona del Mar Bach Festival. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in performance from the University of Southern California, is co-founder of the Los Angeles-based chamber ensemble Angeles Consort, and teaches privately in the Los Angeles area.

Carrie Kennedy, Violin

Award-winning violinist, Carrie Kennedy, has been the featured soloist with orchestras throughout the country. In addition to Musica Angelica, she is a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Pasadena and Long Beach Symphonies. She is the first violinist of the Fiato String Quartet, performs on soundtracks for film and television, and is on faculty at The Colburn School.

Carrie holds a Master of Music degree from SUNY Stony Brook and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Southern California.

Joel Pargman, Violin

Violinist Joel Pargman has been a frequent performer on Southern California concert stages for the past twenty years as a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, New West Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, and the Fiato Quartet, and as Co-Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Master Chorale Orchestra. His performing career has also taken him on concert tours of the U.S., Europe, Japan, and South America.

Mr. Pargman has performed as featured soloist with Musica Angelica, the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, Musicians Emeritus Symphony Orchestra, Tacoma Youth Symphony, and Bremerton Symphony.

For three summers, Joel was a fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center, most recently as a member of its resident new-music quartet, the New Fromm Players. He has also spent summers at the Aspen Music Festival, the Encore School for Strings, the Indiana University String Academy and the Académie Musicale de Villecroze.

Born in San Bernardino and having spent his youth in the Pacific Northwest, he now resides in Altadena, California.

Amy Wang, Violin

An exclusively baroque and otherwise mostly unemployed violinist, Amy Wang has played with the usual Southern Californian suspects such as the original L.A. Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica, and Bach Collegium of San Diego, as well as a smattering of San Francisco Bay Area groups including Voices of Music and California Bach Society. Ages ago, while a film major at UC Berkeley, she began the permanent switch from modern to baroque performance under the guidance of David Tayler and Elizabeth Blumenstock, and subsequently performed at the Berkeley Early Music Festival twice—including as a semifinalist in the American Bach Soloists International Young Artists Competition.

At USC, she played in the Early Music Ensemble led by James Tyler while obtaining an MFA in screenwriting from the School of Cinematic Arts.

Andrew Waid, Co-Principal Viola

Andrew Waid, violist, is an exciting and versatile performer on both modern and baroque instruments. Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, he completed a DMA in viola performance at Boston University in 2015, and appeared frequently with numerous ensembles in Massachusetts, including the Boston Chamber Orchestra (for a recent tour of Japan), Lexington Symphony Orchestra, and Marsh Chapel Collegium.

As an increasingly active baroque violist, Andrew has performed with Grand Harmonie, Les Bostonnades, Musicians of the Old Post Road, Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra, Musica Angelica, and San Diego Baroque Soloists, and is an alumnus the Tafelmusik Winter Institute (Toronto), the American Bach Soloists Academy (San Francisco) and the International Baroque Institute at Longy (Cambridge, MA). Having relocated to San Diego at the end of 2015, he is currently a teaching artist in the San Diego Youth Symphony’s Community Opus Project, and at SDSU’s Community Music School.

Rob Diggins, Co-Principal Viola

Born in Topanga, CA, in the sixties, it is not surprising that multi-instrumentalist and creative, Rob Diggins, a self-proclaimed, “Commonist” or champion for the causes and needs of the common man, would have a fondness for all things Utopian, yet possess eccentricities such as a specialization in HIP-ness, preference for the fanciful, and live his life as a Chautauquan, performing equally comfortably around the backyard campfire as on the concert stage.

A devotional musician, or Bhaktin, by countless births, during the 2024-2025 performance season, Mr. Diggins, will be found, among other places, on stage with the Portland Baroque Orchestra as a soloist and principal (with both the violin and the viola d’amore), Musica Angelica, Musica Transalpina, Live Oak Baroque and the Sonoma Bach Choir, Baroque Music Festival Newport Beach, online as a teacher for Teach To Learn’s Culture Connect program, and, at Farmer’s Markets, Craft Faires, Weddings and other special occasions performing with his life partner and colleague, Jolianne Einem with their duo, The Flying Oms – String Duo Plus!

