Artists | Aston Magna

In Summer 2025, we are thrilled to be joined by so many of your favorite familiar artists, along with celebrated artists performing with us for the first time. We welcome them all and we welcome you as you join us. Meanwhile, we will maintain the bios of Aston Magna artists, to remind you of the depth and breadth of Aston Magna’s extensive talent over the decades and in coming seasons!

Daniel Stepner

Daniel Stepner, Artistic Director, violin. For more than three decades as Aston Magna’s Artistic Director, Daniel Stepner has programmed and led vocal and instrumental music dating from 1589 through the 1850s – with occasional forays both earlier and later — always featuring period instruments and vocal styles. The Aston Magna Music Festival’s repertoire has ranged from music for solo violin to early opera, such as Monteverdi’s “L’incoronazione di Poppea,” Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas,” and Mozart’s “Bastien und Bastienne;” and rare oratorios such as Scarlatti’s “Humanitá e Lucifero” and Handel’s “The Triumph of Time and Truth.”

Mr. Stepner was a founding member of the Boston Museum Trio at the Museum of Fine Arts and first violinist of the Lydian String Quartet at Brandeis University. He has held concertmasterships with the Handel and Haydn Society, the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra and Boston Baroque. For six years he was assistant concertmaster and frequent soloist of the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, based in Holland. As a touring musician he has played in 11 countries in Western Europe and the former Soviet Union and throughout Australia and the United States. He is Professor Emeritus at Brandeis University, was a Preceptor in Music at Harvard University for 20 years, and enjoyed guest teaching stints at The Eastman School, The Longy School of Music, New England Conservatory, Boston University and Smith College.

In solo recital, chamber, theatrical and orchestral settings, he has performed music from the Renaissance through 2018. Mr. Stepner is featured on over 60 commercial recordings, including the Sonatas and Partitas of J.S. Bach, the Late Quartets of Beethoven, the five Violin Sonatas of Charles Ives, (with pianist John Kirkpatrick), and major chamber works of Beethoven, Brahms, John Harbison, Peter Child and Yehudi Wyner. For Aston Magna, he has led recordings of cantatas of J. S. Bach, chamber works of Marais, Mozart, Schubert, an acclaimed recording of “The Triumph of Time and Truth,” and of Monteverdi’s pioneering opera “L’Orfeo.” His novel “Orpheus in Jerusalem” was published last year by Olympia Publishers in London.

Stepner is a native of Wisconsin, and his major teachers were Steven Staryk in Chicago, Nadia Boulanger in France and Broadus Erle at Yale, where he earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree.

Julie Andrijeski

Julie Andrijeski, violin, is a leading performer, scholar, and teacher of early music and dance. Known for her “invigorating verve and imagination” (Washington Post) and “fiery and poetic depth” (Cleveland Plain Dealer), Andrijeski performs with diverse early music groups, mainly Atlanta Baroque Orchestra (Artistic Director/Concertmaster), Quicksilver (Co-Director), and Les Délices. In 2018 she was Apollo’s Fire’s concertmaster and soloist on tenor Karim Sulayman’s Grammy award-winning album Songs of Orpheus, and is Music Director for Sulayman’s compelling new theatrical production, Unholy Wars, that premiered at the Spoleto Festival in 2022. She was appointed Head of the Historical Performance Practice Program at Case Western Reserve University Music Department in 2023 where she teaches violin/viola lessons, classes in early music performance practice, oversees the HPP ensembles, and directs the baroque music and dance ensembles. Special teaching engagements include a twice-yearly residency at the Juilliard School and invitations to lead workshops at similar institutions across the country. In 2016 Julie was awarded a Creative Workforce Fellowship from Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Arts and Culture and the Thomas Binkley Award from Early Music America in recognition for her outstanding achievement in performance and scholarship.

Sylvia Berry

Philadelphia native Sylvia Berry is one of North America’s leading exponents of the fortepiano and is a frequent harpsichord soloist. Hailed by Early Music America as “a complete master of rhetoric, whether in driving passagework or in cantabile adagios,” she is known not only for her exciting performances but for her engaging commentary about the music and the instruments she plays. Her disc of Haydn’s London Sonatas, recorded on an 1806 Broadwood grand, received critical acclaim. Fanfare enthused, “To say that Berry plays these works with vim, vigor, verve, and vitality, is actually a bit of an understatement.” Her solo debut with the period instrument orchestra Bach Collegium San Diego garnered praise from the San Diego Sun Tribune: “Berry and conductor Ruben Valenzuela brought this piece to life with depth and brilliance… Berry was everywhere at once, showing how this instrument, with such an ensemble, can be more powerful than a modern piano.” As a scholar, Berry has written and lectured on the instruments and performance practices of the 18th and early 19th centuries, and taught masterclasses at The Curtis Institute of Music, Temple University, Longy, Case Western Reserve University, and the Academy of Fortepiano Performance (Hunter, NY). She has appeared as a soloist, chamber musician, and art song collaborator on a variety of instruments and venues throughout the US, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Based in the Boston area, she coaches chamber music at Harvard University’s Mather House. Berry studied at the New England Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, and the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, The Netherlands.

