Virginia Best Adams Masterclass Showcase

Saturday, July 27 at 1:00PM, Carmel Presbyterian Church

Addy Sterret, soprano; Sylvia Leith, alto; Blake Beckemeyer, tenor; Jason Augustus Rober, bass; Chloe Fedor, violin; Joseph Tan , violin; Alissa Smith, viola; Cynthia Keiko Black, viola; Michael Unterman, cello; Bruce Moyer, double bass; Ellen Sherman, oboe; Stephen Bard, oboe; David A. Wells, bassoon; Michael Beattie, organ; Daniel Swenberg, lute

Four emerging vocal stars from our Virginia Best Adams (VBA) Masterclass perform Baroque masterpieces with members of the Festival Orchestra. The VBA presents free, open masterclasses throughout the Festival.

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Director

Michael Beattie
Michael Beattie

Date

Jul 27 2024

Time

1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Featuring

  • Daniel Swenberg
    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.

  • Chloe Fedor
    Chloe Fedor
    Violin

    Lauded for her “lovely, plush, seductive tone” and described as “clearly gifted” by the New York Times, violinist Chloe Fedor is sought after throughout the country as a concertmaster, soloist and chamber musician. She appears regularly with The American Classical Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, Early Music New York, New York Baroque Incorporated, The Sebastians, and Trinity Wall-Street Baroque Orchestra, among others.

    In 2018, Chloe joined the cast of Shakespeare’s Globe on Broadway as the onstage Baroque violinist in Farinelli and the King, starring Sir Mark Rylance and Iestyn Davies. Chloe spends her summers at the Carmel Bach Festival, Oregon Bach Festival and Lakes Area Music Festival, where she leads the Baroque program.

    Chloe was a concerto competition winner at both of her Alma Maters, The Eastman School of Music and The Juilliard School, and was one of 15 Juilliard 2015 graduates to receive the Career Advancement Fellowship.

  • Ellen Sherman
    Ellen Sherman
    Oboe

    Ellen has appeared with the Carmel Bach Festival since 1998.​

    Ellen is principal oboe of the Grand Rapids Symphony. She was formerly principal cor anglais with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and principal oboe of the Memphis and Virginia symphonies. She was a past participant at the Santa Fe Chamber Music, Schleswig-Holstein and served on the faculty at The Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music and The Round Top Festival Institute. Ellen toured Europe with the Utah Symphony in April 2005 and was a guest in 2014. She holds degrees from The Juilliard School (MM) and the New England Conservatory of Music (BM), and has recorded for the Koch, New World, Sterophile and Naxos labels.

  • David A. Wells
    David A. Wells
    Bassoon/Contrabassoon

    David A. Wells plays period and modern bassoons in a wide variety of ensembles and styles. On baroque bassoon, he has performed recently with the American Bach Soloists, Capella Antiqua, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, the Sacramento Baroque Soloists, Sinfonia Spirituosa, and at the Oregon and Carmel Bach Festivals. On modern bassoon, he freelances with orchestras throughout Northern California, collaborates with colleagues in chamber groups, and plays with the swing sextet Hot Club Faux Gitane.

    He is also active as a music scholar, having presented papers at the conferences of the American Musicological Society, the Society for American Music, and the International Double Reed Society. Wells is on faculty at California State University, Sacramento, where he teaches bassoon and music history.

    He holds both a D.M.A. in bassoon performance and an M.A. in musicology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and previously studied at Florida State University and Arizona State University. His principal teachers include Jeffrey Lyman, Jeff Keesecker, and Marc Vallon. When not playing or teaching, he can be found swimming, taking photographs, collecting records, and trying to keep up with his super-librarian/yogi wife, Veronica.

  • Joseph Tan
    Joseph Tan
    Violin

    Based since 1997 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Joseph maintains an active performing and recording schedule as a member of ensembles such as the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Anima Eterna Brugge, Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco, Holland Baroque, and the Australian Classical and Romantic Orchestra (ARCO), working regularly with pioneers in the field of historical performance such as Ton Koopman, Jos van Immerseel, and Reinhard Goebel.

    After receiving a Bachelor of Music degree in modern violin from the University of Texas at Austin, Joseph studied Baroque violin with Marilyn McDonald at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he earned a M.M. degree in 1997. From 1997-2001, he studied with Monica Huggett and Elizabeth Wallfisch at the Royal Conservatory, The Hague.

  • Cynthia Keiko Black
    Cynthia Keiko Black
    Viola

    Born in Dallas, Texas, Cynthia Keiko Black enjoys performing as a violinist and violist playing music from several centuries at home in the Bay Area and across the United States. She is a core member of INCANTARE, an ensemble of violins and sackbuts, and a founding member of the Costanoan Trio, a period instrument piano trio. She is looking forward to upcoming season appearances with the American Bach Soloists, the Carmel Bach Festival, Chatham Baroque, the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Ars Minerva, and the Washington Cathedral Baroque Orchestra.

    She can be heard on recordings with Apollo’s Fire, the American Bach Soloists, and the Queen’s Rebels, and will be releasing an album of rarely heard duos for violin and viola from the late eighteenth century later this year.

    Amidst an active performing career, Cynthia teaches a studio of young people at the Crowden School’s Community Program in Berkeley. She holds modern viola degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and completed a doctorate in Historical Performance Practice from Case Western Reserve University.

    In her free time, Cynthia enjoys cooking and baking, watercoloring, and growing vegetables. She is a proud resident of Richmond, California where she lives with her trumpet-playing and harpsichord-building husband, Dominic Favia.

  • Stephen Bard
    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.

  • Michael Beattie
    Michael Beattie
    Keyboards, Organ, Harpsichord

    Michael Beattie has received international attention as a conductor, keyboardist, and vocal coach specializing in the music of the Baroque period. Conducting engagements have included Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Glimmerglass Opera); Handel’s Rinaldo, Rodelinda, and Riccardo Primo (Pittsburgh Opera); and Handel’s Teseo (Chicago Opera Theater). For Boston’s Emmanuel Music, he has conducted Handel’s Ariodante, the St. John Passion, the complete Bach Motets, and more than one hundred Bach cantatas.

    A highly regarded keyboard player, Mr. Beattie has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, BachFest Leipzig, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Boston Baroque, the Handel and Haydn Society, Les Violons du Roy, New World Symphony, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. He toured in the US and Europe with director Peter Sellars: as Assistant Conductor for the Mozart/Da Ponte cycle and as organist for staged Bach cantatas with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.

    Beattie is currently Artistic Administrator and Principal Keyboardist of Emmanuel Music. He has recorded for KOCH International Classics and Nonesuch records.

  • Blake Beckemeyer
    Blake Beckemeyer
    VBA Tenor
  • Sylvia Leith
    Sylvia Leith
    VBA Alto
  • Jason Augustus Rober
    Jason Augustus Rober
    VBA Bass
  • Addy Sterrett
    Addy Sterrett
    VBA Soprano
  • Michael Unterman
    Michael Unterman
    Cello
  • Bruce Moyer
    Bruce Moyer
    Double bass

Location

Carmel Presbyterian Church
Carmel Presbyterian Church
Junipero St &, Ocean Ave, Carmel-By-The-Sea, CA 93921
Website
https://www.carmelpres.org/

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