Alexa Haynes-Pilon, Principal Cellist

Canadian-born Alexa Haynes-Pilon (DMA, USC) is the principal cellist of Musica Angelica and Opera NEO, as well as co-director and cellist/gambist of Musica Pacifica. She has performed with the American Bach Soloists, Bach Collegium San Diego, The Washington Bach Consort, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra Chamber Players, Cantata Collective, Opera Lafayette, and more. She loves working with musicians in the community and has been on faculty at the Baroque and Recorder workshops held by the San Francisco Early Music Society (SFEMS), and the Port Townsend Early Music and Road Scholar Hidden Valley Workshops.

She can be heard on the Musica Omnia and Music & Arts labels, and recently recorded with the American Bach Soloists. She directed a Musica Angelica program in January and conducted the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra in May. This summer, she joined the Orchester Wiener Akademie as principal cellist for a European tour of The Infernal Comedy with John Malkovich. She also joined them as principal cellist for a collaboration with the Vienna Boys Choir in August. She recently returned to Vienna to perform the gamba solos with the Wiener Akademie in a performance of the St. Matthew Passion at Musikverein.

https://www.alexahaynespilon.com/

Leif Woodward, Cello

Leif Woodward is an alumnus of the USC Thornton School of Music where he graduated Pi Kappa Lambda. In addition to his Doctoral degree from the University of Southern California, Leif holds Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He currently teaches at Mount St. Mary University and at the Orange County School of the Arts, and has been a guest instructor at the University of Southern California, UC Riverside, and the Colburn School.

Woodward performs with groups such as Tesserae, Musica Angelica, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Pacific Chorale, and Long Beach Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared at the Carmel Bach and San Luis Obispo Mozart Festivals, and is a regular performer at the Baroque Music Festival, Corona Del Mar. He plays a German cello built around 1720, maker unknown, and his viola da gamba is a John Pringle 2009 copy of an instrument by Henry Jaye of 1624.

Denise Briesé, Violone

After graduating from Yucaipa High School, Denise Briesé studied double bass at USC with Dennis Trembly and John Clayton, and she learned to play violone in the Early Music Department with James Tyler. She also performs and records with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Downey Symphony, Desert Symphony, Con Gioia, Coachella Valley Symphony, and many other California ensembles.

Stephen Schultz, Flute

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, plays solo and Principal flute with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Musica Angelica and performs with other leading Early music groups such as Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Apollo's Fire, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Wiener Akademie, Con Gioia, and Chatham Baroque. Concert tours have taken him throughout Europe and North and South America with featured appearances at the Musikverein in Vienna, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Royal Albert Hall in London, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Carnegie Hall, and the Library of Congress.

A graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Holland, Schultz also holds several degrees from the California Institute of the Arts and the California State University of San Francisco. Currently he is Teaching Professor in Music History and Flute at Carnegie Mellon University and director of the Carnegie Mellon Baroque Orchestra. Mr. Schultz has also been a featured faculty member of the Jeanne Baxtresser International Flute Master Class at Carnegie Mellon University and has taught at the Juilliard School and the International Baroque Institute at Longy School of Music.

In 1986, Mr. Schultz founded the original instrument ensemble American Baroque. This unique group brings together some of America's most accomplished and exciting baroque instrumentalists, with the purpose of defining a new, modern genre for historical instruments. The group's adventurous programs combine 18th-century music with new works, composed for the group through collaborations and commissions from American composers.

