Michael Barrett
Michael Barrett is a Boston-based conductor, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and teacher. He serves as music director of The Boston Cecilia and Convivium Musicum. Michael also teaches conducting and European music history at the Berklee College of Music, and was recently appointed as Interim Director of the Five College Early Music Program, where he directs the Five College Collegium. Michael has performed with Blue Heron, The Boston Camerata, the Huelgas Ensemble, Vox Luminis, the Handel & Haydn Society, Netherlands Bach Society, Seven Times Salt, Schola Cantorum of Boston, and Nota Bene, and can be heard on the harmonia mundi, Blue Heron, Coro, and Toccata Classics record labels.
Boston City Singers
Since 1995, Boston City Singers’ mission has been to provide the highest level of creative youth development opportunities to underserved young people, ages 4 – 18, in the very communities in which they live. Our programs inspire personal journeys, bridge opportunity gaps, celebrate diversity, and foster goodwill. Our strengths lie in an unwavering commitment to social justice and acceptance of differences across socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, and gender identity.
Through outstanding music education and vocal instruction, excellence in performance, and serving the community through song, members experience the joy of singing, teamwork and leadership, musical skills and artistic expression – skills that last a lifetime! Boston City Singers and the Camerata have collaborated since 2014 (Daniel: A Masterpiece Revisited) and in following seasons.
Joel Frederiksen
Joel Frederiksen is an American bass and lutenist living in Munich, Germany, internationally recognized as a performer and artistic director in the field of early music. A longtime collaborator with the Boston Camerata, he has devoted many years to his specialty, self-accompanied lute song. He has worked with leading figures in early music including Dame Emma Kirkby, Andrew Parrott, Rubén Dubrovsky, and Jordi Savall, and with ensembles such as Vox Luminis, the Netherlands Bach Society, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, and the Huelgas Ensemble. Since 2002 he has been artistic director of Ensemble Phoenix Munich, with which he has released ten recordings on harmonia mundi and SONY/Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and curated the Munich concert series Between Mars and Venus since 2007. His versatile basso profundo voice and wide-ranging artistic work have established him as a distinctive voice in today’s early-music scene.
Corey Dalton Hart
Corey Dalton Hart, tenor is an active performer of opera, oratorio, and song repertoire as well as an eager chamber musician. With a passion for American song, he is a regular recitalist along the east coast, having premiered new works in both New York City and Boston. He performs with the Boston Camerata, Boston Baroque Ensemble, Renaissance Men, The Ashmont Bach Project, the VOCES8 Scholars Program, and the renowned choir at the Church of the Advent. Corey holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in vocal performance and pedagogy from the New England Conservatory of Music as well as degrees from Furman University and the Bard College Conservatory of Music.
Daniel Hershey
Daniel Hershey received his Master’s degree from New England Conservatory and has performed with Opera Boston, The Boston Camerata, Emmanuel Music, Handel + Haydn Society, New England Light Opera, Cambridge Opera, Brahms Society Orchestra, Masterworks Chorale, and others. He made his European debut with the Boston Camerata (Octobre en Normandie) and has toured the globe in Borrowed Light since its inception. He has also been a workshop leader for Opera Boston’s “Opera Shop” program and an artist at the Brevard Music Center in Brevard, NC. Dan is currently the Vice President of the Wilkinson Young Singer’s Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to helping young singers in Don Wilkinson’s name, himself a years-long performer with the Camerata and other Boston musical institutions. A frequent performer with the Camerata, Mr. Hershey can be heard on the Camerata CD Treasures of Devotion. His discography also includes Daniel Pinkham’s Garden Party, and the Camerata’s The Golden Harvest.
Shira Kammen
Multi-instrumentalist, occasional vocalist, composer & arranger Shira Kammen has spent well over half her life exploring the worlds of early and traditional music. A frequent collaborator with Anne Azéma and The Boston Camerata, Ms. Kammen was a member for many years of the early music Ensembles Alcatraz, Project Ars Nova, and Medieval Strings, and has also worked with Sequentia, Hesperion XX, Anonymous IV, among many others. She has performed and taught in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Israel, Morocco, Latvia, Russia and Japan, and has provided music for rafting trips on the Colorado, Rogue, Green, Grande Ronde, East Carson and Klamath Rivers. She has enjoyed working with students in many different settings, ranging from summer music workshops in the woods, coaching students of early music at Yale University, Case Western, the University of Oregon at Eugene, as well as working at specialized seminars at the Fondazione Cini in Venice, Italy and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland.
