Seattle Baroque Orchestra Musicians

• Katy Ambrose, horn
• Burke Anderson, horn
• Christine Wilkinson Beckman, violin
• Jillon Stoppels Dupree, harpsichord
• Curtis Foster, recorder
• Sadie Glass, horn
• Nate Helgeson, bassoon
• Danielle Sampson, soprano
• Matthew Hudgens, oboe
• Tomà Iliev, violin
• Courtney Kuroda, violin
• Kris Kwapis, trumpet

• Todd Larsen, contrabass
• Anna Marsh, bassoon
• Pablo Moreno, oboe
• Anna Okada, violin
• Kristin Olson, oboe
• Elisabeth Phelps, violin
• Sarah Pizzichemi, violin
• Elizabeth Reed, cello
• Annabeth Shirley, cello
• Jefferey Snedeker, horn
• Adaiha MacAdam-Somer, cello
• Lindsey Strand-Polyak, principal viola
• Brandon Vance, violin

Alex Weimann
Music Director

Alexander Weimann has been Music Director of Seattle Baroque Orchestra since 2015 and is one of the most sought-after ensemble directors, soloists, and chamber music partners of his generation. After traveling the world with ensembles like Tragicomedia, Cantus Cölln, the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Gesualdo Consort and Tafelmusik, he now focuses on his activities as Artistic Director of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra in Vancouver, as frequent guest conductor with Victoria Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Les Violons du Roi etc., and as teacher at the University of British Columbia, for harpsichord, accompaniment, and performance practice.

Weimann can be heard on some 100 CDs. He made his North American recording debut with the ensemble Tragicomedia on the CD Capritio (Harmonia Mundi USA), and won worldwide acclaim from both the public and critics for his 2005 release of  Volume 1 of his recordings of the complete keyboard works by Alessandro Scarlatti, nominated for an Opus Prize as the best Canadian early music recording. He has also released an Opus Award-winning CD of Handel oratorio arias with superstar soprano Karina Gauvin and his new Montreal-based ensemble Tempo Rubato. He received several Juno nominations and one Juno award for his album with Arion baroque Orchestra and Karina Gauvin.

Weimann was born in 1965 in Munich, where he studied the organ, church music, musicology (with a summa cum laude thesis on Bach’s secco recitatives), theatre, medieval Latin, and jazz piano, supported by a variety of federal scholarships for the highly talented. To ground himself further in the roots of western music, he became intensely involved over the course of several years with Gregorian chant. He was teaching music theory and improvisation at the Munich Hochschule für Musik from 1990-95, has given countless masterclasses around the globe, and also taught harpsichord at the McGill University, and worked as a vocal coach at the Université de Montréal.

Rachel Ellen Wong
Concertmaster and Violin

Recipient of the prestigious 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant – the first baroque artist in the program’s history – and Grand Prize winner of the inaugural Lillian and Maurice Barbash J.S. Bach Competition, violinist Rachell Ellen Wong is a rising star on both the historical performance and modern violin stages. Her growing reputation as one of the top historical performers of her generation has resulted in appearances with renowned early music ensembles such as the American Bach Soloists and The Academy of Ancient Music, and tours with Bach Collegium Japan, Les Arts Florissants, among others. Equally accomplished on the modern violin, Rachell made her first public appearance with the Philharmonia Northwest at age 11 and has since performed as a soloist with such orchestras as Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Panamá and the Seattle Symphony. In 2020, she made her conductorial debut with the Seattle Symphony when she directed Vivaldi’s Four Seasons from the violin.

Alongside acclaimed keyboardist David Belkovski, she co-founded Twelfth Night in 2021, based in New York City. Rachell holds a Masters in Music in Historical Performance from The Juilliard School, where she received a 2019 Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant and a coveted Kovner Fellowship. She also holds degrees from Indiana University, and The University of Texas at Austin. Residing in Seattle, Washington, she performs on a baroque violin from the school of Joachim Tielke ca. 1700, and on a modern violin by Carlo de March from 1953. When not performing, you can find Rachell on her snowboard, playing pickleball with her friends, or spending time with her rabbits, Shoozie and Bobe. Rachell is represented by Marianne LaCrosse of CTM Classics.

