L.A. Camerata is directed by Marylin Winkle, a performer, teacher, and advocate for the arts. In October 2023, she and L.A. Camerata released a reference recording of Camilla de Rossi’s Fra Dori, e Fileno, to accompany an edition she published with Dulcamara Press. In addition to ongoing L.A. Camerata events, Marylin has performed historical works with the Desert Baroque Festival, Boston Camerata, and Musica Angelica. She performed in Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, a fully-staged performance by Tick-Tock Productions in Cambridge, UK. Other period theatrical performances include: Fairy Queen (Purcell), Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart), L’Ormindo (Cavalli), Il Primo Omicidio (Scarlatti), Haydn’s Creation, and L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Monteverdi). As director, Marylin staged a world-premiere reading of Isabella Andreini’s La Mirtilla and Francesca Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero. She serves as a Musicology faculty member at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, where she directs the Early Music Ensemble. She holds a DMA in Early Music from USC Thornton School of Music, where she studied baroque cello and viola da gamba with Bill Skeen; her academic fields included a major emphasis in Musicology with minor emphases in Opera Directing and Teaching & Learning. In 2018, Dr. Winkle received the Early Music America Summer Workshop Scholarship to study vielle with Shira Kammen, Mary Springfels, and Benjamin Bagby at the Amherst Early Music Festival Roman de Fauvel Project. She has spent many summers coaching and performing for the SFEMS Summer Workshops, and she attended the 2012 Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute. Her modern cello studies include a Master’s of Arts Degree from San Jose State University, where she studied with David Golblatt, and a Bachelor’s of Music Performance from Stetson University, where she studied with David Bjella.

www.marylinwinkle.com

Donnie Smith is co-founder and Production Manager for L.A. Camerata. Mr. Smith is a classically-trained film and theatre actor, acting coach, and advocate for the arts. As an actor, he recently starred in Patrick Hamilton’s Rope at Actors Co-op Theatre Company. He also performed the critically-acclaimed and award-winning (LADCC and Stage Raw - Ensemble & Production, Ovation nominated Ensemble & Production) West Coast premiere of Ike Holter’s Hit the Wall (LA LGBT Center).  Other Los Angeles credits include the West Coast premiere of Daniel MacIvor’s House (LA Weekly nomination - Solo Performance) and Small Engine Repair (Ovation, LADCC, Backstage Garland & LA Weekly awards) at Rogue Machine Theatre, where he has been a company member for seven years. He also starred in William Mastrosimone’s Sunshine (Gangbusters Theatre Company at Hollywood Fringe) and was featured in the world premiere of Sunny Afternoon (Gangbusters Theatre Company at Hollywood Fringe & Theater Asylum).

Professional Chicago stage credits include: Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap (Drury Lane); Pentecost (Chicago Irish Rep at Victory Gardens); Romeo and Juliet (Chicago Shakespeare, NEA tour); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet (Illinois Shakespeare Festival); David Copperfield, David Mamet’s The Water Engine, Studs Terkel’s Division Street: America (Steppenwolf); Bloody Bess: A Tale of Piracy and Revenge (Red Hen); Lanford Wilson’s The Rimers of Eldritch (Terrapin); When The Walls Have Ears (world premiere, Mary-Arrchie).

Feature film credits: The Wedding Year (coming in 2019, directed by Robert Luketic), Peppermint (directed by Pierre Morel, with Jennifer Garner and John Gallagher Jr.), A.X.L. (directed by Oliver Daly), The Vatican Tapes (directed by Mark Neveldine), Walk of Shame (directed by Steven Brill, with Elizabeth Banks & Gillian Jacobs), Stand Up Guys (directed by Fisher Stevens, with Al Pacino & Christopher Walken), The Lincoln Lawyer (directed by Brad Furman, with Matthew McConaughey & Bob Gunton), Fame (directed by Kevin Tancharoen), Gamer (directed by Neveldine/Taylor), The Ugly Truth (directed by Robert Luketic, with Gerard Butler), The Midnight Meat Train (directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, with Bradley Cooper), Pathology (directed by Marc Schoelermann), Henry Poole Is Here (directed by Mark Pellington, with Luke Wilson), The Dead Girl (directed by Karen Moncrieff, with Toni Collette), Crank (directed by Neveldine/Taylor, with Jason Statham), and Undiscovered (directed by Meiert Avis). 

Donnie is a member of SAG/AFTRA and AEA.  