As solo, chamber, and orchestral player, Schultz appears on over fifty recordings for such labels as Dorian, Naxos, Harmonia Mundi USA, Centaur, NCA, and New Albion. Schultz has produced and edited forty CDs for his colleagues and has also performed and recorded with world music groups such as D'CuCKOO and Haunted By Waters, using his electronically processed Baroque flute to develop alternative sounds that are unique to his instrument. He has been very active in commissioning new music written for his instrument and in 1998, Carolyn Yarnell wrote 10/18 for solo, processed Baroque Flute and dedicated it to Mr. Schultz. The Pittsburgh composer Nancy Galbraith wrote Traverso Mistico, which is scored for electric Baroque flute, solo cello, and chamber orchestra. It was given its world premiere at Carnegie Mellon University in April 2006 and this highly successful collaboration was followed in 2008 with Galbraith's Night Train, Other Sun in 2009, and Effervescent Air in 2012.

Stephen Hammer, Oboe & Recorder

Stephen Hammer leads an eclectic musical life playing oboes and recorders of all periods. He was principal oboist of the Boston Handel and Haydn Society for thirty years, performed, toured, and recorded extensively with the Bach Ensemble, Concert Royal, and the Academy of Ancient Music, and served as principal recorder for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. His more than 200 solo, chamber, and orchestral recordings appear on the Decca l’Oiseau-lyre, EMI, Sony, Pro Arte, Dorian, Smithsonian, and other labels.

He also serves as artistic director for the Blue Hill Bach festival in Maine, and collaborates with instrument-maker Joel Robinson in building replicas of historical oboes and shawms. In 2016 he relocated from the New York area to the sunny San Fernando Valley, where he lives with his wife Ruth and Jack the wonder dog.

Anna Marsh, Bassoon & Recorder

ANNA MARSH is a Baroque wind specialist, who is also fluent in Renaissance, Classical and Modern instruments. Her interests lie principally in the double‐reed family, though she also performs on the Renaissance and Baroque recorder. Originally from Tacoma, WA, Anna has appeared with with Opera Lafayette (DC), Tempesta di Mare (Philadelphia), Ensemble Caprice (Montreal), Clarion Society (NYC), and Arion Orchestre Baroque (Montreal), Tafelmusik (Toronto), Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Washington Bach Consort (DC), and Musica Angelica (LA), Atlanta Baroque, Boulder Bach Festival and New York State Baroque, among others.

She has been the featured soloist with the Foundling Orchestra with Marion Verbruggen, Arion Orchestre Baroque, The Buxtehude Consort, The Dryden Ensemble, The Indiana University Baroque Orchestra, Boulder Bach and NYS Baroque and others. She co‐directs Ensemble Lipzodes and has taught both privately and at festivals and master classes at the Eastman School of Music, Los Angeles Music and Art School, the Amherst Early Music, and Hawaii Performing Arts Festivals and the Albuquerque, San Francisco Early Music Society and Western Double Reed Workshop. She has also been heard on Performance Today, Harmonia and CBC radio and recorded for Chandos, Analekta, Centaur, Naxos, the Super Bowl, Avie, and Musica Omnia. Marsh has studied music and German studies at Mt. Holyoke College, the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California and holds a doctoral in historical performance from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.

Guest Artists

Ashley Fabian, Soprano

Acclaimed by the New York Classical Review as “a vision of sunshine and joy”, Ashley Fabian is quickly garnering recognition for her artistry in both comedic and dramatic roles.

2024/25 includes debuts with the San Diego Symphony in Mahler’s Symphony no. 2, the Tucson Symphony and Knoxville Symphony in Carmina Burana, New Orleans Opera in The Cook-Off, Virginia Opera in Cosi fan tutte, and concerts with Musica Angelica and Amadeus Chamber Ensemble.

She has worked with companies including Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and Utah Symphony, among others. In addition to her work as a soprano, Ms. Fabian works as an actor based in Los Angeles. She has appeared in several films, most recently featured on the Lifetime Movie Network. She is also an undefeated contestant of several game shows, including Wheel of Fortune.