katy ambroise
horn

Katy Ambrose (she/her) is the Visiting Assistant Professor of Horn at the University of Iowa, Fourth Horn in the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, and Solo Horn of the New Orchestra of Washington. Katy’s extensive orchestral experience includes having held positions in many regional orchestras and substituting with major ensembles such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Daejeon Philharmonic, Hawai’i Symphony, Richmond Symphony, and many more. Katy has performed on Baroque and Classical horn with the Washington Baroque Consort, the Staunton Music Festival, and Three Notch’d Road. A dedicated chamber musician, she is a founding member of the trans-continental natural horn quartet “Conica”, Lanta Horn Duo, and was a co-founder of Seraph Brass. Katy has spent her summers teaching at the NOW Summer Festival in Washington, DC, the Kendall Betts Horn Camp, the Curtis Institute of Music Young Artists Summer Program, and the (now-defunct) All-State program at the Interlochen Arts Camp. She is a frequent lecturer and clinician, as both a performer and scholar, and her most recent research involved transcribing early music written by composers of African descent for horn and piano.

burke anderson
Horn

Burke Anderson is originally from Bothell, WA, but currently resides in Indianapolis, IN. He has performed on natural horn and early valve horn with such groups as Teatro Nuovo (NY), Live Oaks Baroque Orchestra (CA), Bourbon Baroque (KY), and Dallas Bach Society, among others. He has also given lectures on the natural horn at the Bloomington Early Music Festival, Gallery Concerts in Seattle, Le Grande Bande (MN), and Wabash College (IN).

Christine Wilkinson Beckman
Violin

Christine Wilkinson Beckman is a baroque violin specialist based in Olympia, WA.  She enjoys performing throughout her native Northwest with early music ensembles large and small, and she appears regularly with such groups as the Seattle, Portland, and Pacific Baroque Orchestras and Pacific MusicWorks.  From 2015 to 2017 she directed the New Baroque Orchestra, one of the Community Collegia of the Early Music Guild of Seattle.

Christine began her studies on baroque violin with Ingrid Matthews, and she graduated in 2013 with an MA from the Historical Performance Practices program at Case Western Reserve University where she studied with Julie Andrijeski.  She has also participated in masterclasses with Marc Destrubé, Monica Huggett, and Cynthia Roberts.  Christine’s modern performance studies began with Barbara Riley, and she received a BM in Violin Performance from St. Olaf College where she studied with Charles Gray. She has also studied with Walter Schwede and Grant Donnellan.

In addition to performing, Christine maintains a busy Suzuki violin and viola studio in Olympia where she enjoys fostering compassionate hearts and a love of music and diligent work in her young students.  Her Suzuki teacher training has been with Elizabeth Stuen-Walker and Dr. Susan Baer.

When not busy performing or teaching, Christine enjoys baking, reading about linguistics and the natural sciences, drinking tea with lots of milk and sugar, and listening to the rain with her husband and young children.

Christine Wilkinson-Beckman website

Jillon Stoppels Dupree
Harpsichord

Jillon Stoppels Dupree has been described as “one of the country’s top baroque musicians, a superior soloist and top-ranked ensemble player; and a baroque star” (Seattle Times). She performs with the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, San Francisco Bach Choir, San Francisco Choral Artists, and Ensemble Electra; her chamber music collaborations include such artists as Wieland Kuijken, Julianne Baird, Ellen Hargis, Ingrid Matthews, Janet See, and Marion Verbruggen. Her recent activities include concerts and master classes at both Stanford University and the University of Michigan’s School of Music.