Anne Black

A multi-faceted artist fluent in many media, Anne Black, viola, enjoys a vibrant career in the performing and visual arts. As Principal Viola of Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, she was just featured as soloist in Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra in April 2025. She is violist of the newly formed Conifer Quartet, with fellow members of the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, and performed live on GBH’s Culture Show at the Boston Public Library Studio in March 2025. Ms. Black’s wealth of experience as an orchestral violist includes years of concerts and tours across the US and Asia with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops. She frequently joins many other local groups, including Boston Ballet, Boston Opera, Bach, Beethoven and Brahms Society, Emmanuel Music, and Boston Baroque. Ms. Black performs frequently with the Aston Magna Music Festival and is a tenured violist of Handel + Haydn Society’s period instrument orchestra. She was featured on Mozart’s own viola, during its first trip to the US, for a live performance and recording with violinist Daniel Stepner on Mozart’s violin at WGBH in June 2013. A champion of contemporary music, Ms. Black is violist of Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble and has performed frequently with Collage New Music, including Collage’s Grammy-nominated recording of John Harbison’s Mottetti di Montale. Ms. Black is a prize-winning visual artist in multiple media and maintains studios in West Concord, MA, and in Eastport, ME.

Kelsey Burnham

Hailed for her “memorable” and “beautiful playing” (NY Classical Review and Opera News), flute and recorder extraordinaire Kelsey Burnham lives and loves to perform. From sitting in an orchestra to standing in front of one, Burnham specializes in historic and modern instruments from the 1600’s onwards. In addition to performing, Burnham teaches a full studio and holds a position in the Peabody Conservatory’s Preparatory Program. As a Baltimore native, Burnham finds it very important to give back to the community she came from and work closely with students who may come from disadvantaged backgrounds such as herself.

Gerald Elias

Gerald Elias has had a long and distinguished career as a violinist, conductor, composer, and pedagogue. A former violinist with the Boston Symphony and associate concertmaster of the Utah Symphony, he has been the music director of Salt Lake City’s Vivaldi by Candlelight chamber orchestra series for 20 years. In 2022, Centaur Records released the first recording, performed by Elias, of the complete Opus 1 violin sonatas of the Baroque virtuoso and composer, Pietro Castrucci. The recording received enthusiastic praise from The Strad, Early Music America, and American Record Guide. Elias is also the author of many short stories and novels, including the critically acclaimed Daniel Jacobus mystery series that takes place in the dark corners of the classical music world.

Elias divides his time between his home on the shores of Puget Sound in Seattle and his cottage in the Berkshire hills of Massachusetts, savoring the outdoors and maintaining a vibrant concert career while continuing to expand his literary horizons. He particularly enjoys winter, coffee, cooking, travel, watching sports, and being a devoted grandpa.

Julia Glenn

Julia Glenn, violin. With a deep love for music new and old, Chinese culture and music, and exploring crossroads between music and language, Boston native Julia Glenn savors finding and contributing to unique artistic voices as an international performer of modern and baroque violins. Called “remarkable,” “gripping,” and “a brilliant soloist” by the New York Times, she recently joined the Naumburg-winning Lydian String Quartet and the faculty of Brandeis University after teaching for three years at the Tianjin Juilliard School. She has appeared on stages including Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Sanders Theatre, Jordan Hall, the Beijing Recital Hall, Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, and Shanghai Concert Hall. In January of 2016 she gave the world premiere of Milton Babbitt’s violin concerto to critical acclaim; her article on the work was published in 2022 in Contemporary Music Review. Glenn is a 2018 graduate of Juilliard’s C.V. Starr doctoral program, where she worked with Joseph Lin and Cynthia Roberts. She obtained her master’s from New England Conservatory in 2013 with James Buswell and her bachelor’s in linguistics magna cum laude from Harvard University in 2012. Her solo album “The Road” featuring new and recent works by Chinese-speaking composers was released on Navona Records in October 2024.

Thomas Carroll

Thomas Carroll, clarinet. With a sound described as “beautifully warm” (Herald Times) and “sweet and agile” (New York Times), period clarinetist and instrument builder Thomas Carroll performs extensively throughout North America and Europe on historical instruments. He holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory, Indiana University, and The Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, where his major teacher on early clarinets and chalumeaux was Eric Hoeprich. Internationally, Thomas has performed as principal clarinet with period instrument orchestras in venues ranging from the Kozerthaus in Berlin to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He has been featured as a soloist with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale, American Bach Soloists, Mercury Chamber Orchestra, Lyra Baroque, Ensemble ad Libitum, Boston Baroque, and Grand Harmonie to critical acclaim. Thomas currently performs as principal clarinet with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale, Mercury Chamber Orchestra, Boston Baroque, Philharmonie Austin, and German-based L’Arte del Mondo, frequently collaborating with other early music specialists throughout North America including the Clarion Music and Handel and Haydn Societies, Sonoma Bach, and Musica Angelica. As an arranger of Harmoniemusik for period instruments, his transcriptions have been performed by Grand Harmonie, On Site Opera, the Atlanta Opera, and the Arizona Opera. Eager to combine active scholarship with performance, Thomas is the co-founder with flutist Andrea Leblanc of Arpeggione, a chamber ensemble taking inspiration from the celebrated history of Boston’s Mendelssohn Quintette Club, performing transcriptions and arrangements of large-scale works as they were originally heard on the American stage in the second half of the 19th Century.

As an educator, Thomas is dedicated to training the next generation of historical clarinetists and cultivating an interest in performance practice and hands-on research. He has given guest lectures and masterclasses at universities throughout the United States and maintains a private studio of historical clarinet students. He is also a faculty member at the Festival de Música de Santa Catarina in Brazil. An interest in instrument mechanics and acoustics has led Thomas to a secondary career as an instrument builder and extensive research into 18th and 19th century wood treatment and seasoning. He builds chalumeaux, baroque, and classical clarinets, and basset instruments for use in historically-informed performance ensembles in his Boston workshop, which are played throughout North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia.

