2012 SMF Artists

Amadi Azikiwe, violist, has been heard in recital in major cities throughout the United States, such as New York, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Houston, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., including an appearance at the U.S. Supreme Court. In recent seasons, Mr. Azikiwe been a guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at the Alice Tully Hall in New York, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Since then, he has performed throughout Israel, Canada, South America, Central America, India, Japan, Hong Kong, and throughout the Caribbean. He has also collaborated with such artists as Awadagin Pratt, Mitsuko Uchida, Andras Schiff, Nobuko Imai, David Soyer, and Felix Galimir.



Chester Biscardi, composer-in-residence, is a recipient of the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Academy Award in Music, the Aaron Copland Award, fellowships from the Bogliasco Foundation, the Djerassi Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, grants from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and a commission from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress. He received an M.M. in Musical Composition from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an M.M.A. and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale. He is the Director of the Music Program at Sarah Lawrence College. Visit chesterbiscardi.com for further information.


Flutist Mary Boodell has won acclaim not only for her orchestral playing as Principal flutist of the Richmond Symphony but also for her numerous chamber music performances. Praised for her "lovely tone, excellent technique and seamless phrasing," she is equally at home in baroque and contemporary music. Ms. Boodell has performed at festivals across the US and Europe, including at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl, the Eastern Music Festival, and the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy.  She has collaborated with esteemed artists such as the Shanghai Quartet, Jaime Laredo, and Yolanda Kondanassis. Born in Chicago, Ms. Boodell received her Bachelor of Music at the Oberlin Conservatory and her Master of Music at Northwestern University. Her teachers have included Robert Willoughby, Walfrid Kujala, and Keith Underwood.


Tenor Tony Boutté made his professional debut as Orfeo in Monteverdi’s Orfeo (Skylight Opera). Further roles include leads in Don Giovanni, Acis & Galatea, and Satyagraha. Recordings include: St. John Passion (Bach), Armide (Lully), Œdipe à Colone (Sacchini), Carbon Copy Building (Bang on a Can), Arjuna’s Dilemma (Cuomo). Ensembles performed with: Les Arts Florissants, Arcanum, Tafelmusik, Les Talens Lyriques, Opera Lafayette, Boston Baroque, Orchestra of St. Luke’s. World premiers include Michael Gordon’s Chaos, BOAC’s Carbon Copy Building & Douglas Cuomo’s Arjuna’s Dilemma. Festivals: Salzburg, BAM’s Next Wave Festival, Aspen, Bard, Schleswig-Holstien, Settembre, Aldeburgh, Versailles. Carnegie Hall debut: Handel’s Messiah (2006). Tony is currently on the faculty of University of Miami's Frost School of Music and is co-artistic director (with Colin St. Martin) of Arcanum (arcanumensemble.com).

Chris Carrillo, trumpet, is a Grammy nominated performer and Bach Trumpets performing artist. He can be heard on several radio broadcasts of NPR’s Performance Today and he has performed with the symphony orchestras of Austin, Corpus Christi, Jacksonville, Laredo, Tupelo, and Victoria. As a soloist, he has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Victoria Bach Festival. He joined the faculty of James Madison University in 2009 where he teaches studio trumpet and performs as Principal Trumpet of the Madison Brass.




Bassoonist Stephanie Corwin plays extensively on baroque, classical, and modern instruments. As a soloist, she was named the inaugural winner of the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Bassoon Competition in June 2005 and was a semifinalist in the 2007 Ima Hogg Young Artists Competition. She has also received prizes at the Fischoff, Coleman, Chesapeake and Yellow Springs national chamber music competitions. Stephanie enjoys playing with a wide variety of ensembles, including the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the American Classical Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society, Opera Lafayette, Concert Royal, and the New Haven Symphony. She received her DMA from Stony Brook University and her MM from Yale. Stephanie also holds a Performer Diploma in historical bassoons from Indiana University’s Early Music Institute, where she studied with Michael McCraw. Visit stephaniecorwin.com.

