Daniel Yeadon is exceptionally versatile as a cellist and viola da gambist, performing repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to contemporary. As a chamber musician he has performed in many major venues and festivals throughout the world. He co-founded Ironwood, an Australian ensemble known for its presentations of the classics alongside new commissions for early instruments. Daniel is a part-time member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, has appeared as soloist with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and has performed on several national chamber music tours for Musica Viva Australia. He performs every year with Pinchgut Opera. For many years he was a member of the renowned period instrument ensemble Florilegium and later joined the Fitzwilliam String Quartet. Daniel continues to be guest principal cellist with many of the period instrument ensembles based in London, including the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Daniel has made many award-winning recordings, including an ARIA winning disc of sonatas by J.S. Bach with Richard Tognetti and Neal Peres Da Costa; the J.S. Bach sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord with Neal Peres Da Costa; J.S. Bach cantatas and Brandenburg concertos with John Eliot Gardiner and English Baroque Soloists, in addition to many critically acclaimed recordings with Ironwood, Florilegium and the Fitzwilliam Quartet.

Fiona Ziegler, viols

Fiona Ziegler began her violin and piano studies with her mother, violinist, Eva Kelly, later studying violin with Christopher Kimber and Harry Curby, piano with Nancy Salas and cello with Lois Simpson. Fiona, also a prominent baroque violinist, has performed with Ensemble de la the Reine, The Marias Project, The Sydney Consort, Concertato, The Australian Forte Piano, the Renaissance Players and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. She has also performed regularly with The Sydney Chamber Choir, Coro Innominata, the Sydney Soloists and has led the Sydney Philharmonia since 1992.As a chamber musician Fiona has performed with the Gagliano String Quartet, the Sydney String Quartet. Trio Pollastri, the Vuillaume Trio, Josie and the Emeralds on Tenor Viol, the Grevillea Ensemble, and Plektra and Completely Plucked on mandolin and mandola. Fiona is an Assistant Concertmaster of the Sydney Symphony.

Catherine Upex, viols

Catherine Upex studied cello with Dorothy Sumner and Georg Pedersen.  She attended the University of Sydney, graduating with a BMus (Hons) (majoring in Performance) in 1997. In 1994, while studying Baroque performance as part of her degree, Catherine started learning the viola da gamba with Jennifer Eriksson. Since 2000, Catherine has performed regularly with the Marais Project and played on several Marais Project CDs including “Viol Dreaming” (2007), “Love Reconciled” (2009) and “Lady Sings the Viol” (2012). She has also performed on the viola da gamba in masterclasses with Wieland Kuijken, Jaap ter Linden, Susie Napper and Margaret Little and has played with several ensembles including the Renaissance Players, Salut! Baroque, the Sydney Consort, Thoroughbass and the Opera Project.   She is now a regular member of Josie and the Emeralds and Consort 8. She has also taught cello at several Sydney schools and currently teaches at the Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School, the Scots College and Lane Cove Public School.

Pippa Macmillan, viols

Pippa Macmillan is a renowned specialist of historical bass instruments, and she has held the position of principal double bass with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra in Toronto since 2019. She holds degrees in Historical Performance from the Royal Academy of Music (London), and The Juilliard School (NYC). Following her studies, she was appointed Professor of Baroque Double Bass at the Royal College of Music (London) in 2015, a position she held until she moved to Toronto. 

Pippa has recently moved to Australia, where she works with ensembles including Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Australian Baroque, Australian Haydn Ensemble and Pinchgut Opera. Back in her native UK, Pippa has performed with English Concert, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, English Baroque Soloists, Academy of Ancient Music, and Florilegium. She has appeared as guest principal double bass with the Handel & Haydn Society, Boston, and with Montreal-based viol consort Les Voix Humaines on tenor viol. In 2015 she appeared in London’s West End, in the Globe Theatre’s production of Farinelli and the King, and subsequently on Broadway when the play transferred there in 2017.

Pippa is a trained Suzuki teacher on double bass, cello and piano, and has taught and accompanied at a number of Suzuki courses in the UK. Her students are regularly members of the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. 

Laura Moore, viols

In 2010, Laura completed her Bachelor of Music Performance (Cello) at the Victorian College of the Arts under the direction of Josephine Vains. During this time, she also studied Viola da Gamba with Miriam Morris. Laura has participated in master classes with Jordi Savall, Les Voix Humaine and Stanley Richie. She is a regular performer in Melbourne and Sydney with Consort Eclectus and Josie and the Emeralds. She has also made guest appearances with The Australian Chamber Orchestra, Ironwood, Camarata Antica, Sydney Consort and numerous other early music ensembles. Laura was an ABC Rising Star with fellow Viola da Gamba player, Reidun Turner, and has participated in ABC recordings with Consort Eclectus and Josie and the Emeralds.

