LEWIS
KAPLAN
Director
A multi-talented, extraordinary musician, teacher, conductor and visionary—these words best describe Lewis Kaplan, who has contributed a significant amount to the classical music landscape for more than 50 years. Considered a leading interpreter of the music of Bach, in particular the Six Solo Sonatas and Partitas, Mr. Kaplan is the founder and director of the Bach Virtuosi Festival in Portland, Maine, and New York City.
His titles are many. He currently serves as senior professor of violin and chamber music at The Juilliard School.
ARIADNE
DASKALAKIS
Violin
Ariadne Daskalakis is a unique performer of both baroque and modern violin. The American violinist of Greek descent studied in Germany, where she currently resides. She has concertized in major venues around the world, appearing as soloist with ensembles including the Dortmund Philharmonic, the Akademie for Ancient Music Berlin, the Norwegian Baroque Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Munich, the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, the Brünn Philharmonic and the Athens National State Orchestra.
RENÉE JOLLES
Violin
Renée Jolles, violinist, enjoys an eclectic career as soloist and chamber artist specializing in a wide variety of styles from the Baroque to the contemporary. Hailed as a “real star” by The New York Times for her New York concerto debut in Alice Tully Hall, she has premiered hundreds of works, including the American premiere of Schnittke’s Violin Concerto No. 2. Her concerto engagements have included orchestras such as Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of New Jersey, the Cape May Festival Orchestra, and the Salisbury Symphony.
KEATS DIEFFENBACH
Violin
Equally comfortable on the stages of Carnegie Hall and the set of Saturday Night Live, Keats Dieffenbach (they/any) is a unique artist with infinitely varied interests and abilities. Lauded by The New York Times as an “impressive performer,” Dieffenbach’s dual specialization in contemporary and historical performance on both violin and viola keeps them in demand as concertmaster, chamber musician, and soloist with many leading ensembles.
RAFA PRENDERGAST
Violin
Brooklyn-based violinist Rafa Prendergast is an active performer of works dating from the early 17th century through the present day. Prendergast is a guest concertmaster with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado and performs frequently with Handel and Haydn Society, Twelfth Night, Theotokos, Upper Valley Baroque, Nuova Pratica, The Smithsonian Academy Orchestra, New York Baroque Incorporated, and ARTEK, among many others.
MAURYCY BANASZEK
Viola
Maurycy Banaszek was born in Warsaw, Poland. He has performed at the Marlboro, Seattle, Santa Fe, Aldeburgh, Moritzburg, Mozart, Kingston, Martha’s Vineyard, and Warsaw Autumn festivals. He regularly tours with the Musicians from Marlboro and appears at the Barge Music in New York. As a founding member of The Elsner String Quartet, he has played in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, and Gewandhaus in Leipzig, among others.
SEBASTIAN GOTTSCHICK
Viola
SEBASTIAN GOTTSCHICK was born in Düsseldorf to a family of church musicians. He studied violin, composition and conducting in Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg and at the Juilliard School in New York. The broad spectrum of his interests and experience – in contemporary and early music, as conductor, composer and arranger, violinist, violist and teacher at the Cologne Conservatory (HfMT Köln) – is reflected in his compositions.
NATHAN WHITTAKER
Cello
NATHAN WHITTAKER, violoncello, enjoys a unique and diverse career as a concert soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, teacher, and historical cello specialist with concert stops ranging from New York to Seattle to Dubai. He is the Artistic Director of Gallery Concerts (Seattle), a concert series of chamber music on period instruments, and regularly performs with the Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, New York Baroque Incorporated, ARTek, El Mundo, Fort Greene Chamber Music Society, Byron Schenkman and Friends, and the Pacific Northwest Ballet.
PABLO KENNEDY
Double Bass
Pablo Kennedy is a Boston-based multi-instrumentalist with a love for historical performance on double bass, theorbo, and other lute-family instruments. He earned his Bachelor of Music in Performance from Boston University, studying double bass with Edwin Barker and lutes with Catherine Liddell.
Pablo’s recent ensemble experience includes collaborations with the Ashmont Hill Bach Project, Cappella Clausura, the Marsh Chapel Collegium, and the Worcester Chorus. He frequently also performs as a recital accompanist with plucked strings.
ARTHUR HAAS
Harpsichord
Arthur Haas is one of the most sought after performers and teachers of Baroque music in the United States today. He received the top prize in the Paris International Harpsichord Competition in 1975 and then stayed in France for a number of years as an active member of the growing European early music scene. While in Paris, he joined the Five Centuries Ensemble, a group acclaimed for its performances and recordings of Baroque and contemporary music.