Brian Kanner
Brian specializes in the historic performance of music from the Baroque era, performing with such early music groups as REBEL, Yale Schola Cantorum, Crescendo, Teatro Nuovo, Grand Harmonie, Bourbon Baroque, members of Julliard 415, and the U.S. Army Old Guard’s Baroque Trumpet Ensemble, as well as the Westchester Oratorio Society, Burlington Choral Society and Kentucky State Opera. This is Brian’s first performance with The Boston Camerata. He has studied and performed at Oberlin College’s Baroque Performance Institute (2007-2010), the Maryland Early Brass Festival and the Historic Brass Society. Brian performs music from the Civil War and Victorian eras on period valved instruments with Yankee Brass Band, Federal City Brass Band, 26th North Carolina Regimental Band, Newberry’s Victorian Cornet Band and the Coates Band. He has performed at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, Lincoln Center, Ford’s Theater, the National Archives, Arlington House and the Vintage Brass Festival.
LONGY SCHOOL OF MUSIC OF BARD COLLEGE
Founded in 1915 by renowned Parisian oboist Georges Longy, Longy School of
Music of Bard College is a degree-granting Conservatory located in Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA. The school serves students form 36 states and 27 countries, and is rapidly gaining international recognition for its efforts to meet a changing musical landscape head-on, giving its graduates the skills to perform, the ambition to teach, and the ability to reach new audiences and new communities. Historically informed performance plays a central role in Longy’s artistic and academic life. The curriculum focuses on both repertoire and research in its approach to music composed before 1800, featuring some of the most unique and thorough course offerings in early music in the United States. The department’s commitment to individual attention from faculty mentors, ensemble playing, and small class sizes creates a uniquely collaborative environment. Longy and the Camerata enjoy an ongoing relationship, which gives students the opportunity to work side by side with professionals in the early music field.
Steven Lundahl
Steven Lundahl specializes in early low brass and recorders. He has performed throughout North and South America, Europe, and Hong Kong with such groups as the Boston Camerata, Boston Baroque, the Handel and Haydn Society, Tafelmusik, Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Project Ars Nova, Waverly Consort, Calliope, and more. He has participated on over 35 recordings on such labels as Telarc, Warner Classics, Angel/EMI, Harmonia Mundi (France and Germany), Erato (France), New Albion Records, and others. He teaches at the Concord Community Music School, and resides in Canterbury, NH.
Ryan Lustgarten
Ryan Lustgarten is a tenor from the Seattle area currently based in Manhattan, NY. He recently concluded a performance of Die Entführung aus dem Serail singing Pedrillo and covering Belmonte with Festival Napa Valley and was previously with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as a Gerdine Young Artist this past summer. Ryan is a versatile performer of classic and contemporary opera alike (with a particular love for newer works), musical theatre, choral music, and concert repertoire. Ryan joins The Boston Camerata for the first time in the 2024/2025 season for The Play of Daniel, Borrowed Light , and our performance of A Gallery of Kings at the Boston Early Music Festival in June. He holds a Master of Music in Voice & Opera from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Music from Washington State University.
Dan Meyers
A native of Washington state, Dan Meyers graduated from Whitman College with BA degrees in Music and English Literature, later obtaining an MM in Historical Performance, cum laude, from the Longy School of Music in Boston. Beginning his musical life as a trombonist with an interest in jazz, he discovered Renaissance and Baroque music during his undergraduate years, and began learning to play the recorder and other historical wind and brass instruments. For three seasons he was part of the Tony award-winning musical ensemble of the Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City UT, also playing in theatrical productions in Las Vegas and Phoenix, AZ. Meyers has studied historically-informed performance in both the US and Europe, and regularly performs with his own group Seven Times Salt, as well as being a frequent guest with noted early music ensembles like The Folger Consort, The Newberry Consort, Hesperus, In Stile Moderno, and others.
Nigel North
Born in London, England, Nigel North has been Professor of Lute at the Historical Performance Institute (formerly Early Music Institute), Indiana University, Bloomington (USA) since 1999. Previous positions included The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London (1976-1996), Hochschule der Künste, Berlin (1993–1999) and the Royal Conservatory, Den Haag, (2006–2009).
Initially inspired at the age of seven by the early 60‘s instrumental pop group “The Shadows”, Nigel studied classical music through the violin and guitar, eventually discovering his real path in life, the lute, when he was 15. Basically self-taught on the lute, he has been playing and teaching for nearly 50 years.
After hearing one of Nigel‘s Bach recitals in London, Julian Bream recalled in 2002 “I remember going to a remarkable recital, one which I wish I had the ability to give: it was one of Nigel North‘s Bach recitals, and I was bowled over by how masterful and how musical it was. A real musical experience, something you don‘t always get from guitar and lute players and which, in general, is pretty rare.”Recordings include a four CD boxed set “Bach on the Lute” (Linn Records), four CDs of the lute music of John Dowland (Naxos), and a new ongoing series of music by Sylvius Weiss (4 CDs) and Francesco da Milano (3 CDs, both on BGS). He often collaborates with Anne Azéma in recitals. This season marks his first participation in The Boston Camerata’s Boston concert series.
