Joanna Blendulf is Professor of Music (Historical Performance) at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She has performed and recorded with leading period instrument ensembles and is currently principal cellist and principal viola da gamba player of the Portland Baroque Orchestra. Ms. Blendulf has also performed as principal cellist of Pacific MusicWorks, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra, Bach Collegium San Diego, and the Washington Bach Consort. Joanna performs and records with the Catacoustic Consort, Ensemble Mirable, Music of the Spheres, Nota Bene Viol Consort, Trio Pardessus, and Wildcat Viols. Ms. Blendulf’s world-premiere recording of the complete cello sonatas of Jean Zewalt Triemer with Ensemble Mirable was released in 2004. Ms. Blendulf holds degrees with honors from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the IU Jacobs School of Music where she was awarded the prestigious Performer's Certificate for her accomplishments in early music performance.
Tina Chancey directs HESPERUS, known for its early music soundtracks for classic silent films, and plays medieval and traditional fiddles and viol on roots music from Sephardic and Irish to Joni Mitchell and jazz, with a focus on multi-style improvisation. Her specialty is the pardessus de viole, with debut concerts at Carnegie Recital Hall and Kennedy Center and five pardessus recordings. Recent concert tours and artist residencies have taken her to Turkey, Australia, France, Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand and Hong Kong. In DC, she was recently a featured artist at the Freer Gallery’s Friends Day celebrations and the Hirschhorn Museum’s “SoundScene” festival, as well as music director for Expat Theatre’s “Scorched” and the InSeries’ “Misticas.” A member of Trio Sefardi and Passio, she is a former member of the Folger Consort, the Ensemble for Early Music, the New York Renaissance Band and Blackmore’s Night.
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.
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 for the VdGSA and teaches at workshops. In 2017, after 32 years on the faculty of Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, Gillespie graduated to Professor Emerita, very grateful to be able to learn more about herself, her connection to the planet, life, the universe, and everything.
Patty Halverson (viola da gamba and violone) is a founding member of Chatham Baroque. As a musician with the ensemble, she has enjoyed a career of more than 30 years of performances in Pittsburgh and across the country as well as concerts and festivals in Canada, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. Halverson holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Early Music Performance Practice from Stanford University. At Stanford, she studied viol with Martha McGaughey, and following the completion of her degree, continued viol studies at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague. In addition to performances with Chatham Baroque, Patty teaches and coaches in Pittsburgh. She has served as faculty at viol and recorder workshops including the Mideast Early Music Workshop, Viol Sphere 2, Bloom Early Music Workshop, Music on the Mountain Viol Workshop and the VDGSA’s annual conclave.
Joshua Keller is a performer on viola da gamba, lirone, and cello. He has performed in the early music festivals of Bruges, Bremen, Bloomington, Regensburg, Thüringen, and in the opening ceremonies of the Utrecht Early Music Festival. He has worked with Opera Theater St. Louis, Opera Studio Netherlands, Opera NEO, Opera Memphis, InSeries, Kentucky Opera, Scherzi Musicali and Opera Lafayette. Josh has contributed to workshops for the viola da gamba societies of America and Australia, teaches private lessons, and has completed his certification in Pilates instruction. Beyond music, Josh loves roller-skating, practicing Pilates, rock climbing and his two boxers, Margot and Hiram.
Malachai Komanoff Bandy is an Assistant Professor of Music at Pomona College and 2025 winner of Pomona College’s Wig Distinguished Professor Award for excellence in teaching. He holds a Ph.D. in historical musicology from the USC Thornton School of Music. As a performer on historical strings and winds, Malachai has collaborated with Voices of Music, Bach Collegium San Diego, Ciaramella, Ars Lyrica Houston, as a soloist with both the LA Opera and the LA Master Chorale, and is founder and director of Artifex Consort. As a recording artist, his solos are featured in Joker: Folie à Deux, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Outlander, Rings of Power, Foundation, and many more. In 2019, he received the Society for Seventeenth- Century Music’s Irene Alm Memorial Prize and the Ingolf Dahl Award in Musicology. Malachai is currently working on his first book, which handles symbolism in Dieterich Buxtehude’s Passion cycle Membra Jesu nostri.
Brady Lanier holds a Doctor of Music in Viola da Gamba Performance from Indiana University, where he studied with Wendy Gillespie and Joanna Blendulf. A specialist in historical viol pedagogy, Dr. Lanier brings over thirty years of experience as an educator and performer to the Conclave faculty. Currently based in Virginia, Brady performs with The Governor’s Music, Colonial Williamsburg’s resident Baroque chamber ensemble. His performing career includes collaborations with the Houston Bach Society, Istanpitta Medieval Ensemble, the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, and Musikanten Montana. As a co-founder of the Quaver Viol Consort, he is recognized for his innovative programming and dedication to the consort repertoire. He serves on the faculty at William & Mary, and is a prolific composer and arranger whose works have been performed by the Houston Symphony and the United States Air Force Orchestra; three of his original compositions have been premiered at Carnegie Hall.