STEPHEN BARD
Oboe
Oboist Stephen Bard has performed internationally with period instrument orchestras and chamber ensembles including Tafelmusik, Philharmonia Baroque, Portland Baroque, Arion, Le Concert d’Astrée, American Bach Soloists, Tempesta di Mare, Washington Bach Consort, Folger Consort, Chicago Opera Theater, Les Boréades, REBEL, Musica Angelica, and Aradia Ensemble. He has appeared at the Oregon Bach Festival, Vancouver Early Music Festival, Mostly Mozart Festival, Klang & Raum Musikfestival, Festival Internacional de las Artes de Castilla y León, and the Huntsville Festival of the Arts (Ontario).
DAN BATES
Oboe
Daniel Bates was born in London but now lives in Washington, D.C. He is principal oboe of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (London, UK) and the National Philharmonic Orchestra (D.C., USA.) He recently received his doctoral degree from Stony Brook and Princeton Universities. His wedding was featured by Martha Stewart, and he has a Pomeranian dog called Fitz.
DAVID DICKEY
Oboe
David Dickey earned his Master of Music degree in historical performance in Baroque oboe from The Juilliard School. During his two-year program, he played with the school’s premier period instrument ensemble, Juilliard415, and toured through England and Germany, playing in J.S. Bach’s own Thomaskirche at Bachfest in Leipzig, as well as at The Boston Early Music Festival under Masaaki Suzuki. Upon graduation, he received the Norman Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant, awarded to five students graduating from Juilliard, and was one of four graduates to be given a year-long contract to appear in recitals and orchestral performances with The English Concert in America.
Vocalists
EMILY DONATO
Soprano
Emily Donato has performed as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah with Colorado Bach Ensemble and St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, as well as soloist in Faure’s Requiem at Carnegie Hall. In 2023, she was awarded first prize in the 2023 Handel Aria Competition and that same year was a vocal fellow at the Carmel Bach Festival. After winning the Lyndon Woodside Oratorio Competition in 2021, Ms. Donato appeared as soloist with the Oratorio Society of New York in Bach’s B Minor Mass.
ELISA SUTHERLAND
Mezzo-Soprano
Mezzo-soprano Elisa Sutherland gives detailed, stylistic performances of early and new music with “soul-infused expressiveness and unselfconscious joie de vivre” (New York Music Daily). She is a core member of Ekmeles, a sextet dedicated to exploring microtonal tuning and extended vocal techniques, as well as Alkemie, an ensemble made up of medieval specialists that celebrates the vibrant and timeless sounds of the past and present.d
MATTHEW NEWHOUSE
Tenor
A sought-after soloist, Matthew Newhouse has performed with the Tucson Symphony for Handel’s Messiah, Utah Symphony and the Rochester Philharmonicfor their respective performances of Mozart’s Requiem, and the Baltimore Symphonyin Dame Ethyl Smith’s Mass in D. Mr. Newhouse also performs with Apollo’s Fire, ARTEK Early Music, Ars Lyrica Houston, Emmanuel Music Boston, Duke Chapel Music Series, and the Bach Virtuosi Festival.
PAUL MAX TIPTON
Bass-Baritone
Described by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a dignified and beautiful singer, bass-baritone Paul Max Tipton performs and records in opera, oratorio, and chamber music throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Recent engagements include Haydn’s Creation with Pacific Symphony, Christus in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at Spoleto Festival USA, Plutone in Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Göteborg Baroque, and a recording of Nicolaus Bruhns’s solo cantatas for bass with Masaaki Suzuki. In 2022-2023 he covers the title role in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at Handel & Haydn Society, makes a solo debut in Tokyo with Bach Collegium Japan in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and records the Bach Mass in B-Minor with Nicholas McGegan & Cantata Collective. He studied on full-fellowship at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and Yale University.
Festival Chorus
SARAH BAILEY
Soprano
Sarah Bailey is a well-known classical soprano in southern Maine. She has sung with: Maine Music Society (Beethoven: “Mass in C,” Mozart: “Requiem,” “Solemn Vespers KV 321”), White Mountain Bach Festival (multiple Bach cantatas), Midcoast Symphony Orchestra (Handel: “Messiah”), and many solo appearances with ChoralART, including soloist on tour in Europe (Schubert: “Mass in G”). Ms. Bailey has also had the honor of premiering two pieces featuring solo soprano: Nancy Gunn’s “Driving in Maine” and William Pardus’s “Four Songs of the Coast.
NACOLE PALMER
Soprano
A frequent oratorio and concert artist, soprano Nacole Palmer has lived in Maine for 8 years, following 14 years of living and singing in New York City. Carnegie Hall debut: Handel’s Messiah with the Oratorio Society of New York. Lincoln Center debut: Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Riverside Choral Society. Other solo credits include acclaimed Bach’s St. John Passion and Orff’s Carmina Burana with Seraphic Fire of Miami; Haydn’s Creation with the Ulster Choral Society; Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, and Graun’s Cleopatra e Cesare with The Clarion Music Society.
