Gallery Concerts

MUSIC IN INTIMATE SETTINGS

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Founding Director

Jillon Stoppels Dupree, harpsichord

Acclaimed as “one of the country’s top baroque musicians” (Seattle Weekly), harpsichordist Jillon Stoppels Dupree has captivated audiences in London, Amsterdam, Chicago, New York, Boston, and Los Angeles.  Her playing, praised by the Chicago Tribune as “lively and colorful,” can be heard on the Meridian, Wildboar, Decca, and Delos labels.  A recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, Beebe Fund grant, and NEA Solo Recitalists Grant, she has been featured at the York, Boston, and Berkeley Early Music Festivals, the National Music Museum, and the Cleveland Museum of Art.  The New York Times described her 2006 premiere recording of Philip Glass’s Concerto for Harpsichord and Chamber Orchestra as “superb!”  Jillon has taught at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the Universities of Michigan and Washington, and the Northwest Center for Early Music Studies.

Artistic Director

George Bozarth, fortepiano

Artistic Director George Bozarth is Ruth Sutton Waters Professor of Music at the University of Washington, where he teaches courses on the history of music.  Internationally known as a Brahms scholar, he also specializes in the performance of Classical and Romantic music on period pianos.  His article on Johannes Brahms appears in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2000).  His recent publications include a book on Brahms and the eminent 19^th-century singer George Henschel, articles on the types of pianos that Brahms liked to play and performance issues in Brahms’s music, and a two-CD set of early performances of Brahms’s piano music (1905–25) preserved on Welte-Mignon piano rolls. His next book, now in press, is on the Anglo-Irish pianoforte inventor William Southwell, two of whose instruments he owns.

Julianne Baird, soprano

Of her unique artistry The Washington Post has written that soprano Julianne Baird has “one of the most extraordinary voices in the service of early music that this generation has produced. She possesses a natural musicianship which engenders singing of supreme expressive beauty. Julianne has appeared as soloist with such major symphony orchestras as the Cleveland Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnanyi, the Brooklyn Philharmonic under Lukas Foss, the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, the San Francisco Symphony under Nicholas McGegan, and the English Baroque Soloists under John Eliot Gardiner.In constant demand for solo recitals and performances of baroque opera and oratorio, her recent performances have included appearances at the International Lufthansa Baroque Festival in London and in Bach’s Magnificat at his own Thomaskirche in Leipzig.With nearly 100 recordings to her credit on Decca, Deutsche Gramophone, Newport Classics, and Dorian, Julianne is one of America’s most recorded singers. Holding degrees in voice and musicology from the Eastman School of music, a Diploma in Performance Practice from the Salzburg Mozarteum, and a Ph.D. in music history from Stanford University, she is active as a teacher and scholar at Rutgers University. Her publications include Introduction to the Art of Singing (Cambridge University Press).

Ensemble Electra

Seattle-based Ensemble Electra performs with energy and passion the exciting dazzling and expressive 17^th- and 18^th-century repertoire for recorder, harpsichord, and other Baroque instruments. The players’ many years of experience, both as individual soloists and chamber musicians, have given them the perspective and authority to experiment with unique programming, resulting in highly innovative and dynamic performances. Their improvisatory, spontaneous performance style creates playful and engaging concerts that appeal to audiences of all ages. Their music-making have been characterized in the press as “a personal approach to the listener” and praised as “brilliant and engaging,” “exuberant with an authoritative flair.”

Op. 20 String Quartet

The Op. 20 String Quartet—violinists Adam LaMotte and Cecilia Archuleta, violist Laurel Wells, and cellist Nathan Whittaker—made its debut in 2009 on Gallery Concerts. Founded on the occasion of the 200^th anniversary of the death of Joseph Haydn, the inventor of the genre of string quartet, the ensemble is named after Haydn’s first opus of true string quartets.  The Op. 20 String Quartet performs intellectually engaging, profound, and witty quartets by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven using period bows and gut-strung instruments

Trio Paradies

Trio Paradies—violinist Cecilia Archuleta, cellist Page Smith, and pianist Tamara Friedman—takes its name from the late 18^th-century composer and pianist Maria Teresa von Paradies, a friend of Mozart in Vienna and the subject of Dr. Messmer’s experiments to cure her blindness. The ensemble, which made its debut in 2008 on Gallery Concerts, specializes in the piano trios and string/piano duos of the Viennese Classical and early Romantic periods, performed on historical fortepianos and with period strings.

