Viola da Gamba Society of America

Martha Bishop is Artist Affiliate in viola da gamba at Emory University. She was the longtime VdGSA Music Director and currently chairs the Traynor Competition of New Music. She performs with New Trinity Baroque (violone) and is an active cellist. She has a viol consort, boasting six regular members, which has met weekly for over forty years in Atlanta. It is for this group that Martha has written many compositions and created the VdGSA website’s barless editions. Martha also composes for many types of modern chamber ensembles, and her solo and ensemble viol music is published by PRB Productions. Two of her viol compositions are recorded by Hille Perl on the Sony label.

Sarah Cunningham: I started playing consorts with my family when I was twelve, never dreaming that I would become a professional. In the Boston area, I studied with Gian Lyman Silbiger and Marleen Montgomery, and instantly knew this was how I must spend my life. Later I went to the Netherlands to work with Wieland Kuijken, then Boston, London, and to Ireland where I co-founded Trio Sonnerie. I’ve performed and recorded with Fretwork, the Dowland Consort, Phantasm, Les Filles de Sainte-Colombe, as well as other groups. My solo double CD, Play This Passionate, is still a favorite around the world. In 2009 I moved back to the US to help my parents and began teaching viol at the Historical Performance program at the Juilliard School. My teaching helps develop a flexible technique that can express all the characters, moods, and stories that the music has to offer.

Amy Domingues performs regularly on the cello, viola da gamba, and vielle. She has a master’s degree in Historical Performance from Peabody Conservatory and has performed in masterclasses for Wieland Kuijken, Paolo Pandolfo, and Philippe Pierlot. Amy has performed with groups as varied as the Valencia Baryton Project, The Folger Consort, Hesperus, and the Washington Bach Consort. She is a founding member of Sonnambula, and the experimental duo Domingues & Kane. Amy is a recipient of an Arts and Humanities Fellowship Grant from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, a Peabody Career Development Grant, and a VdGSA Grant-in-Aid. Ms. Domingues has served on faculty at the Madison Early Music Festival and the VdGSA Conclave, maintains a private viol and cello studio, and has worked as a session cellist. She appears on over 70 albums, and resides in Washington, DC with her husband and two cats.

Wendy Gillespie was inexplicably attracted to polyphony before she knew the word and has played the viola da gamba for more than 50 years. She has performed on five continents, mostly as a founding member of the viol consort Fretwork and long-time member of Phantasm, but also as a bass viol soloist, and not least as a happy continuo player, more recently specializing in renaissance viols with the consort Nota Bene. Wendy received Early Music America’s Thomas Binkley Award in 2011 and the Wellesley College Alumnae Achievement Award in 2012. In the best of times, she is a Circuit Rider and teacher at loads of workshops all over the place. In 2017, after 32 years on the faculty of Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, Gillespie graduated to Professor Emeritus, very grateful to be able to learn more about herself, her connection to the planet, life, the universe, and everything.

Patricia Halverson is a founding member of the Pittsburgh-based ensemble Chatham Baroque. With Chatham Baroque she has performed across the United States and in Canada, Mexico, and Latin America. Halverson holds a doctoral degree in Early Music Performance Practice from Stanford University and, while at Stanford, studied viol with Martha McGaughey. Following the completion of her DMA, she continued studies on viol at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague. Halverson has served as faculty at workshops focusing on early winds and viol including the Viola da Gamba Society of America’s annual Conclave, Viol Sphere 2, the Mideast Early Music Workshop, and the Madison Early Music Festival.

Jane Hershey studied at the Longy School of Music with Gian Silbiger and at The Hague Conservatory with Wieland Kuijken. Beginning her career as a performer with the Boston Camerata, she has gone on to perform with many early music groups such as Hesperus, and Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, and in festivals such as Aston Magna and Amherst Early Music. She currently performs with Arcadia Viols, which is a frequent guest at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. She is an avid teacher, as the director of the Tufts University Early Music Ensemble, and on the faculties of the Powers Music School and Longy School of Music of Bard College.

