Composer: Johann Gottlieb Janitsch

Johann Gottlieb Janitsch (19 June 1708 – 1763) was a German Baroque composer. Janitsch was born in Schweidnitz, Silesia. He graduated from the University of Frankfurt an der Oder. He held various positions at the court of the Kingdom of Prussia, eventually becoming the personal musician of Frederick the Great.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gottlieb_Janitsch

Atistic Direction: Christopher Palameta (oboe)

Called “velvet for the ear” by La Presse(Montreal, June 2006), Christopher Palameta has rapidly become one of the most celebrated baroque oboists in North America. While being hailed as a “refined and intelligent” performer by the Italian Press (Gabriele Formenti, CD Classico, June 2009), Early Music America has stated that Mr. Palameta’s “marvelous oboe playing is smooth and sparkling.”

christopherpalameta.com

Ensemble: Notturna

Notturna is a Montreal-based ensemble dedicated to the performance of early music written especially for wind instruments. The ensemble’s inaugural concert of Mozart wind octets in January 2006 was a live-to-air broadcast on the CBC. The members of the ensemble are all distinguished performers who specialize in historical performance of the 18th and 19th centuries.

www.atmaclassique.com

Composer: Vagn Holmboe

The spirit of folk culture plays an important role in the music of the Danish composer Vagn Holmboe. As was the case with Béla Bartók (one of Holmboe’s most important sources of inspiration), folkloristic studies have… 

www.naxos.com/person/Vagn_Holmboe/23329.htm

Conductor: Dima Slobodeniouk

Dima Slobodeniouk combines his native Russian roots with his years of musical study in Finland, where he now makes his home. Drawing together the powerful musical strengths of these countries has placed Slobodeniouk as one of today’s younger generation of deeply informed and intelligent artistic leaders on the podium.

www.dimaslobodeniouk.com

Orchestra: Nörrkoping Symphony Orchestra

“Magical moments between performer and audience occur during a concert, and the musical experience is intensified when in the company of others. The musicians of the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, together with our guest conductors and soloists, do their utmost to make these moments of magic happen as often as possible!” -Karin Veres, Managing and Artistic Director

www.norrkopingssymfoniorkester.se

Violin: Erik Heide

Swedish-born Erik Heide (violin) graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen in 1998 after studies with Milan Vitek and Tim Frederiksen. Further studies followed at the Musikhochschule in Cologne.

www.dacapo-records.dk/en/artist-erik-heide.aspx

Viola: Lars Anders Tomter

Lars Anders Tomter is one of today’s most outstanding violists. The Giant of the Nordic Viola (The Strad) was born at Hamar, Norway. He began to play the violin at the age of eight and also took up the viola.

www.nordicartistsmanagement.com

The New Mellow Edwards: 
Curtis Hasselbrig, trombone, guitar
Chris Speed, tenor saxophone, clarinet
Trevor Dunn, acoustic and electric basses

PLUS:
Mary Halvorson, guitar
Ches Smith, drums, marimba
Satoshi Takeishi, drums, percussion
Matt Moran, vibraphone, marimba

Lute: Michael Dücker

Michael Dücker was born in Fulda and studied the lute at the Staatliche Musikhochschule in Cologne under Konrad Junghänel, with further study at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt with Yasunori Immamura and of musicology at the University of Würzburg. As a continuoplayer he has appeared performances in many important venues throughout Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

www.naxos.com/person/Michael_Ducker/49288.htm

Composer: Wolfgang Adam Hoffer

Wolfgang Adam Anton Hoffer is a figure shrouded in mystery. Though little is known of his activities, his lute compositions are among the most outstanding of the 18th century.

www.hbdirect.com

Composer: Manuel Ponce

Manuel María Ponce Cuéllar (1882 – 1948) was a Mexican composer active in the 20th century. His work as a composer, music educator and scholar of Mexican music connected the concert scene with a usually forgotten tradition of popular song and Mexican folklore. Many of his compositions are strongly influenced by the harmonies and form of traditional songs.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Ponce

Piano: Álvaro Cendoya 

The son of a Basque father and an Iranian mother, Álvaro Cendoya was born in San Sebastián in 1960. He first studied at the local Conservatories and then in Madrid. Subsequently he moved to Buenos Aires, where he studied the piano for three years with Bruno Leonardo Gelber and later continued his piano studies in London with Noretta Conci and Peter Feuchtwanger.

www.naxos.com/person/Alvaro_Cendoya

Composer: Adalbert Gyrowetz

(Adalbert Gyrowetz) (1763 – 1850) was a Bohemian composer. His father was the choirmaster in Budweis’ cathedral, and Adalbert first studied with him. Adalbert then traveled to Prague, where he studied law but continued to learn music. At around this time he was in the employment of Count Franz von Fünfkirchen in Brno, whose employees were all musicians. Here he started composing, among other things, symphonies, of which he was eventually to write over 60.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adalbert_Gyrowetz