Martha McGaughey 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 harpsichordist Arthur Haas. 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, as well as 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. She has also taught English as a Second Language at Building One Community, the Center for Immigrant Opportunity, in Stamford, Connecticut.
Sarah Mead is a professor emerita of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, where she taught historical performance and music history for four decades, and for several years chaired their Medieval and Renaissance Studies program. She was Conclave Music Director from 2010 to 2016, and returned to that role in 2025. As editor of “News Music" for the VdGSA News, she provides a quarterly selection of music and commentary on both recent and historical works for viols. Her performing editions of historical and original works for viols were published by PRB Productions, and her handbook on Renaissance theory is used in historical music programs around the country. Overseas she has performed, lectured, given masterclasses, and led workshops in Brazil, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. She is a sought-after lecturer and ensemble-coach in the US, where she is a founding member and music director of Nota Bene Viol Consort.
Catharina Meints has enjoyed a distinguished career in music, performing, recording, and teaching on five different instruments all over the world. She was a cellist in the Cleveland Orchestra for 35 years and taught viol, baroque cello, modern cello and ensembles at Oberlin for over 40 years. She performed most often with the Oberlin Baroque Ensemble and the Oberlin Consort of Viols. She and her late husband, James Caldwell, collected antique viols and she enjoys making them available to players. Her book, “The Caldwell Collection of Viols” contains pictures, stories, and a CD of performances on each viol. She has enjoyed teaching many years at Conclave and was honored to serve on the Board of the VdGSA.
Heather Miller Lardin is principal bassist of the Handel + Haydn Society, directs the Temple University Early Music Ensemble, and co-directs the Philadelphia-based Classical period instrument ensemble Night Music. Recent engagements have included Boston Early Music Festival, Bach Akademie Charlotte, Tempesta di Mare, Choral Arts Philadelphia, Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Staunton Music Festival, and Brandywine Baroque. Heather teaches Baroque double bass and violone at Juilliard Historical Performance and New England Conservatory, and is a recipient of the International Society of Bassists Special Recognition Award in Historical Performance and Scholarship. She makes her home in her native Philadelphia suburbs, where she started playing double bass in 6th-grade orchestra.
John Moran teaches viola da gamba, Baroque cello, and musicology at Peabody Conservatory and has a large private studio at home. He is delighted to be serving as Past President of the VdGSA. He studied modern and Baroque cello at Oberlin, where he was fortunate to get his foundation on the viol with Catharina Meints. He studied Baroque cello at the Schola Cantorum (Basel) with Hannelore Mueller and subsequently earned a PhD in musicology at King’s College London, where his advisor was Laurence Dreyfus, all the while practicing viol in secret. He is a member of REBEL and a principal player with the Washington Bach Consort. He has played all over the US and in Europe. With violinist Risa Browder, he co-directs Modern Musick, in residence at Georgetown University. He is passionate about consort music and helping musicians learn to teach themselves.
Sarah Poon is a music educator and performer, who keeps herself busy in Vancouver, BC and the nearby Sunshine Coast. In addition to managing a thriving music studio (where she teaches violoncello and viol), she directs the Coast Messiah Orchestra, adjudicates for Performing Arts BC, runs weekly viol consort sessions for SunCoast Viols, and performs regularly as a continuo team with her organist husband, David. Sarah also organises and runs workshops and outreach events for BC Viols - the VdGSA’s only Canadian chapter - of which she is president. Known by her colleagues as a “viol-evangelist,” Sarah firmly believes “everyone is a viol player; some just don’t know it yet.” When not making or teaching music, Sarah enjoys reading, puzzling, copious amounts of tea, and her bustling and eccentric family of six.
Jessica Powell Eig has crafted a dynamic career performing on double bass, violone, and viola da gamba with Washington Bach Consort, American Bach Soloists, Seraphic Fire, The Thirteen, Inscape Chamber Orchestra, Opera Lafayette, Washington National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra, New Orchestra of Washington, National Philharmonic, Washington Concert Opera, Urban Arias, and others, and recording for the Chandos, Acis, and Zefiro labels. In addition to performing, Jessica serves on the faculties of American University, George Mason University, Levine Music, and the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East, and is a guest lecturer at the University of Maryland. From 2013 to 2016, she was the director of the VdGSA Young Players Workshop, and her writing on classroom outreach has appeared in Early Music America. In 2010, Jessica completed a DMA in double bass performance at SUNY-Stony Brook. She received her earlier training at Cincinnati College-Conservatory, the Eastman School of Music, and The Juilliard School.
Gail Ann Schroeder studied viola da gamba performance at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Brussels, Belgium, with Wieland Kuijken, obtaining her First Prize and Higher Diploma, with distinction; and subsequently taught viola da gamba, pedagogy and directed the viol consort there from 1988 to 2002. Ms. Schroeder has performed extensively as soloist and in various chamber music ensembles, participating in numerous radio and television productions, and on CD recordings for such labels as DHM, Sony Classical, Ricercar and Erato. Ms. Schroeder is in demand as a teacher and ensemble coach at workshops for the Viola da Gamba Society of America, the Amherst Early Music Festival and Mountain Collegium. Currently living in North Carolina, she teaches privately, free-lances on viola da gamba and is artistic director of Asheville Baroque Concerts.
