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

The Ukrainian violinist, violist and conductor, Ilia Korol, studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Abram Stern, Gelya Dubrova and Marina Iashvili. In addition to his education with focus on the Romantic and Modern repertoire, he specialized in ancient music and historical performance practice very early in his career. Mr. Korol is an internationally acclaimed artist and has performed at many important festivals in Europe, Asia, and United States. He performed with Musica Antiqua Köln (directed by Reinhard Goebel) which toured the US in Carnegie Hall in New York, Disney Hall in Los Angeles, as well as in Berkeley, Santa Barbara, and Santa Monica.

He has performed as concertmaster and soloist with different orchestras: Orchester Wiener Akademie, Musica Angelica, The Bach Ensemble (directed by Joshua Rifkin) and the Spanish Baroque Orchestra RCOC. He was also a member of the ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria and the Clemencic Consort.

In 2003, Mr. Korol and Julia Moretti founded the chamber orchestra moderntimes1800, which he conducted at the Ruhr-Triennale Festival (2005), the Salzburger Festspiele (2006), Theater an der Wien, Vienna Konzerthaus, Rheingau Music Festival, Innsbruck Festwochen Festival, Wiener Festwochen (2004), Festival De La Chaise Dieu and Händel Festspiele Halle. Over the years, famous conductors and soloists worked with moderntimes1800, including Juliane Banse, Florian Boesch, Max Emanuel Cencic, Karina Gauvin, Vivica Genaux, Reinhard Goebel, René Jacobs, Simone Kermes, Patricia Petibon, Christoph Prégardien and Julian Prégardien, Anna Prohaska, Daniel Reuss, Michael Schade, Daniel Taylor, Lawrence Zazzo and others.

Numerous CD recordings attest his lively chamber music activities as well. His last CD publication includes the first recording of Johannes Brahms’ Violin Sonatas on historical instruments with Natalia Grigorieva. The world premiere recording of Violin Sonatas by George Onslow with Norbert Zeilberger was awarded a Diapason d'Or and was enthusiastically received by the press. The recording "Sinfonias from the Enlightenment" with moderntimes1800 was also awarded a Diapason d'Or.

As a passionate teacher, Mr. Korol holds numerous masterclasses at the Academy of Performing Arts in Vienna, Moscow Conservatory, Belgrade Music Academy, Gmunden Austria Baroque Academy, Innsbruck Festival, UCLA and Los Angeles, amongst others. From 2008 to 2010 Ilia Korol was a lecturer in an early music education course at the University Mozarteum Salzburg, Innsbruck.

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

Cellist, Leif Woodward holds a Doctorate degree from the University of Southern California and was granted the Colburn Foundation Scholarship for studies in Early Music Performance and graduated Pi Kappa Lambda. In addition, he holds a Master of Music degree and Bachelor of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Leif works with groups such as: Musica Angelica, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Pacific Chorale, Santa Barbara Symphony, Bach Collegium San Diego, Angeles Consort, and Tesserae.

He appears at the Carmel Bach Festival, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Corona Del Mar Baroque Music Festival, and on the chamber music series at the John Paul Getty Museum, Norton Simon Museum, “Sundays Live” at LACMA, Les Salons de Musiques, Redlands Chamber Music Society, Musica Angelica Chamber Music Series, and at Centrum’s Chamber Music Series in Port Townsend, Washington.

In addition, Leif is an active soloist and section player in the Los Angeles studio-recording industry. He has worked on film, television, and video game soundtracks for composers: John Williams, James Newton Howard, Bear McCreary, Christian Linke, Sebastien Najand, Alex Temple, Austin Wintory, and Tom Holkenborg. He enjoys working with young musicians and is the Instructor of Violoncello Performance and Chamber Music at Mount Saint Mary’s University. He has been a guest lecturer at the University of Southern California, University of California Riverside, and the Colburn School of Music. Leif is also on faculty for orchestral and chamber music studies at Orange County School of the Arts and Poly Technic High School in Long Beach. He coaches the All-Southern California High School Honor Orchestra, Orange County Youth Symphony, and adjudicates for competitions such as the Los Angeles Spotlight Awards, MTAC State Finals and Regionals, CMEA, and the Long Beach Mozart Festival.

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

Aaron Sheehan, Tenor

Grammy Award winning tenor, Aaron Sheehan, recognized internationally as a leading interpreter of baroque repertoire, is equally at home on the concert platform and the opera stage, from medieval monody to twentieth century masterworks.