Priscilla Herreid

Ms. Herreid’s playing has been called “downright amazing” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the New York Times has praised her “soaring recorder, gorgeously played…” She performs on recorder, period oboe, and a multitude of renaissance wind instruments, with some of the finest ensembles in the U.S. and abroad. She is principal oboist of Boston Baroque, Tempesta di Mare, The Sebastians, and New York Baroque Inc. She plays winds with Piffaro, accompanies silent films with Hesperus and sings the Latin mass in New York City. She performs regularly with The Handel + Haydn Society and Trinity Baroque Orchestra and has appeared with Philharmonia Baroque, Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Venice Baroque, Portland Baroque, American Bach Soloists, The Gabrieli Consort, Tenet, the Dark Horse Consort and The City Musick. She was part of the onstage band for the Broadway productions of Twelfth Night and Richard III, and she is a founding member of the quartet New World Recorders.

Priscilla is former director of the Early Music Ensemble at Temple University. She frequently coaches renaissance and baroque ensembles at Yale University and The Juilliard School. She is a graduate of Temple University and The Juilliard School.

William R. Hudgins

William R. Hudgins was appointed by Seiji Ozawa as Principal Clarinetist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players in 1994. He has been heard as a soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on numerous occasions, including performances of both Mozart and Copland’s Clarinet Concertos and works by Bruch, Krommer, Martin and Weber. Past chamber music performances include collaborations with Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, Paula Robison, Barbara Bonney and the Lydian String Quartet.

Mr. Hudgins spent eight seasons with the Saito Kinen Summer Festival Orchestra in Japan and six seasons as a member of both the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in Charleston, South Carolina, and Il Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italia. He formerly served as Principal Clarinet with Charleston (SC) Symphony Orchestra and the Orquesta Sinfonica Municipal in Caracas, Venezuela.

Laura Jeppesen

Laura Jeppesen, player of historical stringed instruments, earned a master’s degree from Yale University and studied at the Hamburg Hochschule and the Brussels Conservatory. She has been a Woodrow Wilson Designate, a Fulbright Scholar, and a fellow of the Bunting Institute at Harvard. A prominent member of Boston’s early music community, she has long associations with The Boston Museum Trio, Boston Baroque, The Handel and Haydn Society, the Boston Early Music Festival and Aston Magna. She has been music director at the American Repertory Theater, creating music for Christopher Marlowe’s Dido, Queen of Carthage, for which she earned an IRNE nomination for best musical score. In 2015, she was part of the BEMF team that won a Grammy for best opera recording. She has performed as soloist with conductors Christopher Hogwood, Edo deWaart, Seiji Ozawa, Craig Smith, Martin Pearlman, Harry Christophers, Grant Llewellyn, and Bernard Haitink. She has an extensive discography of solo and chamber works, including the gamba sonatas of J.S.Bach, music of Marin Marais, Buxtehude, Rameau, Telemann and Clerambault. She teaches at Wellesley College and Harvard University, where in 2015 and 2019 she won awards of special distinction in teaching from the Derek Bok Center. She is a 2017 recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Blended Learning Initiative Grant for innovative teaching at Wellesley College. Her essay, “Aesthetics of Performance in the Renaissance: Lessons from Noblewomen,” appears in Uncovering Music of Early European Women 1250-1750, published by Routledge Studies in Musical Genres, 2019. Her most recent CD, “Marais at Midnight,” was released by Centaur in 2021.

David Hyun-su Kim

David Hyun-su Kim, regarded “as among the finest pianists of his generation” (WholeNote), has been acclaimed as a musician who “rivals Golden Age pianists. [His playing is] brilliant artistry indeed, … nuanced and naturally phrased, clear and poetic… A performer of artistry, integrity, and interest” (Early Music America). David’s early interests were in math, philosophy, and chemistry, and he matriculated at Cornell University as a Presidential Research and National Merit Scholar. A life-changing encounter with Beethoven’s piano sonatas convinced him to trade the lab stool for the piano bench and he launched himself into music, earning degrees from Harvard, Yale, Cornell, and the New England Conservatory. He has performed in Australia, South Korea, Austria, Belgium, Czechia [the Czech Republic], Italy, Germany, the UK, and throughout North America.

He has conducted residencies at Stanford, Bucknell, Indiana-Bloomington, Duke, and Pennsylvania State Universities, the Universities of Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, and Colby and Bowdoin Colleges, as well as serving as guest speaker and performer at the University of Michigan Piano Festival and the University of California-Berkeley’s Piano Institute, and appearances at the Banff, Orvieto, and Norfolk Music festivals. David is also active as a recording artist. A recent all-Schumann recording was praised as “endlessly fascinating… [T]his familiar music yields unexpected depth and a sheer beauty that is unrivaled by performances on modern instruments… playing of the highest order” (ConcertoNet). More info at: davidkimpiano.com\

Shira Kagan-Shafman

Shira Kagan-Shafman is a dancer and choreographer originally from the Boston area and is now based in New York City. Her works have premiered in theaters and museums around New York. She has performed in works by Caitlin Corbett, Kelley Donovan, Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp, Peggy Florin, Dean Moss, Rebecca Stenn, jess pretty, Joanna Kotze and Mariana Valencia. In 2021, she participated in Arts on Site Residency in process for her work, To Breathe Over Seas, which premiered in December 2021. She received her BA in Dance from the New School and spent a semester studying in Israel through DanceJerusalem. There she found a passion for Gaga and danced in Ohad Naharin repertory, including sections of Sadeh 21, Mamootot, Hora and Last Work along with performing in new works by Roni Chadash and Noa Zuk. She spent additional time in Israel for Batsheva Dance Company’s Summer Course for outstanding dance students.