He studied at the University of Illinois at Chicago (under Dexter Bullard), as well as the School at Steppenwolf (with Austin Pendleton, Jeff Perry, Rondi Reed, Sheldon Patinkin, Frank Galati, Tim Hopper, Tina Landau, Francis Guinan and Jim True-Frost). Donnie also participated in Steppenwolf Classes West (under Tom Irwin).  He is a graduate of the School of Theatre and Dance at Illinois State University.

Mr. Smith is passionate about empowering marginalized voices in the arts; he offers coachings at a sliding-scale to accommodate students' financial needs. You can visit his website: http://www.donniesmith.org

Corryn Cummins is a Chicago native Actor, Director, Producer and Photographer, now based in Los Angeles. On-stage credits include work in both cities with Steppenwolf, Lookingglass, Rogue Machine, Theatre @ Boston Court, Skylight, The Blank, The Odyssey, Padua Playwrights, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Timeline, Famous Door, Mary-Arrchie, A Red Orchid and Sacred Fools among many others. She received an L.A. Weekly Award for her work in the West Coast Premiere of David Harrower's Blackbird (Rogue Machine), a Joseph Jefferson Award for The Hot l Baltimore (Mary-Arrchie, directed by David Cromer), and multiple Ovation Awards for The L.A. Premiere of Tracy Letts' Killer Joe (Lost Angels). She also received Ovation, L.A. Drama Critics Circle and L.A. Weekly Awards for her work as a Producer on the World Premiere of Small Engine Repair (Rogue Machine). Directing credits include the L.A. Premiere of Sunshine at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Corryn holds a B.F.A. in Acting from the School of Theatre at Illinois State University and also works in film, television and voiceover. Her work centers around a particular emphasis on brand new, world and regional premieres, as well as work that illuminates complex female characters and the voices of women.

Sarah Reynolds is a singer, voice teacher, and songwriter based in Los Angeles. Equally at home in concert and opera, she has performed with LA Opera, LA Master Chorale, De Angelis Vocal Ensemble, and Long Beach Opera. She is also an artist and co-producer for L.A. Camerata. An art song enthusiast, Sarah has been a featured recitalist for concert series by Pasadena Conservatory of Music, Denver Art Song Project, and LA’s UnSUNg. A frequent concert soloist, her credits include the Bach Magnificat and Vivaldi Gloria with Redlands Symphony, Jenkins Stabat Mater with Musica Sacra of Sarasota, FL, and Brahms Alto Rhapsody with Artes Vocales. Sarah received her Bachelors in Vocal Performance from The College of New Jersey and Masters in Vocal Performance from The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA and has studied and performed at Napa Music Festival’s Baroque Opera Program and the Early Music Vancouver and Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival Baroque Vocal Programs. Sarah teaches private voice lessons to students of all ages out of her home studio in Eagle Rock and is a Vocal Coach for the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus. She has been interviewed by Shoutout LA and Voyage LA and featured as a Backstage Magazine Reader’s Choice Nominee for LA Vocal/Singing Coach and as one of their “8 Vocal Coaches to Know in NYC and LA.” Sarah released her debut pop rock EP Adolescent in April of 2024.

Kate Bass, a recent transplant to Los Angeles from NYC and originally from Anchorage, Alaska, performs extensively across the country in many varying musical genres. She made her principal Off-Broadway New York City Center debut as Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore and continues to tour nationally in the role for over 5 years with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players. She appeared as Princess Ida in Princess Ida at the NY Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, and as the Musical Guest for 24 Hour Plays Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company. She appeared twice at Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center; both as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Case Scaglione, and in the Emmy-nominated production of Carousel, televised on PBS’s “Live at Lincoln Center.” In recent years, she has sung numerous times at Carnegie Hall (Der Vampyr, The Messiah, Verdi’s Requiem, Elijah), Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center (La Farsa Amarosa), and has performed in recital at the 92 nd Street Y, The Austrian Cultural Forum, and the Museum of the City of New York, among others. She has performed in cabaret at the Metropolitan Room and (le) poisson rouge in New York, and at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles. She has recorded as a soloist for numerous film scores by Arturo Cardelús, as well as for Iranian singer Hafez Nazeri’s Grammy Award-nominated album “Untold,” released on the SONY Classical label, touring Canada in fall of 2018. Kate Bass is also a composer and singer-songwriter; her debut album, “Maya,” was released in August 2012, and her first single aired on British radio in early September 2013. She released her new EP, “More”, in February 2016 and her May 2017 crowd-funded album, “Songs of the Open Road,” debuted Off-Broadway at the Triad Theater in New York City. She is on vocal faculty at the Herb Alpert Music Center at Los Angeles City College, as well as at Pepperdine University.