Aaron Sheehan made his professional operatic debut with the Boston Early Music Festival in the 2005 world premiere staging of Mattheson’s Boris Gudenow, winning praise from Opera News for his “sinous and supple” voice, and went on to further roles with BEMF in Lully’s Psyché, Charpentier’s Actéon, Monteverdi’s Orfeo, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, and L’incoronazione di Poppea, Steffani’s Orlando, Desmarest’s Circé, and Handel’s Acis and Galatea.

Sheehan appears on over 35 recordings, which include Handel’s “Acis & Galatea” with Boston Early Music Festival, Rameau’s “Le Temple de la Gloire” & Handel’s “Saul with Philharmonia Baroque, and Monteverdi’s “Il ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria” with Boston Baroque. He sang the title role in BEMF’s recording of Charpentier’s La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers, which won Best Opera Recording at the 2015 Grammy Awards.Aaron’s worldwide operatic and concert appearances include venues as diverse as the Royal Opera at Versailles, Tanglewood Festival, New Zealand Festival of the Arts, Lincoln Center, Concertgebouw, Kennedy Center, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Gran Teatro Nacional del Perú, Beethoven Festival Warsaw, Boston Symphony Hall, Musikfestspiele Postdam’s Sanssouci, Handel Halle Festival, and the early music festivals of Boston, San Francisco, and Vancouver.

Recent performances include Handel’s Messiah with Seattle Symphony, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Armenian Philharmonic, Winterreise in recital at the Smithsonian Museum, Bach’s B minor Mass with American Bach Soloists. Solo performances with Handel & Haydn Society and Boston Baroque. The first Bach St. Matthew Passion in Peru with the National Symphony Orchestra of Peru. Featured performances and recordings with Pacific Music Works, Blue Heron Choir, Bach Collegium San Diego, and Paul Hillier’s Theater of Voices.

Raised in Minnesota, Aaron received his bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance from Luther College and a master’s degree in historical vocal performance from Indiana University. He currently is on the voice faculty of Boston University.

Featured in St. Matthew Passion.

MATTIAS HELM, BASS

Matthias Helm studied solo singing with Rotraud Hansmann and successfully completed “Lied and Oratorio” with Robert Holl at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In addition he attended master classes with Margreet Honig and Wolfgang Holzmair and Hartmut Höll.

As a concert singer, Matthias Helm is well-known for his performances of great oratorios and passions by J.S. Bach, G.F. Händel, F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, F. Martin, P. Hindemith eg., which also makes him a highly recognized guest at various festivals.

For instance, Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, Boston Early Music Festival, styriarte, Bachfest Leipzig, Bachwochen Ansbach as well as in concert halls like Konzerthaus Wien, Musikverein Wien, Theater an der Wien, Wigmore Hall, Teatro Monumental Madrid or Philharmonie Luxemburg. There he has cooperated with orchestras and ensembles such as J.S. Bach-Stiftung St. Gallen, Concentus Musicus Wien, Nederlandse Bachvereniging, Ensemble Barucco, Dunedin Consort, L’ Orfeo Barockorchester, RTVE Madrid, RSO Wien or Wiener Akademie.

Moreover, various lied recitals show the baritone’s special interest in lieder cycles by Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann, as well as his emphasis on the works by Johannes Brahms. Especially his recording of “Die Schöne Müllerin” with the guitar duo “Hasard” has filled the audience and press with enthusiasm.

His rich variety of repertoire contains works from the Renaissance up to 21st century contemporary music. As a result, he has not only convincingly performed characters of operas by H. Purcell, G.F. Telemann or W.A. Mozart and operettas by E. Kalman or R. Strauß, but also parts of contemporary compositions by J. Weir or E.L. Leitner. Various productions made Matthias Helm sing on opera stages such as Theater im Volksgarten Linz, Elbphilharmonie, Philharmonie Paris or Wiener Kammeroper.

On his tours Matthias Helm has travelled throughout Europe. He also visited the USA, Canada, South Korea and Singapore. In March 2024 he will attend Japan, to perform St. Matthew´s Passion together with Bach Collegium Japan under direction of Maestro Masato Suzuki.

Featured in St. Matthew Passion.

JOHANNA FALKINGER, soprano




Austrian soprano Johanna Rosa Falkinger began her vocal studies in Linz with an Erasmus stay in Helsinki and completed her master's degree with honours in Vienna in early music singing with Roberta Invernizzi (MUK) and vocal pedagogy with Tanya Aspelmeier (mdw). With her clear, agile voice, she is a sought-after interpreter in the field of early music and has won several prizes at international competitions.