Violinist Martin Davids founded and directs the Callipygian Players in Chicago, and is concertmaster of Reno Baroque Ensemble and Bach Collegium of Ft. Wayne.  He is a member of Baroque Band and Brandywine Baroque. He has performed with Music of the Baroque, Central City Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Aradia, Toronto Consort. Mr. Davids received his M.M from the University of Michigan and a Performer Diploma from the Early Music Institute at Indiana University where he studied with Stanley Ritchie. He teaches violin at Loyola University Chicago and has recorded for Plectra, Cedille, Musica Omnia, and Albany records. He is known for his work on the electric violin with his electric Baroque ensemble Discontinuo, and in modern compositions.


Pianist Gabriel Dobner won the special accompanist prize in the International Hans Pfitzner Lieder Competition in 1994. He has performed regularly with notable singers Cornelia Kallisch, René Kollo and Alexandra Petersamer in many European concert venues including Vienna and Zürich. He has performed in the United States, Canada and Japan. He has recorded for the Ottavo, MDG and Kannevas labels. His recording of Schubert's Die Winterreise with baritone Kevin McMillan was released in 2007. Gabriel Dobner joined the faculty at James Madison University in the fall of 2001. He earned advanced degrees from Indiana University in Bloomington, studying with James Tocco and Leonard Hokanson.



Charles Dotas, is Director of Jazz Studies at James Madison University. He was on the Faculty of Jazz Studies at McGill University from 1994-1998. Dotas is an active jazz educator, adjudicator and clinician. He has been Composer-in-Residence at jazz festivals and universities throughout the United States. His music has been performed and recorded by university ensembles in Germany, Australia, South Africa, Canada, and the United States, and is published by UNC Jazz Press, Dorn Publications, Walrus Music, and Schirmer Music. Dotas studied with Ray Wright, Manny Albam, Bill Dobbins, Fred Sturm, and Samuel Adler. He holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Northern Colorado.


Dr. Jonathan Gibson, concert commentator, is a faculty member in the School of Music at James Madison University, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in music history and historical performance practice.  He is a specialist in Baroque music, and has presented scholarly papers at conferences across the U.S. and abroad. His most recent publications appear in the Journal of Musicology and in the book Fiori musicali—the latter of which includes Gibson’s essay on an aria from J. S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Dr. Gibson is founder and director of two early music ensembles: the Peartree Consort and the Valley Collegium Musicum. He plays the viola da gamba, as well as Renaissance and Baroque recorders.


Bob Hallahan has performed and taught jazz in a wide variety of venues and institutions throughout Virginia and around the globe, including concerts at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, tours of Russia, China and Turkey, and club engagements at Washington’s Blues Alley and the Jazz Standard in New York. He has appeared as both a featured soloist and with internationally recognized jazz artists such as Joe Henderson, Clark Terry and Anita O'Day. Currently an assistant professor of jazz in the School of Music at James Madison University, Bob taught for many years at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Virginia, and was artist-in-residence at Vermont’s Middlebury College. Since 1997 he has taught every summer at Interplay Jazz Camp in Vermont.


Pianist Edward Janning, native of Amsterdam, performs regularly with the Erard Ensemble. Other performances have brought him to various countries such as Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Germany, the United States, and Russia. Since 2009 he directs a new yearly music festival in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, a historic town on the outskirts of Amsterdam. Teaching piano and chamber music is also an important part of Edward's activities. Janning attended the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, studying with Willem Brons and Jan Wijn. After completing his studies in the Netherlands, he accepted the invitation by the Russian pianist Boris Berman to further his education at the Yale University School of Music. Janning has collaborated with numerous chamber musicians such as the Mondriaan Quartet, violinist Yayoi Toda, baritone Henk Neven, and violist Esther Apituley.

Violinist Gesa Kordes performs with numerous chamber ensembles and Baroque orchestras including the Washington Bach Consort, Ensemble Musical Offering, Muses’ Delight, Opera Lafayette, Ensemble Tra i Tempi, the Rheinisches Barockorchester Bonn, and the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra.  She has toured as soloist and chamber musician in the U.S., Central America, Europe, and Israel, and has recorded for NPR, harmonia mundi, FONO, Dorian, and Naxos.  Since 1998, Ms. Kordes has been in demand as a teacher and ensemble director of chamber groups and period orchestras in the U.S. and Europe. After teaching at Indiana University and UNC-Greensboro, she joined the faculty of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in August 2009 as the director of the newly-founded Baroque Ensemble.