Niccolo Seligmann records as a soloist and as a multi-tracked viol consort in soundtracks with Netflix, AppleTV, Microsoft Studios, Firaxis Games, and more. They perform and record on a collection of dozens of historical and traditional instruments, many of which were built in collaboration with their father-in-law, master luthier Ken Koons. Niccolo’s opera and theatre compositions include Julie Monster: A Queer Baroque Opera, An Iliad, Minerva: Times Change, and an electronic dance remix of Dave Malloy’s Ghost Quartet. Niccolo released their solo viola da gamba improvisation album Kinship as part of Strathmore’s Artist-in-Residence program. They record and perform nationally with ensembles Alkemie, The Broken Consort, Concordian Dawn, Hesperus, Magdalena, Utopia Early Music, Washington Bach Consort, and Wherligig. Having studied with John Moran, Niccolo holds a B.M. in Viola da gamba Performance from Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, where they now serve as guest director for the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble.
Katherine Shuldiner is an accomplished viola da gamba performer, teacher, and advocate based in Chicago. She graduated from Oberlin Conservatory under the tutelage of Catharina Meints and has since become a fixture in the city's baroque music scene. Katherine performs extensively with ensembles such as The Newberry Consort, BBE: Bach and Beethoven Experience, Bella Voce, Apollo Chorus, Elmhurst Symphony, Washington Bach Consort, La Follia Austin Baroque, Bel Canto Chorus, and the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra. Her repertoire spans soloist, consort, and continuo roles, and she has delivered acclaimed performances of Bach's St. Matthew and St. John Passion. Katherine's dedication to the viola da gamba extends beyond the stage. She served on the board of the Viola da Gamba Society of America and currently contributes to the Oak Park Recorder School. Katherine is a dedicated educator who teaches viola da gamba to students of all ages. Along with her private studio, she currently serves as the Viola da Gamba Teacher and Assistant Baroque Orchestra Director at Stevenson High School. In the summer, she also teaches at early music programs such as the Madison Early Music Festival, Mountain Collegium, and Whitewater Early Music Festival, where she also holds the position of viola da gamba program director.
2026 Tindemans Praeceptor Musicae*
Mary Springfels is a veteran of the American early music movement. She began her long career as a member of the New York Pro Musica, and is still performing with the Folger Consort, Ars Lyrica (Houston), the Texas Early Music Project (Austin), and co-directs Severall Friends, a flexible collection of performers based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Mary has been active in the VdGSA Circuit Rider program and has been a faculty member at Conclaves for decades.
* A generous donation in memory of Margriet Tindemans sponsors an annual faculty position: The Tindemans Praeceptor Musicae (teacher of music). Faculty in this position embody Margriet's passion for teaching and expertise in early strings and Medieval repertories. The Tindemans Praeceptor Musicae teaches primarily Medieval and early Renaissance music, repertories which might otherwise be neglected at the Conclave. At least one class each year will be taught on vielles and other earlier strings.
Lisa Terry is an avid chamber music performer and soloist on viola da gamba and violoncello. From her home base in New York City, she performs with Parthenia and the Dryden Ensemble, and is principal cellist and viol soloist with Tempesta di Mare, Philadelphia's baroque orchestra. Lisa was a founding member of ARTEK, and has performed with the New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera, Juilliard Opera Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, and Concert Royal. She has appeared to great acclaim as soloist in the Passions of J.S. Bach throughout her career. Lisa is often heard in English Country Dance bands in and around New York City. Her first recording is coming out this year, the suites for viol and harpsichord by François Couperin, with Webb Wiggins.
Emily Walhout grew up playing 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 and enriching career in early music. Especially captivated by the music of the 16th and 17th centuries, she found her calling in the chamber ensembles The King’s Noyse, La Luna, and Les Délices, among others. Lately, she’s been delighted to explore polyphony on Renaissance viols with Nota Bene Viol Consort. As an orchestral player she has played principal cello, bass violin, viola da gamba, or lirone for the Boston Early Music Festival, Seattle Baroque, Portland Baroque, New York Collegium, Trinity Consort (Portland, OR), Les Violons du Roy, Les Boréades (Montreal), Montreal Baroque Festival, L’Harmonie des Saisons, Emmanuel Music, Boston Baroque, and the Handel and Haydn Society. Her solo playing has been described as "soulful and expressive " by The New York Times. As a Certified Music Practitioner, Emily plays therapeutic music on the bass viol one-on-one at bedside for the sick and dying. This work is further enhanced by her collaboration with Sarah Mead in the viol duo Heart’s Ease, formed with the same intent—to bring healing music to those in healthcare settings.
Brent Wissick has been teaching at VdGSA Conclaves since 1979 and served as President of the Society from 2000-04. He retires in June 2026 after 44 years of teaching as a Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has performed and taught throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia; and can be heard on numerous recordings.