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(CA) Toronto Bach Consort

"The Bach Consort performs the music of J.S. Bach, exploring the riches of his more than 200 secular and religious cantatas. Formed in 1992 by bass player Timothy Dawson and baritone Gordon McLeod, The Bach Consort includes a core of members from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Tafelmusik, as well as some of Canada's most sought-after singers and instrumentalists. Soprano Monica Whicher, baritone Russell Braun, alto Elizabeth Turnbull; tenors Michael Shade and Benjamin Butterfield; baritones Brett Polegato and Kevin MacMillan---have appeared with the Canadian Opera Company, with most Canadian Orchestras, and with major opera companies in North America and Europe.

These artists have lent the gift of Bach's music, performing for community groups such as Camphill Village Ontario and L'Arche--- communities for adults with disabilities---and Settlement House Music School. As well, the ensemble has helped in the fundraising activities of Out of the Cold and Share the Warmth. Their concerts provided these organizations with a musical forum from which they reached out to the public. To that end, the group has recorded two compact discs in aid of charity: The Bach Consort at Camphill and The Bach Consort at L'Arche. In designing its programme, The Bach Consort chooses music to highlight the performers in a variety of solo and ensemble works. This follows the Baroque tradition of creating an obbligato or instrumental solo, which interweaves with the vocal line. The ensemble often performs without a conductor, reaching a musical consensus during rehearsals prior to their concerts. Once this artistic agreement has been forged, The Bach Consort is ready to share the depth and joy of Bach's music with its generous audience.

Timothy Dawson, Founder
Timothy is a member of the string bass section of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He began his studies in Edmonton with Peter Marck, who is now Co-Principal Bass of the Israel Philharmonic. Timothy continued his education at the University of Toronto with Tom Monahan (then Principal Bass of the TSO). He graduated in the Spring of 1979 and started with the TSO thereafter. Since joining the orchestra, Tim has been actively involved in organizing concerts. Two groups have grown out of this love of chamber music; The Bach Consort and BASStiality." Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Category: Academies/Academia/Early Music Study/Institutions

Added on: Feb 20, 2009 | Hits: 869

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(IR) Ray Sloan, Irish Uilleann Pipes & Scottish Smallpipes

" Ray Sloan vividly remembers the day he first heard bagpipes other than the ubiquitous Great Highland Bagpipes. It was in 1964 as an 11 year old at school in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne when his Art Teacher emerged from the store room strapped in to an instrument driven by a flapping arm attached to bellows, that instrument was the Northumbrian Smallpipe. He remembers being absolutely smitten by the sound of the pipes at a time when the Beatles and Rolling Stones were the preferred sound of his generation, little did he know that 16 years later history would repeat itself when Ray himself became an Art Teacher and Piper/Pipemaker. That experience as a young boy never left Ray but it was not until as a young man of 24 that he was financially able to achieve his dream and buy a set of pipes.

It was as a fine maker of Northumbrian Smallpipes that Ray first established himself as a Pipemaker of International repute, but what really changed his life further was his introduction to the traditional music of Ireland played by the likes of ‘The Bothy Band’, ‘Planxty’ and ‘The Chieftains’, more specifically the wonderful and compelling sound of the Uilleann Pipes. After 10 years or so experience in making Smallpipes he embarked upon the next stage of his journey as a Pipemaker and started to make the Irish Uilleann Pipes eventually choosing to make these in preference to anything else.

Ray gave up Teaching to become a full-time professional Pipemaker in 1988 and to this day continues to develop his style and design in pursuit of perfection. The importance of his experience and training in Art & Design cannot be underestimated when it comes to making Pipes as his visual skills and attention to detail and design shine through in every aspect of his work. While being uniquely his own the design of his Uilleann Pipes is eclectic and broadly based upon the traditions and styles set by the old masters such as Coyne, kenna, Rowsome and Reid. Ray approaches each set of pipes he makes as completely individual and different in some small way to the previous, which means that you as a client will receive a set of Pipes hand-made for you personally.