Jillon received both Fulbright and Beebe Fund grants for study abroad, and her teachers included Gustav Leonhardt, Kenneth Gilbert, Edward Parmentier and Lisa Goode Crawford. An honors graduate of the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and Masters recipient at the University of Michigan, Ms. Dupree has taught at both her alma maters, at Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts, and at the University of Washington. She received the National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist award, for performance of contemporary harpsichord music, and her world-premiere recording of Philip Glass’s Concerto for Harpsichord was heralded as “Superb!” by the New York Times. Ms. Dupree was the Co-Founder of Gallery Concerts, an early music concert series in Seattle. She can be heard on the Meridian, Decca, Orange Mountain, Wildboar and Delos labels, and her new solo Bach recording from Centaur Records has been described as “harpsichord musicianship at its best . . .expressive . . . passionate . . . and inspiring.” (American Record Guide).

curtis foster
recorder

An enthusiastic advocate for music of our own time, Curtis regularly commissions and presents new works by contemporary composers for old instruments. An equally dedicated pedagogue, Mr. Foster teaches Baroque oboe as part of the Baroque Orchestra Mentorship Programme at the University of British Columbia, and is regularly invited to present workshops and masterclasses around the US and Canada. He can be heard on recordings from ATMA Classique, Naxos, Cedille Records, and IU Press.

Originally hailing from Wichita, Kansas, Curtis now makes his home in Seattle, Washington. He is a graduate of Wichita State University and Indiana University’s Early Music Institute.

Nate Helgeson
Bassoon

Nate Helgeson is one of the West Coast’s leading specialists in historical bassoons. Born into a musical family in Eugene, Oregon (his brother, Aaron Helgeson, and uncle Stephen Gryc are both accomplished composers), Nate studied modern bassoon with Steve Vacchi and Richard Svoboda before taking up the baroque instrument, continuing his studies with Dominic Teresi at the Juilliard School.

Now based in Portland, he performs on stages large and small throughout North America. In addition to solo and orchestral appearances with premier period ensembles across the country, he can be heard on recordings by Apollo’s Fire, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and the Trinity Baroque Orchestra. Beginning in 2018, Nate has performed works of Rossini and Bellini on period instruments as part of Teatro Nuovo, a newly formed festival in New York exploring 19th century ‘bel canto’ sounds and performance practices on the opera stage.

danielle sampson
soprano

Danielle Sampson is an avid performer of baroque, classical, and contemporary music. She is known for her “youthful and light timbre” (Classical Voice North America) and “a compassionate calm and a warm, glowing tone” (Boston Globe).

Danielle has appeared with Pacific MusicWorks, the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, the California Bach Society, Early Music Vancouver, the Boston Early Music Festival, the American Bach Soloists, the Stanford Chorale, San Francisco Bach Choir, Black Box Baroque, St. Martin’s Chamber Choir, Amaranth Quartet, the Guerrilla Composers Guild, Prodigal Opera Productions, and the Alabama Symphony. She is a founding member of the duo Jarring Sounds with guitarist/theorbist/lutenist Adam Cockerham, and they released a self-titled album in 2012 of music by Guédron, Boësset, Bataille, Monteverdi, Purcell, Britten, and Goss. Danielle also appears on a 2015 recording of Haydn’s Nelson Mass with the Stanford Chorale and the Lawrence String Quartet.

Danielle earned her BM at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music, and her MM at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Danielle currently resides in Seattle.

sadie glass
horn

Recognized for her “polished tone,” Sadie Glass is an active educator and performer in the San Francisco Bay Area. Featured in Early Music America’s Early to Rise Series, she is earning praise as a baroque and natural horn specialist. Sadie performs regularly with period-instrument ensembles across North America, including American Bach Soloists, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica, Oregon Bach Festival, Valley of the Moon Music Festival, and more. 

On the modern horn, Sadie is a tenured member of the Monterey Symphony and has performed with many orchestras in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the Santa Rosa Symphony, Symphony Silicon Valley, and Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera. 

​As an educator, Sadie is on faculty at the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music in Stockton, CA. Here, she teaches the horn studio, music theory, coaches chamber music, and is a member of the faculty ensemble, Pacific Arts Woodwind Quintet. Sadie has also held teaching positions at Pacific Union College, Las Positas College, and El Sistema music programs. During the summer, she is on faculty at the Kendall Betts Horn Camp as the natural horn specialist. Beyond teaching, Sadie has held numerous administrative positions including the Associate Director for the New Millennium Concert Series and the Marketing Director of the Valley of the Moon Music Festival.

Sadie completed a Master’s degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, studying with Bernhard Scully and earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, studying with Dr. Patrick Miles. In her free time, Sadie enjoys spending time outdoors and traveling with her husband, son, and two dogs, Callie and Macy. 