Andrew Padgett
Bass-baritone Andrew Padgett, praised for his “powerful baritone and impressive vocal range” (Boston Music Intelligencer) and “splendidly declamatory” performances (Opera Today), is an accomplished interpreter of early music from medieval to baroque repertoire. Featured in venues like New York’s Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., he collaborates frequently with ensembles such as Piffaro, TENET, and Bach Collegium San Diego. After several years in New York City, as a member of the internationally-acclaimed Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, he now lives in Boston where he sings with Emmanuel Music on their long-running Bach Cantata Series.
Camila Parias
Colombia native Camila Parias, a regular collaborator with the Boston Camerata, is also a frequent soloist with La Donna Musicale and a core member of the Choir of the Church of the Advent, Handel+Haydn Society, and The Broken Consort. In recent seasons she appeared with Rumbarroco, a group focusing on Latin American and Baroque music. Her international appearances include solo performances with Colombian chorus La Escala throughout Italy, France, and Spain, and touring Europe with the Camerata in Borrowed Light. She can be heard on Camerata’s most recent CDs, Free America! and A Medieval Christmas – Hodie Christus Natus Est. She holds a B.M. in Vocal Performance from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and a M.M. in Early Music Performance from the Longy School of Music of Bard College.
Christa Patton
Camerata regular Christa Patton, historical harpist and early wind specialist, has performed throughout the Americas, Europe, and Japan with many of today’s premier early music ensembles including Piffaro the Renaissance Band, The King’s Noyse, Folger Consort, Newberry Consort, Apollo’s Fire, Parthenia and ARTEK. As a baroque harpist specializing in 17th century opera, Christa has performed with New York City Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Tafelmusik. She is presently on the faculty of Rutgers University and the Graduate Center at CUNY. She is also musical director of the Baroque Opera Workshop at Queens College, specializing in the works of early 17th century composers.
Mack Ramsey
Mack Ramsey is a specialist in performance of Renaissance and baroque music on instruments of the periods, playing sackbut, Renaissance flute, recorder and lute.. He makes his home in the Boston area, but he is frequently called upon to appear with musical organizations across the continent, performing on historical trombones of the Renaissance through Romantic eras. Mack is a member of Dark Horse Consort and in recent seasons has appeared with the Staunton Music Festival, Pegasus Ensemble, Tafelmusik, Apollo’s Fire, The Thirteen, Piffaro Renaissance Band, Philharmonia Baroque, Mercury, Oregon Bach Festival, Tenet Vocal Artists and Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society.
Deborah Rentz-Moore
Mezzo-soprano Deborah Rentz-Moore enjoys a multi-faceted solo career, specializing in early music while equally at home in classical and contemporary repertoire. She appears frequently with The Boston Camerata, Emmanuel Music, and Aston Magna, as well as other celebrated ensembles such as The Boston Early Music Festival, Handel+Haydn Society, Tapestry, Voices of Music and Magnificat Baroque. She has appeared at Lincoln Center, the Paris Philharmonie, Utrecht Early Music Festival, Prague Spring Festival, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall and Tanglewood. 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. Ms. Rentz-Moore is featured on The Boston Camerata’s critically-acclaimed Free America and Hodie Christus Natus Est recordings.
John Taylor Ward
A North Carolina native, John Taylor Ward grew up in a musical family. Before pursuing opera and early music studies at the Eastman and Yale Schools of Music, he spent his early years as both a sought-after musical theater actor and an Anglican boy treble. Ward has yielded acclaimed debuts at Spoleto USA in the premier of Unholy Wars; Mexico’s Compañía Nacional de Teatro, starring in Iannis Xenakis’ Oresteia; and Vienna’s Musikverein as Jesus in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Notable DVD releases include the role of Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress, Proteo in Orfeo Chaman, L’Arpeggiata, and an upcoming documentary series on the life and works of Claudio Monteverdi with the English Baroque Soloists. Ward is the founding artistic director of the Lakes Area Music Festival of Minnesota. He is a laureate of the Jardin des voix and a member of the two-time Grammy winning ensemble, Roomful of Teeth.
More Artists
Apollo Bardwell
Apollo Bardwell is a singer and lutenist with a passion for both classical and early music. He began his journey in music at Georgia Southern University, where he studied Opera. The discovery of his passion for Renaissance lute song led him to Boston, where he earned a master’s degree in Historical Performance at the Longy School of Music of Bard College. Bardwell specializes in early music and has a particular affinity for Baroque and Renaissance repertoires, performing both as a soloist and in various ensembles. Based in New England, he brings a unique blend of operatic training and historical performance expertise to his work. His performances have been praised for their rhetorical devices, and research of historical musical practices. Bardwell continues to share his passion with audiences throughout New England, contributing to the vibrant early music scene.