Featured in Christmas in Vienna

Dr. Ianthe Obelia Marini, Alto

Dr. Ianthe Marini is an AEA actress, AGMA singer and flutist, and DMA conductor. The American Prize Winner in Conducting (2019) and Best Actress in a Musical by Boston Broadway Awards (Anita, West Side Story), she has had leading roles with The Industry Opera, Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum Equity Playhouse, regional theatre houses from Boston to Atlanta, and a chorus role with San Francisco Opera. She has been an invited conductor (Carnegie Hall), and Chorus Master (National Symphony Orchestra at Kennedy Center and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Meyerhoff Hall) for multiple subscription performances.

Her research has been published regarding her development of a choral rehearsal method that teaches singers to be authentic communicators of text through rehearsal. She was the first female conductor of the University of Maryland Men's Chorus, and the former Paul S. and Jean R. Amos Distinguished Chair for Choral Activities at the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University.

www.ianthemarini.org

Featured in Christmas in Vienna

Pablo Corá, Tenor

Pablo Corá (tenor) holds music degrees from Ithaca College and Indiana University. Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mr. Corá has sung both as a soloist and chamber musician in a wide variety of repertory ranging from early music and oratorio to twentieth-century opera. He has performed at the Argentine Colón Theatre, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Disney Concert Hall, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Los Angeles Chamber Singers and Cappella, and Musica Angelica.

He is also a founding member of the award-winning Concord Ensemble. He has collaborated with historically-informed ensembles such as the Folger Consort, Piffaro, Musica Angelica and the Catacoustic Ensemble in works ranging from Renaissance Florentine and English music, to operas by Marc-Antoine Charpentier.

His recording credits include works for the label Harmonia Mundi with Paul Hillier’s Theater of Voices and The Pro Arte Singers, Dorian Recordings with The Concord Ensemble and Piffaro, Rubis Canis Mundi (RCM) with the L.A. Master Chorale and Los Angeles Chamber Singers & Cappella, Gothic Records. He has also recorded contemporary works, including Steve Reich’s You Are Variations and Daniel Variations for Nonesuch and J.A.C. Redford’s music for the Clarion label. He was featured in Los Angeles Chamber Singers & Cappella’s GRAMMY© winning recording: Padilla: Sun of Justice. He also has a few movie soundtracks to his credit, including License to Wed, Lady in the Water, and most recently Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Featured in Christmas in Vienna

Scott T. Graff, Bass/Baritone

Praised for his purity of tone and expressive musicianship, bass/baritone Scott Graff has appeared as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Musica Angelica, the Carmel Bach Festival, California Bach Society, HEX, and Synchromy. Scott is also an active ensemble singer. Now in his 24th season with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, he was part of their touring company presenting a staged production of Orlando di Lasso’s monumental Lagrime di San Pietro (directed by Peter Sellars) which was featured at the Salzburg Festival and has been seen in concerts halls around the world.

Scott has also participated in soundtrack recordings for more than 70 feature films and television projects. He is an instructor of voice on the music faculty of Pomona College in Claremont, California.

Featured in Christmas in Vienna

Caitlyn Koester, Harpsichord

Caitlyn Koester is a harpsichordist and music director based in New York City. Noted for her “sharp and powerful performance” (La Scena Musicale), she can be found regularly performing with ensembles including New York Baroque Incorporated, Theotokos, TENET, I Cantori Carmel, and her harpsichord and continuo duo, Koester & Figg. Her international duo, AKOYA, released its debut album of Graupner’s complete sonatas for violin and harpsichord under ATMA Classique in December 2023. Caitlyn’s 2024 / 2025 season includes performances with Ruckus, ACRONYM, AMOC, Spire Chamber Ensemble, Berkshire Bach, and musical direction of City Lyric Opera’s Baroque Festival, among other engagements.

An avid educator, she has been on collegiate and pre-college faculty at San Francisco Conservatory, and holds degrees from the University of Michigan and The Juilliard School. She is pursuing a DMA at SUNY Stony Brook. When not playing the harpsichord, Caitlyn enjoys going on adventures with her dog, a Great Pyrenees mix named Polyphony.