Recent engagements at Theater an der Wien (Monteverdi, Combattimenti), Salzburg Festival (YSP) as the leading actress in Ravel's L'enfant et les sortileges, Wuppertal Opera (Monteverdi, L'incoronazione di Poppea/ Drusilla, Virtú), Potsdam Music Festival (Andrea Bernasconi, L'Huomo/ Incosia), Herrenhausen Barock (Blow, Venus & Adonis/Cupid), Handel Festival Halle (Handel, Teseo /Clizia), styriarte Graz (Monteverdi, Orfeo/ La musica, Euridice), Esplanade Hall Singapore (Beethoven 9.), Musikverein Vienna (Bach: St. Matthew Passion) and with Concentus Musicus Vienna (Handel, Alexanders feast) at the Festival Bach de Lausanne.

In 2025, she will make her debut with Jordi Savall (Schumann, Das Paradies und die Peri) at the Philharmonie Paris, Barcelona and Santander, as well as with Christina Pluhar at the Mozartwoche Salzburg (Monteverdi L'Orfeo) and at the Handel Festival Karlsruhe (Handel goes wild). This spring she will celebrate her Amerika debut with Bach's St John Passion in L.A. and a recital in NYC. Johanna is a prize-winner of the Concours Corneille in Rouen (FR) and the International Johann Heinrich Schmelzer Competition in Melk Abbey (AT). She was also awarded first prize and all orchestral prizes at the Aria Borealis singing competition in Bodø (NO) in 2022. In the same year, she caused a sensation with a musical woodchop project ‘soprano at work’ and with her composition ‘Puniscimi ancor di più’ inspired by Barbara Strozzi and Britney Spears.


Featured in St. Matthew Passion.

ANDREA ZOMORODIAN, Soprano

Originally from Seattle, Andrea Zomorodian is an active concertizing soprano based in LA performing across the US and abroad. She focuses on oratorio, early music, and studio singing. As an emerging early music specialist, she is lauded for her warm tone, expressivity, and aethereal high notes ("sung with blinding luminosity" -Mark Swed, LA Times).

Recent highlights: Poulenc Gloria with La Jolla Symphony, Bach Coffee Cantata with Tesserae Baroque & Con Gioia, Handel Messiah (El Mesías) in Spanish with Bach Collegium San Diego, program of "Viols & Voices" with Artifex Viol Consort, and solo debut with LA Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel performing Schumann Das Paradies (Peri Quartet).

She tours with two shows staged by Peter Sellars including Lagrime di San Pietro and Music to Accompany a Departure (Schütz Musikalische Exequien), performed at the Salzburg Festival 2019 and 2023.

Upcoming engagements: Scarlatti Il primo omicidio with Tesserae Baroque, performing with Bach Collegium San Diego at BachFest 2024 in Leipzig, and a play featuring the music of Buxtehude called "Like as the Hart" by playwright Oliver Mayer.

Ms. Zomorodian graduated from USC and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Vienna, Austria. Her voice can be heard on Frozen II, Outlander Theme Song, Star Wars, Mulan, The Simpsons, The Gilded Age, and more.

Featured in St. Matthew Passion.

ALOIS MÜHLBACHER, Countertenor

“One of the most sought-after countertenors“ (Helmut Mauró, Sueddeutsche Zeitung). At the age of 15 he made his debut at the Vienna State Opera and celebrated great successes on the podiums of international concert halls. Coming from the forge of the renowned as well as traditional St. Florian Boys Choir, the young countertenor can now be heard all over the world. He has performed at the opening gala of the new opera house in Vladivostok and at the New Year's Eve concert of the Mozarteum Orchestra in the Großes Festspielhaus under Ivor Bolton, among others.

At the Great Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, he appeared on stage as Daniel in Handel's oratorio Susanna, as alto soloist in Bach's Mass in B minor, the St. John Passion, the St. Matthew Passion and in the Christmas Oratorio under Martin Haselböck. Guest appearances with the Vienna Academy have taken him to Munich, Los Angeles and Mexico.

As Amyntas in Telemann's Pastorelle en musique under the musical direction of the renowned recorder player and conductor Dorothee Oberlinger and alongside the Vocal Consort Berlin and Ensemble 1700, the acclaimed production made guest appearances at the Telemann Festival in Magdeburg, the Potsdam Sanssouci Music Festival, the Innsbruck Early Music Festival and Musica Bayreuth. Under the direction of Alfredo Bernardini, he appeared as the title character Assalonne in Caldara's oratorio of the same name in Salzburg in November 2022.