Imogen Granwal, viols

Imogen Granwal began cello lessons with James Tennant as a child in New Zealand. She moved to Sydney to embark on undergraduate studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. By 1998 she had completed her Post Graduate Diploma in Performance Cello with the late Lois Simpson. Imogen completed a Masters degree on viola da gamba at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Daniel Yeadon and Neal Peres da Costa. Her diverse musical interests are perhaps the trademark of her career. Her long-standing fascination with the music of Latin American has led to over a decade of collaboration and performance with Chilean folk musicians in the contemporary Latin American ensemble Trio Matiz. This interest recently merged with her passion for Early Music and Historical Performance Practise with a concert of Early Music from Latin America with her group Baroque Iluminata. Imogen is co-artistic director of The Pearl and Dagger Company which produced the 17^th century masque Cupid and Death to full houses in 2014. Now based in New Zealand where she is a regular member of Orchestra Wellington, Imogen is also the director of the innovative early music ensemble The Night Watch. As well as loving historical performance, Imogen has a keen interest in both historical clothing and cookery, and regularly dresses in Victorian era clothing just for fun.

Anthea Cottee, bass viol

Anthea Cottee is a busy performer on a variety of instruments from modern and baroque cello to viola da gamba, basse de violon and also the 14-stringed lirone. She enjoys the challenges of exploring the different bass instruments and the changes of nuance and colour which they bring to the music. Anthea has appeared as a soloist on both baroque cello and gamba for the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, where she has been a regular member since she returned from her studies in London. She played with Les Talens Lyrique for their 1998 performances in Australia, has played with onstage bands for Opera Australia and in March, 2011 was continuo cellist for Handel’s Partenope. She also plays and records with many groups including Pinchgut Opera, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestra of the Antipodes, Salut! Baroque and the Huntington Baroque Ensemble.

Simon Martyn-Ellis, lute, theorbo

Simon Martyn-Ellis began playing the lute after finding the classical guitar repertoire too restrictive for ensemble performance: continuo collaborations remain a mainstay of his activities. Simon returned to Australia in August 2019 after 17 years abroad, having lived and worked in first Germany for a decade, and then the United States. Intensely grateful for his experiences, he looks immensely forward to working with past, present and future colleagues from home and around the globe. You can hear him working within Pinchgut Opera, Latitude 37, the Australian Haydn Ensemble, Van Diemen’s Band, ARCO, Salut! Baroque, Ensemble Galante, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Duo Corbetta, along with other small but special collaborations. His particular interests are in vocal works, either in opera or intimate recitals, baroque and romantic guitar repertoire, and finding the groove in Early Music. But really, he just has a great time making music with people, exploring the diversity and richness of the sounds of plucked strings from the 16th to the 19th Centuries.

GUEST ARTISTS

Joshua Keller, bass viol

Joshua Keller is an avid performer and teacher of viol, lirone, and cello. After studying viola da gamba with Wendy Gillespie and Hille Perl, Josh embarked on an international performance career. He has performed in the early music festivals of Bruges, Bremen, Bloomington, Regensburg, Thüringen, and in the opening ceremonies of the Utrecht Early Music Festival. Early and modern orchestras alike continue to invite him to play the viol solos of Bach’s Passions. He has worked with Opera Theater St. Louis, Opera Studio Netherlands, Opera NEO San Diego, and Scherzi Musicali (BE) playing lirone. He maintains a private teaching studio, teaches viol at the University of Memphis, and cello at the Memphis Music Academy. Joshua also maintains an active local music life playing in chamber ensembles, and recording at local studios. He has recorded with Josh Lee, Masaaki Suzuki, and Música Ficta. Beyond music, Josh loves rollerskating, practicing Pilates and his two boxers, Margot and Hiram.

