The orchestra
Elizabeth Brown (archlute) is a very active performer throughout the Pacific Northwest, giving an average of 50 concerts a year. Known for her musically passionate performances, she has given solo recitals and performed concertos throughout the United States and in Canada. She has been a featured soloist for the Seattle Bach Choir, the Northwest Chamber Chorus, and St. Mark’s Cathedral Associates. Also active as an ensemble musician, Elizabeth is a member of Baroque Northwest, La Lira and the Puget Sound Consort, and has appeared with numerous ensembles, including Seattle ProMusica, Contrafacta, and the City Cantábile Choir. She has also performed in several opera productions, as a lutenist/early guitarist in works by Monteverdi, Purcell, and Blow, and as the guitar soloist in Verdi’s Falstaff.
An enthusiastic advocate for the guitar and lute, Ms. Brown has given numerous outreach performances at schools, senior centers, and community centers for the Seattle Classic Guitar Society and the Early Music Guild. She is head of the Guitar and Lute program at Pacific Lutheran University, runs a private studio for children and adults, and has taught at Seattle Pacific University, Music Center of the Northwest, and at the Lute Society of America’s annual workshop.
Ms. Brown’s solo recording, La Folia de España: Dances for Guitar, features works for baroque, nineteenth century, and modern guitars. She is also featured as a lutenist on the recording Dolce Desio: The Birth of the Baroque in Italy, France and England, released by the early music trio La Lira (formerly Le Nuove Musiche). Ms. Brown graduated cum laude from the University of Washington with Bachelor of Arts and Music degrees in Guitar and Lute Performance under the direction of Steven Novacek. She has also had additional studies with early music specialists Paul O’Dette, Pat O’Brien, Stephen Stubbs, Margriet Tindemans, and Ronn McFarlane, as well as guitarists David Russell, Paul Galbraith, Ricardo Cobo, and Eliot Fisk.
Tekla Cunningham (violin—Seattle performances only), is a native of Seattle, WA and plays violin, viola and viola d’amore. In 2006 she founded the Whidbey Island Music Festival to share her love of chamber music and historically informed performance. She performs across the USA and in Europe with renowned early music groups including the American Bach Soloists, the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Musica Angelica in Los Angeles, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the San Francisco Bach Choir, and played at the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival and the Carmel Bach Festival. At home in the Northwest, Tekla performs with Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Gallery Concerts, and recently coached the UW orchestra in performances of Monteverdi’s Vespers. Tekla’s string quartet, the Novello Quartet, delights audiences in the Bay Area and beyond with period-instrument performances of music by Joseph Haydn and his contemporaries. She is also a member of La Monica, an ensemble dedicated to music of the 17th century whose most recent concert at the Bloomington Early Music Festival was described as “sizzling”. After studies in history, German literature, and music at Johns Hopkins University and Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, MD, Tekla continued her musical studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria, and then graduated with a master’s degree from the Conservatory of Music in San Francisco. She recently learned to play the viola d’amore and enjoys exploring its many strings and tunings.
Seattle-based harpist Maxine Eilander is regarded as ‘one of the world’s top specialists in Baroque harp’. She was born in The Netherlands and grew up in South Africa, where she earned her Bachelor of Music on the classical harp. Her special interest in early music led her to further study at the Hochschule für Kunste in Bremen, Germany, where she completed her post-graduate diploma in early harps and continuo practice.
Maxine plays on a range of specialised early harps: the Italian arpa doppia, the Spanish cross-strung harp, the German ‘Davidsharfe’, the Welsh triple harp for which Handel wrote his harp concerto, and the classical single action pedal harp.
Since then she has appeared as a soloist with many leading ensembles including Teatro Lirico, Tragicomedia, Tafelmusik, The Toronto Consort, Les Voix Humaines, and Seattle Baroque. She has appeared around the world, playing continuo in productions of various baroque operas and chamber music. Maxine is managing director and harp instructor for the Seattle Academy of Baroque Opera, which she co founded with Stephen Stubbs, the organization’s Artistic Director.