Soprano Marisa De Silva is an active performer, voice teacher, and Certified Teacher of the Alexander Technique based in Southern California. She is currently pursuing her Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Southern California with emphases in early music performance, musicology, opera directing, and vocology. A versatile singer, her interests also include Iberian and Japanese song repertoires, new music, and working on session and recording projects. She has been a featured soloist with the USC Early Music Ensembles (Baroque Sinfonia and Collegium Workshop) at both the Berkeley and Boston Early Music Festivals. She was also a soprano soloist with the American Bach Soloists Academy and most recently performed as featured soloist with the Joe Hisaishi Symphonic Orchestra performances at Carnegie Hall and Microsoft Theater.

Marisa is on faculty at Loyola Marymount University, where she teaches voice and Alexander Technique. Her research interests include Musician’s Performance Anxiety, Alexander Technique in music education, and rhetorical gestures used in performance practice. In 2016, she received a grant from the Early Arts Guild of Victoria to further study the art of gesture under the tutelage of Helga Hill, OAM in Victoria, Australia and she hopes to be able to include ideas of rhetorical gestures in the process of future opera directing projects. She is a member of the American Society for the Alexander Technique, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and the Screen Actors Guild  (SAG-AFTRA).

Paulina Francisco is a doctoral student at Indiana University, where she is working toward a DM in Early Music and Certificate in Vocology. Before attending IU, she received a Master of Arts in Early Music from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance and Public Relations from Carroll University. Paulina has performed with Los Angeles Baroque, Alchymy Viols, Bloomington Bach Cantata Project, Ensemble Lipsodes, and is proud to be a member of emerging ensembles Las Aves and Los Angeles Camerata. Most recently she has performed as soprano soloist in Bach’s St. John Passion, under the direction of John Butt, and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the IU Baroque Orchestra. In 2018, she was the recipient of Bourbon Baroque’s Nicholas Fortin Summer Workshop Scholarship. Paulina has studied voice with Rachelle Fox, Lynn Helding, Steven Rickards, and Thomas Weis.

In addition to performing, Paulina is also an active arts administrator; she serves as General Manger for Bloomington Early Music, President of IU Gamma UT, and is a member of Early Music America’s Emerging Professional’s Leadership Council. In academic work, Paulina’s research is centered on 17 th century compositions, virtuosic repertoire for sopanos, early voice training, the education of early modern women, and most recently, sacred monody.

Kiley Hazelton is a freelance singer and voice teacher based in Los Angeles. Kiley’s operatic performance credits include: Oberto in Alcina (USC Thornton Opera), The Innkeeper's Wife in The Cunning Little Vixen (Miami Music Festival), Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly (Fargo-Moorhead Opera Company, cover), Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica (Fargo-Moorhead Opera Company, cover), Adele in Die Fledermaus (SPA Opera Company).  As an early music singer, Kiley was a member and soloist with the USC Thornton Baroque Sinfonia and is currently on roster with Los Angeles Camerata. Kiley is an auxiliary soprano member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

Kiley graduated with honors from Concordia College (bachelor of music in vocal performance) and USC-Thornton School of Music (master of music in vocal arts and opera). At USC Kiley worked as a student voice instructor for undergraduate students and underwent extensive training in voice pedagogy.  She is a member of the music honors society, Pi Kappa Lambda, and is a graduate of the National Center of Voice and Speech’s Summer Vocology Institute. Kiley studies with Lynn Helding.

David Morales, tenor, is an active ensemble performer throughout Southern California and is currently singing with groups such as Tonality, Pacific Chorale, and the Seraphim. This past spring, he participated in Whittier’s 81st Bach Festival where he not only sang along side the Whittier Festival Singers, but also served as the tenor soloist for Bach Cantatas 182 and 61. He is currently the music director at Casa de Oracion church where he leads the contemporary worship team in addition to being a soloist and section leader with the chancel choir at Bay Shore church. When he is not performing, he can be found teaching at Sunset studio where he teaches piano and voice to various age levels. He holds a B.M. in Vocal Performance and Music Education from Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach. Through his undergraduate career he has had the opportunity to perform roles in operas, musicals, and tour with the collegiate award-winning Chamber Choir. Discovering his passion for early music, David has been accepted to the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, starting next fall, to earn a Master’s in Early Music Performance.  

Baritone, Joel Nesvadba (pronounced “nes-VAHD-ba”), is a passionate performer of early music, especially that of the Medieval and Renaissance eras. He has toured both nationally and internationally, singing with The Boston Camerata, The Broken Consort, Bach Collegium San Diego, and The Texas Early Music Project. He has performed at the San Francisco Early Music Society's Berkeley Festival and Exhibition, the Amherst Early Music Festival, and the Boston Early Music Festival with Early Music America's Young Performers Festival Ensemble. Joel is also active in contemporary popular music. He worked with electronic artist and DJ, Moby, on his recent record, These Systems are Failing, singing background vocals with The Void Pacific Choir. He is currently completing a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Early Music Performance at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music.