With the Ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria and Gunar Letzbor he has been connected for many years by an intensive collaboration in concerts (Festival for Early Music Utrecht, Resonanzen in the Vienna Konzerthaus) and numerous CD recordings. Recently Alois Mühlbacher made his debut at the Landestheater Linz in the world premiere of Gisle Kverndokk's Fanny and Alexander based on the film of the same name by Ingmar Bergman. He is currently singing Eustazio in George Frideric Handel's Rinaldo at the Musiktheater Linz.

Together with his piano partner Franz Farnberger, he has already given numerous recitals. His distinctive, smooth, and versatile voice timbre enables him to perform a wide-ranging repertoire from Schubert to Richard Strauss, which is unusual for countertenors. His most recent CD recording Urlicht with works by Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss was celebrated by the specialist press.

He completed acting studies in Linz and studied solo singing at the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien with Prof. Uta Schwabe. He is currently continuing his master's studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Michael Chance.

Highlights in 2023 include an Alcina tour with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre (Paris, Bordeaux, Hamburg, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia). Debut at the Gasteig in Munich, a Farinelli aria concert with the baroque ensemble Real Camara at the Festival de Sintra in Portugal and Bach cantatas with Martín Haselböck and the Vienna Academy at the Vienna Musikverein. {PHOTO CREDIT Alexander Eder]


Featured in St. Matthew Passion.

NICHOLAS GARZA, countertenor

Characterized by The Dallas Morning News as a "countertenor full and fluent, glowing on top, dispensed with the loveliest legato," Nicholas Garza has been hailed for intimate, engaging performances across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. An early music specialist, Garza has performed with ensembles including Ars Lyrica Houston, the Chicago Arts Orchestra, ensemble viii, Bach Akademie Charlotte, Spire Chamber Ensemble, Choral Arts Philadelphia, Philharmonie Austin, The Oklahoma Bach Choir and Soloists, La Folia, Austin Baroque Orchestra, Tactus, and Mountainside Baroque.

Working with noted singer and conductor Simon Carrington, Garza was twice a singing fellow at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival of Yale University; additional festival credits include the International Cervantino, Victoria Bach, Baroque Music - Corona Del Mar, Big Moose Bach, Hawaii Performing Arts, and Bach Akademie Charlotte festivals.

Garza has sung roles including the Sorceress in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Ruggiero in Handel's Alcina, Cortez in Vivaldi's Montezuma, and Rinaldo in Handel's Rinaldo, Dardano in Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula, among others. He also appears regularly with the Dallas Bach Society, Orchestra of New Spain, and Incarnatus.

Nicholas also serves as founding Artistic Director of Ensemble Iona based in Fort Worth, Texas. A Harlingen, Texas native, Garza studied at the University of Texas at Arlington under Jing Ling-Tam and David Grogan.

Featured in St. Matthew Passion.

JON LEE KEENAN, TENOR

Versatile tenor Jon Lee Keenan is a native of Las Vegas, Nevada. Influenced by his father, a classically trained jazz saxophonist, Jon cultivated an interest in performing a variety of musical styles at an early age. After studying classical voice and jazz studies at UNLV, Jon relocated to Southern California to pursue a career in classical singing. In 2007, Jon was asked to join the LA Master Chorale and has been featured as a soloist at Walt Disney Concert Hall in numerous performances of note since. Recent highlights with LAMC include the role of “Evangelist” in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Magnificat.

As an in-demand performer of new music, Jon has helped create several new exciting characters through collaborations with experimental opera producers at The Industry LA, including “Clyde Barrow” in Bonnie and Clyde (Andrew McIntosh), “Gunner” in War of the Worlds (Anne Gosfeld) and the “Captain“ in Sweet Land among many others.

Featured in St. Matthew Passion.

STEFAN ZENKL, BASS

With his “glossy, melting Baritone and energetic stage persona” the Austrian Stefan Zenkl is becoming a wide-ranged and sought after lyric-baritone. Stefan Zenkl joined the ensemble of the Hannover State and of the Kassel State Opera where he debuted for example as Papageno (Die Zauberfloete), Wolfram (Tannhaeuser), Marcello (La Bohème) and the title role in Le nozze de Figaro. The Austrian baritone has also enjoyed appearances at the Musikverein Vienna, the Mozarteum Salzburg and the Mahlertage Kassel with Adam Fischer, Martin Haselboeck and Christophe Coin.

