Amherst Early Music

Dr. Jack Ashworth is active as a performer on harpsichord, violin, viola da gamba, and various other instruments of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. In addition to frequent demonstrations and concerts in the area, he has appeared with such groups as The Folger Consort, The King's Noyse, The Boston Shawm and Sackbutt Society and The Newberry Consort. He also serves regularly on workshop faculties for Amherst Early Music, the Seattle Recorder Society, and the Viola da Gamba Society of America, among others. In 1999 he received the Thomas Binkley Award from Early Music America, given for "outstanding achievement in both performance and scholarship by the director of a university or college collegium musicum."
He has written articles on a variety of keyboard topics, including the keyboard section of _A Practical Guide to Historical Performance: The Renaissance_ (Schirmer, 1994) and collaborated with lutenist Paul O'Dette for the chapter on basso continuo in _A Performer's Guide to Seventeenth-Century Music_ in the same series (1997). He has also published continuo realizations for music by Henry Butler and Christopher Simpson, as well as other articles and reviews.
Dr. Ashworth is past president of the Viola da Gamba Society of America and serves on the Higher Education Subcommittee of Early Music America. He was named Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Louisville in May, 1995.

Marilyn Boenau, Baroque bassoon, has performed and recorded with most of the leading Baroque orchestras in North America, including Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the Handel & Haydn Society, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Apollo's Fire, Tafelmusik, and Opera Lafayette. In Europe she has worked with The Harp Consort, Collegium Vocale, and Freiburg Baroque. In May 2005 she performed at the Handel Festspiele in Göttingen, Germany. She is the bassoon soloist with Music Pacifica on the Dorian CD La Notte, which includes several Vivaldi chamber concertos. Her playing has been called "breathtaking" by the Portland Oregonian. Marilyn holds a Soloist's Diploma from the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland, where she studied recorder, shawm, curtal, and bassoon with Michel Piguet and Walter Stiftner. She has performed Renaissance music with the Boston Shawm and Sackbut Ensemble, Blue Heron Renaissance Choir, and the Folger Consort. In addition to her performing career, Marilyn is the executive director of Amherst Early Music, Inc.

Deborah Booth plays Renaissance, Baroque, and modern flutes and recorders. Her training in flute performance was taken at Cincinnati Conservatory, the University of Kentucky, the Mannes School of Music - Historical Performance Program, and she has studied with Marion Verbruggen, Sandra Miller, Thomas Nyfenger, and other noted teachers in Amsterdam and New York. Ms. Booth played in several orchestras, including the Louisville Orchestra and the North Carolina Symphony. Performances include the Handel & Haydn Society, the Orchestra of St. Lukes, recorder soloist with the Ciompi Quartet, Gotham City Baroque Orchestra, Bach Vespers Period Ensemble, The Long Island Baroque Ensemble, The Ivory Consort, Christmas Revels, The Big Apple Baroque Band, Boston Early Music Festival, and Ensemble BREVE. The Times reviewed her performances as "technically precise and musically expressive." Recent recordings include a CD as flute and recorder soloist with the American Boy Choir ("American Songfest"), as well as soundtrack for the television show Blues Clues on recorder and krummhorns. Ms. Booth teaches at Greenwich Academy, directs the Princeton Recorder Academy, and has taught an played each summer at the Amherst Early Music Festival and numerous other summer festivals such as Pinewoods Early Music Week. In September of 2003 the Recorder Orchestra of New York (RONY) appointed Ms. Booth as their conductor.
Website: www.flute-recorder-deborahbooth.com

Eric Haas received a M.M. degree in early music performance from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied recorder with John Tyson and baroque flute with Sandra Miller. He has taught at New England Conservatory, Tufts University and Wheaton College, as well as numerous early music workshops. Eric has performed with La Sonnerie and Duo Pentimento, and has appeared with the Ocean State Chamber Orchestra and Emmanuel Music. He has served as music director of the Boston Recorder Society for more than 15 years and is currently on the staff of the von Huene Workshop, Inc. (the Early Music Shop of New England).

Valerie Horst, is Director Emerita of the Amherst Early Music Festival, a former vice president of the American Recorder Society, and former President of Early Music America. Holder of an MFA in Historical Performance from Sarah Lawrence College, she is a long-time member of the faculty of Mannes College of Music, as well as Music Director of the Miami Chapter of the American Recorder Society. Since retiring from the Amherst Early Music directorship, Ms. Horst divides her time between buffing her nails, reading whodunits, and throwing bonbons to the poodle.