Matthew Hudgens
Oboe

Acclaimed for his expressive performances, oboist Matthew Hudgens performs as a chamber, orchestral, and solo musician across the United States and abroad. Matthew specializes on period oboes ranging from the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical eras, as well as recorder and modern oboes. Matthew Hudgens received his BM at East Tennessee State University, an MM at University of North Texas, and an MM in Historical Performance from The Juilliard School.

​Hudgens has shared the stage with some of the biggest names in early music from Rachel Podger and Nicholas Mcgeegan to William Christie and members of Les Arts FLorrisants. He has also performed with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Dallas Bach Society, Orchestra of New Spain, Portland Baroque Orchestra,Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, Bach Vespers, Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, California Bach Society, OrpheusPDX, and Seattle Baroque.

Matthew is also an avid modern oboe player and can be heard on a number of recordings on the GIA wind works label with the Grammy-nominated North Texas Wind Symphony and Lone Star Wind Orchestra. Matthew is a member of the Maryland Chamber Winds, an ensemble that “seeks to enrich our community through high-quality performances of contemporary and classical wind chamber music, educational programs, and commissioning projects.” The MCW released their debut album Preludes + Recitations in October 2020, available on most streaming services. As an orchestral musician, Mr. Hudgens has performed with the Grand Junction Symphony, Johnson City Symphony, and was selected as runner-up for principal oboe of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic.

Aside from performing, Mr. Hudgens is an active teacher. He has held an oboe studio of 45 students in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area for more than two years. He has taught master classes from beginning to collegiate level students, and continues to teach in Portland, Oregon where he currently resides.

Kris Kwapis
Trumpet

Acclaimed for her ‘sterling tone’ in the New York Times, Kris Kwapis appears regularly as soloist and principal trumpet with period-instrument ensembles across North America, including Portland Baroque Orchestra, Early Music Vancouver, Pacific MusicWorks, Bach Collegium San Diego, Staunton Music Festival, Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Chicago’s Haymarket Opera Company, Tafelmusik, Bach Society of Minnesota, Oregon Bach Festival, Callipygian Players, Bourbon Baroque, and Lyra Baroque, making music with directors such as Andrew Parrott, Monica Huggett, Alexander Weimann, Barthold Kuijken, Matthew Halls, Jacques Ogg, and Masaaki Suzuki.  Her playing is heard on Kleos, Naxos, ReZound, Lyrichord, Musica Omnia and Dorian labels, including the 2013 GRAMMY nominated recording of Handel’s Israel in Egypt, and broadcast on CBC, WNYC, WQED (Pittsburgh), Portland All-Classical (KQAC), Sunday Baroque and Wisconsin Public Radio.

A student of Armando Ghitalla on modern trumpet, with a BM and MM in trumpet performance from the University of Michigan, Dr. Kwapis holds a DMA in historical performance from Long Island’s Stony Brook University. She often lectures on historical brass performance practice with appearances at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, University of Wyoming, University of Minnesota-Duluth, University of Louisville, Madison Early Music Festival, Pacific Lutheran University, Seattle Recorder Society, and Rutgers University, in addition to writing program notes and delivering pre-concert lectures. On modern trumpet, Kris was adjunct professor of trumpet at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY from 2000-2010 and taught as a sabbatical replacement at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA for the fall semester of 2019.

Dr. Kwapis enjoys sharing her passion with the next generation of performers as a faculty member at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music Historical Performance Institute (baroque trumpet and cornetto) since 2010 in addition to teaching at her home in Seattle and online. When not making music, Kris explores the visual art medium of encaustic painting, cooking and gardening.

Kris Kwapis website

Todd Larsen
bass

Todd Larsen is a long-time member of the NW music scene. Performing with numerous ensembles including Portland Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Baroque, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Oregon Bach Festival, Pacific Baroque Festival, NW Bach Festival and Whidbey Island Music Festival, Mr. Larsen is also the principal bass of the Pacific NW Ballet and NW Sinfonietta and has a lengthy history with modern groups throughout the region, such as Seattle Symphony, Spokane Symphony, Portland Opera, and many others.

