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guest players

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Catherine Liddell

Lute

While most of her peers were dancing to the music of the Beatles, Cathy as a high school student was enthralled with the performances and recordings of lutenist Julian Bream. It was this excitement which caused her, in tenth grade, to give up the viola da gamba which she’d been playing since eighth grade and take up the lute. Throughout high school and college, Ms. Liddell’s teachers included America’s best-known players: Martha Blackman, James Tyler, Joseph Iadone and Suzanne Bloch. During this period several professional opportunities came her way including recordings for Nonesuch, Experiences Anonymes and Lyrichord, the latter two with the ensemble Cappella Cordina directed by Alejandro Planchart.

After earning a Batchelor of Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College with a concentration in music, Ms. Liddell continued her studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland where she studied with Eugen Dombois. While there, she took advantage of the opportunity to study medieval music with Thomas Binkley. This work culminated in a recording of 14th century estampie for EMI Reflex. While at the Schola, she was invited to perform in Marco da Gagliano’s “La Dafne” with the New York Pro Music (conducted by George Houle) which included performances in Spoleto, Italy and in Corfu. In 1976, she earned the Soloist Diploma. She has maintained an active performing career ever since.
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Nancy Hurrell

Harp

Nancy is a well-known harpist who enjoys playing a wide variety of music. She is equally at home performing for a corporate event, a concert with a choir, or a recital featuring historical harps. Nancy was harpist for Tea at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Boston for five years and has a diverse repertoire, playing classical, popular, jazz standards, Renaissance and Irish music. She has performed for diplomats and distinguished guests, including HRH Prince Edward, Princess Cristina of Spain, First Lady Laura Bush, Senator Ted Kennedy, and the Consul General of Ireland.

Audiences from Montreal to Tennessee have enjoyed her Harp Tapestry concerts featuring a diverse array of historical harps and music from ancient to modern times. She has appeared at numerous festivals including: Boston Early Music Festival, Amherst Early Music Festival, ICONS (Irish Connections), UK Harp Festival and Somerset Harp Festivals. Nancy has several solo and ensemble recordings, and her books of harp arrangements are popular with players around the world. 

In Boston, Nancy is a harp consultant at the Museum of Fine Arts, presenting gallery talks and recording soundfiles on harps in the collection. She is a member of the harp faculty at the Boston Conservatory, and she performs and teaches at conferences across the US, Canada, Britain, and Ireland. Through her concerts, lectures and recordings, Nancy continues to be a pioneering force in promoting the versatile harp and its music.

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Na'ama Lion

Flute

Na'ama is well known in the Boston area as a versatile performer on historical flutes. She has explored Baroque, Classical and Romantic music with numerous groups and period orchestras, including La Donna Musicale, Boston Baroque, Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Cecilia, Arcadia Players, Grand Harmonie, and overseas with Academia Daniel and Barrocade orchestra. Na’ama has also performed medieval music, playing with “Sequentia”; Renaissance music with the Renaissance flute quartet “Travesada”; She is also a committed performer of new music, and has had new pieces written for her and her various ensembles by composers John McDonald, Jorge Ibanez, Atsushi Yoshinaka, Paul Brust, Murray Barsky, Marti Epstein, Robert Carl, and pre-eminent Israeli composer Leon Schidlowsky. Recently she has collaborated with the crossover ensemble “Rumbarroco” playing Latin American music. Na’ama holds a Doctoral degree from Boston University, a Soloist Diploma from the Arnhem Conservatory in the Netherlands, and a BMus. degree in modern flute performance from the Tel Aviv University. She teaches at the Longy School of Music and directs a chamber music program at Harvard College. She is a sought-after teacher at summer workshops, including Amherst Early Music and the International Baroque Institute at Longy. Na’ama has recorded for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Telarc and private labels.

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Lauren Jeppesen

Violin, Viola, Viola da Gamba

Laura has a master's degree from Yale University. Following Yale, she studied at the Hamburg Hochschule and the Brussels Conservatory with Wieland Kuijken. She has been a Woodrow Wilson Designate, a Fulbright Scholar, and a fellow of the Bunting Institute at Harvard. A prominent member of Boston's early music community, she has long associations with The Boston Museum Trio, Boston Baroque, The Handel and Haydn Society, the Boston Early Music Festival and Aston Magna. In 2015 she was part of the BEMF team that won a Grammy for best opera recording. In 2005 she was a finalist for an IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) award for the musical score she produced as music director for Christopher Marlowe's "Dido Queen of Carthage" at the American Repertory Theater. She has performed as soloist with conductors Christopher Hogwood, Edo deWaart, Seiji Ozawa, Craig Smith, Martin Pearlman, Harry Christophers, Grant Llewellyn, and Bernard Haitink. She has an extensive discography of solo and chamber works, including the gamba sonatas of J.S. Bach, music of Marin Marais, Buxtehude, Rameau, Telemann and Clerambault. She teaches at Boston University, Wellesley College and Harvard University where she recently won an award of special distinction in the teaching of undergraduates. She is a 2017 recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Blended Learning Initiative Grant for innovative teaching at Wellesley College.

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Daniel Stepner

Violin

Daniel is the Artistic Director of the Aston Magna Festival and Foundation. He is also Professor Emeritus at Brandeis University, where he was first violinist of the Lydian String Quartet from 1987-2016. He was also a Preceptor in Music at Harvard University from 1993-2013, and Concertmaster of the Handel and Haydn Society from 1986 to 2009. His major teachers were Steven Staryk in Chicago, Nadia Boulanger in France and Broadus Erle at Yale University, where he earned a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree. 

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Mike Williams

Percussion, Artistic Director

Mike is a Boston-based performer specializing in contemporary music. He has performed with local ensembles including Sound Icon, Ludovico Ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, Chameleon Arts Ensemble, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Harvard Group for New Music, and Composers in Red Sneakers among many others. Williams has been involved in numerous recording projects released on the Cantaloupe, BMOP Sound, Albany, and Northwest Classics labels. As an orchestral and chamber musician he has appeared at the Festival de Mexico, Gaudeamus Music Week, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, and the New Hampshire Music Festival. Active in the creation of new works, Williams is the artistic director of Guerilla Opera, an ensemble that exclusively commissions and premieres new chamber operas. Highlights of this season include the world premiere of Rudolf Rojahn’s Deus ex Machina for solo percussion during The Boston Conservatory New Music Festival and the US premiere of Stefano Gervasoni’s concerto for percussion Epicadenza with Sound Icon. Williams holds MM and BM degrees from The Boston Conservatory where he won top prizes including the Concerto Competition in 2004. He also completed a year of advanced study at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam during which time he regularly performed with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra under Peter Eötvös and was a guest lecturer and solo recitalist at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold, Germany. Williams was awarded a fellowship from the Tanglewood Music Center and attended The Institute and Festival for Contemporary Performance in New York. His main teachers include Peter Prommel, Pat Hollenbeck, Sal Rabbio, and Nancy Zeltsman.

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