Zephyrus

Zephyrus is a Seattle-based ensemble that brings together some of this country’s finest early music performers. Founded by flutist Courtney Westcott and violinist Ingrid Matthews in 1991, Zephyrus has performed throughout the United States and Canada, and been heard on CBC and NPR's "Performance Today."

Cecilia Archuleta, violin

Violinist Cecilia Archuleta has performed internationally as an orchestral musician and soloist. Her freelance career in California, where she was born, brought numerous celebrity engagements, including a concert for Princess Grace of Monaco and a performance of the Bach Double Concerto with Jack Benny.  She has appeared as soloist with the Mexico City Philharmonic and, by special request of the First Lady of Mexico, has played before the President of Mexico.  In the Pacific Northwest, she was a founding member of the highly praised Onyx Chamber Players, participated for twelve seasons in the Olympic Music Festival, is a member of the Northwest Sinfonietta, appears on Gallery Concerts, and has played with the Northwest Puppet Center, the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, and the Seattle Symphony.

Joanna Blendulf, Baroque cellist

Baroque cellist Joanna Blendulf, a native of Sweden, has performed as soloist and continuo player in leading period-instrument ensembles throughout the United States.  She holds performance degrees with honors from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Indiana University, where she was awarded the prestigious Performer’s Certificate. She has served as principal cellist of The New World Symphony under Michael Tilson-Thomas and performed with the Atlanta Symphony.Joanna is currently performing with the Portland Baroque Orchestra and Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra and is also an active chamber musician, touring and recording with American Baroque, the Catacoustic Consort, Ensemble Mirable, the Streicher Trio, and Wildcat Viols. She teaches viola da gamba and baroque cello privately and in workshops and master classes across the country and has directed the Collegium Musicum as an adjuct professor at the University of Oregon. She was named runner-up in the 2000 Early Music America/Dorian Competition for her recording of the complete cello sonatas of Jean Zewalt Triemer. Her summer engagements have included solo and chamber performances at the Bloomington, Boston, and Berkeley Early Music Festivals, the Aspen Music Festival, Carmel Bach Festival, and Oregon Bach Festival.

Vicki Boeckman, recorder

Vicki Boeckman has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Scandinavia, England, Scotland, and Germany, and for Danish and Norwegian radio and television. She has taught at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and at the Ishøj Municipal School of Music. Settling in Seattle in 2004, she has been soloist with the Seattle Baroque and Philharmonia Northwest Orchestras, and with The Northwest Girl Choir and the Medieval Women’s Choir.  She is actively involved in the Seattle Recorder Society and is the Music Director for the newly formed Portland Recorder Society. Vicki teaches privately and at the Music Center of the Northwest. Her recordings can be heard on the Kontra Punkt, Classico, Da Capo, Horizon, Musical Heritage America, Paula, Kadanza, and Primavera labels.

Tekla Cunningham, violin

Tekla Cunningham, violinist and violist, performs across the United States and in Europe with such early music groups as the American Bach Soloists, the Artaria Quartet, Musica Angelica, Musica Pacifica, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and the Seattle Baroque Orchestra.She has appeared at the Carmel Bach and San Luis Obispo Mozart Festivals. Her Bay-area ensemble, the Novello Quartet, delights audiences with music by Haydn and his contemporaries, and she is a member of La Monica, whose concerts at the Bloomington Early Music Festival were described as “sizzling.” A native of Seattle, Tekla studied history, German literature, and music at Johns Hopkins University, the Peabody Conservatory, and the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna. She holds a master’s degree from the Conservatory of Music in San Francisco. Since moving back home to Seattle in 2006, she founded the Whidbey Island Music Festival, a summer concert series presenting period-instrument performances of repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Beethoven. Her recent recording include La Monica’s The Amorous Lyre (a recording of repertoire of Merula and his contemporaries), Wayne Horvitz’s new chamber opera Heartsong of Charging Elk, and the soundtrack of Valve Software’s latest video game Left 4 Dead.