A sought-after chamber musician who performs regularly at such noted venues as the Spoleto Festival and the Garth Newel Music Center, Tony Manzo is also Solo Bassist of San Francisco’s New Century Chamber Orchestra. He is also a regular guest artist with the National Symphony in Washington D.C. and with Camerata Salzburg in Austria. Recent highlights include performances with the St. Lawrence Quartet, with Menachem Pressler and the Auryn Quartet, and a critically-acclaimed US tour with the New Century Chamber Orchestra. He is also an active performer on period instruments, with groups including The Handel & Haydn Society of Boston, and Opera Lafayette in Washington, D.C. Mr. Manzo is a faculty member of the University of Maryland and the National Orchestral Institute.


Washington McClain, baroque oboe, recorder, obtained his Bachelor Degree from the Northeast Louisiana University. He received his Master's Degree in oboe at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. He was the first woodwind player performing on period instrument to be featured in the specialized publication Windplayer Magazine. He has performed with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, the Aradia Ensemble, Apollo's Fire Baroque Orchestra, Opera Lafayette, Washington Bach Consort, the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, with Ensemble Arion, the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, Clavecins en Concert and Les Idées heureuses. Mr. McClain currently teaches at The Early Music Institute at Indiana University.


Baritone Kevin McMillan's career includes a Grammy award, a Gramophone award and Juno award nominations. He has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony. He has worked with Herbert Blomstedt, Pierre Boulez, Raphael Frühbeck de Burgos, Sir Andrew Davis, Charles Dutoit, Neeme Jarvi, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Kurt Masur, Sir Roger Norrington, Hellmuth Rilling and the late Robert Shaw and Sergiu Commissiona. After preliminary schooling at the Universities of Guelph and Western Ontario, Kevin studied at the Britten-Pears School, and attained a Master's Degree at Juilliard. He sang the title role in Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' oratorio, Job; and the Canadian premiere of Songs of Milarepa by Phillip Glass. For more information visit http://www.kevinmcmillan.ca

Vladimir Mendelssohn, viola, composer-in-residence, has produced works for solo instruments, mixed choir, symphony and chamber orchestra. His chamber works include four string quartets, Nova for clarinet, string trio, piano and percussion, and Don Aldebarran for seven stringed instruments, piano and actor. He has also composed music for ballet, stage and screen. Mr. Mendelssohn is Professor of chamber music at the Paris Conservatoire. He also teaches at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen. He collaborated on a prize-winning recording of Brahms Lieder. He has performed at Gidon Kremer's Lockenhaussen and Dmitry Sitkovetsky's Wasa Festival.


Since his debut at the Ravinia Festival in 2004, Jesse Mills has performed throughout the U.S. and Europe, including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, 92nd Street Y, Kennedy Center, Marlboro Festival, Barbican Centre of London, La Cité de la Musique in Paris, and theaters in
Amsterdam, Milan, and Brussels. He earned Grammy nominations for his performances of Schoenberg's music, released by NAXOS in 2005 and 2010. He can also be heard on the Koch, Centaur, Tzadik, Max Jazz and Verve labels. Mills is co-founder of Duo Prism with a pianist Rieko Aizawa, which earned 1st Prize at the Zinetti International Competition. With Aizawa, Mills became co-artistic director of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival. A Juilliard graduate, he studied with Dorothy DeLay, Robert Mann and Itzhak Perlman.


Clarinetist Janice L. Minor is an active orchestral player, soloist, chamber musician, and clinician performing in a wide variety of venues throughout the US and Europe. She has been a soloist with the United States Army Europe Band in Heidelberg, Germany, the Northwest Symphony Orchestra, and Lucca Music Festival Orchestra in Italy. She has performed with the Cincinnati Symphony, Cincinnati Opera, Richmond Symphony, and Roanoke Symphony. She has appeared at the Aspen Music Festival, Interlochen, and the Kennedy Center. She is a member of the Montpelier Wind Quintet, the Prestige Clarinet Quartet and has performed on soundtracks for The Discovery Channel and National Geographic. Ms. Minor is the clarinet professor at James Madison University and the Saarburger Serenaden: International Music Festival and School in Saarburg, Germany.