The Los Angeles Times hailed soprano Ariel Pisturino as “an impressive young discovery,” after seeing her professional debut performance as Nancy T’ang in Long Beach Opera’s production of Nixon in China. An enthusiastic advocate of contemporary works and collaborations with composers, Ariel performed the role of Lover in The Industry’s nationally-acclaimed production of HOPSCOTCH and created the role of Laurie in Mark Abel’s premiere opera Home is a Harbor, released on Delos Records. She collaborated with Abel once before on his song cycle Five Rilke Songs on the album Terrain of the Heart, also for Delos Records. Most recently, Ariel created the role of Rosina Brandram in a newly written Gilbert and Sullivan review, Hail Poetry, with Opera a la Carte. Most recently, she premiered a new song cycle, Dewdrops, by long time friend, Alex Miller.

Propelled by her interest in promoting new works, Ariel co-founded the performance troupe Chamber Opera Players of LA and the new music summer concert series unSUNg, focusing on new and unknown vocal music. Highlights of her work with Chamber Opera Singers of LA include her commission and premiere of the opera The Last Silent Voice by George N. Gianopoulos, and a performance of Ned Rorem’s Three Sisters who are not Sisters. Other contemporary performance highlights include her performances with Long Beach Opera as Witch 1 in Bloch’s Macbeth, the premiere of an electronic opera, The Master and Margarita by Russian composer, Gamma Skupinsky and the premiere of the oratorio Circular 14: The Apotheosis of Aristides by Neely Bruce in remembrance of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, who saved thousands during the Holocaust.

Ms. Pisturino not only performs new works but also lends her creamy legato to traditional roles such as Donna Elvira, Fiordiligi, Micaëla, and Second Lady. She has also been heard as the soprano soloist in the Brahms Requiem, Fauré Requiem, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor and Requiem, and Rutter Gloria.

An avid language student, Ariel is a dedicated Italian student and attended the Russian Opera Workshop to study the Russian language and perform the role of Tamara in Rubenstein’s opera, The Demon.

Ariel holds a Masters degree from the University of Southern California, Thornton School of Music, a Bachelors degree in Music from Northern Arizona University, and is an OperaWorks alumna. Born in San Francisco but a native of Kingman, Arizona, she now resides with her bass-baritone boyfriend and three kitties in sunny Los Angeles.

Rachelle Romero, soprano, is pursuing a DMA in Early Music Performance at USC’s Thornton School of Music, where she studies with Jennifer Ellis Kampani and serves as the program's Teaching Assistant. A native Californian originally from the Central Coast, she holds a BM in Vocal Performance from Azusa Pacific University and a MA in Early Music from USC. In addition to L.A. Camerata, Rachelle performs regularly as a vocalist with the Thornton Baroque Sinfonia and the USC Collegium Workshop Ensemble under Adam Knight Gilbert and Rotem Gilbert, as well as Los Angeles-based chamber choir the Sterling Ensemble under director Michelle Jensen. She has also performed with KUSC at LACMA Sundays Live, the Boston Camerata, and the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra. Her research interests include women’s studies in early modern sacred music, seventeenth century English repertory, and vocology.

Mezzo-soprano Katherine Trimble’s concert soloist and ensemble member career has coincided with her passion and interest in historical performance practice. Her recent HPP soloist credits include major Bach and Handel works as apart of CalPoly San Luis Obispo’s annual “Bach Week” (2018 and 2019). She was the alto soloist with the San Jose Symphonic Choir and San Jose Baroque Orchestra’s production of Bach’s Mass in B Minor (2018). As an ensemble member, Katherine has been honored to sing with American Bach Soloists, directed by Jeffrey Thomas, on their first call list for the 2018-2019 season. She has performed Mass in B Minor (2018), the Hunt Cantata (2018), and will join the group for St. Matthew Passion and Mass in B Minor in 2019. Katherine recently recorded arias by Cavalli and J.S. Bach with L.A. Camerata. She also studied at the Early Music Vancouver Baroque Vocal Programme 2015 under the guidance of baroque performance experts Ellen Hargis and Michael Jarvis.

