Featuring
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Clara Rottsolk
Soprano Soloist
Soprano Clara Rottsolk has been lauded by The New York Times for her “clear, appealing voice and expressive conviction” and by The Philadelphia Inquirer for the “opulent tone [with which] every phrase has such a communicative emotional presence.” A brilliant and accomplished concert artist, her solo appearances have taken her across the United States, the Middle East, Japan, and South America.
“With a silken voice capable of extraordinary power” (San Diego Union-Tribune), she has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including Baltimore Symphony, American Bach Soloists, Santa Fe Pro Musica, the American Classical Orchestra, Richmond Symphony, Bach Collegium San Diego, Virginia Symphony, New Mexico Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Trinity Wall Street, and Seattle Baroque Orchestra, under the direction of conductors including Grete Pedersen, Nicholas McGeegan, Jeffrey Thomas, Dinis Sousa, Stephen Stubbs, David Danzmayr, Joshua Rifkin, Ruben Valenzuela, Chia-Hsuan Lin, Timothy Nelson, and Andrew Megill.
Also dedicated to chamber and recital repertoire, she performs with ensembles including Les Délices, TENET, Piffaro the Renaissance Wind Band, Colorado Bach Ensemble, House of Time, and Pegasus Baroque. Frequently in demand as a festival soloist, her credits include Carmel Bach, Berkeley Early Music, Montréal Baroque, Spoleto USA, Winter Park Bach, Seattle Bach, St. Louis Bach, Indianapolis Early Music, Whidbey Island Music, and Boston Early Music Fringe.
Her solo recordings can be found on Chandos, Analekta, MSR Classics, and independent labels. Currently she is based in Philadelphia and teaches voice at Swarthmore, Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges.
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Dashon Burton
Bass-baritone Soloist
Hailed as an artist “alight with the spirit of the music” (Boston Globe), three-time Grammy-winning bass-baritone Dashon Burton has built a vibrant career, performing regularly throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Burton’s 2024/25 season begins with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, led by Gustavo Dudamel. Highlights of the season include returns to the Milwaukee Symphony for his second season as Artist-in-Residence, featuring Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and later Bach’s Ich habe genug, both conducted by Ken-David Masur. He makes his Boston Symphony subscription debut with Michael Tilson Thomas’ Walt Whitman Songs, conducted by Teddy Abrams, and his Toronto Symphony debut in Mozart’s Requiem under Jukka-Pekka Saraste. Additional performances include Brahms/Glanert’s Serious Songs and Mozart’s Requiem with the St. Louis Symphony under Stéphane Denève; Mozart’s Requiem with the Minnesota Orchestra and Thomas Søndergård; and Handel’s Messiah with the National Symphony, led by Masaaki Suzuki.
During the 2023/24 season, Burton collaborated frequently with Michael Tilson Thomas, including performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the San Francisco Symphony and Copland’s Old American Songs with the New World Symphony. He also sang Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Washington Bach Consort, Handel’s Messiah with both the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and performed the title role in Sweeney Todd at Vanderbilt University. With the Cleveland Orchestra, he appeared in a semi-staged production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. As the Milwaukee Symphony’s Artist-in-Residence, Burton joined Ken-David Masur for three subscription weeks.
A multiple award-winning artist, Burton earned his second Grammy Award in 2021 for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for his role in Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison with The Experiential Orchestra (Chandos). He won his first Grammy in 2013 as an original member of the groundbreaking ensemble Roomful of Teeth for their debut album of new commissions. In 2024, he earned his third Grammy for their latest recording, Rough Magic, featuring works by Caroline Shaw, William Brittelle, Peter Shin, and Eve Beglarian.
Burton’s discography also includes Songs of Struggle & Redemption: We Shall Overcome (Acis); the Grammy-nominated recording of Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road (Naxos); Holocaust, 1944 by Lori Laitman (Acis); and Caroline Shaw’s The Listeners with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. His album of spirituals received critical acclaim, with The New York Times calling it “profoundly moving…a beautiful and lovable disc.”
Burton holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College and Conservatory and a Master of Music degree from Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music. He is currently an assistant professor of voice at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music.
Dashon Burton appears by arrangement with Colbert Artists Management, Inc., 307 Seventh Avenue, Suite 2006, New York NY 10001.
Forays into more varied repertoire have included his performances of Michael Tippet’s A Child of our Time at Harvard, Barber’s Dover Beach, and Hans Eisler’s Ernste Gesaenge with A Far Cry chamber orchestra in Boston, Copland’s Old American Songs with the Kansas City Symphony, Schubert’s Die Winterreise with string quartet, and performances and recording of Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard with the vocal group Conspirare. Last season, he premiered Paul Moravec’s new oratorio, Sanctuary Road, at Carnegie Hall and performed David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Dashon’s 2018/19 season begins with his debut at the Salzburg Festival in Salomé. He sings Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and with the Cincinnati Symphony, Dvoark’s Stabat Mater with the Houston Symphony, Mozart’s Coronation Mass et al. with Philharmonia Baroque, the C minor Mass with the Grand Rapids Symphony, and the Requiem with the Bethlehem Bach Festival and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He sings also Haydn’s Creation and the role of Zebul in Handel’s Jeptha, the Verdi Requiem, Moussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death, and returns to the Cleveland Orchestra for a subscription week of Schubert’s Mass in E flat Major in May. December finds him performing with the contemporary vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, of which Dashon is an original member, at Paris’Théatre de la Ville in Peter Sellars’ production of Claude Vivier’s Kopernikus, un ritual de mort.