Featured in Giro D'Italia: A Tour of Italy

Laurel Irene, Soprano

Laurel Irene (M.M.), Los Angeles-based "astounding...downright superhuman" (LA Times) vocal artist and voice researcher, specializes in bringing new compositional works to life with vocal repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Mozart to the wacky, wild, and extreme sounds of the 21st century. With incredible vocal range, agile flexibility, and "resigned, compassionate, forbearing, affectionate, sympathetic, absolving" (LA Times) emotional connection that stretches from playful to unhinged in the span of a page, she draws on her expertise in vocal research to heighten unique timbres, textures, and vocal expressions.

In 2019 she performed the role of Countess Almaviva in REDCAT's 12 hour endurance art piece, earning Mark Swed's acclaim as "one of the most astonishing performances, vocally and interpretively, I have ever encountered".

Other features include Long Beach Opera (Kate Soper's Voices from the Killing Jar), Musica Angelica (Purcell's The Fairy Queen), The Kennedy Center (Baljinder Sekhon premiere), LA Phil (Composer Fellowship Program, John Cage's Europeras 1 & 2), The Getty Museum (Steve Reich's Drumming), The Industry (Du Yun and Raven Chacon's Sweetland), LACMA Sunday Evening Concerts (Dominick Argento's Letters from Composers), The Box Gallery (Nice Day for the Races opera premiere), Monday Evening Concerts (John Sheppard's Media Vita, Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians), and The First Congregational Church, L.A. (Vivaldi's Gloria, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, Fauré's Requiem, Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem). A recent winner of the Beverly Hills National Auditions, she also regularly performs with chamber and vocal music ensembles across Los Angeles.

As an avid voice educator and co-founder of the educational organization, VoiceScienceWorks and the N.E.O. Voice Festival, she gives voice workshops at conferences and collegiate settings across the United States and Europe including the Pan-American Vocology Association, American Choral Directors Association, Acoustical Society of America, Harvard University, York University, College of the Holy Cross, California Institute for the Arts, University of California Los Angeles, and Cornish College of the Arts.

Laurel is an alumna of performance programs at the USC Thornton School of Music, New Music on the Point, Cortona New Music Sessions, Oregon State University, California State University L.A., and the Summer Vocology Institute.

Featured in a Musica Angelica Private Concert

Featured Artists in the Community Concert Series

Richard Savino, Guitarist

With an extensive discography as soloist, director, or principal performer, Richard Savino’s recordings have received Grammy nominations, a Diapason d’Or and 10 du Rèpertoire. A regular presence on international television and radio programs, he has three times been chosen as the Global Hit artist on the BBC/PRI/NPR program The World. He regularly collaborates with some of the world’s most important ensembles and performers including Joyce Di Donato, Paul Hillier, Monica Huggett, and has guest-directed the Aston Magna Music Festival, Ensemble Rebel, the Santa-Fe Chamber Music Festival, and Milano Chamber Orchestra.

In addition to performing, he has created over 25 soundtracks to accompany videos describing the world’s largest collection of privately held Rembrandts and dozens of paintings by other great Dutch masters for the Leiden Collection in New York. These can be heard/seen at: https://www.theleidencollectio...

An avid writer Mr. Savino has publications with Cambridge University, Editions Chantarelle, Indiana University Press and is a founding member of the Consortium for Guitar Studies at Cambridge University. His instructors have included Andres Segovia, Oscar Ghiglia, Albert Fuller and Jerry Willard. He received his Doctorate from SUNY at Stony Brook, and for 38 years was a Professor of Music at Sacramento State University and currently teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. For more information go to www.richardsavino.net.

Featured in the December Community Concert Series, the Miller Room at the Billie Jean King Main Library.