Charles Blandy
Charles Blandy is a member of Beyond Artists, a coalition that supports good causes through their work. He studied at Oberlin College, Indiana University, and Tanglewood Music Center. He is the product of a strong public school arts program in Troy, NY. He made his Boston Symphony Orchestra/Carnegie Hall debut in 2024 in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. He is a core member of Emmanuel Music, and regularly appears in their ongoing Bach Cantata series. With Emmanuel he performed at BachFest Leipzig; has sung the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passions, and lead roles in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio and The Magic Flute, and Handel’s Ariodante.Blandy joins The Boston Camerata in their 70th anniversary season for A German Christmas: In Dulci Jubilo.
Phillip Bullock
Phillip K. Bullock, a native of Washington DC, has been featured in operas, recitals and concerts throughout the United States and Europe. He made his Camerata debut recently in We’ll Be There! Phillip had the pleasure of performing the role of Jake in Porgy & Bess in Dresden, and he recently made his debut with Atlanta Opera (Gounod’s Roméo & Juliette) and Cincinnati Opera (Puccini’s Tosca). Equally at home in gospel and pop music as well as classical music, Phillip is a proponent of new American works and performs in both productions and workshops celebrating fusions of these styles. Phillip will play the titular character in The Boston Camerata’s emblematic piece Daniel: A Medieval Masterpiece Revisited in January 2025.
Joel Cohen, Music Director Emeritus
Joel Cohen led the Boston Camerata from 1969 to 2008. He trained as a composer at Harvard University with Randall Thompson and spent two years in Paris under the tutelage of Nadia Boulanger. Among his many awards are the Edison Prize (Netherlands), the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France) and the Georges Longy Award (United States). His interest in oral traditions and folklore have informed many of his early music projects, recorded and live. Mr. Cohen’s work with Shaker music includes both extensive archival research, and active collaboration with the remaining Shaker community in Sabbathday Lake, Maine. He is the Music Director of the Camerata Mediterranea, an international, intercultural institute of musical exchanges, devoted to research, dialogue, and pedagogy involving the diverse musical civilizations of the Mediterranean basin, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim. Joel Cohen’s recent lecturing and research activities include presentations at University of Indiana, at the Baroque Music Festival of São Luís, Brazil, for the BBC and for French national radio, and at the Sorbonne, Paris.
Michael Collver
Mr. Collver is a founding member of Project Ars Nova (P.A.N.), with which he has concertized. His performances have also included solo work with Ensemble Sequentia of Cologne, the Empire Brass Quintet, Tafelmusik, Boston Baroque and the Boston Camerata. Many of these concerts have been augmented by recordings with Telarc International, Erato, Deutsche EMI and Harmonia Mundi. As an oratorio soloist he has performed with orchestras ranging from Aston Magna to the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
William Drancsak
William Drancsak, known by his friends and colleagues as Jimmy, is a violinist and violist living in the New York City area. Jimmy has performed internationally with ensembles such as The English Concert, Les Arts Florissants, Juilliard415, New York Baroque Incorporated, and is thrilled to add Boston Camerata to the list. Growing up as a fiddler in the Finger Lakes region of New York State, Jimmy draws the majority of his musical inspiration from the various fiddle styles and improvisation that first attracted him to music. He holds a Master of Historical Performance degree from The Juilliard School, as well as a Bachelor of Violin Performance and Music Education from SUNY Fredonia.
Libor Dudas
Regular Camerata collaborator Libor Dudas began his piano studies at the age of 8. A native of Croatia, his professional career began at age 14 when he gave his first organ recital in his hometown of Osijek. He studied organ and liturgical music at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna and holds an MM from the University of Notre Dame and a DMA in organ performance from New England Conservatory. He has also studied fortepiano with Peter Sykes and harpsichord with Darlene Catello and Edward Parmentier. He has served as Organist and Choir Director at Old North Church since 1998. He is active on the faculty of Longy School of Music of Bard College and Boston Conservatory.
William Farrell
William Farrell is a Boston-based musician who graduated with his Masters of Music in Early Music at the Longy School of Music of Bard College studying Baritone with Ryan Turner. William graduated with his Bachelors in Vocal Performance from the University of New Hampshire (UNH). He is a founding member of the professional choral ensemble Cappella Nova Mundi. He has sung with many ensembles around Boston including Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Canto Armonico, St. Paul’s Choir School, Nightingale Ensemble, Trinity Church, Church of the Redeemer – Chestnut Hill, Commonwealth Chorale and more.
William Hite
Tenor William Hite’s reputation as an expressive and engaging artist has led to appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, Odyssey Opera, Charlotte Symphony, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. He has performed and recorded extensively with many leading early music ensembles including the Boston Camerata and Ensemble Sequentia. As a soloist he has appeared with the Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Tafelmusik and Philharmonia Baroque and the Newbury Library Consort. His long tenure with the Boston Early Music Festival included the role of Bogda in Mattheson’s Boris Goudenow. His discography of over 40 recordings includes Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Aston Magna), Handel’s Acis and Galatea (Musica Angelica) and Messiah (The Apollo Chorus). He is Professor of Voice at UMass Amherst and coproducer of the UMass Bach Festival and Symposium.