Recently she premiered her work, Anchor in Continuum, in collaboration with violinist, Leandria Lott, for Poster House museum and the work was restaged for WAXworks at Triskelion Arts in April 2023. Kagan-Shafman received the 2023 B. Wilson Foundation grant for a new production coming summer 2023 and is a recipient of Mother’s Milk residency for Fall 2023. She currently works as GALLIM Dance’s Company Manager. Find more at shirakaganshafman.com/@shiraroseks

Frank Kelley

Frank Kelley has sung over one hundred opera roles with companies including the San Francisco Opera Company, Opera Theater of St. Louis, the Cincinnati Opera, the New Israeli Opera, the Theatre de la Monnaie, the Frankfurt Opera, Wexford Festival, El Gran Teatre del Liceu, The Dallas Opera, the Glimmerglass Festival, Odyssey Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Boston, Florentine Opera, Opera LaFayette, and the Opera de Monte Carlo. Kelley was involved in several seminal productions directed by Peter Sellars including Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro, Die Sieben Todsünden, and Das Kleine Mahagonny—the Mozart operas were recorded by Decca and Austrian Public Television and were broadcast in the United States on the PBS show Great Performances. Kelley has sung with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the New World Symphony, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. He has more than twenty recordings on the Naxos, Teldec, London, Erato, Telarc, and Harmonia Mundi labels.

He has performed medieval and Renaissance music with Sequentia, the Boston Camerata, and the Waverly Consort, and he performs baroque music with Sarasa, the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Emmanuel Music, Tafelmusik, the Bach Ensemble, Concert Royal, Music of the Baroque, Opera Lafayette, the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society, and Aston Magna. In addition to the Conservatory, Kelley currently teaches at the School of Jewish Music at Hebrew College and is the voice teacher of the Ferris Fellows of Memorial Church at Harvard University.

Christopher Krueger

Christopher Krueger has performed as principal flutist with the Boston Symphony, the Boston Pops, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Opera Company of Boston, Boston Ballet, Boston Musica Viva, and Cantata Singers, among other organizations, and was a founding member of the Emmanuel Wind Quintet, winners of the 1981 Walter W. Naumburg Award for Chamber Music. He is a member of Collage New Music and Emmanuel Music.

As a Baroque flutist, he has been a soloist in the Great Performers Series and Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, the Philadelphia Bach Festival, Tanglewood, Ravinia, the Berlin Bach Festival, the City of London Festival, and the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, as well as in France, Belgium, Italy, and Poland. He is a member of the Bach Ensemble and the Aulos Ensemble and recently retired as principal flutist with the Handel and Haydn Society and Boston Baroque after 40 years of playing for those organizations. Mr. Krueger has conducted and been a soloist with the Handel and Haydn Society and Emmanuel Music.

His recordings can be heard on Sony, DG, Decca, EMI, Nonesuch, Pro Arte, CRI, Telarc, Koch, and Centaur. Mr. Krueger has served on the faculty at Wellesley College, the Longy School of Music, and the Akademie f¸r Alte Musik in Brixen/Bressanone, Italy. He is currently on the faculty of Boston University, and Oberlinís Baroque Performance Institute. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Dominique Labelle

Dominique Labelle, soprano, takes greatest pride not in her rave reviews, but in her work with colleagues and in her probing explorations of the repertoire from the Baroque to new music. Her passionate commitment to music-making has led to close and enduring collaborations with a number of the world’s most respected conductors and composers, such as Iván Fischer, Nicholas McGegan, Jos van Veldhoven, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, and the Pulitzer Prize winning composer Yehudi Wyner. She also treasures her long association with the late Robert Shaw. Dominique’s many collaborations with Nicholas McGegan at Göttingen and with his Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra have included Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2 “Lobgesang” and Handel’s Atalanta, Orlando, Alexander’s Feast, and Teseo,. Her appearances with Iván Fischer include the Countess Almaviva in Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro in Las Palmas and Budapest; a Bach B Minor Mass in Washington, D.C.; a Bach St. Matthew Passion with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; as well as Mozart’s Requiem and a Bach St. Matthew Passion with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. She has also sung Britten’s Les Illuminations with Jean-Marie Zeitouni and I Musici de Montréal; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Brahms Requiem, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with Zeitouni and the Columbus Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Labelle is Chair of Voice Area at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. She has also taught master classes at Harvard University, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts. In 2018 she was a recipient of the prestigious Opera Canada Award (“The Rubies”) for her significant contributions to the opera world. During the previous year, she was honored at gala concerts by both Göttingen Handel Festival and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra for her extraordinary artistic contributions. Visit Dominique at www.dominiquelabelle.com

Andrea LeBlanc

Flutist Andrea LeBlanc is devoted to furthering the artistry and expression of the flute by performing on instruments from the baroque, classical, and romantic eras. She has been praised by Early Music America for her “sensitive and beautiful playing, with crystalline tone and execution [that] made you wonder why it was necessary to invent the Boehm system for flute” (Fall 2015). Andrea has performed and recorded with numerous ensembles in the Northeast, frequently serving as principal flute. She appears with the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, the Boston Early Music Festival, Arcadia Players, Aston Magna, The Sebastians, the Connecticut Early Music Festival, Blue Hill Bach Festival, and the Big Moose Bach Festival, as well as Mercury Houston. She performs chamber music of the late-classical and early-romantic periods in recital with pianist David Hyun-Su Kim.

In 2021 Andrea co-founded the ensemble Arpeggione with clarinetist Thomas Carroll, to explore the ways in which Classical and Romantic music was historically experienced outside of the concert hall and bring innovative performances to venues around her home on Boston’s North Shore. Ms. LeBlanc holds a B.Mus. with honors and distinction in performance from New England Conservatory and a M.Mus. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she was a teaching assistant in flute and early music. She spent a year furthering her study of the traverso at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague.