There is an increasing list of recordings featuring her as a soloist. She has just completed recording Handel’s Harp, to be released on ATMA in 2009, with all of Handel’s obligato music written for the harp, including his famous harp concerto, which she has also recorded with Tafelmusik (A Baroque Feast, Analekta, 2002). The 2008 release of William Lawes’ Harp Consorts on ATMA has already garnered much favorable press, including five stars from Goldberg Magazine. Other recordings include: Sonata al Pizzico, a recording of Italian music for harp and baroque guitar with duo partner Stephen Stubbs (ATMA 2004), and Teatro Lirico released on the ECM label in 2006, Ay que si, Spanish 17th century music with Les Voix Humaines (ATMA, 2002), Scarlatti’s oratorio Hagar and Ishmael, with Seattle Baroque (Centaur, 2003), and Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine, with Tragicomedia (ATMA, 2002), and 2005 Grammy nominated Conradi’s Ariadne for the Boston Early Music Festival (CPO, 2005).
Violinist Ingrid Matthews, Music Director of Seattle Baroque Orchestra, is well established as one of today’s most respected exponents of her instrument. She won first prize in the prestigious Erwin Bodky International Competition for Early Music in 1989, and in 1990 joined Toronto’s Tafelmusik, with whom she performed extensively on three continents, appearing in venues such as the Proms and the Barbican Center of London, the Stuttgart Festival, the Utrecht Festival, and the Mostly Mozart Festival of New York. Matthews also worked with many other leading North American period-instrument ensembles, including Philharmonia Baroque of San Francisco, Joshua Rifkin’s Bach Ensemble of New York, and the American Bach Soloists of San Francisco, before founding the Seattle Baroque Orchestra in 1994 with harpsichordist Byron Schenkman. In addition to her work in Seattle, she has served as concertmaster for the New York Collegium under Andrew Parrott and held the same position for the prestigious Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra. Ingrid Matthews is a founding member of the chamber ensemble La Luna, with whom she has appeared on numerous early-music and university series as well as venues such as the New York Frick Collection and Woodstock Concerts. She was a frequent recitalist with harpsichordist Byron Schenkman, and has appeared as a guest director and soloist with groups throughout North America. Among the most-recorded baroque violinists, Matthews has won international critical acclaim for a discography which ranges from the earliest solo violin repertoire through the great Sonatas and Partitas of J.S. Bach. Of the latter recording, the critic for American Record Guide writes “this superb recording is my top recommendation for this music… on either modern or period instruments.” Ingrid Matthews has served on the faculties of the University of Toronto, the University of Washington, Indiana University, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, the International Baroque Institute at Longy and Amherst Early Music. She is a graduate of Indiana University, where she studied with Josef Gingold and Stanley Ritchie.
David Morris (cello and lirone) is a member of Musica Pacifica, The King’s Noyse, The NY State Early Music Association and the Sex Chordae Consort of Viols, and has performed with Tafelmusik, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, the Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle Baroque Orchestras, Musica Angelica and the Mark Morris Dance Company. He was the founder and musical director of the Bay Area baroque opera ensemble Teatro Bacchino, and has produced operas for the Berkeley Early Music Festival and the San Francisco Early Music Society series. Mr. Morris received his M.A. in Music from U.C. Berkeley, and has been a guest instructor in early music performance-practice at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Mills College and Oberlin College. He has recorded for Harmonia Mundi, New Albion, Dorian and New World Records, NPR and New Line Cinema.
Neli Nikolaeva (violin—San Francisco performances only) moved to Los Angeles alone at the age of 14 from her native Bulgaria. Since then she has balanced an active performing career with the demands of school. Currently, she is pursuing a Doctorate of Music at the University of Southern California. Recent highlights of Miss Nikolaeva’s career include a concert at the Crystal Cathedral in Orange County, California (broadcast to 23 countries worldwide) and performances of violin concertos with orchestra by Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Vieuxtemps, Bruch, Bach and Mozart as well as Ravel’s Tzigane and Symphony Espagnole by Lalo. Recent solo recitals in the United States, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria have been received to universal acclaim.