Violinist Diane Pascal has been a member of the Lark and Rosamunde String Quartets and appeared as Concertmaster with the Camerata Salzburg and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and with the Zagreb Chamber Orchestra as Artistic Director. She has recorded for the Arabesque and ECM labels, including a recording of Amy Beach’s Sonata for Violin and Piano with the pianist, Joanne Polk. Ms. Pascal performs as soloist and chamber musician at many renowned music festivals and is an avid proponent of “new” music. She has held teaching positions at Bennington College and the University of Oklahoma. Her own studies were at the Curtis Institute of Music and the “Mozarteum” in Salzburg with Ivan Galamian and Sandor Vegh. Ms. Pascal resides in Vienna, Austria.


Minna Pensola. Since winning 3rd prize at the Nordic NordSol Competition in 1997, Minna Pensola has performed extensively as a chamber musician and soloist.  She is a founding member of string quartet Meta4 which is the first prize winner of the Dimitri Shostakovich String Quartet Competition (Moscow 2004) and the Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition (Vienna 2007).   Minna has studied at the Sibelius Academy, Musikhochschule Zürich and European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA) and enjoyed valuable guidance of Kaija Saarikettu, Ana Chumachenko, Hatto Beyrle and Josef Rissin. She is the Artistic Director of the Sysmä Summer Sounds Festival (Finland) and has also spiced up the Helsinki night life by launching there a club for classical music in 2008. 

Pianist Lori Piitz is Professor of Piano at James Madison University. She has participated in the Bach Festival at EMU, the Contemporary Music Festival at JMU and the Richmond Chamber Music Festival and has been heard in recital at the Kennedy Center. Ms. Piitz has been a guest at the Festival of the Sound in Canada, the Schleswig-Holstein and Villa Musica Festivals in Germany, and at the Mozart Bicentennial Series at Lincoln Center. Ms. Piitz holds performance degrees from Indiana University and the University of Ottawa where she was awarded the prestigious Isobel Firestone Performance Scholarship, and has attended the Banff School of Fine Arts. She has studied with Menahem Pressler, Leonard Hokanson, Jean-Paul Sevilla and Helgi Fatovic.


David Pope is a noted saxophonist and composer, holding degrees from UMASS, Amherst and Eastman, with additional studies at the University of Miami. He has toured North America and Europe with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, the Sax Maniacs and Saxology. He has publications with Hal Leonard, Dorn, and Ex Tempore. Known for his unique mastery of multiphonic saxophone performance, he has recorded two masterclass CD's and authors a regular column in Saxophone Journal. David has been on the faculty at James Madison University since 2000. His former students teach and perform throughout the country. His teachers include Lynn Klock, Yusef Lateef, Fred Sturm, Gary Keller, and Ron Miller.


Roger Roe, Acting Principal Oboe of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Southern Methodist University and Arts Magnet High School in Dallas. He has held oboe and English horn positions with the orchestras of Honolulu and Charleston, South Carolina. He is Associate Professor of Oboe and English Horn at Indiana University and served on the faculty of DePauw University for six years. In addition to solo appearances with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra on oboe, oboe d’amore, and English horn, Roger acts as narrator for children’s programs. He is a winner of the Fort Worth Young Artist Competition and of a Downbeat Magazine Award as Outstanding Young Classical Instrumentalist.


SMF Artistic Director Carsten Schmidt performs a repertoire ranging from the early Baroque to new works, of which he has premiered more than 100. He has appeared at the Ravinia Festival, International Schubert Festival in Amsterdam, the German Mozart Festival, Merkin Hall in NYC, Kennedy Center, and Kaleidoscope Festival in Moscow, and he has been heard in radio broadcasts worldwide. Since 2004 he has conducted opera productions of Handel and Purcell, and a concerto program at the Kuhmo Festival in Finland. He holds Artist Diplomas from the Folkwang Institute, Indiana University, and a doctorate from Yale. He has been Professor of Music at Sarah Lawrence College in NY since 1998.