Julie Leven

Violinist and arts activist Julie Leven (she, her, hers) is the Founder and Artistic/Executive Director Emeritus of Shelter Music Boston. Since 2010 this social service organization has presented chamber music concerts of the highest artistic standards, with repertoire spanning from Hildegard von Bingen to works written in 2025, in Greater Boston homeless shelters and substance misuse recovery centers. Julie is a member of the Handel + Haydn Society Orchestra and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. With the Boston Pops she has performed throughout the US, Japan, and Korea. International festival appearances include the BBC Proms in London, Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, Edinburgh Festival, Haydn Festival in Eisenstadt Austria, Krakow/Warsaw Beethoven Festival, Spoleto Festival, and in the US: Aston Magna Festival, Cactus Pear Music Festival, Colorado Music Festival, Scrag Mountain Music, and the Tanglewood Music Center. She is a former member of both the Jerusalem Symphony and the Aarhus Symfoniorkester in Denmark. Solo performances can be heard on the Boston Baroque recordings of Handel Opus 6 Concerti Grossi and the Grammy nominated performance of the Monteverdi Vespers. Ms. Leven is a graduate of the BU School of Management Institute for Nonprofit Management and Leadership, and Oberlin College and Oberlin Conservatory (Pi Kappa Lambda), with degrees in English and Violin Performance.

Catherine Liddell

Catherine Liddell, theorbo, is in high demand for her skill, sensitivity and experience as a continuo player on theorbo and lute. In her more than 35 years as a professional player, she has performed with many of America’s leading period instrument ensembles, including Boston Baroque, the Handel & Haydn Society, Apollo’s Fire (Cleveland), the New York Collegium, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra, A Far Cry, Emmanuel Music and in the Aston Magna and the Boston Early Music Festivals. With the London Sinfonietta and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment she performed in the US premier of Heiner Goebbel’s Songs of War I Have Seen as part of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s 50th Anniversary Celebration. She has recorded for Musical Heritage Society, Titanic, Dorian, Wildboar, and Centaur Records. Her recent recording on the Centaur label, Marais at Midnight, with Laura Jeppesen, viola da gamba, has received enthusiastic acclaim. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, Ms. Liddell earned the Soloist Diploma from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland. She is Lecturer in Lute in the Historical Performance Program at Boston University, teaches lute at Wellesley College, and has just completed two terms as President of the Lute Society of America.

David McFerrin

David McFerrin, baritone, hailed for his “voice of seductive beauty” (Miami Herald), has won critical acclaim in a variety of genres. His opera credits include Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, Florida Grand Opera, the Rossini Festival in Germany, and numerous roles with Boston Lyric Opera and other local companies. As concert soloist he has sung with the Cleveland Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Handel and Haydn Society, and in recital at the Caramoor, Ravinia, and Marlboro Festivals. He was runner-up in the Oratorio Society of New York’s 2016 Lyndon Woodside Solo Competition, the premier US contest for this repertoire. David is also a member of the renaissance vocal ensemble Blue Heron, winners of the 2018 Gramophone award for Best Early Music Album. Recent performance highlights have included two turns as Lucifer/the Devil––one in a filmed production of Handel’s La Resurrezione with Emmanuel Music and the other in Stravinsky’s “A Soldier’s Tale” with Aston Magna Music Festival; the Cimarosa monodrama Il Maestro di Capella with Boston Baroque; and Monteverdi’s dramatic scena Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda with American Bach Soloists in the Bay Area. David lives in Natick, Massachusetts with his wife Erin, an architectural historian and preservation planner; their daughter Fiona; and black lab Holly.

Jason McStoots

Reviewers describe Jason McStoots as having an “alluring tenor voice” (ArtsFuse) and as “the consummate artist, wielding not just a sweet tone but also incredible technique and impeccable pronunciation.” (Cleveland Plain Dealer) In 2015 he won a GRAMMY award in Opera with the Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF) for their recording of the music of Charpentier. A respected interpreter of medieval, renaissance and baroque music, his recent stage appearances in period-style baroque opera with BEMF include Le Jeu in Les plaisirs de Versailles by Charpentier, Apollo in Orfeo, Eumete and Giove in Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria both by Monteverdi. Other performances include evangelist in Bach’s St. Mark Passion (Emmanuel Music), evangelist and soloist for Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Bach Collegium San Diego), and soloist for Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 (Green Mountain Project NYC.)

In addition to the groups mentioned above he has appeared with Boston Lyric Opera, Pacific MusicWorks, Les Délices, TENET, San Juan Symphony, The Bach Ensemble, Pablo Casals Festival, Early Music Guild of Seattle, Folger Consort, Newbury Consort, and the Tanglewood Music Center. He is a core member of the ensemble Blue Heron and can be heard on all their recordings. With BEMF, he is on recordings of Lully’s Pysché (GRAMMY nominated), Handel’s Acis and Galatea (Damon), John Blow’s Venus and Adonis (soloist), and Charpentier’s Acteon (Orphée).

Sophie Michaux

Praised for her “warm, colorful mezzo” by Opera News, Sophie Michaux has become one of North-America’s most versatile and compelling vocalists. Born in London and raised in the French alps, Sophie’s unique background informs her artistic identity, making her feel at home in an eclectic span of repertoire ranging from grand opera to French cabaret songs. Solo engagements include the role of Alcina in Caccini’s La Liberation di Ruggiero dall’Isola d’Alcina (Haymarket Opera), Olofernes in Scarlatti’s La Giuditta (Haymarket Opera), a Hawaii tour (Les Délices), the Alto solos in the Handel’ Dixit Domino (Upper Valley Baroque), DeFalla’s El Amor Brujo (Lowell Chamber Orchestra). Recent collaborations include A Far Cry, Blue Heron, Roomful of Teeth, The Lorelei Ensemble, Les Délices, The Boston Early Music Festival, Bach Collegium San Diego, Palaver Strings, and others.