Brian Kay
Trombonist Brian Kay has performed with Boston Camerata, Boston Baroque, Handel and Haydn Society, New York Collegium, Aston Magna, Renaissonics, and the New England Waites. On modern trombone, he has performed with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Boston Philharmonic, and as backup with Aretha Franklin. Brian maintains a teaching studio in Weston, Massachusetts, and is a former faculty member at the Longy School, and the New England Conservatory Preparatory Division. Originally from Urbana, Illinois, he holds degrees from New England Conservatory, and the University of Illinois. In his spare time, Brian enjoys the outdoors, and is an avid Salsa dancer.
Jesse Lepkoff
Jesse Lepkoff, baroque flute and recorder, holds a degree in early music performance from New England Conservatory, Boston. He received his graduate education at the Royal Conservatory in Holland with flutist Wilbert Hazelzet. His many performances include appearances with the Smithsonian Chambers Players, the Musicians of Swanne Alley and as a soloist with the National Symphony under the direction of Christopher Hogwood. He is a current member of the Arcadia Players. Mr. Lepkoff performs and records regularly with The Boston Camerata, has toured with them in the US, Europe, Israel and the Far East, and has recorded for American and European radios, as well as for the Erato, Fleur de Son, and Nonesuch labels. He has given lecture-concerts at the Smithsonian, New England Conservatory and Louisiana University, Lafayette. Mr. Lepkoff also performs and composes original songs in the Brazilian and Jazz Idioms and has recently recorded a CD of all original material
Carol Lewis
Carol Lewis has frequently demonstrated her musical virtuosity and versatility as a soloist in recitals in the United States and abroad. A former student of Jordi Savall, she has toured and recorded in the U.S. and abroad with Hespèrion, The Boston Camerata, Ensemble Chaconne and Capriccio Stravagante. Ms. Lewis has taught at Festival dei Saraceni (Pamparato, Italy), Milano Civica Scuola di Musica (Italy), NEC, Bunker Hill Community College, Amherst Early Music, Pinewoods Early Music Week, and the annual summer conclave of the Viola da Gamba Society of America, for which she is currently vice president of the New England chapter.
Tod Machover
Composer Tod Machover has been called “a musical visionary” by The New York Times. Muriel R. Cooper Professor of Music and Media at the MIT Media Lab, he is known for his boundary-breaking music and for inventing new music technologies for expanding performance virtuosity, inspiring creativity in young people, and promoting well-being and combating disease. He has collaborated numerous times with the Boston Camerata, including with Anne Azéma for his AI-enhanced opera VALIS, and with Joel Cohen on the Angels CD.
Soumaya MaRose
Soumaya MaRose is an award-winning international performer, teacher, and cultural ambassador based in New York and Boston. A member of the International Dance Council of UNESCO, she is the only dance artist to have been repeatedly invited to perform at the Boston Global Music Festival “CrashFest”, and has been honored to collaborate with Atlas Soul, Club Mediteranee, Salma Dance Company, Walid Zairi and Talween, The Boston Camerata, Moroccan Festival in Revere, and The Dance Complex. She was also a member of music ensemble “El Housna” in Belgium, and is more recently the creator, producer and director of the live multimedia tableau “Morocco Nights” in collaboration with the Institute for Global Arab Media and Democracy and Culture in Chicago, Artistic Director of “Ya Msafer” in collaboration with Center of Arabic Culture (CAC), “Madarej El Naghem” featuring George Maalouf music composition, “Moroccan Rhythm of Life” in New York City, and “Attaï Sharq – Thé à l’Oriental”, a cultural exchange forum. She has expanded Boston-based Moroccan and MENAT Region folk dance with Lionesses El Atlas. As a teacher, Soumaya has been invited locally and internationally to share her cultural heritages at universities, schools, and festivals. She combines her academic training in geography with her personal heritage and self-reflection to deepen her students understanding of dances from the Arabic-speaking world and the Amazigh heritage.
Emily Marvosh
American contralto Emily Marvosh has established a reputation as a singing actress with excellent musicianship on national and international stages. Recent solo appearances include the Handel + Haydn Society, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Charlotte Symphony, Huntsville Symphony Orchestra, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, and the Henry Purcell Society of Boston, as well as solo recitals in Arizona, Michigan, and Massachusetts. She belongs to Beyond Artists – a coalition of artists that donate a percentage of their concert feeds to organizations they care about – and supports Rosie’s Place and the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music through her performances. She holds degrees from Central Michigan University and Boston University. In addition to We’ll Be There!, Marvosh returns to The Boston Camerata in the 2024/2025 season for the revival of Borrowed Light.