Ray currently lives in SW France and is preparing to move to the West of Ireland this year – 2008. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Category: Builders/Restorers/Suppliers / Wind Instruments

Added on: May 04, 2008 | Hits: 845

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(UK) Mahan Esfahani, Harpsichordist

“Praised by The Times as ‘exceptionally gifted’ and by Early Music Today for his ‘sensitivity and vibrance,’ the Iranian-born Mahan Esfahani (b. 1984) is quickly establishing himself as the leading concert harpsichordist of his generation. He was the first harpsichordist to be named a BBC New Generation Artist and to be awarded a fellowship prize by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. Recent highlights have included performances of of Kalabis’ Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra (1975) with the BBC Concert Orchestra, Martinu’s Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra (1935) with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Jiri Belohlavek, and Poulenc’s Concert Champetre (1928) with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Last season, he also gave his solo debut at the Wigmore Hall (broadcast on BBC Radio 3) – about which the Daily Telegraph exclaimed ”the harpsichord comes out of hiding…magnificent” – and appeared at the City of London and York Early Music Festivals. In addition, his recording of the Poulenc concert was selected as a CD of the month for the May 2010 issue of BBC Music Magazine, and he has been featured as a “Hot Property” by Classic FM magazine.

Further highlights of the upcoming season include a May 2011 appearance at the Wigmore Hall with the countertenor James Bowman, and directing the Manchester Camerata, the Arion Baroque Orchestra (Montreal), and The English Concert at the 2011 Lufthansa Festival. Further afield, he will return to the United States for solo recitals and make his concerto debut in the Far East with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra in March 2011.

As a soloist and guest director Esfahani has appeared with The English Concert, the Manchester Camerata, and the Seattle Baroque Orchestra; His series and festival appearances include the BBC Proms, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, the Goettingen Handel Festival, the Settimana Mozart of Milan, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the San Francisco Early Music Society.

Esfahani studied as a President’s Scholar at Stanford University where his principal mentor was the musicologist George Houle; he went on to pursue his performance studies under the supervision of the Australian harpsichordist Peter Watchorn (Boston) and the Italian organist Lorenzo Ghielmi (Milan) before settling in the United Kingdom in as Artist-in-Residence at New College, Oxford. In the autumn of 2010 he was further elected an honourary member of Keble College, Oxford.”

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Category: Ensembles/Performers/Associations/Societies / Keyboards

Added on: Nov 25, 2011 | Hits: 833

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(US) Rebecca Pechefsky, Harpsichordist

"Well known in the New York area, Rebecca Pechefsky has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, and the eighteenth-century Morris-Jumel Mansion, where she is co-director of the early-music series Music at
Morris-Jumel. Outside New York she has been heard at the Boston Early Music Festival and in the concert series of the San Diego Harpsichord Society; the Harpsichord Center (Pasadena and Brentwood, California); the Miami Bach Society; the Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; and the Beeville Concert Association in Beeville, Texas.

A frequent performer at the American Festival of Microtonal Music, she can be heard on its recent compact discs Early and Odysseus (by Johnny Reinhard). For Quill Classics she has recorded a recital of works by Brunnemüller, Bach, and La Guerre
(QC 1001), the complete harpsichord music of François d’Agincour (QC 1002 and 1004), and Bach and His Circle (QC 1006). With Andrew Bolotowsky she has recorded sonatas by Johann Ludwig Krebs for Baroque flute and harpsichord (QC
1003) and flute works by J. S. Bach (also with cellist David Bakamjian; QC 1008, forthcoming). With Brooklyn Baroque, of which she is a founding member (with Bolotowsky and Bakamjian), she can be heard on Northern Lights (QC 1005), a
program of German Baroque works, and The Pleasures of the French (QC 1007), a recital of eighteenth-century French works. (For more information on Brooklyn Baroque, click on the button to the left.) Her recording of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, was released in May 2009. Her recordings have been played across the United States on NPR stations, and Bach and His Circle won the 2009 Just Plain Folks Music Award for best Classical Solo Album.

Also committed to new music, Ms. Pechefsky has premiered works by Mary Inwood, Graham Lynch, Frank J. Oteri, Louis Pelosi, Johnny Reinhard, and Ben Yarmolinsky. In March, she gave the world premiere of Graham Lynch’s prizewinning Petenera at the Aliénor Competition in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Currently organist at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Glendale, Queens, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Erik Ryding, with whom she has coauthored Bruno Walter: A World
Elsewhere, winner of an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. ...“

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Category: Ensembles/Performers/Associations/Societies / Keyboards

Added on: Jun 17, 2005 | Hits: 830

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(DE) Kai Wessel, Countertenor

“The Countertenor Kai Wessel was born in Hamburg and studied music theory (Prof.R.Ploeger), composition (Prof.Dr.F.Döhl), and voice (Prof.U.v.Garczynski, concert examination passed with honours) at the Lübeck Academy of Music. During his Lübeck years Wessel was also an external student in the field of baroque performance practice at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (René Jacobs).