Jennifer Morsches

Jennifer Morsches enjoys an international career as a versatile cellist, acclaimed for playing with “intelligence and pathos” (The Strad) and a “fine mixture of elegance and gutsiness” (Gramophone). She is Co-Artistic Director of Sarasa Ensemble (Cambridge, MA), highly acknowledged for its outreach in youth detention centres in the greater Boston area. Especially inclined towards historical performance, she is a core member of Florilegium (UK) since 2000, with whom she performs around the globe and has recorded over 30 award-winning CDs for Channel Classics Records/Outhere. As Ensemble in Association at the Royal College of Music in London, Jennifer has coached chamber music there since 2008. With the Richter Ensemble (UK/FR), she has recorded string quartets by Webern, Berg and Schoenberg on gut strings for Passacaille Records to great acclaim. A long-time member of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Les Siècles and Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, she has toured andrecorded with eminent artists such as Sir Simon Rattle, Sir András Schiff, Vladimir Jurowski, Sir Roger Norrington, Dame Emma Kirkby, Sir Michael Chance, François-Xavier Roth, and Philippe Herreweghe. Jennifer graduated Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude, First Group Scholar from Smith College with degrees in Music History and German Literature, and was awarded the Ernst Wallfisch Prize in Music. She received her Master’s and Doctorate in Cello Performance as a scholarship student of Timothy Eddy at the Mannes College of Music and SUNY at Stony Brook in New York. Recipient of the CD Jackson Prize for outstanding merit and contribution at Tanglewood, she was featured on Wynton Marsalis’s educational music videos with Yo-Yo Ma.

Loretta O’Sullivan

Loretta O’Sullivan, cello, praised by the NY Times as “an agile, eloquent player,” has played with many of this country’s leading ensembles and orchestras. On period instruments, these include the Four Nations Ensemble, Opera Lafayette, Aston Magna, Artek, the New York Collegium, the Haydn Baryton Trio, the Classical Quartet, and the American Classical Orchestra. In concerts and recordings, she has given memorable performances of Bach, Biber, and Britten for solo cello, concertos of Vivaldi and Porpora and Fiorenza, obbligato cello arias of Caldara and Handel, and a wide range of chamber music. She recorded the complete Op. 5 sonatas of Francesco Geminiani, with the Four Nations Ensemble, for Orchid Classics. As principal cellist of Opera Lafayette, she has performed at Versailles, the Kennedy Center and the Rose Theater, and has recorded for Naxos. As principal cellist with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, and featured artist in 2023, Loretta performed the CPE Bach cello concerto in A minor, the Vivaldi concerto for two cellos, and Sarah Quartel’s “Snow Angel” for solo cello and children’s choir. In collaboration with Francine Ringold, former Poet Laureate of Oklahoma, Loretta set several poems for solo cello entitled “Bird Songs.”

Rafa Prendergast

Brooklyn based violinist Rafa Prendergast is an active performer of works dating from the early 17^th century through the present day. Rafa is a guest concertmaster with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado and performs frequently with Nuova Pratica, The Smithsonian Academy Orchestra, New York Baroque Incorporated, ARTEK, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, and ChamberQUEER, among many others. They were also featured in a social media campaign for ABC’s The Bachelor. Residencies and visiting Guest Artist engagements include Avaloch Farm Music Institute, the University of Michigan’s School of Music, and Michigan State University. Rafa has performed as part of the Boston Early Music Fringe Festival, Death of Classical series, Gotham Early Music Scene’s Midtown Concerts series, and WQXR’s Midday Masterpieces series. Rafa holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, graduating magna cum laude; and a Master of Music Degree from The Juilliard School.

Robinson Pyle

Robinson Pyle, trumpet, performs extensively on both modern and historic instruments. He is currently principal trumpet with the Plymouth Philharmonic. Formerly, Mr. Pyle had been a principal with Boston Baroque, Apollo’s Fire, and The Lyra Concert. He has appeared as a guest artist with numerous ensembles, including the Purcell Society of Boston, Portland Symphony Orchestra, Grand Harmonie, Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, Albany Symphony, Boston Cecilia, Handel and Haydn Society, Ensemble Caprice, and Washington Bach Consort. As a jazz performer, Mr. Pyle has played in bands with such legends as saxophonist Joe Henderson, trombonist J. J. Johnson, and trumpeter Donald Byrd, and has appeared at the House of Blues. He has recorded for the Linn, Telarc, Eclectra, Interscope, OJE, and A2Z labels, and has been featured in radio broadcasts on WGBH, WCRB, WCLV, WKSU, National Public Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and European Community Radio. Mr. Pyle currently teaches in the Historic Performance Department at Boston University and is a faculty member in the Wellesley Public Schools. He has been a guest lecturer in Historical Performance at Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts, and has delivered lectures in Musical Acoustics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University, Dartmouth College, and the Acoustical Society of America. He lives with his wife, Julie, and their two cats, Rose and Lily. In his spare time, Mr. Pyle enjoys kayaking and photographing nature, often at the same time. He holds a degree in Trumpet Performance from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.

Mack Ramsey

Mack Ramsey is a specialist in performance of Renaissance and baroque music on instruments of the periods, playing sackbut, recorder and Renaissance flute. He makes his home in the Boston area, but he is frequently called upon to appear with baroque orchestras across the continent, performing on historical trombones of the baroque, classical and romantic eras. Mack Ramsey is a specialist in performance of Renaissance and baroque music on instruments of the periods, playing sackbut, recorder and Renaissance flute. He makes his home in the Boston area, but he is frequently called upon to appear with baroque orchestras across the continent, performing on historical trombones of the baroque, classical and romantic eras.