MaKayla McDonald
Soprano MaKayla McDonald is an active performer of opera, art song, and new works who recently made her Camerata debut in We’ll Be There! Last Spring, MaKayla worked with the American Opera Project + NYU/Tisch for their Opera Lab. In June, she joined ChamberQUEER’s Pride Festival at National Sawdust. Most recently, MaKayla joined Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre as a guest artist singing a Juneteenth recital. MaKayla currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. She is an adjunct Lecturer for the Borough of Manhattan Community College Music and Art Department and a soprano in the Compostela Choir at St. James on Madison.
Jason McStoots
Jason McStoots has performed around the world and the US. Recent appearances include opera and solo performances at the Boston Early Music Festival, Connecticut Early Music Festival, Green Mountain Project, Emmanuel Music and the Cape Cod Symphony. He garnered critical accolades with his recent performances with the Cleveland based ensemble Les Délices. He has also appeared with such groups as Boston Lyric Opera, Pacific MusicWorks, The Boston Camerata, TENET, San Juan Symphony, Pablo Casals Festival, Tragicomedia, and the Tanglewood Music Center. He is a core member of Blue Heron and can be heard on recordings with them as well as Cut Circle. In addition, he has been featured on the Grammy-nominated recording of Lully’s Pysché and on the newly released discs of works of Charpentier and John Blow with the Boston Early Music Festival on the CPO label. McStoots is also a voice teacher and stage director and currently teaches at Brandeis University where he recently restarted the dormant opera workshop project.
Karim Nagi
A long time collaborator with The Boston Camerata, Karim Nagi is a native Egyptian immigrant to the USA, and a true crossover artist uniting the Arab tradition with the global contemporary world. He has release fourteen CDs, ranging from traditional Arab music to fusion and electronica. He has authored instructional videos for Arab percussive instruments and Arab dance styles. As a dance and drum teacher, Nagi has taught in dozens of festivals in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Cairo. He taught at the New England Conservatory of Music for five years, and has lectured and presented at Harvard, MIT, Yale, Bowdoin, Princeton, Stanford, Berea, William & Mary, Georgetown, Virginia Tech, University of Chicago, University of Georgia, and several community colleges. He has lectured internationally on Arts & Diversity at Kaoshiung University, Beijing University, and University San Francisco de Quito Ecuador. Nagi has been the beneficiary of two Doris Duke Grants for the Islamic Arts through Virginia Tech’s “Salaam” project and Young Audiences of New Jersey’s United We Create . He has just been re-elected for a second term to the board of directors for Chamber Music America. And, in September, he gave a TEDx Talk titled “The Tambourine, My Partner is Diplomacy & Disruption”, which can be seen on the official TED website. Nagi returns to Camerata in the 2024-2025 season for Daniel: A Medieval Masterpiece Revisited.
Jordan Weatherston Pitts
Tenor Jordan Weatherston Pitts made his principal artist debut as the queen Renata in Iain Bell and Mark Campbell’s world premiere of Stonewall with New York City Opera. He assumed prominent roles in The Boston Camerata’s Play of Daniel (2014–2020) and The Night’s Tale (2016–2020). He continues an active performance schedule of romantic and lyric repertoire. Recent roles include Roméo in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette with the Hawaii Opera Theatre, The Magician (Nika Magadoff) in Menotti’s The Consul with Opera Saratoga, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Achille in La Belle Hélène, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, Alfredo in La Traviata, Younger Thompson in Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, and MacDuff in Verdi’s Macbeth.
Salomé Sandoval
Multifaceted artist Salomé Sandoval, now going by SaSa, sings and accompanies herself with lutes, early and classical guitars, in multilingual, creative and innovative programs, ranging from Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque to 20th century repertoires. Her performances often include a combination of visual arts, dance, theater and music as a protagonist. Originally from Venezuela, SaSa resides in Boston, MA where she is completing a MM in Historical Performance at Longy School of Music at Bard College. She holds a GPD in Early Music, also from Longy, a MA from MTSU, and a BM from IUDEM, both in classical guitar. In addition to her appearances in masterclasses, radio shows, theater, movie soundtracks and television, SaSa is an award winner in several music competitions. She has sung and played in various ensembles and choirs in Venezuela and the US, teaches in Boston and has given masterclasses in classical guitar in NY, MN and Mexico. SaSa has collaborated in CD recordings with distinguished organizations and has two of her own. Her recent collaborations include Duke University, Boston Camerata, El Mundo and the Newberry Consort, as well as her own group El Fuego Early Music Ensemble.
Luke Scott
Described by the New York Times as “the robust-voiced baritone”, Luke Scott appeared in New York’s Broadway district in the critically acclaimed Figaro 90210 followed by Don Giovanni with Salt Marsh Opera, the grammy-nominated Trial at Rouen with Odyssey Opera, L’Elisir and Le Nozze di Figaro with Opera Naples, Rodgers and Hammerstein in concert and L’Elisir with Opera Theater of Connecticut, Soloist at the Oregon Bach Festival, Tosca with Long Island Lyric Opera, La Boheme at the Natchez Festival, Camelot with Indianapolis Opera, Daniel with The Boston Camerata, South Pacific with Norwalk Symphony, and Macbeth with HPSOB. Other appearances include Mississippi Opera, Maryland Symphony, the Caramoor Festival, Opera on the Avalon, Martina Arroyo Foundation, El Sistema in Venezuela, Opera Western Reserve, and Art Song Preservation Society of New York. Mr. Scott has received awards from the Martina Arroyo Foundation, Bel Canto Scholarship Foundation, Shreveport Opera, and the Gerda Lissner Foundation.