Toma Iliev
Violin

Toma Iliev is a violinist focused on historically informed performance. Recipient of the 2021 Jeffrey Thomas award, he performs with American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra, The Handel and Haydn Society, and Trinity Baroque Orchestra.

An avid chamber musician, Toma is a member of the Renaissance ensemble Sonnambula, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art 2018-19 Ensemble in Residence. Toma is the winner of the 2014 Leipzig International Bach Competition Christa Bach-Marschall Foundation Prize, and is the winner of the 2013 Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra Concerto Competition.

A native of Sofia, Bulgaria, Toma discovered his passion for music at an early age. Beginning his studies at the National Music School in Sofia, he is a graduate of Indiana University and of the Juilliard School’s Historical Performance program

Anna Marsh
Bassoon

Anna Marsh is a Baroque wind specialist, who is also fluent in Medieval, Renaissance, Classical and Modern instruments. Her interests lie principally in the double‐reed family, though she also performs on the Renaissance and Baroque recorder.

Originally from Tacoma, WA, Anna appears regularly with Opera Lafayette (DC), Tempesta di Mare (Philadelphia), Ensemble Caprice (Montreal), Opera Atelier (Toronto), Tafelmusik (Toronto),  Washington Bach Consort (DC), and Pacific MusicWorks (Seattle), among others.  She has been the featured soloist with the Foundling Orchestra with Marion Verbruggen, Arion Orchestre Baroque, The Buxtehude Consort, The Dryden Ensemble, the Boulder Bach Festival, New York State Baroque, the Indiana University Baroque Orchestra and others.  She co‐directs Ensemble Lipzodes and has taught both privately and at festivals and master classes at the Eastman School of Music, Los Angeles Music and Art School, the Amherst Early Music, and Hawaii Performing Arts Festivals and the Albuquerque, San Francisco Early Music Society, Rocky Ridge Music Center and Western Double Reed Workshop.  She tours internationally, mostly to Europe and South America, and has also been heard on Performance Today, Harmonia and CBC radio and recorded for Chandos, Analekta, Centaur, Naxos, the Super Bowl, Avie, and Musica Omnia. Marsh studied music and German studies at Mt. Holyoke College, The Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California and holds a Doctor of Music from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.

pablo moreno
oboe

Pablo Moreno

Violinist Anna Okada holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance from Whitman College and a Performer Diploma in Early Music from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she studied with Stanley Ritchie.

Anna has performed with period ensembles around the U.S., including Pacific MusicWorks, the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Alchymy Viols, Byron Schenkman & Friends, Bach Akademie Charlotte, the Bloomington Bach Cantata Project, and Bourbon Baroque. Anna also enjoys performing at music festivals, such as the Oregon Bach Festival, the Montana Early Music Festival, the Princeton Festival, and Festival Internacional de Música Sacra in Quito, Ecuador. Anna is a member of Las Aves, a research-oriented ensemble that produces historically informed programs of Renaissance and early Baroque chamber music. Anna was a finalist in the 2020 Indianapolis International Baroque Concerto Competition.

In her spare time, Anna loves cooking, spending time outdoors, learning and writing fiddle tunes, and playing with her baby, Antonio.

kristin olson
oboe

A product of the Cascade and Everett youth symphonies, Kristin Olson, oboe, is thrilled to return home to the Seattle area for this concert with the Seattle Baroque Orchestra. Kristin has performed across the US, Mexico, and Europe as an orchestral player, a soloist, and chamber musician. Active on both period and modern oboes, Kristin has a particular love for the piercing yet flexible tone of the classical oboe. She holds degrees from the California Institute of the Arts, the University of Southern California, and the Juilliard School. Kristin lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband, two children, and a variety of backyard birds, frogs, and snakes. 

Elizabeth Phelps
Violin

A native of Hamden, CT, violinist Elizabeth “Libby” Phelps leads a diverse career on both baroque and modern violin. Currently based in Seattle, she regularly plays with the Seattle Symphony and numerous baroque ensembles on the West coast. Before moving to Seattle, she served as principal second violin in the North Carolina Symphony from 2013 to 2018. During this time, she frequently performed as a soloist with the group and was sought after as a recitalist and chamber musician throughout the state. She also discovered her love of Historically Informed Performance and attended workshops with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and American Bach Soloists. Subsequently, she has performed with the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, and Portland Baroque Orchestra. In 2018, she was invited to the Grand Tetons Music Festival to perform a recital with Jeannette Sorrell. An avid chamber musician, she often returns to North Carolina to play with the Mallarme Chamber Players in Durham.