ANDREA GRAICHEN
Mezzo
ANDREA GRAICHEN is a frequent soloist in the Greater Portland area, performing a wide variety of alto and mezzo-soprano repertoire. Her most recent appearance featured music for voice and lute by Early Music composers Jean-Baptiste Boësset, Antoine Boësset, Barbara Strozzi, and John Dowland. She sang in Blue Hill Bach’s “Birthday Concert for Johann Sebastian Bach” featuring Jesu, meine Freude BWV 227 and Felix Mendelssohn’s setting of Jesu, meine Freude.
BEN MCVETY
Tenor
Ben McVety has a Bachelor of Arts in music from the College of William and Mary, and a Masters of Science in Music Education from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. He has been a high school choral director from 2013-2021, and has recently moved to Maine, where the rest of his family resides. He has made a slight career shift to working in his family’s stove shop business in Yarmouth. He loves performing and is very excited to be able to sing again, despite the pandemic’s best efforts to quell live performances.
Festival Associates
BO PANG
Violin
Bo Pang (born in China, 2002) received his first violin lesson at the age of five with parents and now, he is studying in The Juilliard School with Prof. Lewis Kaplan. During his studies, he won several violin competitions such as: the gold prize of the Beijing Division of the National Youth Artistic Violin Competition in 2011, the gold prize of the Beijing Division of the Fifth China Art Global Competition, the first prize in the violin competition of China Art Park International Festival in 2016.
SEDONA KMEN
Violin
Sedona Kmen started playing violin at the age of six and knew early on that she wanted to pursue a career in classical music. She attended the Idyllwild Arts Academy in California for high school, studying under Todor Pelev, after which she took a gap year to study with Peter Zazofsky and take part in the NEC Preparatory CHIPS piano trio program where she further explored her deep love for chamber music. She is currently an undergraduate student at the Eastman School of Music studying with Renée Jolles.
CHIHIRO KAKISHIMA
Violin
Chihiro Kakishima, violinist, is a young and gifted performer from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Currently residing in Rochester, New York, Chihiro is pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Eastman School of Music under the tutelage of Renée Jolles. Musical highlights in Michigan include concerto appearances with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra in Hill Auditorium and the Michigan Pops Orchestra. She frequently plays with a wide range of orchestras including the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, Symphoria in Syracuse, and the Chautauqua Music School Festival Orchestra, of whom she also served as concertmaster.
JESSICA WU
Violin
Jessica Wu, from Queens, NY, is currently pursuing her Bachelor’s degree at Columbia University. She also studies under Lewis Kaplan at the Juilliard School as a student in the Columbia-Juilliard Exchange. An avid chamber musician, Jessica has participated in the New York Youth Symphony (NYYS) Chamber Music Program, Summer Chamber Music Intensive, Chamber Music Center of New York, LaGuardia High School Chamber Music, and Juilliard Pre-College. Highlights include winning the 2022 Lincoln Center Young Ensembles Program and an invitation to perform at Alice Tully Hall.
LEERONE HAKAMI
Violin
Israeli-American violinist, Leerone Hakami, embarked on a campaign of begging her parents to play the violin at age two. It took three years, but by age five, she stood proudly with her 1/8th sized violin that could barely make a sound. This proved to be the right decision on her parents’ part, as the violin took her to Carnegie Hall, three different continents, and Juilliard.
ELIJAH SPIES
Viola
British-American violist Elijah Spies plays in spaces ranging from intimate living rooms and hospital wards to large concert halls. Born and raised in London, he began his formal studies at the junior department of the Royal College of Music. He has since performed at international concert series including the BBC Proms, the Lucerne Festival, and Euro Young Classic. With a particular passion for collaborating with composers and creating new music, he has premiered more than thirty works as a soloist and chamber musician.
LUCY GELBER
Viola
Lucy Gelber recently graduated with a BM from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Masumi Rostad. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Lucy started on violin but switched to viola, which she felt better suited her. She primarily studied with Joli Wu throughout high school. An avid chamber musician, she performed
frequently with the Andromeda Quartet, founded at Eastman in 2020, working under the guidance of Yoojin Jang and members of the Ying Quartet.
KELCEY HOWELL
Cello
Kelcey Howell recently graduated with a master’s degree from the Juilliard School, where she was a student of Timothy Eddy. A Colorado native, she earned her bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from the University of Denver, where she studied cello with Matthew Zalkind. As a member of the Juilliard Orchestra and various student chamber music ensembles, Kelcey has given performances across New York City in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and throughout Lincoln Center.