Miss Nikolaeva began violin studies at age five after watching her self-taught father play the violin with the nomadic gypsies in the street cafes and restaurants of Bulgaria. She left home to attend Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica, California on full scholarship and has studied with Margaret Batjer, Robert Lipsett, Alexander Treger, Laura Schmieder in addition to Olesander Semchuk in Venice, Pavel Vernikov in Florence, Italy and Yoseph Kruner in Munich, Germany. In addition to Grand Prize in the Bulgarian National Competition and Silver at the Vladigerov Competition in Eastern Europe, Miss Nikolaeva has won the International Youth Competition for Rotary International, Herbert Zipper Instrumental Excellence Award, Palisades Symphony Young Artists Competition, ASTA (American String Teachers Association) Competition and Bravo Bravissimo International Competition. She has also been the recipient of many honors including the Messy Holberg, Westside Junior Philharmonic Committee and the Lois Lion Scholarships and been on full scholarship at the University of Southern California since 2000. She has played in Master Class for Dmitry Sitkovetzky, Michael Frischenschlager, Ivry Gitles, Ruggiero Ricci, Ifrah Neaman and most recently for conductor Harry Bicket.
Miss Nikolaeva also has a passionate interest in historical performance practice and has pursued studies of baroque violin with master pedagogue Elizabeth Blumenstock and engaged in collaborations with established period players such as Stephen Stubbs, Ingrid Mathews, Julie Andrijeski, Adam Gilbert and members of La Monica. She is a member of Musica Angelica (Los Angeles), Bach Collegium of San Diego and Coprario Consort (Los Angeles) and has performed with the Seattle Academy of Baroque Opera.
Stephen Stubbs (guitar and chitarrone), born 1951 in Seattle, has been engaged in music-making since early childhood. Parallel interests in new and pre-romantic music led him to take a degree in composition at University and to study the lute and harpsichord. Further years of study in Holland and England preceded his professional debut as lutenist at the Wigmore Hall, London in 1976. From 1980 to 2006 he lived in North Germany as professor for lute and performance practices at the Hochschule für Künste, Bremen.
With his direction of Stefano Landi’s La Morte d’Orfeo at the 1987 Bruges festival, he began his career as opera director and simultaneously founded the ensemble TRAGICOMEDIA which has since recorded over 20 CDs and completed tours of Europe, North America and Japan. Stubbs has been invited to direct opera productions in Europe, the US, Canada and Scandinavia, including Monteverdi’s L'Orfeo at the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam 1997–8 to be revived in 2007. Since 1997 he has co-directed the bi-annual Boston Early Music Festival opera. The BEMF recording of Conradi’s Ariadne was nominated for a Grammy this year.
Stephen Stubbs created the ensemble Teatro Lirico, who made their recording debut in 1996 with the CD Love and Death in Venice. A live recording of Antonio Sartorio’s Orfeo of 1672 for Vanguard Classics was awarded the Cini Prize for best opera recording of 1999. Teatro Lirico now records for ECM records.
Stubbs’ solo lute recordings include the music of J.S. Bach, S.L. Weiss, David Kellner and the Belgian lutenist Jaques St. Luc. With baroque harpist Maxine Eilander he has recorded Sonate al Pizzico, released on ATMA in 2004. Since the inception of the Dowland Project on ECM he has played on all the group’s recordings.
Margriet Tindemans (viola da gamba) has performed and taught early music on four continents. She has been called: “a rare combination of charismatic performing and inspiring teaching, a scholar with a profound knowledge of music, poetry and art of the Middle Ages—a national treasure.” Tindemans was a founding member of the German ensemble Sequentia and the Huelgas Ensemble of Belgium. As a player of early stringed instruments, such as viola da gamba, baroque and Renaissance viola, medieval fiddle, rebec, and harp, she performs and records as a soloist and with Medieval Strings, the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, the Folger Consort, Gallery Players and the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra. She was a member of The King’s Noyse and is a frequently invited guest with the Newberry Consort, Philharmonia, Tragicomedia, The Harp Consort, and other leading early music ensembles. She directs the Medieval Women’s Choir, a Seattle-based choir that explores and performs medieval music written by and for women. For the Seattle Early Music Guild she has directed a bi-annual Medieval Workshop since 1990, attracting students from all over North America and Europe, and, in 1998 the Hildegard von Bingen Festival. In alternate years she leads a musical pilgrimage tour through Northern Spain, following the famous Camino de Santiago.