Stefan began his studies at the Vienna Music University, and graduated from the Conservatory of Music in Basel by Kurt Widmer. Zenkl is an awardee of the University Mozarteum, Salzburg and the ARD Competition, Munich.

Featured in St. Matthew Passion.

JEREMY JOSEPH, ORGAN

Jeremy Joseph is organist of the Vienna Court Chapel, where he performs the weekly Sunday mass together with the Vienna Boys Choir and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. He studied privately with Hans Fagius in Copenhagen and furthered his studies under Martin Haselböck at the University of Music in Lübeck and with Jürgen Essl at the State University of Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart.

Winner of the Gottfried Silbermann International Organ Competition in 1999, Joseph has performed as a soloist at festivals and venues throughout Europe, such as the Schleswig-Holstein Musik-Festival, Nuremberg International Organ Week, Hildebrandt-Festival in Naumburg, Silbermann Festival in Freiberg, Tallinn International Organ-Festival, Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Konzerthaus in Berlin, Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, Auditorio Nacionale de Música in Madrid, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, as well as in Hong-Kong, Seoul, USA, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

Jeremy Joseph’s improvisation CD recorded at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City was listed as “CD of the year” in 2018 by Fono Forum Magazine.

As a continuo player he has performed with ensembles such as the Wiener Akademie Orchestra, Freiburger Barockorchester, Kammerorchester Basel and Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble.

In 2019 he was appointed Professor for Organ and Improvisation at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

Featured in St. Matthew Passion.

Christoph Bull, organist

Christoph Bull was born in Mannheim, Germany. He improvised his first melodies on the piano at the age of five and gave his first organ recitals and rock concerts with a band at the age of twelve. He has concertized around the world, including Europe, Russia, India, Taiwan, China, Japan, El Salvador and many U.S. states. He’s performed at national and regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society. Christoph Bull recorded the first solo album featuring the organ at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, entitled First & Grand.

He performed on and co-produced an album of Irish composer Patrick Cassidy's The Mass during the quarantine at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, joining forces with the vocal ensemble Laude and Director David Harris. His song "Peace" was included on the compilation album 2 Unite All which also includes tracks by Peter Gabriel, Stewart Copeland, Ricky Kej, Lili Haydn and others. Christoph Bull has worked with conductors including James Conlon, Carl St. Clair, Grant Gershon and Edo de Waart and with ensembles including the Bundesjugendorchester (National Youth Orchestra of Germany), L.A. Master Chorale, Pacific Symphony, Oakland East Bay Symphony, Southeast Symphony and Southwest Chamber Music.

His music has been broadcast on radio stations such as KCRW, on Classical KUSC and the Minnesota Public Radio program Pipedreams. He recorded the pipe organ parts for Ghostbusters and Transformers at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles. He also worked as organ consultant on StevenSpielberg’s Minority Report and recorded for Robin Williams’ last TV Show The Crazy Ones. He has performed with George Clinton and recorded with Bootsy Collins (both Parliament Funkadelic). Together with Lili Haydn and Satnam Ramgotra, he opened up for Cindy Lauper, and he worked with Harry Connick Jr. on his first Christmas album. Discovery and Science Channels featured him in the first episode of How to build... everything.

Venues Dr Bull has performed at include The National Concert Hall in Taipei, Shanghai Conservatory, the Shumei Temple in Misono (Japan), Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Lincoln Center in New York City, Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, the Cathedrals of Moscow, Los Angeles, Saint-Denis and Salzburg as well as rock clubs like The Viper Room, The Roxy and The Whisky in Los Angeles.

He studied at University of Sacred Music in Heidelberg, Musikhochschule Freiburg, Berklee College of Music in Boston, American Conservatory of Music and University of Southern California. His organ teachers were Cherry Rhodes, Hermann Schäffer, Ludwig Dörr, Samuel Swartz, Christoph Schöner and Paul Jordan. He also participated in master courses with Marie-Claire Alain, Guy Bovet, Craig Cramer and Rudi Lutz. Christoph Bull is university organist and organ professor at UCLA as well as organist-in-residence at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, regularly playing one of the largest pipe organs in the world.

Outside of music, Christoph is interested in politics, theology, cinema and sports. He’s read the whole Bible, Koran, Bhagavad Gita and Tao Te Ching, watched every Seinfeld episode and all Star Wars movies in a row in the chronological order of the storyline. He’s run the L.A. Marathon several times and won the National German Youth Championship in Baseball with his team BC Tornados Mannheim.