In 2018, Ms. Trimble won the Vocal Soloist Competition sponsored by the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra and sang the alto solos in St. Paul by Felix Mendelssohn. Other concert soloist credits include alto soloist in Mozart's Requiem with Mission Symphony and San Jose State University and Durufle's Requiem with the Winchester Symphony and Peninsula Cantare. In 2017-2018, Katherine was on the roster of Chamber Music Silicon Valley’s Emerging Artist program. She performed Jake Heggie’s “Deepest Desire” and curated a concert of Irish/Scottish/English folk music in collaboration with composer and folk musician Taylor Ackley and Soprano Katya Gruzglina.

Operatics roles include the Witch/Mother in outreach performances of Hansel and Gretel and Lilas Pastia (Carmen) with Opera San Jose where she was noted by the San Jose Mercury News for her “agile” performance. Other operatic roles include Countess Ceprano (West Bay Opera), Ormindo (San Jose State), Public Opinion (San Jose State), Olga (Independent Opera Company), Zita (Chapman University), and Mum Herring (Chapman University). She has taken first place in competitions held by SAI Music Fraternity, San Jose Women’s Club, and San Jose Study Club. Katherine was also honored to be the first recipient of the Irene Dalis Memorial Award from San Jose State University. In the summer of 2016 Katherine participated in the first annual Opera San Jose Summer Program for Aspiring Artists which after two weeks of intense training culminated in a well received opera scenes program.

Katherine has been the alto vocalist/soloist of Bay Area choir “The New Choir” which is dedicated to high quality chamber choral performance. She toured with them to Seoul, Busan, Gwanju City, and Jeju Island in 2015 and 2019. She has also been alto soloist and member of The Kerry Voice Squad, a trio of classically trained female singers who perform for Kerry Irish Productions Inc’s events. The Voice Squad is a main feature of KIPI's national touring show "An Irish Christmas" which brings traditional Irish music and dance to audiences every holiday season across the United States. Other KIPI shows as a featured soloist include "St. Patrick's Day in Ireland" (2017 and 2018) and "The Heart of an Irish Woman” (2018).  Katherine assembled and directed the seven voice group Dana that was the featured chamber choir in KIPI’s newest production “Celtic Wings” that premiered November 2018. Currently Katherine is alto section leader at Glendale City Church and continues to teach voice in the Los Angeles Area and perform with the American Bach Choir in the Bay Area.

Amy K. Harmon was thrilled to make her L.A Camerata debut in their world-premiere staged-reading of La Mirtilla by Isabella Andreini (1588). LA Stage credits include: A Night of Grand Guignol ( Schuyler Helford) Lord of The Underworld's Home For Unwed Mothers (Skylight Theatre ) Nice Things ( Rogue Machine) Dirty ( dir. Shannon Cochran) All Your Hard Work (dir. Michael Matthews), Summer in Hell ( BSTC) Leiris/Picasso ( BSTC) TV/ Film credits include: Suit Up ( FOX), Scandal (ABC), Castle (ABC) Private Practice (ABC), The West Wing (NBC), American Splendor ( HBO). Amy is a graduate of the School at Steppenwolf ( Chicago, IL) & Emerson College. In addition to L.A. Camerata, she is a member of Rogue Machine & Brimmer Street Theatre Co. and also an active  Los Angeles Theatre Director.  More at www.amykharmon.com 

Violinist Courtney Kuroda is an active performer of early music in Southern California with period ensembles Musica Angelica, Bach Collegium San Diego and Opera Neo.  She has also performed throughout the U.S. and Canada with ensembles including Portland Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Baroque, Pacific Baroque in Vancouver, B.C., Ensemble Mirable, Indianapolis Baroque and has recorded with Opera Lafayette in Washington D.C under the Naxos label. She has participated in both the Bloomington and Boston Early Music festivals as well as the Pacific Baroque Festival in British Columbia and the Oregon Bach Festival.  She received her Master’s degree in Historical Performance from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where she studied Baroque violin with Stanley Ritchie.

Ashley Salinas received her DMA in viola performance through the University of North Texas.  She earned MM from UNT (2011) and BM from Sam Houston State University (2009).  Her primary teachers include Susan Dubois, Cynthia Roberts, Paul Leenhouts, and Lisa Burrell.   

While living in North Texas, Dr. Salinas performed frequently with regional symphony and theater orchestras.  In addition to modern viola engagements, she also participated regularly with various Baroque ensembles including Dallas Bach Society, Denton Bach Society Players, La Novella Baroque, La Follia (Austin), and the Orchestra of New Spain.  Through her Baroque experience, Ms. Salinas has participated in the Victoria Bach Festival, Boston Early Music Festival, Cervantino Festival of Mexico, and Siglo d'Oro Festival in El Paso, Texas.  