At home in front of a harpsichord, organ, piano, or fortepiano, David Schrader has performed with the Chicago, San Francisco, and Dallas Symphony Orchestras, as well as with Chicago's Baroque Band, The Newberry Consort, The Chicago Chamber Musicians, and the Chicago Baroque Ensemble. He performed as the Artist of the Year at the Oulunsalo Soi Music Festival in Oulu, Finland. He was the harpsichord soloist with the Nagaokakyo Chamber Ensemble under Yuko Mori and the Canadian baroque orchestra Tafelmusik. He is Professor of Music at Roosevelt University's Chicago College of the Performing Arts Music Conservatory, where he has taught both graduate and undergraduate courses since 1986.


Jason Stell, commentator and music historian, received his Ph.D. in 2006 from Princeton University with a dissertation on the functions of chromatic pitches in Classic era music. Previous degrees in music and astronomy were from Pennsylvania State University.  He currently serves on the board of the Staunton Music Festival and writes concert notes for SMF and other local and regional musical events.  His notes have appeared at the Kennedy Center and New York’s Merkin Hall. Stell performs regularly with the early-music vocal ensemble Zephyrus and has studied piano with Robert Taub, Cecilia Dunoyer, and Carl Blake.


Colin St. Martin, baroque flute and recorder, received his First Prize (Bachelor of Music) from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, Belgium, under the tutelage of Barthold Kuijken and a Master of Music with Performer's Certificate of the Early Music Institute at Indiana University. Mr. St. Martin performs with Opera Lafayette, the Washington Bach Consort, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Amercian Bach Soloists, Pegasus, The Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Arcanum, and Bach Vespers, among others. He is a recording artist as well as professor of early flute at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Timber Flute Festival in Elkins, West Virginia.



Finnish violinist Antti Tikkanen spends most of his time with the string quartet Meta4. But on the side Antti enjoys playing solo, leading orchestras and performing with different kinds of chamber-groups. Ever since he started studying and playing the baroque violin new doors have opened. Lately his side-projects, such as planning chamber concerts for the Finnish Baroque Orchestra and playing contemporary music written for baroque instruments, have had more and more to do with gut strings and different kinds of bows. Antti first studied violin at a small music school in Oulainen and continued studies at the Sibelius Academy with Mi-Kyung Lee, CNSM Lyon with Pavel Vernikov and at the European Chamber Music Academy with Hatto Beyerle and Johannes Meissl.


A native of Richmond, Virginia, Zachary Wadsworth is a composer of contemporary art music for a variety of forces. His song cycle, Pictures of the Floating World, was premiered at the Lincoln Center and his opera, Venus and Adonis, has been taken on by five companies since its composition in 2004. His works have been featured on National Public Radio’s Performance Today; published by E.C. Schirmer, PRB Productions, and Alliance Publications; and performed by the Washington National Opera, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Atlanta Philharmonic, and the Long Leaf Opera. He has received composition awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, ASCAP, and the Lotte Lehmann Foundation. Recordings of his music are available on the Gothic label.


Cellist James Wilson has performed to the delight of audiences throughout the world on Baroque and modern cello. He has appeared at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, the Vienna’s Musikverein, the Kőlner Philharmonie, the Taipei’s National Concert Hall, Tokyo’s Casal’s, and the Sydney Opera House. He has also performed internationally at music festivals such as the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the City of London Festival, the Deutches Mozartfest in Bavaria, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival. A resident of New York City and Staunton, Virginia, Mr. Wilson is currently the Artistic Director of the Richmond-based Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia and teaches cello and chamber music at Columbia University in New York City.