Reidun Turner, bass viol

Reidun Turner completed her studies in viola da gamba at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen, Germany, in 2016 under the tutelage of Hille Perl. Before her studies in Germany, she also completed a Bachelor of Music at the University of Melbourne. As well as Hille Perl, Reidun has been fortunate enough to count Frauke Hess, Miriam Morris and  Ruth Wilkinson among her teachers as well as participating in numerous masterclasses and summer schools with the likes of Jordi Savall, Paulo Pandolfo, Wieland Kuijken and Vittorio Ghielmi. Reidun founded the Saltbush Ensemble along with recorder player Ryan Williams and performs with Australia’s preeminent Viola da Gamba Consort, Consortium. She is also regularly engaged by Baroque ensembles and travels to teach and tutor around Australia.She has played major local and international festivals including the Adelaide Fringe Festival, the Castlemaine Arts Festival and Musicadia. She has performed in live broadcasts for ABC Classics FM and 3MBS and was recorded in 2009 as part of the ABCs ‘Rising Stars’ program. In addition to Viola da Gamba, Reidun extends her passion for music working as a consultant for a leading Audio Visual company.

Richard Boothby, bass viol

Richard Boothby has been playing the viol since being introduced to it by David Fallows in 1977. He went on to study with Charles Medlam and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Richard founded two leading early music ensembles, The Purcell Quartet in 1984 and Fretwork in 1985 and recently co-founded Trio Aporia with Stephen Preston (baroque flute) and Jane Chapman (harpsichord), dedicated to exploring contemporary music as well as core baroque repertoire. Richard has recorded over 80 CDs with The Purcell Quartet and Fretwork for recording companies including Hyperion, Chandos, Harmonia Mundi USA and Virgin Classics. Among his most recently recordings are a CD of the complete solo lyra viol music of William Lawes and the recently-discovered fantasias by Telemann. Richard is professor of viola da gamba at the Royal College of Music in London and teaches in the Marnaves viol course in southern France.

Wendy Gillespie, viols

Wendy Gillespie is a musician who teaches early bowed strings, historical performance, and early notation. She has performed all over the world with ensembles ranging from the Ensemble Sequentia to the English Concert, participating in more than 100 recordings for Linn, Harmonia Mundi, EMI, Virgin Classics and other recording companies. As a member of the viol consorts Fretwork and Phantasm, Gillespie has shared three Gramophone awards and several other cool prizes. In 2010, she received EMA’s Thomas Binkley Award, and in 2011, the Alumnae Achievement Award from her alma mater, Wellesley College. Wendy is Past President of the Viola da Gamba Society of America and was for many years Professor of Music at the Jacobs School of Music, Bloomington Indiana, USA. She is very much in favour of books and enjoys marbling paper.

Lisa Terry, bass viol

LISA TERRY is an avid chamber music performer and soloist on viola da gamba and violoncello, and has spent her career as a long-term member of many of the best known chamber ensembles in the early music scene of the Northeast. Her home base is in New York City, where she is a member of the viol quartet, Parthenia. Lisa is principal cellist and viol soloist with Tempesta di Mare, Philadelphia’s baroque orchestra, and is a member of the Dryden Ensemble in Princeton; she works regularly with the Lyra Consort (NYC) and Pegasus Early Music (Rochester). She was a founding member of ARTEK, and has performed with the New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera, Juilliard Opera Orchestra, Opera Lafayette, Orchestra of St. Luke’s and Concert Royal.
Lisa earned her degree in cello performance from Memphis State University and continued her studies in New York with Richard Taruskin, viol, and Harry Wimmer, cello. She appears to great acclaim as soloist in the Passions of J.S. Bach, notably under the batons of Robert Shaw, Richard Westenburg, Kent Tritle and Lyndon Woodside in Carnegie Hall, in the Jonathan Miller staged performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music conducted by Paul Goodwin, and at the Winter Park Bach Festival, conducted by John Sinclair. With Parthenia, she records for MSR Classics. With Tempesta di Mare, she records for Chandos.
Lisa teaches viola da gamba and cello privately in New York, and at workshops around the country – at Amherst Early Music Festival, Pinewoods Early Music Week, Madison Early Music Festival and the VdGSA Conclave. She is President of the Viola da Gamba Society of America

Sarah Mead, lyra viol, viols

Sarah Mead first encountered early music in high school, when she danced and sang as Queen Elizabeth in a production led by Ingrid Brainard. After studying music history and choral conducting at Yale, she pursued graduate study in early music at Stanford both as a viol player and a choral conductor. She and her spouse were musicians at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival before moving east in 1979. She began teaching viols at Brandeis University in 1982, and is now Associate Professor of the Practice there, directing the Early Music Ensemble, teaching music history, and serving as a frequent guest choral conductor. In 2007 Early Music America recognized her with the Thomas Binkley Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Collegium Director. Her handbook on 16th-century music theory is a staple in performance practice programs, and she is recognized throughout North America as a clinician in historical performance. She has taught early music ensembles at Tufts & Northeastern Universities in the Boston area, as well as at Trinity College of Music in London, and has taught theory & performance practice in the graduate program in early music at Longy School of Music in Cambridge. She has been a guest International Tutor for workshops in Australia and Great Britain. Formerly Program Director for Early Music Week at Pinewoods, she now directs the annual Conclave of the Viola da Gamba Society of America. She serves on the boards of the VdGSA, Early Music America, and Pinewoods Camp, Inc.