Tamara Friedman, piano

Tamara Friedman, praised by the Seattle Times for the depth, wit, and humor of her performances, is a graduate of the Mannes College of Music, where she studied with noted Mozart specialist Lilian Kallir. She has collaborated in concert with such artists as Stanley Ritchie, Jaap Schröder, and Max van Egmond, and has appeared in Seattle and San Francisco with violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock as the Duo Amadeus. In the Pacific Northwest she has performed on the Allegro Baroque and Beyond, Mostly Nordic, and Belle Arte series and for the Governor’s Chamber Music Festival. With a grant from the Jack Straw Artist Support Program she has recorded a compact disc of early Romantic character pieces on her 1815 Streicher (Viennese-style) grand piano, issued by Kreisler Records, which has also released a compact disc of her 2007 Gallery Concerts recital performed on her 1867 Chickering (Boston) grand piano.

Adam LaMotte, violin

Adam LaMotte is becoming well known to audiences throughout the country as a leader of both period and modern ensembles.  Hailed by critics as an “especially compelling” and “superb violinist” with “exceptional talent,” whose performances are “energetic and exquisite,” he has appeared as soloist, concertmaster, and conductor of numerous orchestras, including the Northwest Sinfonietta in Seattle, the String Orchestra of the Rockies, the Astoria Festival Orchestra, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, and the Maggini String Orchestra in Houston.  He co-founded critically acclaimed ensembles in Portland and Houston, and produces many chamber music and chamber orchestra performances.  In collaboration with ensembles such as American Bach Soloists, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Trinity Consort, and Chanticleer, he performs on period instruments.  Adam’s recordings appear on the Cinnabar, Koch, and Warner Brothers Classics labels.

Joshua Lee, viola a gamba

Joshua Leeleads an eclectic musical life performing on viols, violoncello, double bass, and violone with some of the world’s leaders in early music.  Initially trained as a violinist, he began his studies in historical performance practice at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he was a student of Ann Marie Morgan, Mark Cudek, and Webb Wiggins. As a collaborative artist he is a member of New Trinity Baroque and a founding member of the ensembles Concerto Incognito and Marley’s Head, and has performed with the Washington Bach Consort, Olde Friends, Arcadia Players, and Hesperus. Aside from playing early music, Joshua has appeared with such popular artists as The Cure, 10,000 Maniacs, REM, and great late Tammy Wynette in “unplugged” performances across the United States. Also a dedicated educator, he has led educational residencies in inner city schools in Washington, DC, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, as well as annual residencies in rural Kentucky. Now a resident of Portland, OR, Joshua has served on the faculty of the New School of Music in Atlanta, where he was praised by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for his “finely tuned and stylish playing.” Joshua’s performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” and “Harmonia.”

John Lenti, lute

John Lenti has appeared as a solo recitalist and chamber musician on lute and theorbo across the United States and abroad, and his performances have been broadcast on “Performance Today” and “Harmonia.” His playing has been hailed as “a joy to behold” (Seattle Times) and praised for its “nuanced beauty and character” (Gramophone).His recording credits include And I remain..., an album of lute songs and lute solos with soprano Linda Tsatsanis, The Courtesan's Arts for Oxford University Press and The Amorous Lyre with La Monica. John has been assistant music director and plays continuo for the Seattle Baroque Orchestra and is a founding member of the ensembles Plaine & Easie and the I-90 Collective, besides maintaining a busy freelance career performing frequently on both coasts. He studied lute with Nigel North, Jacob

Ingrid Matthews, violin

Violinist Ingrid Matthews is the Music Director of Seattle Baroque Orchestra and one of today’s most respected baroque violinists.  First prize-winner in the 1989 Erwin Bodky International Competition for Early Music, she has performed extensively around the world as soloist, guest director or concertmaster with many leading period-instrument ensembles, including the New York Collegium, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, and Tafelmusik. She founded the Seattle Baroque Orchestra in 1994 with harpsichordist Byron Schenkman. Among the most-recorded baroque violinists of her generation, Ingrid has won international critical acclaim for a discography that ranges from the earliest solo violin repertoire through the Sonatas and Partitas of J. S. Bach. Of the latter recording the critic for American Record Guide wrote “this superb recording is my top recommendation for this music… on either modern or period instruments.” Ingrid has served on the faculties of the University of Toronto, the University of Washington, Indiana University, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, the International Baroque Institute at Longy, and Amherst Early Music, and is currently on the faculty of Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. Matthews is a graduate of Indiana University, where she studied with Josef Gingold and Stanley Ritchie.