Dr. Salinas has participated in various summer chamber music festivals including Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, Marian Anderson String Quartet’s Chamber Music Institute, and Performing Arts Institute of Wyoming Seminary.   During her undergraduate studies, her string quartet was selected to perform a concert tour in China and Mexico and she also featured as a soloist with the SHSU Chamber Orchestra and Intersection Contemporary Music Ensemble in 2008.

From 2006-2009, she served as Coordinator/Conductor of the Huntsville Youth Orchestra where she assisted in the expansion of the program to three orchestras and established a solo and chamber music component for advanced students.  Dr. Salinas was awarded a Teaching Fellowship teaching undergraduate string classes at UNT and also maintained a private studio in the Dallas area until moving to Los Angeles in May 2016.

Andrew Justice, viola, holds degrees from Oregon State University, the University of Oregon, and Syracuse University. He has performed with New York State Baroque, Tempesta di Mare Baroque Orchestra, Dallas Bach Society, Orchestra of New Spain, La Follia Austin Baroque, and the Denton Bach Players (of which he was founding artistic director). When not performing, Mr. Justice is an academic music librarian who has worked at Cornell University and the University of North Texas: he is currently the Head of the Music Library at the University of Southern California.

"It is hard enough for a young composer to invent sounds. But Tamzin Elliott invented an entire culture." - Zachary Woolfe, New York Times

Tamzin Elliott is a composer, harpist, singer, and writer. Thankfully, all those things tend to help with the others - it’s a useful web of skills for the particular species of works Tamzin loves to make. 

Tamzin is fascinated by the interaction of text and music, writing songs, collaborating with poets, and arranging texts, while always experimenting with the emotional impact of cognition and understanding in audiences. When is understanding every word imperative? When is it annoying? When is the experience of letting words and music wash over you a blessing, and when is it just overwhelming or frustrating? These are the kinds of questions Tamzin hones in on in their process of making. 

Tamzin graduated with a doctorate in composition from the University of Southern California, studying under Ted Hearne, Don Crockett, and Sean Friar. During their time at USC they also studied Historically Informed Performance, focusing on early European harp performance, leading to their current studies with Siobhán Armstrong (founder of the Historical Harp Society of Ireland) on the early Irish wire-strung harp, or cláirseach. Additionally, they were mentored in arts journalism by Pulitzer Prize winning music journalist, Tim Page.

For their thesis in poetry at Bard College, they created their first even-length work with the guidance of Ann Lauterbach, combining poetry, polyphonic text performance, and songwriting into a work probing dreamscapes of the familiar. Titled in the Dream House, this production sparked their love of producing large-scale immersive work. 

They have sung their own pieces with Los Angeles groups wildUp and Thornton Edge, as well as San Francisco’s After Everything and Brooklyn’s Longleash Trio. In Winter of 2018 they premiered an immersive theater work Allways based on the letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman. Currently they are working on Meidelant: an opera on the maidenhood of Morgan le Fay, with poet Sara Fetherolf and non-profit early music ensemble L. A. Camerata.

Alongside their music career they are a new music concert reviewer for the San Francisco Classical Voice.

Alejandro Acosta is guitarist and lutenist who specializes in the performance of Renaissance and Baroque instruments of the lute family. He started his musical studies at the National School of Music-Mexico City in Classical Guitar Performance where he earned a BM. His devotion and passion for Early Music led him to study lute performance. Years later, he was selected by the Mexican Culture Foundation to realize musical studies in Germany, where he earned a Diploma in Lute Performance from the University of Arts Bremen.

As a lutenist Alejandro had participated with several early music ensembles in Mexico and in Germany. Nowadays, in addition to playing for L.A. Camerata, Alejandro is pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the USC Thornton School of Music, where he is member of the Baroque Sinfonia.