This season has included performances with the Staunton Music Festival, Pegasus Ensemble, Apollo’s Fire, The Thirteen, Piffaro Renaissance Band, Philharmonia Baroque, Tenet Vocal Artists and Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society.

Deborah Rentz Moore

is known for her “deep, radiant clear tone” (Early Music America) and an her “effortlessly warm and resonant mezzo, with exquisite control over vibrato” (Boston Classical Review). She enjoys frequent solo collaborations with Aston Magna, as well as celebrated ensembles Emmanuel Music and The Boston Camerata. Her solo engagements with the Boston Early Music Festival, Handel+Haydn Society, Tapestry, Voices of Music, Ensemble Phoenix Munich, Terezín Music Foundation and Magnificat Baroque have brought her to such venues as Lincoln Center, the Paris Philharmonie, Utrecht Early Music Festival, Prague Spring Festival, Boston Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, Boston MFA and Tanglewood.

Specializing in vocal works of the Baroque and earlier, Ms. Rentz-Moore’s vocal pursuits are nonetheless expansive, with many notable premieres of new music, highlighting repertoires of under-represented composers, and featuring popular vocal styles in diverse vocal ranges.

Her recordings on Musica Omnia, Centaur, Meridian and Harmonia Mundi span genres and eras, from Monteverdi, Cozzolani and Bach to early American, Shaker and 21st-century works. She appears on video with Voices of Music, Emmanuel Music, The Boston Camerata and the University of New Hampshire, where she is Resident Artist in Voice. Her students have won and placed at chapter and regional NATS auditions in classical, contemporary music and musical theatre divisions. Ms. Rentz-Moore is featured on The Boston Camerata’s critically-acclaimed “Free America” and “Hodie Christus Natus Est” recordings.

Cynthia Roberts

Cynthia Roberts is one of America’s leading baroque violinists, appearing as soloist, concertmaster, and recitalist throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. She is a faculty member of the Juilliard School, and toured this spring with the Juilliard 415 baroque orchestra to India, and as concertmaster under Masaaki Suzuki to New Zealand. She 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. She appears regularly with the Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Smithsonian Chamber Players, Tafelmusik, and the Boston Early Music Festival and is a principal player in the Carmel Bach Festival. In Europe, she has performed as concertmaster of Les Arts Florissants and appeared with Orchester Wiener Akademie, the London Classical Players, and the Taverner Players. She was featured as soloist and concertmaster on the soundtrack of the Touchstone Pictures film Casanova and toured South America as concertmaster for a production featuring actor John Malkovich.

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.

Edson Scheid

Edson Scheid has been praised for his “polished playing” (The Strad), for being “more than equipped to deal with the virtuosic challenges” (Seen and Heard International), and for being “both musically and technically one of the most assured and accomplished of today’s younger period violinists” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer). His performance of Strauss’s song Morgen at Carnegie Hall was described as follows: “The concertmaster, Edson Scheid, proved a worthy foil as violin soloist” (The New York Times). A native of Brazil, Scheid has performed with such ensembles as Les Arts Florissants, Il Pomo d’Oro, the Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Juilliard415, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Sejong Soloists, NOVUS NY, the Aston Magna Music Festival, Orchester Wiener Akademie, and the Aspen Festival Orchestra.

He is the two-time winner of the Historical Performance Concerto Competition at The Juilliard School, and recipient of the Broadus Erle Prize at the Yale School of Music. Edson Scheid’s many performances of Paganini’s 24 Caprices, on both period and modern violins, have been received with enthusiasm around the world. He has performed the Caprices in cities in Europe, North and South America, and Asia, and has been featured live in-studio on In Tune from BBC Radio 3.

His recording of the Caprices on the baroque violin for the Naxos label has been critically acclaimed: “Far from being mere virtuoso stunts, Scheid’s Caprices abound in the beauty and revolutionary spirit of these works…” (Fanfare Magazine). As a chamber musician, he has performed as a violinist and a violist in festivals including the Juilliard Chamberfest, Utrecht Early Music Festival, Dans les Jardins de William Christie, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. He holds degrees from the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, the Yale School of Music and The Juilliard School, where he was a recipient of a Kovner Fellowship.

Michael Sponseller

Michael Sponseller appears regularly as harpsichordist and continuo organist with several of American’s finest baroque orchestras and ensembles, such as Bach Collegium San Diego, Les Délices, Aston Magna, Tragicomedia, and the Boston Early Music Festival orchestra and can be heard on many recordings from Delos, Centaur, Eclectra, and Naxos et al. At home, Michael is a regular presence at Boston’s Emmanuel Music, having performed over 100 sacred cantatas.

His various recordings include a diverse list of composers, including Bach, Handel, Rameau, Praetorius and Laurenti received excellent reviews throughout the world. Early Musica America Magazine has said of his performance of the Bach Concertos, “His well-proportioned elegance carries the day quite stylishly.” He currently is Artistic Director for Ensemble Florilege. He has been on faculty at the Longy School of Music at Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute.

Peter Sykes

Peter Sykes is a core faculty member and principal instructor of harpsichord in the Historical Performance Department of the Juilliard School in New York City, and a lecturer at Boston University, teaching harpsichord and organ performance. He has taught at the University of Michigan, the New England Conservatory, and the Longy School of Music; he was Chair of the Historical Performance Departments at the Longy School (1988-2005) and Boston University (2006-2021) and Co-Chair of the Organ Department at the New England Conservatory (2001-2003). He has been Music Director at First Church in Cambridge since 1986. He holds degrees from the New England Conservatory and Concordia University in Montreal. He performs extensively in recital on the organ, harpsichord, and clavichord, and has made ten solo recordings on all three instruments in repertoire ranging from Buxtehude, Couperin and Bach to Reger and Hindemith and his acclaimed first-ever organ transcription of Holst’s “The Planets.” He often performs and teaches in Europe and has been a judge in numerous harpsichord and organ playing competitions. A founding board member and current president of the Boston Clavichord Society as well as past president of the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies, he is the recipient of the Chadwick Medal and Outstanding Alumni Award from the New England Conservatory, the Erwin Bodky Prize from the Cambridge Society for Early Music, and the Distinguished Artist Award from the St. Botolph Club Foundation.

