A project directed by Steve Bryant, Sweet Corn Productions
Artists’ Biographies
Steve Bryant, countertenor/director, has performed a broad range of early music as a countertenor, mezzo soprano and haute contre. More a mezzo soprano than an alto, he has made a particular specialty of performing music written for the castrati, having performed in a concert version of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and in a one-man drama Voice of an Angel: A Castrato Remembers. He has trained and performed under Alan Curtis, Philip Brett, Andrea von Ramm, Jantina Noorman, Max von Egmond, and classical gesture authority Dene Barnett. His performance venues have included the Castle Rock Festival, the University of California, San Francisco’s Old First Church, and over KPFA radio in the San Francisco Bay Area. Steve is a student of former MGM contract opera artist Maria Greco, who with Gigli shared the highly reputed Rosati as a teacher.
|
|
Charles Coldwell, Baroque recorder, has performed on Baroque and Renaissance recorders throughout the U.S. He was a soloist recently with the Seattle Baroque and the Northwest Chamber Orchestras, and has been heard on National Public Radio’s Performance Today. Mr. Coldwell received a Masters in the Performance of Early Music from the New England Conservatory of Music. He has taught recorder and historical performance practices at the Conservatory and at the Longy School of Music. He co-founded the undergraduate degree program in early music at Longy. For seven years he taught and performed at Castle Hill (Ipswich, Mass.), and for several seasons he performed music at the American Shakespeare Festival (Stratford, Conn.). In April, 1996, he will solo in Telemann’s Suite in A minor with Philharmonia Northwest. He is presently Coordinator of the Fine and Performing Arts Dept. at the Seattle Public Library.
|
|
Jeff Hengst received his B.F.A. in Painting from Penn State University in 1983. After graduating, he traveled to Taiwan and China to study calligraphy and Chinese philosophy with a student of Chencg Da Chien, one of China’s foremost contemporary artisits. In the United States, he has worked in the studios of Jay Midler, Peter Dean, Carol Lee Thea and Frank Stella. Hengst’s work has been exhibited at Columbia University and The Visionary Arts Center among other sites in the United States and Canada. In Seattle, Hengst has had two large paintings installed at Saint Mark’s Cathedral and his work will soon be featured at the Paramount Theater and at the U.S. Bank at Pioneer Square.
Click here to see the two paintings Hengst was commissioned to do for this concert.
|
|
Sarah Freiberg, Baroque cello, recently moved to Seattle after making a name for herself as a member of leading early music ensembles in San Francisco, with whom she continues to perform. These include American Bach Soloists, Streicher Trio, American Baroque, Music Pacifica and Philharmonia, for which she is co-principal cellist. She founding member of the award-winning Sierra String Quartet and has recorded on the Harmonia Mundi and New Albion label, among others. Sarah holds a DMA and MM from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and Artist Certificate in Chamber Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a First Diploma with Distinction from the Mozarteum Salzburg.
|
|
David Ohannesian, Baroque recorder, has achieved international recognition as a maker of fine recorders. In addition, he has performed with Fiori Musicali, The Boston Shawm and Sackbutt Ensemble, The Spokane Bach Festival Orchestra, The Seattle Pro Musica, The Oregon Baroque Orchestra, The Northwest Baroque Soloists and The Seattle Recorder Quarter. He also teaches and lectures at a number of workshops and seminars.
|
Byron Schenkman, harpsichord, is well known to Seattle audiences as the artistic director of the Seattle Baroque Orchestra. He also performs internationally as a harpsichordist and fortepianist with ensembles such as Zephyrus Baroque Chamber Players, Music’s Re-Creation, and in duo recitals with violinist Ingrid Matthews. He is on the faculty of the Port Townsend Recorder Workshop and the Vancouver Summer Early Music Festival. He has recorded for CBC, NPR, Foccus and Wild Boar records.
|
Dean Suess, countertenor, holds a Bachelor of Music in French Horn from Pacific Lutheran University and a Master in Choral Conducting from the University of Washington. He has done extensive post-graduate work in musicology with Dr. Joanne Tarcani at the University of Washington both as a Brechemin Scholar and as a Boeing Endowment Scholar in Musicology. As a countertenor soloist, he has appeared at St. Mark’s Cathedral in the annual Messiah performances with the Portland Baroque Orchestra, and with the Seattle Chamber Singers, Seattle Bach Choir, University of Washington Opera, Seattle Pro Musica and Capella Romana.
|
David Stutz, countertenor and baritone, is an experienced early music singer who has recorded with the Newberry Consort and His Majestie’s Clerkes. He is currently a member/soloist with the Tudor Choir, Schola Senexis and the Harwood Early Music Ensemble of Chicago. He recently appeared with the Seattle Baroque Orchestra as a soloist in the masque from Purcell’s Timon of Athens.
|
|
all photos except for Mr. Schenkman: Demian
|
|