Burton returns to Trinity Wall St. for a Baroque recital this season. For his other recitals in Boston and San Francisco, the program is based on his recording Songs of Struggle and Redemption: We Shall Overcome, singled out by the New York Times as “profoundly moving…a beautiful and lovable disc” in its May 2016 Classical Play list.
Burton’s opera engagements include singing Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte in Dijon and Paris, and the role of Jupiter in Rameau’s Castor and Pollux with Christoph Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques. He has toured Europe in the St. John Passion with Christoph Prégardien’s Le Concert Lorraine, and in Italy with Maasaki Suzuki and the Yale Schola Cantorum in the St. Matthew Passion, a work he also sang on tour in the Netherlands with the NNSO.
Dashon has won prizes from the ARD international Music Competition and the International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, and from the Oratorio Society of New York and the Bach Choir of Bethlehem’s Competition for Young American Singers. He graduated from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and received his Master of Music degree from Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music.
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Gonzalo X. Ruiz
Principal Oboe
Born in La Plata, Argentina, Gonzalo X. Ruiz is one of the world’s most critically acclaimed baroque oboists. He performs as principal oboist and soloist with groups such as Philharmonia Baroque, Ensemble Sonnerie, Boston Early Music Festival, The English Concert, Wiener Akademie, and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He has collaborated with conductors McGegan, Savall, Pinnock, Rattle, Egarr, Manze, Leonhardt, Hogwood, Hassellböck, and many others.
His playing is featured on dozens of recordings including his 2010 Grammy™-nominated recording of reconstructions of the four orchestral suites and the concertos of J.S. Bach. In addition to frequent appearances in recital and with chamber ensembles, his groundbreaking work in new music with American Baroque earned the ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming and the WQXR Record of the Year Award.
Ruiz was appointed to the faculty of The Juilliard School in 2009 and for many years prior taught at Oberlin Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute and the Longy School’s International Baroque Institute and has given master classes at many of the best American and European conservatories. His former students now fill most of the key oboe positions in baroque ensembles across this country. Ruiz is an acknowledged expert in reed design, and examples of his work are on permanent display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In his free time he enjoys playing guitar and dancing tango.
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Daniel Swenberg
Theorbo/Archlute
Daniel plays a wide variety of lutes and guitars: baroque, renaissance, classical/romantic – small, medium, and large. Chief among these is the theorbo – the long lute that you are either wondering about or overhearing your neighbor discuss. While based in New York, Daniel schleps instruments throughout North America and Europe to play with a wide range of ensembles: ARTEK, REBEL, The Metropolitan Opera, Mr. Jones & the Engines of Destruction, Ensemble Viscera, New York City Opera, Opera Atelier/Tafelmusik, The New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Catacoustic Ensemble, the Four Nations Ensemble, Apollo’s Fire, Handel & Hayden, The Green Mountain Project, Tenet, Skid Rococo, the Newberry Consort, with soprano Nell Snaidas, Lizzy & the Theorboys, Music of the Baroque, the Aspen Music festival opera, Staatstheatre Stuttgart, the Orchestra of St Lukes, and more. He has accompanied Renee Fleming and Kathleen Battle at Carnegie Hall. He is on faculty at Juilliard’s Historical Performance program. Daniel received awards from the Belgian American Educational Foundation (2000) for a study of 18th century chamber music for the lute, and a Fulbright Scholarship (1997) to study in Bremen, Germany at the Hochschule für Künste (studying with Stephen Stubbs and Andrew Lawrence King). He studied previously with Pat O’Brien at Mannes College of Music, receiving a Masters degree in Historical Performance (Lute). Prior to this life’s incarnation as a Lutenist, he studied classical guitar at the North Carolina School of the Arts, and musicology at Washington University (St. Louis). His programing integrates and emphasizes music with the history, sciences, economics, politics, and broader culture of its time.
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Eva Lymenstull
Cello
Los Angeles-based baroque cellist and violist da gamba Eva Lymenstull enjoys a diverse career that has taken her across North America and Europe as a soloist, chamber musician, continuo player and orchestral musician. She has performed recently as concerto soloist and principal cellist with the Lyra Baroque Orchestra, guest principal cellist of the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, and Musica Angelica, and has also appeared with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Voices of Music, Tesserae, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and Holland Baroque Society. She has performed at the Carmel Bach Festival, the Utrecht, Boston, and Berkeley Fringe Festivals, and on the Gotham Early Music and Academy of Early Music series.