Peter Torpey
nth Art and director of Live and Immersive Arts at the University of Arizona, he collaborates with theater-makers, orchestras, museums, festivals, educational institutions, and other artists to create experiences that connect audiences and participants with stories and each other. By incorporating new technologies and techniques as part of his artistic palette, he explores novel modes of representing expression (Death and the Powers, 2010; Lilith, 2015; Fensadense, 2015) and presence in live performance (Remote Theatrical Immersion: Sleep No More, 2012; Powers Live, 2014; Ipomoea, 2017). Recent works include projection design for the world premiere opera productions Schoenberg in Hollywood (Boston Lyric Opera, 2018), If I Were You (Merola Opera, 2019), Overstory Overture (Sejong Soloists, 2023), and The Andrée Expedition (virtual reality, 2021). Torpey’s media, lighting, and interactive works have also appeared worldwide, including Chicago Opera Theater, Dallas Opera, Virginia Opera, Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Lincoln Center, 7 Stages Theater, FLUX Projects, Google, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Festival, MIT Media Lab, and CalIT2 IDEAS San Diego.
Björn Wennås
Björn Wennås is a dynamic guitarist, composer, arranger, and music director whose artistic reach spans continents and genres, from jazz clubs and rock venues to Mediterranean folk stages and chamber music halls. Björn studied at Berklee College of Music and Longy School of Music of Bard College, where he earned his Master of Music. Trav’ling Home! in Ludwigsburg, Germany this July marks his debut with The Boston Camerata. He is a founding member of the Mediterranean ensemble Zafarán, as well as a guitarist with the Irish folk group ISHNA. Björn has also served as Music Director, composer, and guitarist with Italian folk/world ensemble Newpoli. In addition to live performance and composition, Björn has contributed to film scoring, receiving international recognition.
Mara Winter
Mara Winter is a performer, composer, and photographer who spends her time exploring the infinite braid of the past and present. Her musical journey blends a profound personal artistic ethos with a deep commitment to technical fluency in historical flutes, spanning from the Middle Ages and Renaissance through the Classical and early-Romantic eras. Winter directs her Renaissance traverso consort, Phaedrus, based in Basel, Switzerland, and co-directs the experimental folk ensemble, The Fine Hand. With the Baroque and classical traverso, Winter has performed with orchestras across Switzerland, Germany, and the United States: J.S. Bach-Stiftung, La Scintilla (Zurich Opera), Il Gusto Barocco, Les Passions de L’Ame, Orchester le Phénix, Capriccio Barockorchester, and Pacific Musicworks, among others. In earlier repertoires, she is regularly featured with internationally recognized groups such as Sollazzo Ensemble, Cappella Pratensis, Ensemble Leones, Le Miroir de Musique, and Ensemble Peregrina. Since 2020, Winter has been a frequent guest instructor of Medieval transverse flute at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland. And, in the same year, Winter co-founded the boutique record label Discreet Editions together with composer and performer Clara de Asís. It fuses the realm of ancient music to that of the contemporary: experimental composition through collaborations, commissions, structured improvisation, and other, yet-to-be-named performance practices. In Camerata’s 2023/2024 season, Winter joined Camerata as the Guest Music Director for Celestial Visions of Medieval Britain, and returns in the 70th anniversary season for a performance at the Medieval Academy of America.
Tahanee Aluwihare
Dido and Aeneas: An Opera for Distanced Lovers and returned to the role in 2023. She made her debut with the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka at the age of seventeen and has since performed in Asia, Europe, and North America. In previous seasons, Ms. Aluwihare has performed with Tri-Cities Opera, Opera Memphis, Opera Idaho, Charlottesville Opera, City Lyric Opera, and Opera del West among others. Ms. Aluwihare earned her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College with concentrations in Music and Anthropology, and her M.M. in Vocal Performance from the Longy School of Music of Bard College.
Colin Balzer
Centering on the Baroque period, Canadian-born singer Colin Balzer’s repertoire ranges from the Medieval to the Modern: from the likes of Machaut and Monteverdi to Mozart and Mendelssohn. Colin has had the privilege of performing with period ensembles such as Les Musiciens du Louvre, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Freiburger Barockorchester, Bach Collegium Japan, Tafelmusik, Les Voix Baroques, Early Music Vancouver, and the Boston Early Music Festival where he has appeared in numerous recordings and productions, including the title role of Monteverdi’s Ullise. He will return to The Boston Camerata for the tour of Borrowed Light with the Tero Saarinen Company in Spring and Summer 2025.