Patricia Ann Neely is a vielle, viola da gamba, violone, and Baroque double bass specialist and holds a BA in music from Vassar College and an MFA in early music from Sarah Lawrence College. She has performed with ARTEK, Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity, Boston Camerata, Early Music New York, the Amercian Classical Symphony, the Folger Consort, the Four Nations Ensemble, the Newberry Consort, the Rheinischen Kantorei, Köln, the Philadelphia Classical Symphony, the Smithsonian Chamber Players and its Chamber Orchestra, The Waverly Consort, Gimmerglass Opera and The New York City Opera, and with the Washington Cathedral Choir. For three years she was a member of the Cologne based-ensemble Sequentia and was a founding member of Parthenia. Ms. Neely has recorded for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Erato, Lyrichord, Music Masters, and Arabesque and appears on the soundtrack to the 2005 movie Casanova. She teaches medieval music in the extension division at the Mannes College, the New School for Music and double bass at The Brearley School.

Pat Petersen holds an MFA in Early Music Performance from Sarah Lawrence College. A Director Emerita of Amherst Early Music, she is a regular faculty member at Amherst's and many other workshops. She performs on recorder and other early winds, and has appeared with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. She has coached early music ensembles at Wake Forest University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. An ARS certified teacher, she teaches recorder, early music, and English country dance in North Carolina and at workshops around the country, and has a passion for playing from facsimiles of early 15th-century music.

Flutist, recorder player and Artistic Director and founder of Tempesta di Mare Gwyn Roberts has been a featured soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Recitar Cantando of Tokyo, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. American Record Guide has called her "a world-class virtuoso", and the Washington Post remarked, "with her sparkling technique and sensitive attention to musicality, she infused the music with operatic drama." Her recording of Veracini Recorder Sonatas earned a five star rating from BBC Music Magazine. As co-director of Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra Tempesta di Mare, she leads the ensemble in frequent performances from Oregon to Prague, records for Chandos (UK), and appears frequently on NPR's Performance Today. Recordings include, Deutsche Grammaphon, Dorian, Sony Classics, Vox, PolyGram, PGM, Newport Classics, and Radio France. Ms. Roberts is Director of Early Music at the University of Pennsylvania and is on faculty at Peabody Conservatory. She studied recorder with Marion Verbruggen and Leo Meilink and baroque flute with Marten Root at Utrecht Conservatory in the Netherlands.

Mary Springfels remembers hearing New York Pro Musica perform early music for the first time when she was 14 years old. She said she immediately fell in love with it and began learning early music instruments in college. She began playing viola da gamba and related early music instruments professionally in 1968. She has been Musician-in-Residence at the Newberry Library since 1982.

Besides founding and directing the Newberry Consort, Springfels has performed and recorded extensively with such ensembles as the New York Pro Musica, the Waverly Consort, Concert Royal, Sequentia, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Music of the Baroque, Musica Sacra, the Marlborough Festival, the New York City Opera, and Chicago Opera Theater, where she has served as an artistic advisor.

In Chicago Springfels has also served as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. She has taught and performed in summer festivals throughout the US, among them the San Francisco, Madison, and Amherst Early Music Festivals, and the Conclave of the Viola da Gamba Society of America. In 2004 she delivered the keynote address to the Berkeley Festival and Exhibition for Early Music America.

Over the past few years, Springfels has become very active in baroque opera, and she has performed with organizations such as the New York City Opera and Central City Opera. She will continue this involvement as well as providing lectures.

Joris Van Goethem, Recorder & Baroque Flute.

As one of the original members of Flanders Recorder Quartet he has performed extensively throughout Europe, Japan, South America, the United States, Taiwan, Singapore, South Africa and Korea.

He made numerous recordings for radio and television and record companies as Aeolus, Deutsche Grammophon, Harmonia Mundi, EMI, Opus 111, Ricercar.

He has given seminars and masterclasses in all corners of the globe and has been tutor at various summercourses.

His arrangements found their way to Hollywood (Tin Cup with Kevin Costner) and are also published with Heinrichshofen, Ascolta and De Haske.