Jennifer Ellis Kampani, Soprano

GRAMMY nominated soprano Jennifer Ellis Kampani is one of the leading interpreters of the Baroque repertoire. Last season marked her Carnegie Hall debut singing Archivo de Guatemala with the group El Mundo, and the lead in the Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco opera La Purpura de la Rosa with Baroque Chamber Music Orchestra of Colorado. Her international career has included appearances with the period instrument groups American Bach Soloists, Washington Bach Consort, New York Collegium, Baroque Band, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Opera Lafayette, Apollo's Fire, and Boston Camerata.

She has also been heard with the Mark Morris Dance Group, Richmond and Charlotte Symphonies and the Washington Cathedral Choral Society. Jennifer has been featured in many concert series and festivals including Le Flaneries Musicales de Reims in France, Aston Magna, Da Camera Society, Houston Early Music, Music Before 1800, Carmel Bach, and the Berkeley and Boston Early Music Festivals. Ms Kampani has recorded Kingdoms of Castille, Salir el Amor del Mundo, the Art of Vivald’s Lute (with Ron MacFarlane), and Passion and Lament for Dorian, Villancicos y Cantatas and The Essential Giuliani (with Richard Savino) for Koch, Le Tournoi de Chauvency for K617 (France), and the complete works of Cozzolani (Gramophone editors pick, August 2002) for Musica Omnia. She currently lives in Los Angeles and is on faculty at USC.

Featured in the December Community Concert Series, the Miller Room at the Billie Jean King Main Library.

Los Jubilados

The members of Los Jubilados, all present or former members of Musica Angelica, get together now and then to play Flemish, Italian, and Spanish Renaissance wind music from the 15th and 16th centuries. They enjoy playing on instruments from that period, including dulcians, recorders, racketts, and shawms, and solving the musical puzzles that are presented by part-books and Renaissance musical notation. They also enjoy eating sandwiches, talking about food, wine, and the old days, and complaining about their ailments and the state of the music industry.

Stephen Hammer leads an eclectic musical life playing oboes and recorders of all periods. He was principal oboist of the Boston Handel and Haydn Society for thirty years, performed, toured, and recorded extensively with the Bach Ensemble, Concert Royal, and the Academy of Ancient Music, and served as principal recorder for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. His more than 200 solo, chamber, and orchestral recordings appear on the Decca l’Oiseau-lyre, EMI, Sony, Pro Arte, Dorian, Smithsonian, and other labels; he also serves as artistic director for the Blue Hill Bach festival in Maine, and collaborates with instrument-maker Joel Robinson in building replicas of historical oboes and shawms. In 2016 he relocated from the New York area to the sunny San Fernando Valley, where he lives with his wife Ruth and Jack the wonder dog.

A native of Long Beach, Michael O’Donovan grew up a few blocks from the Dana Neighborhood Library, took up the bassoon in high school, and attended Stanford University with a major in philosophy. After playing in various orchestras – the New York City Ballet Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional in Mexico City, and the San Francisco Symphony – he returned to SoCal and worked in the studios of Los Angeles, playing on nearly a thousand motion picture scores between 1978 and 2014. Since retiring, he has devoted his efforts to playing Irish music on the Uilleann pipes, and, with Los Jubilados, to playing Renaissance music on a variety of wind instruments.

A graduate of the California Institute for the Arts, Kenneth Munday served as principal bassoonist of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for forty-five years, touring as soloist and member of the Orchestra to South America, throughout the United States and, to great acclaim, to Italy, Germany, Austria, France and Spain. He has played on modern and historical bassoons with Marlboro Music, the Oregon Bach Festival, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Santa Fe Pro Musica, and the Baroque Music Festival Corona del Mar. He played for the soundtracks of many hundreds of films, and his audio recordings include Richard Strauss’s Duet Concertino with David Shifrin for Nonesuch Records and Luciano Berio’s 19-minute Sequenza XII for Naxos. He has also performed Michael Daugherty’s Dead Elvis for solo bassoon in full Elvis costume.

Featured in the October Community Concert Series at the Dana Neighborhood Library.