Prior to winning her position in the NC Symphony, Libby completed a four-year fellowship with the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, FL, where she performed as concertmaster under Michael Tilson-Thomas, collaborated with Christian Tetzlaff and Paula Robison in chamber performances, and played in a masterclass for Jordi Savall. Other orchestral experiences include the Grant Park Orchestra of Chicago, the Verbier Festival Orchestra, and the Lucerne Festival Academy, where she played under the baton of the late Pierre Boulez.

Libby received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Paul Kantor and Stephen Rose. On baroque violin, she has studied with Enrico Onofri, Marc Destrube, Elizabeth Field, Elizabeth Blumenstock, and David Wilson. She lives with her partner Matthew Decker, a percussionist in the Seattle Symphony, and is passionate about body awareness, art, and a good cup of coffee.

Elizabeth Phelps website

Sarah Pizzichemi
Violin

Dr. Sarah Pizzichemi (DMA, MM, BM) has distinguished herself as a versatile and passionate artist and educator with international performances and masterclasses as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician. She is a founding member and violinist of Skyros Quartet, established in 2010, and co-creator of Skyros Quartet’s 501(c)3 nonprofit: Constellation Creatives. Skyros Quartet has performed extensively across Asia and North America and are passionate teaching artists in the Pacific Northwest region. Sarah is co-artistic director of Chamber Music Guild, a 501(c)3 chamber music education nonprofit with six programs including the CMG in-school coaching program for which Sarah co-created the curriculum, and The Counterpoint Club podcast. She is co-founder and owner of the music publishing company Evergreen Music Press, which has a mission to broaden string and chamber music education.

Sarah has many private violin students, and maintains the award winning Pizzichemi Violin Studio. Her students regularly perform as soloists with orchestras, attend prestigious music festivals, win and place in competitions, and go on to earn college degrees in music. Sarah was concertmaster of the Saratoga Orchestra of Whidbey Island from 2016 to 2022. She has also acted as co-concertmaster of the Pacific Northwest Conducting Institute from 2017 through 2022. Sarah has also performed with the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, Auburn Symphony, Waco Symphony, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, substituted as concertmaster of Seattle Modern Orchestra, and was previously concertmaster of the Seattle Collaborative Orchestra from 2015 to 2019.

Sarah received her Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance with honors and her Master of Chamber Music degrees from the University of Texas at Austin, and her Doctor of Musical Arts with an emphasis in String Quartet from The University of Nebraska-Lincoln as part of the graduate quartet-in-residence with Skyros Quartet. She also studied early music at UNL with Dr. Peter Lefferts and Dr. Christopher Marks. Her dissertation, “Virtuoso Violinist Maud Powell: Enduring Champion of American Women in Professional Music,” adds to the research literature of feminist musicology. Her main mentors include the Coleman Violin Studio, Ingrid Matthews, Brian Lewis, Sandy Yamamoto and the Miró Quartet, Hyeyung Yoon and the Chiara String Quartet, Jerzy Kaplanek and the Penderecki Quartet, Earl Carlyss, James Dunham, and Sylvia Rosenberg.