William Hunt is a founding member of the viol consort Fretwork and was a member of the ensemble London Baroque. He has played viol and violone with leading period instrument ensembles in the UK, including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Taverner Consort and principal violone with the Dunedin Consort. He held teaching posts at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal College of Music, and has directed workshops both in the UK and in Europe. In 1989 he launched Fretwork Editions, a publisher of viol-related music. In 2017 he embarked on doctoral research at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire into the performance of the pre-Restoration consort anthem and organized a series of recordings under the title “In Chains of Gold,” of which he is artistic director. He has released a first complete recording of the consort anthems of Orlando Gibbons and an anthology of anthems by William Byrd and his contemporaries.

Brady Lanier performs on viola da gamba and Baroque cello with The Governor’s Music, Colonial Williamsburg’s resident Baroque chamber ensemble. He is a Doctoral candidate in viola da gamba performance at Indiana University, studying with Wendy Gillespie and Joanna Blendulf. A founding member of Quaver Viol Consort, he has performed around the country with the Houston Symphony, Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Houston Bach Society, the Princeton Festival, Ars Lyrica Houston, and Musikanten Montana. He has taught at many summer workshops, including the Viola da Gamba Society of America’s Conclave, Music on the Mountain, and the Texas Toot. Mr. Lanier is also in demand as an arranger and composer, with works performed by the Houston Symphony and the United States Air Force Orchestra, and three original works performed at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Lanier holds a BA from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and an MM from Indiana University.

Lawrence Lipnik performs and records with many acclaimed early music ensembles and is a founding member of the viol consort Parthenia and vocal ensemble Lionheart. His busy teaching schedule has included instruction at Wesleyan University, collegium director at Amherst Early Music, national and international festivals including the Benslow Music Trust in the UK, co-director of the Viol Sphere 2 in Arizona, Viols West Workshop, and Road Scholar National Early Music Workshop in California. Recent performances include concerts with lutenist Paul O’Dette of Dowland’s complete Lachrimae at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, concerts at the Venice Biennale and Berkeley Festival, appearances with the Venice Baroque Orchestra, Folger Consort, ARTEK, as well as early opera residencies at Carnegie Mellon University. He has served on the national and local boards of the VdGSA and is a contributor to The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Contemporary Dramatists, and The Cambridge Guide to the Worlds of Shakespeare.

Loren Ludwig is a viol player and music researcher based in Baltimore, MD. A few current research/performance projects include the modern premiere recording with Science Ficta of viola da gamba quartets by Ottorino Respighi and Henri Casadesus composed for the Société des Instruments Anciens (now out on New Focus Recordings), a recording of the madrigal fantasias by John Coprario with LeStrange Viols (expected July 2023), and ongoing research on New England viols from the decades following the American Revolution. Loren is a co-founder of LeStrange Viols and contemporary/experimental music ensemble Science Ficta and is a founding member of the seventeenth-century string band ACRONYM.

Martha McGaughey, viola da gamba, studied with Jordi Savall and with Wieland Kuijken. She is a founding member of the New York-based Empire Viols, which was in residence at Second Presbyterian Church for almost 20 years, as well as the Baroque group Gold and Glitter, with violinist Daniel Lee and Baroque flutist Sang Joon Park. She has recorded for the Fonit Cetra and Erato labels, as well as for EMI. She has twice been a Regents' Lecturer at the University of California. In 2015, she was a featured soloist with the China National Symphony in Beijing. She has taught at the Ecole Nationale de Musique in Angoulême (France), at Stanford University, and since 1986 at The Mannes College of Music, (College of Performing Arts, The New School) where she currently teaches Baroque Performance Practice as well as a Performance Workshop for ESL students.