Wessel received numerous prizes between 1984 and 1990, including the special prize of the German Theater Society for the best interpretation of a contemporary work (Berlin, 1988) and a prize at the Musica Antiqua Competition of the Flanders Festival in Bruges. He received fellowships from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and the DAAD (studying under Peter Kooj in Hilversum/Holland). Wessel has served as an assistant to René Jacobs in the production of operas by P.A.Cesti, F.Cavalli and C.W.Gluck for the International Festival Week of Early Music in Innsbruck, for the WDR Radio, and at the Hamburg State Opera.

As one of the leading countertenors Wessel is invited to music festivals all over the world (Paris, Madrid, Vienna, Schwetzingen, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Tokyo, San Francisco, a.o.) and to numerous opera houses (Freiburg, Basel, St.Gallen, Barcelona, Nice, Berlin a.o.) where he took part in stage-productions by Herbert Wernicke (in Theodora and Giulio Cesare by G.F.Handel, Aus Deutschland by Mauricio Kagel, Wie liegt die Stadt so wüste with the music by H.Schütz/M.Weckmann and Actus tragicus with the music by J.S.Bach), Joachim Schlömer (as Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice by Chr.W.Gluck), Claus Guth (in Schwarzerde by Klaus Huber), Peter Oskarson (in Luci mie traditrici by Salvatore Sciarrino), Gilbert Déflo (in Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi), John Dew (in Hippolyte et Aricie by Jean Philippe Rameau) a.o. He has been involved in performances, radio broadcasts, amore than sixty recordings under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe, William Christie, Jordi Savall, Gustav Leonhard, Ton Koopman, Michael Schneider, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Martin Haselböck, Reinhard Goebel, Konrad Junghänel, Michael Hofstetter, Nicholas McGegan, Sigiswald Kuijken, Michel Corboz, Hans-Werner Henze, Arturo Tamayo, Hermann Max, and others.

Kai Wessel is teaching voice and baroque performance practice at the Superiour Highschool of Music Cologne/Germany, and regularly giving summer-classes in Germany and Austria. “

Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Category: Ensembles/Performers/Associations/Societies / Voice

Added on: May 09, 2009 | Hits: 820

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(BE) Ann Fierens, Harpist

"When harpist Ann Fierens completed her training at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Utrecht, she was convinced that she should continue her orchestral career. She commenced her continuing education with the iWhen harpist Ann Fierens completed her training at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Utrecht, she was convinced that she should continue her orchestral career. She commenced her continuing education with the intention to follow the same road and to discover the possibilities within the music scene in Belgium. She was given the opportunity to work with Dick van der Harst in an Oxalys production and het Muziek Lod and she played works by Debussy, Ravel, Glière and Fontyn as a soloist accompanied by an orchestra.

Her teacher Erika Waardenburg urged her to dedicate herself to the repertory from the classical period. She soon discovered that the eighteenth century represented a fascinating episode in harp history: the single action pedal harp was invented and soon entered a glorious period when it was introduced to the French court and the Concert Sprituel.

When Ann first met ‘her’ Erard, it was love at first sight. Fascinated by the rich sound of the instrument, she dived into libraries looking for old methods and writings which would teach her how to play and look after her instrument in the best way. The cooperation continued to improve and Ann developed a passion for music, musicians and instruments dating from the 18th and the early 19th century. ntention to follow the same road and to discover the possibilities within the music scene in Belgium. She was given the opportunity to work with Dick van der Harst in an Oxalys production and het Muziek Lod and she played works by Debussy, Ravel, Glière and Fontyn as a soloist accompanied by an orchestra. Her teacher Erika Waardenburg urged her to dedicate herself to the repertory from the classical period. She soon discovered that the eighteenth century represented a fascinating episode in harp history: the single action pedal harp was invented and soon entered a glorious period when it was introduced to the French court and the Concert Sprituel. When Ann first met ‘her’ Erard, it was love at first sight. Fascinated by the rich sound of the instrument, she dived into libraries looking for old methods and writings which would teach her how to play and look after her instrument in the best way. The cooperation continued to improve and Ann developed a passion for music, musicians and instruments dating from the 18th and the early 19th century. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Category: Ensembles/Performers/Associations/Societies / Strings

Added on: Apr 18, 2008 | Hits: 775

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(US) Mark Kroll, Harpsichordist, Fortepianist

"Mark Kroll has been acclaimed as one of the world's leading harpsichordists and fortepianists. During a career spanning more than three decades, he has performed throughout North and South America, Europe and the Middle East, winning critical praise for his expressive playing and virtuosity.