John Yannelli, composer of chamber, choral, orchestral and mixed ensemble pieces, works in both traditional and experimental styles of music. His special interests are in the development of electronic music, chamber improvisation and composing for theater, dance and film. Mr. Yannelli has written numerous scores for modern dance and has composed and designed sound for over fifty theater productions. He holds the William Schuman Chair in Music and is the Director of Electronic Music and Music Technology at Sarah Lawrence College. His music is published by Soundspells Productions and John Yannelli Music (ASCAP) and has been performed in major cities throughout the United States, Europe and Russia, including the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Recital Hall where he received critical acclaim for a concert devoted entirely to his music. Visit johnyannelli.com

Ian Zook, horn, is an active orchestral and solo performer and has appeared in concerts throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.  He joined the faculty of James Madison University in 2009 and performs regularly with the Montpelier Wind Quintet and Madison Brass.  An active orchestral musician, he has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Harrisburg, Princeton, Delaware, Richmond and Vermont Symphonies.  Recent summer engagements have included the Verbier Music Festival in Switzerland, Pacific Music Festival in Japan, the Aspen, Sarasota, and AIMS/Graz Music Festivals, and the National Orchestral Institute.  Also versatile as a period instrumentalist, he has performed on natural horn with the New York Collegium and the Washington Bach Consort.


2012 SMF Young Artists

Sarah Davis, mezzo-soprano, is delighted to return for her fourth Staunton Music Festival! A 2010 graduate of James Madison University, she has extensive opera and solo experience, including mezzo solos in the Vaughan Williams Mass in G Minor, Handel’s Messiah and Dixit Dominus, and Durufle’s Requiem, which she performed both in the States and in London. In recent opera performances, Sarah has been seen in Dido and Aeneas (Second Woman), Cosi Fan Tutte (Dorabella), Adamo’s Little Women (Cecilia March), and Carmen (Carmen cover). In June, she performed the title role in Rossini’s La Cenerentola with Bel Cantanti Opera in Washington D.C.. Sarah is pursuing graduate studies with Melody Racine and Martin Katz at the University of Michigan.


Aleksandr Fester currently studies at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland with Katharina Arfken.  Since moving to Europe last year, Alek has performed with members of the Freiburger Barockorchester and Freiburger Kammerchor, the Cologne-based ensemble Das Kleine Konzert/Hermann Max, as well as several other orchestras throughout southern Germany and Switzerland.  Before moving to Basel, he studied with Washington McClain at Indiana University and received his Bachelors from Sarah Lawrence College.




Fiona Hughes is originally from Charlottesville, VA. She studied with Stephen Rose at CIM, and holds a Masters from Oberlin, where she studied with Marilyn McDonald. Past summer music festivals include Banff, ENCORE, Brevard, Kinhaven, and the National Repertory Orchestra. In 2007 she participated in the Pacific Music Festival, touring Japan with maestro Riccardo Muti and the PMF Orchestra. Recent highlights include participation in the Boston Early Music Festival, the Kennedy Center’s Millenium Stage Project, and a performance as soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra in Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” As a baroque violinist, Fiona has performed with Apollo’s Fire, Boston Baroque, and the Handel and Haydn Society under Harry Christophers and Sir Roger Norrington.


Tenor Scott Mello has been praised for his “winningly lucid voice” and being “sonorous and alive to text.” The 2009/10 season marked Mr. Mello’s debuts with Bach Sinfonia and the American Opera Theater performing the title role in Handel’s Jephtha. Additional appearances included the Philadelphia Bach Institute (led by Helmuth Rilling), the American Bach Soloists Academy, and return engagements with Apollo’s Fire in Cleveland and Early Music New York. Highlights of previous seasons include performances of Brahms's Liebeslieder and Neueliebeslieder Waltzer with the Mark Morris Dance Group, The Play of Daniel at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and music of Bernstein and Ramirez while on tour in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mr. Mello can be heard on Avie Records, Ex Cathedra, Dorian Sono Luminus, and Koch International Classics. Visit www.scott-mello.com.

Mark Shuldiner is a 2009 graduate of Oberlin Conservatory's Historical Performance program.  He has played for master classes under the guidance of keyboardists such as Emanuel Ax and Davitt Moroney.  He has had the pleasure of playing harpsichord, celeste, and organ for staged productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream by Benjamin Britten and Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea under the direction of Stephen Stubbs.  While having a rigorous performance schedule, Mark has also been apprenticing with Northfield-based harpsichord maker, Paul Irvin.  Mark is thrilled to be a part of this year's Staunton Music Festival.