Elizabeth Phelps website

elizabeth reed
cello

Elisabeth Reed teaches Baroque cello and viola da gamba at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she is co-director of the Baroque Orchestra.  Her playing has been described in the press as, “intense, graceful, suffused with heat and vigor” and “Elisabeth Reed provided the authentic Baroque sound, with her delicately nuanced and powerful playing of the Baroque cello and viola da gamba.”  A member of the American Bach Soloists, Voices of Music, and Wildcat Viols, she has also appeared with the Seattle, Portland, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestras, and at the Boston Early Music Festival, the Berkeley Early Music Festival, the Ohai Festival, the Whidbey Island Music Festival, and the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival.  A graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts, the Oberlin Conservatory, the Eastman School of Music, and Indiana University’s Early Music Institute, she can be heard on the Virgin Classics, Focus, and Magnatune recording labels.  She also teaches baroque cello and viola da gamba at the University of California at Berkeley.  Highlights of this current season include performances of Haydn trios with Ian Swensen and Ken Slowik at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.; 17th century German chamber music with Monica Huggett in Portland, OR; French Baroque chamber with Byron Schenkman and Ingrid Matthews and the St. John Passion with Steven Stubbs and Pacific Musicworks in Seattle, WA.  She is a Guild-certified practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method of Awareness Through Movement, with a focus on working with musicians and performers.

Annabeth Shirley
cello

Cellist Annabeth Shirley, a native Oregonian, performs regularly with ensembles throughout the Pacific Northwest, including Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Vancouver Early Music, the Oregon Bach Festival, Baroque Music Montana, and Portland Baroque Orchestra, where she is honored to hold the Ruth K. Pointdexter Chair. Past performances in Europe include concerts with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Nederlandse Bachvereniging, and Le Concert d’Apollon, as well as multiple appearances in the Utrecht Early Music Festival. She teaches in workshops including the Seattle Baroque Flute Summer Workshop and Baroque Music Montana’s Period Performance Workshop. Annabeth holds a bachelors and masters degree in Baroque Cello from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and bachelors degrees in Cello Performance and Biology from the University of Michigan. She plays a cello of anonymous origin from approximately 1830, and she currently resides in Salem, OR, with her husband, bassoonist Nate Helgeson.

jeffrey snedeker
horn

Jeffrey Snedeker has been on the music faculty at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington, since 1991.  A Board of Trustees Distinguished University Professor at CWU, his current teaching duties include horn, music history, and directing the CWU Horn Ensemble. A founding member of the Northwest Horn Society, Jeff is a Past President of the International Horn Society, and has received several awards for teaching, research, and service, including the national Artist Award from the Phi Kappa Phi national honor society, and the Washington state Timm Ormsby Award for Faculty Citizenship.  In 2018, Jeff was selected for the Washington Music Educators Association Hall of Fame.  He has also been selected as the Higher Education Music Educator of the Year by the WMEA and received the 2020 IHS Service Medal of Honor. Jeff has been a featured artist, clinician, lecturer, and host of regional, national, and international conferences on six continents, and is recognized as a leading performer and scholar of the horn, especially solo repertoire, jazz, and historical performance.

Since winning the Natural Horn Division of the American Horn Competition in 1991, Jeff has performed on natural horn with the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Early Music Vancouver, the Oregon Bach Festival, Pacific Baroque Orchestra (Vancouver, BC), the American Guild of Organists, the Benevolent Order for Music of the Baroque (Seattle), the Seattle Classical Players, as well as numerous performances and presentations symposia of the Historic Brass Society, International Horn Society, Northwest Horn Society, Stiftung Koster Michaelstein Musikinstitut für Aufführungspraxis, Bach at the Sem series (St. Louis), Lopez Island Performance Seminar, and guest recitals all over the world.

As a scholar, Jeff has published over 50 articles on a variety of musical topics, including entries in The Encyclopaedia of Popular Music, journals of the International Horn Society, Historic Brass Society, American Musical Instrument Society, Music Educators Journal, Jazz Education in Research and Practice, VOICE Magazine, Composition Today, and the second edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. He recently completed two books, Horn Teaching at the Paris Conservatoire 1792-1903 (Routledge), and International Horn Society: The First 50 Years. He has released five solo recordings featuring the natural horn and the horn in jazz settings.  Jeff has been Principal Horn of the Yakima (WA) Symphony Orchestra since 1992.  He lives in Ellensburg with his extremely patient wife. 

courtney kuroda
violin

Courtney Kuroda resides in Seattle and is an active performer of early music in the area with ensembles including Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Byron Schenkman and Friends, and the Salish Sea Early Music Festival.  She has also performed throughout the U.S. and Canada with period ensembles including Portland Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica Baroque in Los Angeles, Pacific Baroque, Ensemble Mirable, Indianapolis Baroque, and has recorded with Opera Lafayette in Washington D.C.  She has also participated in the Bloomington and Boston Early Music Festivals, Pacific Baroque Festival, and the Oregon Bach Festival.  She received her master’s degree in performance from the Historical Performance Institute at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where she studied baroque violin with Stanley Ritchie.