Cameron O’Connor, whose playing has been described as “stunning and emotive” (Eugene Register-Guard), enjoys a diverse career in solo, chamber, contemporary, and popular music. Recent highlights include solo and duo recitals throughout Japan; chamber music and opera appearances with musicians of the Oregon Symphony and Eugene Opera; as a chamber music soloist at the New World Symphony in Miami (for which the South Florida Classical Review noted that he was “especially effective in the quick and diabolical figures”); appearing as a guest artist and performing duos with Sharon Isbin at the Aspen Music Festival and School; performances with LA Opera singers in the premiere of Neely Bruce’s “Circular 14: The Apotheosis of Aristides”; performing with Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony; and appearing under the baton of Chinese composer Tan Dun in his Eastern-tinged Concerto for Six, for which the New York Times reviewed that “O’Connor fluttered on his guitar strings in a manner reminiscent of a pipa player’s technique.” Additionally, O’Connor is a prizewinner in ten international competitions, including the Tokyo and Frances Walton. His performances have been featured in films, from James Franco’s Don Quixote to Some Kind of Spark (a documentary made on The Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program) to Scott Tennant’s instructional classic Pumping Nylon, and on radio broadcasts such as KPFK’s Global Village, KingFM’s Northwest Live!, Portland All-Classical, and American Public Media’s Performance Today. His articles and music are published by LACG Editions. O’Connor also performs regularly in musical theatre productions on electric guitar, banjo, and mandolin, and now serves on the faculty of Oregon State University. O’Connor was a full scholarship recipient at CSU Northridge, where he studied guitar with Ron Borczon and lute with Ron Purcell; the Juilliard School in New York City, where he studied with Sharon Isbin; and at the USC Thornton School of Music under William Kanengiser. Upon completion of that degree, the Thornton School designated him as Outstanding Doctoral Graduate. www.cameronoconnor.com

Robert Wang aspires to challenge the traditional representation of classical guitar while juxtaposing music of the early and the contemporary. As a classical guitarist and composer, his extensive repertoire features works from the Renaissance to the 21st century, often appearing in adventurous and multi-sensory pairings. Robert is versed in playing basso continuo and solo on theorbo, lute, and baroque guitar. He is primarily devoted to ensemble playing and has performed with Early Music Vancouver (Vespers of 1610), Ensemble Flame, The Golden Bridge, OperaNEO (Ariodante), Shunske Sato Sibelius Academy Baroque Orchestra (King Arthur), and the USC Thornton Opera (Actéon). He is also a member of the USC Thornton Baroque Sinfonia, featured on CBS Sunday Morning. With Ensemble Flame, he played theorbo in their recent album, O Mother What Shall I Do.

Robert is pursuing an MM in Classical Guitar Performance at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, where he also earned his BM. He studies classical guitar with William Kanengiser, Scott Tennant, and Pepe Romero, early plucked string instruments with Jason Yoshida, composition with Veronika Krausas, harpsichord with Ian Pritchard, and conducting with Jacob Sustaita. He has performed in The Getty, Jordan Hall, and Phillip T. Young Recital Hall.

Historical Plucked string specialist, Matthew Xie focuses on the repertoire of the theorbo, lute, baroque guitar and 19th century guitar. He has performed extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Taiwan. He performs on the instrument(s): Renaissance Lute, Baroque Guitar, Baroque Lute and Theorbo as both a soloist and continuo player. In the spring of 2018, Matthew was invited to perform Vivaldi’s Guitar Concerto in D major RV 93 on Baroque guitar as part of SFCM Baroque Concerto Winner’s concert and again in 2019 with Karl Kohaut’s Baroque Lute Concerto in F major. He has participated with the SF Conservatory Baroque Ensemble to bring to life: Handel’s Atalanta, and Rodelinda, and Tamerlano. Most recently, his performances included a tour with Holland Baroque to perform Kloosterkerk MONASTERY CHRISTMAS, a production of 17th century Dutch Christmas midnight masses directed by Tineke & Judith Steenbrinke.

Matthew has performed and studied with the most renowned lutenists in the industry which include: Lucas Harris, Francesca Torelli, Joachim Held, Peter Croton, Paul Odette, Paul Beier, Xavier Diaz LaTorre, Richard Egarr, Michael Chance, Hopkinsin Smith, and Nigel North. Matthew is an active and familiar face in early music ensembles and festivals which include: Amherst Early Music (AEM), the International Baroque Festival at Longy (IBIL), La Entroterra festival, Oregon Bach Festival (OBI), Oberlin Baroque Festival (OBF), SF Renaissance Voices (SFRV), SienAgosto, Tafelmusik Summer and Winter Institutes, SFEMS, Haymarket Opera Company, American Bach Soloists Academy (ABS), and the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht. His teachers include John Schneiderman, Richard Savino, Marc Teicholz, and Corey Jamason. Currently, Matthew is a recipient of Holland Baroque’s Samama Fellowship Program as a Lute/Theorbo Trainee.

Consecutively, Matthew received a Holland (2019/2020) and Excellence (2020/2021) Scholarship(s) to study and fund his studies at the Koninklijk Conservatorium. Matthew graduated magna cum laude in a Master’s in Historical Performance Lute/Theorbo degree at the Koninklijk Conservatorium under the mentorship of Joachim Held and Mike Fentross. Matthew also holds graduate and bachelor degrees from San Francisco Conservatory of Music and UC, Irvine.