Featured in BACH to the Future.

Andrew Justice, Viola

Andrew Justice earned degrees in music at Oregon State University, viola performance at the University of Oregon, and library science at Syracuse University. He has worked in academic music libraries for two decades: paraprofessional staff at Cornell University’s Sidney Cox Library of Music and Dance, Music Librarian for Audio and Digital Services (later Assistant Head Music Librarian) at the University of North Texas, and Head of the Music Library at the University of Southern California since 2016.

At USC, he serves the Thornton School of Music by curating collections of books, scores, and recordings which (in addition to reference and bibliographic instruction) support the scholarly and performing activities of students and faculty. He also oversees the Music Library’s archival collections of primary source materials, including names such as Igor Stravinsky, Harry James, Miklós Rózsa, Ingolf Dahl, Robert Linn, and more.

Aside from membership and service to the Music Library Association, International Association of Music Libraries, and Association of Recorded Sound Collections, Mr. Justice also regularly teaches graduate music research courses and a seminar on the history of sound recordings. Outside of academia, he maintains a professional career as a baroque violist and has performed with Musica Angelica, the Victoria Bach Festival, Dallas Bach Society, Denton Bach Society (co-founder and artistic director of the Denton Bach Players), Orchestra of New Spain, Tempesta di Mare Baroque Orchestra, and New York State Baroque.

Featured in The Garden of Forking Paths.

Katherine Heater, Keyboards

Katherine Heater teaches early keyboards and basso continuo at UC Berkeley. A frequent performer with Bay Area groups such as Voices of Music and Musica Pacifica, Ms. Heater also has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado and the Sun Valley Summer Symphony.

Featured in The Garden of Forking Paths.

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 Onelia 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

Eva Lymenstull, Baroque Cellist and Violist da Gamba

Los Angeles-based baroque cellist and violist da gamba Eva Lymenstull enjoys a diverse career that has taken her across North America and Europe as a soloist, chamber musician, continuo player and orchestral musician. She has performed recently as concerto soloist and principal cellist with the Lyra Baroque Orchestra, guest principal cellist of the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, and Musica Angelica, and has also appeared with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Voices of Music, Tesserae, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and Holland Baroque Society.

She has performed at the Carmel Bach Festival, the Utrecht, Boston, and Berkeley Fringe Festivals, and on the Gotham Early Music and Academy of Early Music series. As winner of the 2017 Voices of Music Bach Competition, Ms. Lymenstull recorded Bach’s D minor cello suite for their online video archive. With performance and research interests ranging from the early Renaissance to the twentieth century, she particularly enjoys playing Classical and Romantic chamber music on historical instruments. Recent recordings can be heard on the Brilliant Classics and Violet Ear labels. In addition to performing, Ms. Lymenstull teaches baroque cello and viola da gamba as a regular guest artist at the University of Michigan. She holds degrees from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (Jaap ter Linden), Rice University (Desmond Hoebig) and University of Michigan (Richard Aaron), and a doctorate in historical performance practice from Case Western Reserve University.

Featured in the February Community Concert Series "Voice of the Viol" at the Los Altos Neighborhood Library.

Malachai Komanoff Bandy, Multi-Instrumentalist

Multi-instrumentalist Malachai Komanoff Bandy is Assistant Professor of Music at Pomona College. He holds a Ph.D. in historical musicology from the USC Thornton School of Music, supported by Provost and Oakley Endowed Fellowships. Previously, Bandy graduated cum laude, with Distinction in Research and Creative Works from Rice University (double bass; music history). In 2019, he received both the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music’s Irene Alm Memorial Prize and the AMS Pacific Southwest Chapter’s Ingolf Dahl Award in Musicology.

As a historical string and double-reed player, Bandy has performed with The Orpheon Consort, Ars Lyrica Houston, Bach Collegium San Diego, Voices of Music, Musica Angelica, Tesserae Baroque, Ciaramella, and as a viola da gamba soloist with the Los Angeles Opera and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. An active TV/Film recording artist, he is a featured soloist in Outlander, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Foundation, and more. Bandy’s scholarly projects concern Christian mysticism, esotericism, and numerology in German Baroque repertoires, as well as viola da gamba technique and iconography. His recent articles can be read in the journal Early Music (Oxford University Press) and in the volume Explorations in Music and Esotericism (University of Rochester Press).

Featured in the February Community Concert Series "Voice of the Viol" at the Los Altos Neighborhood Library.

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.