Joëlle Morton, bass viol

Joëlle Morton has three decades of experience performing on violas da gamba and historical double basses in North and South America, Europe and Australia. Joëlle was a member of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (double bass) before deciding to pursue early music as a specialty. Since then, she has performed regularly with many of the leading period instrument ensembles and organizations in North America, such as Tafelmusik, the New York Collegium, Les Voix Humaines (Montreal), Handel Haydn Society (Boston) and Philharmonia Baroque (San Francisco), among many others. Joëlle has additionally collaborated in chamber music programs all over the world, and for more than 20 years has been organizing chamber programs of her own design, drawing from the extensive contacts she makes within her freelance musical activities. She is additionally highly reputed as a teacher of violas da gamba and historical double basses; since 2005 she has been on the faculty at the University of Toronto, and is regularly invited to teach internationally at early music workshops. Joëlle holds an undergraduate degree from The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and Masters and Doctoral degrees in Early Music Performance from the University of Southern California.

Elizabeth Rumsey, viols

Elizabeth Rumsey began her musical studies at the Sydney Conservatorium, and after a Bachelor degree and Postgraduate Diploma on recorder with Howard Oberg, moved to Europe for further study on recorder and early bowed string instruments. She studied with Randall Cook (Fiddle) and Rebeka Ruso (Viola da gamba) at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, with a focus on Medieval music, and in 2005 graduated with honours in Medieval Fiddle. Her main repertoire is music of the 15th and 16th centuries, with brief forays into the modern world of Telemann trios and Bach Passions. In addition to working with her own viol consort, she plays regularly with small and large ensembles based in and around Switzerland (Chant 1450, Profeti della Quinta, The Earle his Viols, La Morra, Leones, Ensemble Daedalus among others), and has made many CD, television and radio recordings.

Mary Springfels, viols

Mary Springfels remembers hearing New York Pro Musica perform early music for the first time when she was 14 years old. She immediately fell in love with it and began learning early music instruments in college. For most of her adult life, Mary Springfels has devoted herself to the performance and teaching of  medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music. She earned her stripes performing with many influential pioneering ensembles and individuals including the New York Pro Musica, the Elizabethan Enterprise, Concert Royal, the Waverly Consort, Sequentia, the Folger Consort, Marion Verbruggen, and Monica Huggett. For 20 years she directed the innovative Newberry Consort, and can be heard on dozens of recordings. She has taught and performed in summer festivals throughout the US, among them the San Francisco, Madison, and Amherst Early Music Festivals, the Texas Toot, the annual Conclaves of the Viola da Gamba Society of America, and the Pinewoods Early Music Week. In 2007, she was given the Howard Mayer Brown award for an outstanding career by Early Music America. In that year, Mary moved to New Mexico. She performs locally as a guest with the Albuquerque Baroque Players, the Santa Fe Pro Musica, and Serenata.

Belinda Montgomery, soprano

Belinda Montgomery graduated in 1997 from Sydney University with a Bachelor of Music (Honours) in Voice and has since established a freelance career in Sydney, where she is particularly active as an early music specialist. She has appeared regularly with such ensembles as The Marais project, The Sydney Consort and Salut Baroque. Solo engagements have included Bach Cantatas and Vivaldi Gloria (The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra), Handel’s Dixit Dominus (Sydney Philharmonia Motet Choir), Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Handel’s Israel in Egypt, Faure’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem and Solemn Vespers (Sydney Chamber Choir) and Steve Reich’s Drumming (Synergy Percussion). In 2003 she gave the world premiere performance of Andrew Ford’s award-winning song cycle, Learning to Howl. As both a soloist and chorus member she has performed and recorded extensively with Cantillation, Australia’s leading professional chorus. Belinda sang the role of Iris in Pinchgut Opera’s inaugural production, Handel’s Semele, in 2002 and has appeared as soloist and chorister in many subsequent productions.

 

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