"I so enjoyed your concert last Sunday; so beautifully played and sung by you and your compatriots..."

Karen Burciaga (treble & tenor viol) holds an MM in Early Music Performance from the Longy School of Music, where she studied Baroque violin with Dana Maiben and viol with Jane Hershey. She holds a BM from Vanderbilt University, where she began playing viol. She has performed with The King's Noyse, Newton Baroque, Arcadia Players, Cavalier Consort, Cambridge Concentus, Grand Harmonie, Exsultemus and other period ensembles. Karen is a founding member of Seven Times Salt, a broken consort specializing in 16th-century English music and ballads. She has taught on the string faculty of the Texas TOOT and Pinewoods Camp, and currently serves as president of the board of the Viola da Gamba Society - New England. Karen can also be found fiddling Celtic tunes with Ulster Landing or attempting to play the harp. 

Jane Hershey (tenor & bass viol) began her musical studies at the Longy School of Music with Gian Silbiger; she continued at The Royal Conservatory in The Hague, studying viola da gamba with Wieland and SIgiswald Kuijken, and recorder with Frans Brueggen. Early in her career, she toured and recorded with the Boston Camerata.  Since then, she has appeared with Hesperus, the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, Emmanuel Music, Monadnock Music and others.  She is a regular member of the Carthage Consort, the Arcadia Players of western Massachusetts, and Arcadia Viols.  Ms. Hershey can be heard on a 2005 recording of the music of Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, with Frances Fitch and friends.  In addition to teaching at the Powers Music School and Longy School of Bard College, she directs the Tufts Early Music Ensemble and is active in the Viola da Gamba Society of America.

Anne Legêne (treble & bass viol) was born into a family of musicians and studied cello at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Netherlands, her native country. She performs chamber music regularly with harpsichordists Larry Wallach and Mariken Palmboom. Anne conducts the orchestra and teaches cello at Bard College at Simon's Rock and maintains a full teaching studio. She also teaches at the Early Music Week at World Fellowship Center near Conway, NH. Anne has played with ensembles including Foundling, Les Inégales, Crescendo, the Berkshire Bach Society, the Harvard Choir and Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra. She obtained a Graduate Performance Diploma at the Longy School, studying viola da gamba with Jane Hershey and baroque cello with Phoebe Carrai.

Carol Lewis (treble, tenor & bass viol) has been called a “zestful and passionate champion” of the viola da gamba.  She has frequently demonstrated her musical virtuosity and versatility as a soloist in recitals in the United States and abroad.  A former student of Jordi Savall, Carol holds a soloist diploma from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.  She has toured and recorded with Hespèrion, the Boston Camerata, Ensemble Chaconne and Capriccio Stravagante.  Carol currently teaches privately and at Somerville High School; she has taught at Festival dei Saraceni (Pamparato, Italy), Milano Civica Scuola di Musica (Italy), New England Conservatory of Music, Amherst Early Music, and the annual VdGSA summer conclave.  She recently served as president of the Viola da Gamba Society-New England and remains on its Board.

David H. Miller (bass viol) is a musicologist and performer and holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Cornell University. On Baroque and modern double bass, viola da gamba, and violone, David has appeared with groups such as the Handel and Haydn Society, Arcadia Players, Trinity Wall Street, Music at Marsh Chapel, Seven Times Salt, and New York Baroque Incorporated. His other musical interests include the intersection of performance and analysis, the music of Schütz and Schein, pedagogy, modernism, music and mountains, and historical performance. In fall 2022, David joined the music faculty of UC Berkeley as Assistant Professor of Practice. 

James Perretta (tenor & bass viol) is a co-founder of Lyracle, a new group dedicated to the largely forgotten art of accompanying the solo voice with a single viol. He graduated from the University of Michigan, where he studied viola da gamba and baroque cello with Enid Sutherland, completed a BM in modern cello with Richard Aaron, and earned a MS in Computer Science and Engineering. From 2017-2019, James founded and directed a student viol consort in Ann Arbor, introducing consort playing to students unfamiliar with the instrument. In addition to music for voice and viol, he is passionate about exploring 16th and 17th century styles of improvisation. James currently teaches gamba at the Powers School in Belmont and online and is  pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Science at Northeastern University.

James Williamson (treble, tenor & bass viol) plays early strings and sings tenor in a variety of groups in Montreal and Boston. His viol playing has has been called "sensitive and virtuosic" in the Boston Musical Intelligencer. In Boston, he was a core member of the viol consort Long & Away and has appeared with the Boston Camerata. In addition to viol ensemble work, he is an avid continuo and solo player on viol and baroque cello, presenting a number of recitals focussing on the unaccompanied repertoire for both instruments. As a singer, James has performed in Montreal with Studio Musique Ancienne Montréal and Voces Boréales; in Boston, he sang with the Choir of the Church of the Advent, Ensemble Origo, and Schola Cantorum. He is an active member of the Viola da Gamba Society of America and has taught at workshops for the VdGS-New England and Amherst Early Music. He holds a Masters degree from the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA where his teachers and mentors included Phoebe Carrai, Jane Hershey, and Laurie Monahan. 

Collaborators

Rebekah Ahrendt - viola da gamba
Michael Barrett - tenor, recorder & lute
Douglas Dodson - countertenor
Emma Gavenda - organ
William Good - lute & baroque guitar
Elise Groves - soprano
Barbara Hill - soprano
Olav Chris Henriksen - lute
David Hunt - viola da gamba
Shirley Hunt - viola da gamba
Emily Lau - mezzo-soprano
Colleen McGary-Smith - viola da gamba
Daniel Meyers - recorder & percussion
Gerrod Pagenkopf - countertenor
Claire Raphaelson - soprano
Tobi Szuts - viola da gamba
Elizabeth Weinfield - viola da gamba
Zoe Weiss - viola da gamba
Matthew Wright - archlute & guitar