Page Smith, cello

Page Smith is solo cellist of the Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Auburn Symphony and was principal cellist of the Northwest Chamber Orchestra for 25 years. She has been principal cellist of the Aspen Chamber Symphony and the New Jersey Symphony, and currently plays frequently with the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera. As a chamber musician she has performed regularly on the Showcase, Pilchuck, Mostly Nordic, and Second City chamber music series, in addition to her appearances for Gallery Concert. Last summer she debuted with the Orcas Island Chamber Music Series. Page has performed as soloist with the orchestras of which she has been principal cellist and also with the Tudor Choir, Opus 7, Choral Arts Northwest, the St. Mark’s Cathedral Choir, Seattle Pro Musica, and the St. James Cathedral Choir.

Margriet Tindemans, viola a gamba

Margriet Tindemans has performed, recorded, and taught early music on four continents. A 2005 Grammy Nominee, she was named “Best Asset to Seattle’s Classical Music Scene” in the Seattle Weekly’s 2004 “Best of Seattle” issue. She has been a frequent guest soloist with such leading ensembles as the Folger Consort, Tragicomedia, and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. She performs and records with Medieval Strings, Seattle Baroque, and Pacific Operaworks, directs the Medieval Women’s Choir of Seattle, and works closely with the Northwest Puppet Center on several productions. Margriet maintains a busy private studio and she is a much sought after director and teacher at workshops, including the Port Townsend Early Music Workshop and the Seattle Academy of Baroque Opera. Her recordings for Harmonia Mundi, Erato, Wildboar, BMG, EMI, Smithsonian Collection, and Koch span the centuries from the music of the German mystic Hildegard von Bingen to works by contemporary composers.

Karen Elizabeth Urlie, soprano

Soprano Karen Elizabeth Urlie appears frequently on opera, concert, and recital stages across the Pacific Northwest. She has been a soloist with the Baroque Northwest Quartet, Northwest Sinfonietta, the Bellevue Chamber Chorus, the Sacred Music Chorale, the Kitsap, Rainier Lyric, and Bellevue Operas, and the Seattle Opera Guild Previews, and is member of the Seattle Opera Chorus. Recently, she worked with Adam Guettel, Tony Award winning composer of A Light in the Piazza, on a recording of his Uncle Vanya for the Intiman Theater.  She is the winner of the 2001 Seattle Ladies Musical Club Awards/Tour Competition, and has been a finalist in the Sun Valley Opera Competition and N.A.T.S. Western Washington Vocal Competition.

Laurel Wells, violin

Violist Laurel Wells has enjoyed an extensive and eclectic musical life, performing from Hong Kong to Norway and throughout the United States.  For twenty years she played with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, between seasons earning Master’s degrees in violin and viola at Indiana University.  She also studied at the Banff Centre in Canada, and performed extensively under the guidance of the Vermeer Quartet.  When not traveling and performing in Asia or Europe, or visiting the Northwest as a member of the Iris Quartet, she played frequently with the Chicago Symphony and various ensembles including City Musick.  In 1995 Laurel settled in Seattle, where she performs often with the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera, is a member of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, was principal violist of the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, and plays on Gallery Concerts and with the Seattle Baroque, Portland Baroque, and Pacific Baroque Orchestras.

Courtney Westcott, flute

Courtney Westcotthas performed as a soloist or principal flute with many of North America’s Baroque orchestras, including Seattle Baroque, NYS Baroque, and Tafelmusik.  Her playing has been described as an “ear-opening experience...such lightness and clarity” (Ithaca Journal).  A graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, she has studied with Robert Willoughby, Barthold Kuijken, and Frans Vester.  She has recorded for CBC, NPR, and the Wildboar, Focus, and Loft labels.  With flute maker Peter Noy she collaborates on the research and development of flutes based on 18th- and 19th-century originals.

Nathan Whittaker, cello

Cellist Nathan Whittaker has enjoyed praise as a recitalist, chamber, and orchestral musician in the United States and Europe.  A graduate of Indiana University, he has studied with Peter Wiley, Helga Winold, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Emilio Colon, Stanley Ritchie, and Robert Marsh.  He has been principal cellist of the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic and associate principal cellist of the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra, and has twice been appointed cellist at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.  As a Baroque cellist Nathan has performed with such artists as Stanley Ritchie, Rachel Barton Pine, and Ingrid Matthews.  Currently pursuing a doctorate at the University of Washington, studying with Toby Saks, he performs as a soloist and with the Bellevue Ballet, the Yakima Symphony, and Seattle Baroque.