Performers: Pleyel Quartett Köln

It is a particular onus of the Pleyel Quartet in their work that lesser-known composers be brought into performance context with the works of their more famous colleagues, thus adding to the new aural perspectives arising out of each ensemble member’s broad experience in historical performance practice.

www.pleyelquartett.de/en/ensemble

Composer: Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki

Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki (ca. 1665 – 1734) was a Polish Baroque composer. The earliest recorded information on any of Gorczycki’s works comes from 1694, but he must have written a substantial amount before 1698 in order to be appointed Kapellmeister. Unfortunately none of his compositions were ever published during his lifetime, so most of them have been lost; 39 works can, however, be attributed to him with surety.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grzegorz_Gerwazy_Gorczycki

Conductor: Andrzej Kosendiak

Graduate, and now lecturer at Academy of Music in Wrocław, as well as Artistic Director of Collegio di Musica Sacra early music ensemble (since the foundation in 1985). Besides performing early music, his interests focus on educational and organizational issues.

www.filharmonia.wroclaw.pl

Ensemble: National Forum of Music (Narodowe Forum Muzyki)

Soprano: Susan Gilmour Bailey

Born and raised in the Canadian prairies, soprano Susan Gilmour Bailey emigrated to London in 1999 to complete her Masters in Vocal Performance at the Royal Academy of Music. Performing throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and North America, Susan enjoys a varied career of concert, oratorio, and opera.

susangilmourbailey.com

Countertenor: Matthew Venner

The English counter-tenor, Matthew Venner, has been involved with choirs, and singing in general, since the age of 6 when he sang in his father’s parish church choir. From there, he went on to become a chorister at Westminster Abbey, held a music scholarship at Bedford School and was awarded a choral scholarship at New College, Oxford.

www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Venner-Matthew.htm

Warren Walker, saxophone/effects
Gaël Petrina, bass/effects
Caleb Dolister, drums/laptop

Composer: Carl Heinrich Graun

Carl Heinrich Graun (1704 – 1759) was a German composer and tenor singer. Along with Johann Adolph Hasse, he is considered to be the most important German composer of Italian opera of his time. Graun wrote a number of operas. His opera Cesare e Cleopatra inaugurated the opening of the Berlin State Opera (Königliche Hofoper) in 1742. Montezuma (1755) was written to a libretto by King Frederick.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Heinrich_Graun

Conductor: Michael Alexander Willens

Michael Alexander Willens received B.M and M.M degrees at the Juilliard School in New York, where he studied conducting with John Nelson. He has also studied with Jacques-Louis Monod, Harold Farberman, Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood, and choral conducting with Paul Vorwerk.

www.koelnerakademie.com/index.php?id=3&L=1

Performers:  Die Kölner Akademie (The Cologne Academy)

Die Kölner Akademie – Orchester Damals und Heute is a unique ensemble based in Cologne which performs music of the seventeenth through the twenty first centuries on  both modern and period instruments with world renowned guest soloists. The ensemble seeks to bring out the composers’ intentions by using historical seating plans, critical editions and the proper instrumentation for each work.

Alto: Dagmar Saskova

Tenor: Jan Kobow

Berlin native and tenor Jan Kobow has been a recognized figure in the music world since winning first prize in the 1998 Leipzig Bach Competition. He has established an international reputation as a Baroque vocal musician and has been invited to perform worldwide

www.orfeo-artist-management.de/jan-kobow-tenor.html

Bass: Andreas Wolf

The young German Bass-Baritone Andreas Wolf, received his first musical education at the special school for music Wernigerode, Germany and was also a member of the renowned youth choir “Rundfunk-Jugendchor Wernigerode”.

www.andreas-wolf.info

Composer: Luigi Mancinelli

Luigi Mancinelli (1848 – 1921) was a leading Italian orchestral conductor. He also composed music for the stage and concert hall and played the cello.Mancinelli was on the conductors’ roster of the New York Metropolitan Opera for 10 years, ending in 1903. In that capacity he conducted 531 performances of a variety of mainstream operas by Italian, French and German composers; but, in 1899, he led a performance of his own opera, Ero e Leandro.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Mancinelli

Conductor: Francesco La Vecchia 

“…If it is true that the history of Italian music has been marked by performers who have represented our culture with pride on the world stage,  it is also true for orchestral conducting. In Francesco La Vecchia, it has found the greatest expression of such pride, and innate, skilful artistic talent…” - Giancarlo Arientoli – Segni d’Arte

www.francescolavecchia.com/ing/index.php

Orchestra: Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma

Just ten years since its inception – ant it has always operated in the absence of public funding – the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma is already considered by international critics as one of the most qualified European symphony orchestras. The Rome Symphony Orchestra was founded in 2002 at the conclusion of a Course Professional Training given by the European Parliament at the Arts Academy of Rome.

www.orchestrasinfonicadiroma.it