Sarah Mead is a sought-after teacher of viol and Renaissance performance practice and has performed viol consort and solo lyra-viol music in the US, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Brazil, and the UK. She served for seven years as Music Director of the annual VdGSA Conclave and edits a quarterly selection of music and commentary on both recent and historical works for viols for the Society. Her performing editions of historical and original works for viols are published by PRB Productions. In 2007 she received the Thomas Binkley Award from Early Music America for her work with the Early Music Ensemble at Brandeis University, where she is a Professor of the Practice of Music and has chaired the program in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. She is a founding member and the musical director of Nota Bene Viol Consort. Their 2020 CD of Pietro Vinci features a set of Brescian-style Renaissance viols.

Rosamund Morley has performed on treble, tenor, and bass viols, and their medieval ancestors, with many renowned early music ensembles as diverse as ARTEK, The Boston Camerata, The Crossing, Les Arts Florissants, Piffaro, the Toronto Consort, the Venice Baroque Orchestra, and Sequentia. She is a member of Parthenia, New York's premiere consort of viols, with whom she plays both early and contemporary music; for many years she toured worldwide as a member of the Waverly Consort. She teaches online and at the Neighborhood Music School in New Haven and in her Brooklyn, NY studio. Beginning in 2017 Ros was Conclave Music Director, her 4-year term culminating in the year of the coronavirus with the creation of the first totally online VdGSA workshop.

Patricia Ann Neely has appeared with the Smithsonian Viol Consort, the Washington Bach Consort, and Abendmusik. She was a founding member of Parthenia, spent three years touring with Sequentia, and participated in festivals in Utrecht, Berlin, Regensberg, Berkeley, Vancouver, and Boston. Pat was on the music faculty of The Brearley School for 25 years teaching double bass, recorder, and an early music string ensemble. She holds degrees from Vassar College (BA in music) and Sarah Lawrence College (MFA in Historical Performance) and has recorded for many labels including Musical Heritage, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Erato, and Lyrichord. Pat is the recipient of a VdGSA GUTSY grant, which has supported her teaching the viol at two schools she attended, LaGuardia High School of Music and Art in New York City and Vassar College. Pat is a member of the Board of the VdGSA and chair of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee.

James Perretta is a Boston-based viola da gamba player and cellist who is active as a small ensemble director, teacher, and performer. James co-directs and performs with Lyracle, an ensemble dedicated to music for voice and viol-family instruments. An avid arranger, James is active on TikTok and YouTube, where he records his own arrangements of video game music for solo viol or viol consort. James teaches private lessons, group classes, and workshops online and at the Powers Music School in Belmont, MA. James serves on the Website Committee for the Viola da Gamba Society of America and is a board member of the New England chapter of the Viola da Gamba Society. James holds a BM in cello performance from the University of Michigan, where he studied modern cello with Richard Aaron and Baroque cello and viola da gamba with Enid Sutherland.

Jessica Powell Eig, praised for her “natural expressiveness,” performs on double bass, violone, and viola da gamba, working with Washington Bach Consort, American Bach Soloists, ARTEK, The Thirteen, Inscape/Urban Arias, Opera Lafayette, Washington National Cathedral Orchestra, New Orchestra of Washington, National Philharmonic, and many others. She is Adjunct Faculty in Classical Double Bass at George Mason University and is a regular guest lecturer in double bass pedagogy at the University of Maryland. She has directed the Viola da Gamba Society of America’s Young Players Workshop, and her writing on classroom outreach has appeared in Early Music America. Jessica has a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in double bass performance from SUNY-Stony Brook and has trained at CCM, Eastman, and The Juilliard School. Jessica pursued further private study in historical bass with Rob Nairn and has studied viola da gamba with Christel Thielmann, James Lambert, and Martha McGaughey.

