Cynthia Roberts is one of America’s leading baroque violinists, appearing as soloist, concertmaster, and recitalist throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. She is a faculty member of the Juilliard School, and toured this spring with the Juilliard 415 baroque orchestra to India, and as concertmaster under Masaaki Suzuki to New Zealand. She also teaches at the University of North Texas and the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute and has given master classes at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Indiana University, Eastman, the Cleveland Institute, Cornell, Rutgers, Minsk Conservatory, Leopold‐Mozart‐Zentrum Augsburg, Shanghai Conservatory, Vietnam National Academy of Music, and for the Jeune Orchestre Atlantique in France. She appears regularly with the Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Smithsonian Chamber Players, Tafelmusik, and the Boston Early Music Festival and is a principal player in the Carmel Bach Festival. In Europe, she has performed as concertmaster of Les Arts Florissants and appeared with Orchester Wiener Akademie, the London Classical Players, and the Taverner Players. She was featured as soloist and concertmaster on the soundtrack of the Touchstone Pictures film Casanova and toured South America as concertmaster for a production featuring actor John Malkovich. Ms Roberts made her solo debut at age 12 playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Grant Park Symphony of Chicago. Her recording credits include Sony, CPO, and Deutsche Harmonia Mundi.
Phoebe Carrai
, a native Bostonian, completed her post-graduate studies in Austria with Nikolaus Harnencourt, after studying with Lawrence Lesser and receiving her B.M. and M.M. at New England Conservatory of Music. She became a member of Musica Antiqua Köln in 1982, making over 40 recordings for Deutsche Gramophone and touring the world. Ms. Carrai’s teaching career in historical performance started at the Hillversum Conservatory in the Netherlands and spending 16 years on the faculty of The University of the Arts in Berlin, Germany. She is presently on the faculties of The Juilliard School and The Longy School of Music. She started “New Years Resolution Baroque Cello Bootcamp” 15 years ago and it is still one of her greatest joys each year! In the summers, when not at her favorite spot on Cape Cod, she can be found teaching at Amherst Early Music, Aria Camp, The Bach Cello Suites Workshop and at Juilliard sponsored courses in Montisi, Italy and Brugge, Belgium. Along with her solo and chamber music concerts, she directs Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra and performs regularly with Philharmonia Baroque, The Arcadian Academy, Juilliard Baroque, The Boston Early Music Festival and the Göttingen Festival Orchestra. Ms. Carrai has released recordings of the Bach Solo Cello Suites, a duo recording of Frederich August Kummer, and has now also released “Out of Italy” for Avie Records. She has also recorded for Decca, Deutsche Gramophone, Aetme, Telarc and BMG. She plays on an Italian cello from ca. 1690.
Adam Pearl
’s playing has been hailed by reviewers as “virtuosic”, “daringly original”, “fresh and right”, “blistering”, and “dexterous”. He has been principal harpsichordist for Tempesta di Mare since 2005 and performs on occasion with Chatham Baroque, the Folger Consort, the Catacoustic Consort, the American Bach Soloists, the Bach Sinfonia, and Opera Lafayette. As music director of American Opera Theater, Dr. Pearl has directed numerous productions from the keyboard, including Blow’s Venus and Adonis, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Cavalli’s La Calisto and La Didone, Charpentier’s David et Jonathas, and Handel’s Acis and Galatea and fully staged productions of Messiah and Jephtha. Dr. Pearl is a member of the Early Music faculty at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University; he also teaches at the Amherst Early Music Festival and the Madison Early Music Festival. Pearl holds the degrees of BM in piano performance and DMA in harpsichord performance from the Peabody Conservatory, and he is a laureate of the 2001 Jurow and 2004 Bruges international harpsichord competitions.
French-American violinist Lydia Becker unites historical performance practices with creativity and curiosity, engaging diverse audiences through explorative music-making. Lydia currently serves as concertmaster for La Forza delle Stelle, and has held concertmaster positions for Juilliard415, the Boston Early Music Festival Young Artists program, and the Eastman Collegium Musicum. As a core member of Juilliard415, Lydia toured the Netherlands and Germany, and has performed with Rachel Podger, Reggie Mobley, William Christie, and Lionel Meunier, among others. She has appeared as a soloist with Juilliard415 (under the direction of Masaaki Suzuki), Publick Musick, and the Eastman Collegium Musicum (with Christel Thielmann and Paul O’Dette). She is a founding member of the Berwick Fiddle Consort, an ensemble that explores historical fiddling traditions of the British Isles. Equally at home on modern violin, Lydia regularly teaches and performs at Rencontres Musicales Internationales des Graves (France), where she has premiered new works by composers such as François Rossé and collaborated with Maxim Vengerov.
Lydia is a Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant recipient and a Mercury-Juilliard Fellow. She is also a former Presser Scholar, Morse Teaching Artist fellow, and a member of Pi Kappa Lambda. Lydia holds degrees from the Juilliard School, the Eastman School of Music, and the Conservatoire de Bordeaux.
Ryan Cheng Violinist and viola da gamba player Ryan Cheng has performed widely across the United States, Europe and Asia. Ryan has performed at the Boston Early Music Festival, with the Smithsonian Viol Consort, at MAFestival Brugge with Juilliard415, with American Bach Soloists, House of Time, Nuova Pratica, and A Golden Wire. He has won the Juilliard Historical Performance Concerto Competition. Ryan is currently interested in composition in historical styles. When not playing the violin, Ryan can be found playing chess.
Christel Theilmann
, viola da gamba, recipient of the Thomas Binkley Collegium Director’s Award and the prestigious Eisenhart Award for Excellence of Teaching of the Eastman School of Music where she teaches viola da gamba, directs the Collegium Baroque Orchestra, the Viol Consort and runs the Baroque Chamber Music Program. As viola da gamba and recorder player she toured extensively with the Musicians of Swanne Alley and has appeared with Fretwork, the Hilliard Ensemble, Tafelmusik, the Toronto Consort, Newberry Consort, and the Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble. She has performed at leading North American and European early music festivals, has recorded for radio, television and several record labels including Virgin Classics, harmonia mundi, Erato and Hyperion, and performs on the Grammy-winning CD of Charpentier’s La Descente d’Orfée aux Enfers on CPO. She has also produced several award winning CDs for harmonia mundi USA. She is drafting a book about the principles of teaching the art of music-making and technique that apply across instruments and genres, with special emphasis on the universal relevance of those of historical performance practices.