Anne Trout

Bassist Anne Trout has been active in historical performance for many years. She regularly performed, toured and recorded with most of the prominent historical performance ensembles in North America including Handel & Haydn Society, REBEL, Aston Magna, Trinity Wall Street, Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque, Tafelmusik, American Classical Orchestra, Boston Baroque, Clarion Society, Concert Royal, Opera Lafayette, Washington Bach Consort, Atlantic Trio, Sarasa, The Sebastians, Emmanuel Music. She has performed in productions with choreographer Mark Morris and in modern re-stagings of baroque and classical masterworks by directors Peter Sellars, Jonathan Miller and R.B. Schlather. She performed at the Edinburgh Festival with Christopher Hogwood and at the BBC Proms under Roger Norrington. She played Haydn at the Esterhazy Palace and Handel in Rome. As part of the Green Mountain Project, Anne was performing Monteverdi Vespers in Venice in early 2020.

Last year she joined Philadelphia-based Tempesta di Mare on its tour of Germany where it was featured at the Telemann Festival. She regularly performs with FOUR NATIONS on its Manhattan concerts and its guest appearances in Detroit. She served as principal bass for the inaugural concerts of K366, a NYC classical period ensemble formed in 2021. Anne has been part of coastal Maine’s Blue Hill Bach Festival every summer since its formation 10 years ago. Other recent engagements include the NYC-based ACRONYM, Dryden Ensemble in Princeton, Isabella Ensemble at Boston’s Gardner Museum, Ensemble Altera directed by Christopher Lowery, Upper Valley Baroque led by Filippo Ciabatti, Portland Bach Experience. Anne serves on the faculties of Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge and Boston College. She is guardian of a rare fully-restored Brescian bass made by Giovanni Paolo Maggini in 1610, one of only three extant.

Kristen Watson

Kristen Watson Soprano hailed by critics for her “blithe and silvery” tone (Boston Globe) and “striking poise” (Opera News) has made solo appearances with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Mark Morris Dance Group, American Classical Orchestra, Boston Baroque, Handel & Haydn Society and Emmanuel Music, at such venues as Walt Disney Concert Hall, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and Boston’s Symphony Hall. Opera audiences have heard her with Odyssey Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Boston, Boston University Opera Institute, Opera Providence, and the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh in such roles as Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress, Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Voice of the Fountain in Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar directed by Peter Sellars. Ms. Watson has been recognized by the Concert Artists Guild, Oratorio Society of New York, Joy in Singing, American Bach Society, and Louisville Bach Society competitions, and as a versatile crossover artist she has performed with the Boston Pops in programs ranging from Mozart to Richard Rodgers. Additional solo performances include the North Carolina Symphony, Trinity Wall Street, Masterwork Chorus of New Jersey, Duke Chapel Choir, Carmel Bach Festival and San Francisco Early Music Society, as well as frequent appearances with New England-based organizations such as the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Boston Early Music Festival, Musicians of the Old Post Road, Sarasa, Arcadia Players, and A Far Cry. Originally from Kansas, Ms. Watson holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and Boston University.

Jacques Lee Wood

Jacques Lee Wood is a Boston-based cellist known for his diverse and dynamic musical career. Wood’s performance interests are notably eclectic, encompassing historical performances on period instruments, commissioning new works for both modern and baroque cello, improvisation incorporating live electronics, and composing his own material. He serves as the Principal Cellist of the Cape Symphony and frequently collaborates with esteemed groups such as A Far Cry, Cantata Singers, Yale Schola Cantorum, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Boston Baroque, Bachsolisten Seoul, and Bach Collegium Japan.

Wood holds faculty positions at the University of New Hampshire and Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra (Intensive Community Program). He has also held faculty residencies at institutions like Yale University, the University of Ulsan, Tufts University, Boston Conservatory, and most recently New York University, University of Sao Paulo-Campinas, Istanbul University, and Istanbul Technical University. Wood actively participates in various festivals and programs, including the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival (Yale Summer School), Summer Youth Music School at the University of New Hampshire, the Great Mountains Festival in South Korea, the Korea Strings Research Institute, the Bari International Music Festival, the Banff Centre, Avaloch Farm, Aston Magna, and the Manchester Summer Chamber Music Festival.

As a recording artist, Wood has released works on the Hyperion and Navona labels. He completed his Bachelor of Music at the New England Conservatory of Music under Laurence Lesser and earned both his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from Yale University, where he studied with Aldo Parisot.

Administrative Staff

Susan B. Obel, Executive Director

A life-long music lover, and presently a singer with The Cecilia Chorus in New York City, Susan Obel had her first job in Arts Management with St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble/Orchestra of St. Luke’s. “I got my feet wet as a part-time office manager, but as a member of a small staff I soon became involved in writing, fundraising and special events.” She next joined the staff of the Harlem School of the Arts, working closely with then-Executive Director Betty Allen. There she launched and co-produced an annual Radiothon with radio legend Robert Sherman and WQXR, a fundraising event that continued for many years. Following that was a 15-year stint in public relations and fundraising with Theatreworks/USA, the nation’s preeminent professional theater for young and family audiences. An early enthusiast of early music performed on original instruments, Susan is delighted to help bring Aston Magna to a wider audience.