Craig Juricka
Boston-based baritone Craig Juricka’s versatile performance career has brought him to concert, opera and musical theatre stages around the nation. He has been featured as an Apprentice Artist with Des Moines Metro Opera and sings regularly with The Boston Camerata and the choruses of Handel & Haydn Society, Odyssey Opera, Boston Baroque, and Emmanuel Music. As a Choral Scholar at Marsh Chapel, he has performed as a soloist in various Bach cantatas, large concert works, and new music. As an advocate for the pedagogy behind a versatile mechanism, Craig’s approach to singing is routed in his cross-trained background as a singer.
Liza Malamut
Liza Malamut appears as a trombonist, teaching artist, and presenter throughout the United States and abroad. She has performed with Boston Baroque, Tafelmusik, Opera Atelier, Opera Lafayette, the Handel & Haydn Society, Trinity Wall Street, Boston Camerata, Apollo’s Fire, Dark Horse Consort, Mercury Chamber Orchestra, Piffaro, and many other ensembles. Her playing can be heard on the Musica Omnia, Naxos, Hyperion, and George Blood Audio labels. A passionate teacher and researcher, her academic work was supported by an American Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the American Association of University Women. Liza holds degrees in trombone performance from the Eastman School of Music and Boston University, and she completed her doctoral work in historical performance at Boston University, where she studied with Greg Ingles. Liza is a founder and Co-Artistic Director of Incantare, an ensemble of violins and sackbuts specializing in music of lesser-known and marginalized populations in early modern Europe, and she has succeeded Ellen Hargis and David Douglass as Artistic Director of The Newberry Consort.
Eric Martin
Equally at home in classical and traditional music, violinist and violist Eric Martin brings joy, whimsy, and passion to every genre of music he encounters. As a classical violist, Eric has performed regularly with The Boston Camerata and numerous other chamber and symphonic ensembles across the northeast. As a traditional dance musician, Eric can be found playing for festivals, concerts, camps, balls and other dance events across the United States, Canada, and Europe with a variety of bands and ensembles. Eric holds performance degrees from Ithaca College and the University of Limerick, Ireland.
Allison Monroe
Allison Monroe performs on vielle, rebec, medieval harp, violin, viola, and sings with such ensembles as the Newberry Consort, Les Délices, Alkemie, Apollo’s Fire, Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, and the Washington Bach Consort. She directs the Collegium Musicum at Case Western Reserve University, from which she also holds a D.M.A. in Historical Performance Practice. Allison won Early Music America’s 2017 Barbara Thornton Memorial Scholarship. Her research interests include medieval song accompaniment, self-accompaniment, and early seventeenth-century violin bands. She is also a co-founder of Trobár, a small band of voices and instruments dedicated to bringing medieval music to modern audiences.
Ian Saunders
Virginia native Ian Saunders enjoys an exciting career as a sought-after bassist who has performed with major ensembles, including The Boston Camerata, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and The Sphinx Symphony. In 2017, Dr. Saunders won a prestigious diversity fellowship position with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where he studied with his mentor Owen Lee, the CSO’s principal bassist. Outside of the classical world, he has played in orchestras backing Bootsy Collins, Kansas, and hip-hop artist Thee Phantom. He can also be seen in the nationally televised special Cherish the Ladies: An Irish Homecoming, with the Irish supergroup Cherish the Ladies, which was nationally syndicated on PBS in 2013.
Mildred Walker
Mildred E. Walker is a vocalist, keyboardist, choir director, and music educator. A native of Boston, she is currently employed as an Elementary Music Educator in the Brockton Public Schools. Mildred is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth with a degree in Music with a concentration in Music Education. Mildred is also a principal soloist in the National Center for Afro-American Artist’s production of Langston Hughes’s Black Nativity as well as a member of the Boston Pops Gospel Choir, performing at Boston Symphony Hall as part of the Gospel Night at the Pops concert annually.
Hon. Milton />Wright
Milton Wright is a retired Judge of the Boston Municipal Court. He is a graduate of Morehouse College, where he was a member of the famed Morehouse College Glee Club, and of Boston University Law School. He also studied Arabic at Princeton University and Harvard University and voice with Donna Roll at Longy School of Music. He was a member of the New England Spiritual Ensemble and this is his thirty-sixth year in Boston’s Black Nativity where he now serves as Musical Director. He has recorded three albums, Friends and Buddies, Spaced, and Judgement Day. He has also written and produced a musical, Jobe The Musical, and has appeared throughout the U.S. and in Europe, including with the Landmarks Orchestra in Boston. He is also the co-founder of “The Butterfly Project” a music program for emerging young talent, that specializes in training youthful vocalists to sing, develop their instrumental, poetry and songwriting skills. He comes from a family of musicians, including his legendary GRAMMY winning sister, Betty Wright.