Matthew is currently active in California as a continuo player, chamber musician, soloist, instructor, and clinician.

Erin Young is a classical guitarist based in Los Angeles. She received both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Classical Guitar Performance at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music where she studied with Scott Tennant, Brian Head, and Jason Yoshida. She has performed in masterclasses for Pepe Romero, Dimitri Illarionov, Álvaro Pierri, SoloDuo, Roland Dyens, Gaëlle Solal, and The Kupinski Duo among others.

Erin has a passion for early music and was an active member of the USC Baroque Sinfonia, a period-instrument ensemble specializing in music from the seventeenth- through mid-eighteenth century. She performed with the USC Collegium Workshop in the Early Music America’s 8^th annual Young Performers Festival in Bloomington Indiana. She plays frequently with the Delirium Musicum ensemble, and recently had her debut concert with the ensemble Ciaramella at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

Erin is actively involved with the Guitar Foundation of America, where she works as an instructor for the annual GFA Guitar Summit. In addition to pursuing a performance career, Erin works in online music education as Guitar Operations Manager for tonebase.co.

Scholar-performer Sonia Lee has given performances, talks and masterclasses in nearly 150 cities on four continents. Her performances have been praised by critics as "masterly" (Aliénor News & Notes), "nicely rendered" (Early Music America Magazine), "full of elegance and expression" (Cleveland Classical), and possessing "grace and flair" (Sounding Board).  She is a laureate of the Mae & Irving Jurow International Harpsichord Competition, the Montréal Baroque Galaxie-CBC Rising Star Competition, and the Canadian Music Competition.

A performer on the modern piano and various historical keyboards with a versatile repertoire spanning from the 16th to the 21st century, Lee has appeared as soloist and collaborative artist at numerous festivals and venues, among them: the early music festivals of Utrecht, Boston and Costa Rica, Rome Festival, Nordic Historical Keyboard Festival, Early Keyboard Music Cycle of Buenos Aires, Midtown Concerts of New York, Milwaukee Museum of the Pianoforte, Schubert Club, Handel House Museum of London, KEK-Japan Concerts, the Early Music Colorado Fall Festival, National Music Museum of Vermillion, Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Taipei National Concert Hall, and the Olympus Hall of Seoul. As director or guest director, she has led the University of Illinois Collegium Musicum, Dulces Exuviae, Musicerend Gezelschap, the Phantasie String Orchestra, and La Réunion Musicale. Her discography includes collaborations with the Classical Chamber Players, La Donna Musicale, and La Réunion Musicale on Mark Records, Arabesque, W. W. Norton, and other labels.   

A sought after adjudicator, Lee has been invited to judge at numerous international and regional competitions and festivals, including the Antelope Valley Symphony Orchestra Bach Piano Competition (California), Calgary Performing Arts Festival (Canada), and the Gianni Gambi International Harpsichord Competition (Italy). Her recent residencies and masterclasses include Conservatorio Statale di Musica "Gioachino Rossini” (Italy), Alfrēda Kalniņa Cēsu Mūzikas Vidusskola (Latvia), Conservatory of Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), La Napoule Art Foundation (France), Universidad de Costa Rica (Costa Rica), Temple University (Pennsylvania), Irvine Valley College (California), and University of Cambridge (UK).

Currently Editor of the Early Keyboard Journal and the Historical Keyboard Society of North America (HKSNA) Newsletter, Lee has taught music history and performance at Illinois Wesleyan University and the University of Illinois. She is the Immediate Past President and a member of the Board of Directors of HKSNA, and has served as a board and advisory member for numerous regional and international arts and social-service organizations. She resides in Pasadena, CA. Visit www.sonialeemusic.com.

Arthur Omura is a specialist in historical keyboard instruments based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He studied organ repertoire of the Baroque under Charles Rus in San Francisco, modern technique under Dr. Ladd Thomas at the University of Southern California, and harpsichord repertoire under Dr. Lucinda Carver at USC. He has performed at the Boston and Berkeley Early Music festivals and given numerous performances in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Omura keeps an active performance schedule as an organist and harpsichord player. He has worked with MicroFest, wildUp, iPalpiti, Les Surprises Baroques, Musica Angelica, and the American Bach Soloists. Omura can be heard on several recordings, most recently on "Kontrapunktus", a collection of new music by composer Mark Moya written in a Baroque idiom.  His interest in instrument making led him to work with harpsichord builder Curtis Berak, whom he has assisted in restoring several instruments, and with organ builder Manuel Rosales. Omura has a Master's Degree from the University of Southern California.