Alice Robbins is a member of Arcadia Viols and the Oberlin Consort of Viols and plays principal cello as well as viol with Arcadia Players in western Massachusetts, of which she is a founding member. During a long career, she has performed with many groups dedicated to historical performance, among them the Folger Consort, Four Nations Ensemble, Washington Bach Consort, Early Music Quartet (Studio der frühen Musik), Smithsonian Chamber Players, Boston Camerata, Opera Lafayette, and the Handel+Haydn Society. She was a founding member of Concerto Castello, an international quintet specializing in the music of the early seventeenth century. Alice has earned degrees from Indiana University and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Basel), where she was a student of Hannelore Mueller. She teaches at the Five College Early Music Program at Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges in Western Massachusetts.

John Mark Rozendaal teaches and performs music from the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras. JMR performs as a member of Trio Settecento, Brandywine Baroque, and LeStrange Viols. Rozendaal has performed with Chicago Baroque Ensemble, City Musick, Basically Bach, Newberry Consort, Orpheus Band, King’s Noyse, Boston Early Music Festival, Second City Musick, and Hesperus; recordings on the Cedille and Centaur labels. A dedicated teacher, Rozendaal has served on the faculties of the VdGSA Conclave, Viols West’s annual workshop, Amherst Early Music, and Madison Early Music Festival. JMR teaches the Viola da Gamba Dojo and Medieval Strings classes in NYC.

Erica Rubis is a versatile performer on the viola da gamba whose work ranges from Renaissance viol consort to improvising and co-creating new music. She is a member of Alchymy Viols, Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Les Ordinaires Trio, and also plays with Bourbon Baroque, Catacoustic Consort, Echoing Air, and North Carolina Baroque Orchestra. She collaborates and performs regularly with composer/performer Tomás Lozano in his song project on the poetry of Juan Ramón Jiménez. Erica’s most recent recordings, Les Ordinaires, Inner Chambers and Monteclair: Beloved and Betrayed and contemporary music of Tomas Lozano, Eternal Juan Ramón Jiménez, were released in 2018 and 2020. Active in music education, Erica holds regular workshops on the viola da gamba for string students and has pioneered a multimedia program, Shakespeare's Ear, with regular tours and residencies in schools since 2009.

Arnie Tanimoto, gold medalist of the 7th International Bach-Abel Competition, is equally at home on the viola da gamba and baroque cello. Described by The New York Times as a “fine instrumental soloist,” he performs in venues across the United States, Europe, and Japan. The recipient of a 2017 Frank Huntington Beebe Fund Fellowship, he has also performed and recorded with Barthold Kuijken, the Boston Early Music Festival Ensemble, and the Smithsonian Consort of Viols. As a teacher, Arnie serves on faculty at the Mountainside Baroque Summer Academy as well as maintaining a private studio. He holds degrees and certificates from Oberlin Conservatory, the Eastman School of Music, The Juilliard School, and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

Emily Walhout grew up playing the cello and piano, but it was not until college that she discovered her love for baroque bass lines. At Oberlin Conservatory she took up baroque cello and viola da gamba, thus launching an active career in early music. She was a founding member of La Luna, an ensemble devoted to music of the seventeenth century, and The King’s Noyse, a Renaissance violin band. She has played viola da gamba, lirone, or principal cello for the Boston Early Music Festival, Emmanuel Music, the Handel & Haydn Society, Seattle Baroque, Portland Baroque, New York Collegium, Trinity Consort (Portland, Oregon), Les Violons du Roy, Les Boréades (Montreal), Montreal Baroque Festival, Les Bostonades, TENET, and the Green Mountain Project. Current chamber ensembles include Les Délices (Cleveland) and Nota Bene Consort of Viols. Her playing has been described as “soulful and expressive” by The New York Times.

Zoe Weiss is an Assistant Professor of Musicology at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music. She believes passionately in music’s ability to forge human connections, which she explores in both her scholarly and performance work. An active performer on the viola da gamba, Zoe is a founding member of Science Ficta and LeStrange Viols, whose recordings can be heard on the New Focus label. Science Ficta’s recording of new works by composer Molly Herron, Through Lines, was released by New Amsterdam Records in 2021.