Mark Kroll's concert tours have included appearances as the official guest of the city of Barcelona, as featured soloist in Germany's Regensburg Early Music Festival, France's Festival Ambronay, Lisbon's Gulbenkian Foundation, Rome's Conservatorio St. Caecilia and Associazione Musicale Romana, Poland's Dni Bachowski, Slovenijas's Radovljica Festival and, in this country, the Aston Magna, Tanglewood, Saratoga, Northwest Bach, and Mostly Mozart Festivals. He has been the first American harpsichordist to appear in numerous countries, including Abu Dhabi and Dubai of the United Arab Emirates. His recent tours to Israel included concerts, lectures and masterclasses in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Kroll has appeared as concerto soloist with some of the world's major orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, the Belgrade Chamber Orchestra and I Solisti di Zagreb.

Kroll's extensive list of recordings includes solo harpsichord works of J.S. Bach, Handel, D. Scarlatti, F. Couperin, Duphly and Balbastre; the complete sonatas for violin and harpsichord and for flute and harpsichord of J.S. Bach; violin sonatas of C.P.E. Bach and S. LeDuc; Schubert's three Sonatinas for fortepiano and violin; a world-premiere recording of Mozart's "Haffner" and "Linz" symphonies as transcribed by J. N. Hummel for fortepiano and instruments; Biber's Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord; and two CDs of contemporary American harpsichord music. He has made numerous radio and TV appearances, including Radio Nacional Espaqa, Radio Yugoslavia, Radio Catalunya, National Public Radio, Westdeutscherrundfunk Köln, Mitteldeutscherrundfunk, Bayerische Rundfunk, France Musique, the B.B.C., the C.B.C., and Radio Smithsonian.

A noted authority on performance practice and period instruments, Kroll has contributed to scholarly publications and written articles on a wide range of topics for general readership magazines and journals. These include chapters on French harpsichord music; 17th-century performance practice; the piano techniques of Beethoven and his contemporaries; and two editions of Hummel’s transcriptions of opera overtures and Mozart's symphonies. Kroll has recently published three books: Playing the Harpsichord Expressively (Scarecrow Press); The Beethoven Violin Sonatas (co-edited with Lewis Lockwood, University of Illinois Press); and Johann Nepomuk Hummel: A Musician and His World (Scarecrow Press). " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

Category: Ensembles/Performers/Associations/Societies / Keyboards

Added on: Mar 24, 2008 | Hits: 726

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(UK) Brassware for Early Keyboard Instruments

"I have been involved with making, restoring and repairing harpsichords, clavichords, virginals, spinets and early pianos for most of my working life, and the vast majority of my customers for brassware know the funny world we inhabit very well. I realise however that a website will inevitably reach others, so a few words of explanation might be appropriate. Harpsichord family instruments like pianos have large lids although not I hope quite so massive. The lids need to be securely fastened but also must be readily removed....for example when a harpsichord is used with a baroque orchestra the lid open would hide players and the music they make. The 'strap' hinges therefore are mostly fitted to the top surface of the lid and fasten to the spine, the pivot being below the lid; the different strap hinges have varying depths for the 'return' and there are fixing holes for the return to the edge of the lid as well as those on the top; these are fitted with a loose pin; some however have no return and are showing on the inside of the lid when it is open. Some of either type are made with a fixed pin and the lid slides off to the tail to remove it. The 'flap' hinges are meant for the joint between main lid and the front 'flap', which exposes the keys and the wrestplank, and are mostly fitted to raised battens on the top surfaces, angled so that the flap opens rather more than parallel to the main lid. Here the important dimension is the open width, since they have to fit onto the battens and not stick out. Locks are either of the 'lock & hasp' variety, or fitted into the top outside edge of the casework, either being very visible and therefore decorative. I'm sure there are many more ways of using any of these decorative hinges than I've thought of.....This is basically a one-man business; I don't pour the metal but I do all else, so any hinge could be given a loose pin if needed; or left with an unpolished but slightly rippled finish from a blast cabinet and glass bead, or even if you have the right object, cast in bronze or even silver (or possibly aluminium although we haven't tried this). The foundry is very small too so we have some flexibility. "

Visit website for more information and pricing of parts. (ed.)

Tags: David Law

Category: Builders/Restorers/Suppliers / Keyboard Instruments

Added on: Feb 02, 2008 | Hits: 721

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