As winner of the 2017 Voices of Music Bach Competition, Ms. Lymenstull recorded Bach’s D minor cello suite for their online video archive. With performance and research interests ranging from the early Renaissance to the twentieth century, she particularly enjoys playing Classical and Romantic chamber music on historical instruments. Recent recordings can be heard on the Brilliant Classics and Violet Ear labels.
In addition to performing, Ms. Lymenstull teaches baroque cello and viola da gamba as a regular guest artist at the University of Michigan. She holds degrees from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (Jaap ter Linden), Rice University (Desmond Hoebig) and University of Michigan (Richard Aaron), and a doctorate in historical performance practice from Case Western Reserve University.
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Andrew Arthur
Principal Keyboard
A native of the UK, Andrew Arthur enjoys a fine reputation as a conductor, keyboard soloist, ensemble player, and teacher of exceptional versatility. He combines these disciplines within his principal position as Fellow and Director of Music at Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he is also an Affiliated Lecturer in the University’s world-renowned Faculty of Music.
An acknowledged specialist in the music of the Baroque and Classical periods, Andrew is in great demand as a conductor, keyboard soloist, and consort player and has appeared at many prestigious international festivals. He currently holds the positions of Associate Director of The Hanover Band and Musical Director of his own period-instrument ensemble and vocal consort, Orpheus Britannicus. Andrew’s solo and directorial recordings encompass repertory spanning over 400 years.
Alongside his busy concert schedule, he works throughout the year training the Organ Scholars and conducting the Chapel Choir at Trinity Hall with whom, in addition to their regular schedule of services in the College Chapel, he undertakes a number of concerts, recordings, and international tours.
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Marika Holmqvist
Violin
During her over quarter-century career, baroque violinist, Marika Holmqvist has appeared as concertmaster for orchestras and opera companies on three continents, directed ensembles on both sides of the Atlantic, and served as artistic co-director for groups in the USA such as Sinfonia New York (NYC) and the Boston-based ensemble, Cambridge Concentus. Currently her leadership positions include Washington Bach Consort (DC), Reykjavik International Baroque Orchestra (Iceland), Spire Ensemble (KC), Zenith Ensemble (NH), Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Fort Wayne Bach Collegium (IN), and Philadelphia based MIRYAM, among others. Marika is a dedicated and passionate educator, and has served as coach and guest leader for baroque operas at Cornell, Harvard and Rutgers Universities, and given master-classes and lectures at institutions across Europe. Alongside her master’s degree in baroque violin performance from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in the Netherlands, she also graduated with a master’s in baroque violin pedagogy—the first such degree ever granted in Europe. She is a founding member of Philadelphia’s Franklin Quartet and her 30 recordings include the Grammy-nominated Handel’s Israel in Egypt with the Trinity Wall Street Choir and Baroque Orchestra.
Marika is also a dedicated and passionate educator. She has served as coach and guest leader for baroque operas at Cornell, Harvard and Rutgers Universities, and given master-classes and lectures at institutions across Europe. Alongside her master’s degree in baroque violin performance from the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague in the Netherlands, she also graduated with a master’s in baroque violin pedagogy—the first such degree ever granted in Europe.
Her 20-odd recordings include the Grammy-nominated Handel’s Israel in Egypt with the Trinity Wall Street Choir and Baroque Orchestra. Marika has a Finn’s love for the outdoors and when she is not performing or teaching, you will most likely find her cross country skiing, hiking, kayaking, or gravel or mountain biking.
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Stephen Bard
Oboe
Oboist Stephen Bard performs regularly with many of the preeminent period instrument ensembles throughout North America including Portland Baroque, Tafelmusik, Philharmonia Baroque, the Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Bach Collegium San Diego, and Haymarket Opera.
His playing has been praised for “supple tone and incisive technique … at times sounding truly acrobatic in florid passagework” (Chicago Classical Review), “long, amber-tinted lines and pertly articulated phrases” (San Francisco Classical Voice), and being “especially noteworthy for its sensuous lyricism” (Philadelphia Inquirer).
He can be heard on recordings with many of these fine ensembles with the Chandos, Naxos, CBC, and ATMA Classique labels. Stephen has also made appearances at the Oregon Bach Festival and at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. He holds degrees in Music and in Computer Science from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music and is currently based in Philadelphia.
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Cristina Zacharias
Associate Principal Second Violin
Canadian violinist Cristina Zacharias is Artistic Co-Director of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. Frequently featured in solo and chamber music repertoire, she has performed extensively across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Cristina has been part of the Carmel Bach Festival since 2006, and can be heard on over 25 recordings for the ATMA, Analekta, CBC, BIS, Naxos and Tafelmusik Media labels. As an educator, Cristina is active in Tafelmusik’s training institutes as well as at the University of Toronto.
Equally passionate about baroque, classical and modern repertoire, Cristina is a frequent collaborator, guest soloist and director with a diverse group of ensembles, including the Toronto Bach Festival, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, and the Brandon Chamber Players. Cristina holds a Master’s degree in music from McGill University.
*photo credit Tatiana Daubek
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Andrew Staples
Tenor Soloist
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Abigail Nims
Mezzo-soprano Soloist
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Sarah Stone
Viola de gamba
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