Adaiha MacAdam-Somer
Cello

Adaiha MacAdam-Somer is highly sought after as a chamber and orchestral musician across the United States and Europe. She splits her time and passion equally between cello, baroque cello, and all branches of the viola da gamba family. From her home base in Portland, Adaiha performs with a variety of ensembles including Portland Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Voices of Music, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and Voice of the Viol, which she is Artistic Director of. As an educator she maintains a studio of private students, coaches the Bridgetown Baroque Ensemble, substitute teaches for youth orchestras and chamber ensembles, and is a regular guest instructor of workshops. Adaiha holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her principal teachers include Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Elisabeth Reed, Uri Vardi, and Laszlo Varga.

LINDSEY STRAND-POLAYAK
VIOLIN

Lindsey Strand-Polyak has loved Early Music ever since her first music history teacher, the late George Shangrow, introduced her to Leonin and Perotin— so much so that she earned a PhD//MM in musicology and violin performance from UCLA. Since then, she has traveled widely as a performer and educator. Dr. Strand-Polyak is Artistic Director of Los Angeles Baroque and was Assistant Director of the UCLA Early Music Ensemble from 2011-2015. Artist residencies include Michigan State University, University of Richmond, Northwestern State University of Louisiana, and University of Northern Colorado. A few of her favorite music festivals have included the Oregon Bach Festival, Baroque Festival Corona del Mar, Twin Cities Early Music Festival, and the Fringe of Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals; and some of her favorite musicking moments have been playing with groups like Bach Collegium San Diego, Pacific MusicWorks, Musikanten Montana, American Bach Soloists and of course, Seattle Baroque. She is currently Adjunct Professor of Violin and Viola at Claremont Graduate University. You’ll see her on stage performing on a 1776 Richard Duke violin and a mid-18th century viola by Master Anonymous, but on her days off you might catch her playing tenor viol in a consort. She serves on the Board of Directors of Early Music Seattle.

brandon vance
violin

Internationally acclaimed Scottish fiddler and violinist, Brandon Vance,  is the recipient of Scotland’s 2017 Royal National Mòd “Sutherland Cup” in Scottish Fiddle, as well as being the youngest to win the U.S. National Open Scottish Fiddling Championship in both 1999 and 2001. 

Vance has performed and taught internationally, serving as a guest lecturer at the University of Limerick’s Irish World Academy, appearing as guest artist for the 50th Anniversary of the Armagh Piper’s Club at the William Kennedy Piping Festival, and being selected as a featured soloist at the 2017 Scottish Royal National Mòd in Fort William.

With a M.M. from the Cleveland Institute of Music, one of the continent’s most distinguished conservatories,  Vance performs with Seattle-based Pacific Music Works, Early Music Vancouver, Northwest Sinfonietta, mandolinist John Reischman, vocalist Nadia Tarnawsky, Alex Fedoriouk, uilleann piper Eliot Grasso, and composer Stephen Rice.

In addition to being a founding member of Celtic Ensemble Dréos and World Music Ensemble Alchymeia, Vance is a composer with a distinctive melodic and harmonic vocabulary, having given the world premiere of his original composition “Gael Storm” for fiddle and orchestra with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra at Severance Hall.   Vance has had the honor of serving as music director and violin soloist for the world premiere of “Odyssey of These Days,”  a work composed by Eliot Grasso, and presented at the Hult Center in Eugene, Oregon,as a musical response to a set of nine paintings by Wesley Hurd that deal with loss, grief, and hope.  Recently, Vance has worked with his Celtic ensemble Dréos to compose, arrange, and perform music for the world premiere of Ballet Fantastique’s “Sleepy Hollow.”      In addition to having a well-established international career as a violinist and fiddler, Vance is also emerging as a traditional Gaelic singer, having been ranked 3rd in the Skye and Sutherland Open Competition at the 2017 Royal National Mòd.