Meet the musicians who make up this unique collaborative of early music specialists who call themselves TEMPERAMENTAL...
Photo: Chuck Moses
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TEMPERAMENTAL, a collective of Pacific Northwest musicians brought together by soprano Linda Tsatsanis, specializes in the music of the late Renaissance, early Baroque, high Baroque and Classical periods. The musicians of TEMPERAMENTAL are in demand as soloists and collaborators in the United States and overseas and can be found on the faculty of prestigious music institutions across the country. While most ensembles consist of a static stable of musicians regardless of the repertoire, TEMPERAMENTAL is based on the concept of a fluid and adaptive ensemble, which changes for the benefit of each program and features each players' specialty. This not only allows for unique and diverse programs covering a wide range of periods with multiple instrumental combinations, but also ensures a fresh, exciting, and different performance each time.
The musicians of TEMPERAMENTAL have been collaborating for many years in ensembles such as: Seattle Baroque Orchestra ~ Gallery Concerts ~ Seattle Baroque Soloists ~ sound|counterpoint Early Music Underground ~ Byron Schenkman and Friends ~ Portland Baroque Orchestra Pacific MusicWorks ~ Pacific Baroque Orchestra ~ Plaine & Easie |
Trebles
Linda Tsatsanis
soprano |
Hailed as “ravishing” (New York Times) and possessing “sheer vocal proficiency, a bright, flexible voice, big but controlled, shaded with plentiful color” (Boston Globe), Canadian soprano Linda Tsatsanis enjoys a career that spans the concert hall, opera stage, movies and television. Her love of chamber music has led her to collaborate with various early music ensembles, having been presented by the Indianapolis Early Music Festival, Early Music Guild (Seattle), San Francisco Early Music Society, Early Music in Columbus, Renaissance and Baroque Society (Pittsburg), Early Music Now (Milwaukee), and Bloomington Early Music Festival. In addition, she keeps a demanding performance schedule soloing with groups such as Mark Morris Dance Group, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Magnolia Baroque Orchestra, and Pacific MusicWorks. Tsatsanis can be heard on various recordings by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Naxos and has a solo album with Origin Classical, And I Remain: Three Love Stories, described as a “seductive recital of the darker sides of 17th-century love” (Gramophone). She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto and continued her education with a master’s degree from Indiana University. In 2015 she was granted Visiting Scholar status from the University of Washington.
www.lindatsatsanis.com |
Ingrid Matthews
violin |
Ingrid Matthews won first prize in the Erwin Bodky International Competition for Early Music in 1989, and was a member of Toronto's Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra before founding the Seattle Baroque Orchestra with Byron Schenkman; she served as its Music Director from 1994 to 2013. She has performed extensively around the world with many of today's leading early music ensembles, appearing as a soloist and/or guest director with many groups including the New York Collegium, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, the Bach Sinfonia (Washington DC), Ars Lyrica (Houston), Musica Angelica (Los Angeles), New Trinity Baroque (Atlanta), and numerous others. Matthews has won high critical acclaim for a discography ranging from the earliest Italian violin music through the Sonatas and Partitas of J.S. Bach (“the finest complete set of these works,” according to Third Ear's Classical Music Listening Companion). Sought-after as a chamber musician, Matthews has collaborated with most of the leading early musicians of her generation and served as first violinist of the notable ensemble La Luna. She has taught at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, the University of Toronto, the University of Washington, the University of Southern California/Los Angeles, and Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.
www.ingridmatthews.com |
Adam Lamotte
violin |
Adam LaMotte is becoming well known to audiences throughout the country as a leader of both period and modern ensembles. He has appeared as soloist, concertmaster, and conductor of numerous orchestras, including the Northwest Sinfonietta in Seattle, String Orchestra of the Rockies, Astoria Festival Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and the Maggini String Orchestra in Houston.
As violinist and violist, Adam has been hailed by critics as an "especially compelling" and "superb violinist" with "exceptional talent," whose performances are "energetic and exquisite." As Artistic Director of the Montana Baroque Festival, he brings first-class period instrument performances to the rural Montana community. He has co-founded two critically-acclaimed ensembles, in Portland and in Houston, and continues to produce many chamber music and chamber orchestra performances. In collaboration with ensembles such as American Bach Soloists, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Ars Lyrica, and Chanticleer, Mr. LaMotte performs on period instruments, using a fine Italian instrument made in 1730 by Bernardo Calcagni, for which he is indebted to his generous patrons who made the purchase possible. www.adamlamotte.com |
Linda Melsted
violin |
The passionate artistry of violinist Linda Melsted has won the hearts of audiences across North America, Europe, and Japan. She has appeared as soloist, member, and leader of several outstanding ensembles including Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, and Pacific MusicWorks. Linda is the featured soloist in Tafelmusik's TV documentary, DVD and CD "Le Mozart Noir," where she musically incarnates the remarkable 18th-century virtuoso and adventurer, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. An active chamber musician, Linda has appeared on many series including Early Music Vancouver, Gallery Concerts, Primavera Concerts, Bloomington Early Music Festival, the Calgary Symphony's Italian Music Festival, Folia, Toronto Music Garden, Quadra Island Discovery Chamber Music Festival, and Tactus.
Linda was a member of Tafelmusik 1992-2004, Music Director of Nota Bene Baroque Orchestra, 2005-2009, a regular guest leader and soloist of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra's "Baroque and Beyond" series, and taught violin at the University of Waterloo. Happily back in Seattle since 2010, she formed the Salish Sea Players, a group dedicated to performing chamber music in retirement and nursing facilities, is a founding member of the chamber group sound|counterpoint. |
Greg Ewer
violin |
Greg Ewer is well known to audiences for his regular appearances with the Oregon Symphony, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Third Angle New Music Ensemble and Pink Martini. He is also the founder and artistic director of 45th Parallel, a highly acclaimed chamber music series featuring musicians of the Pacific Northwest. He holds faculty positions at Reed College and Lewis & Clark College.
Greg began his musical career at the age of seventeen with the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra. He was also the fiddler in the Houston-based bluegrass band, Classical Grass. Greg has appeared as a guest recitalist at Yale University and at the National Library in Mexico City. He has performed at numerous summer festivals including the Tanglewood Music Center, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival, Moab Music Festival and the Mon- tana Baroque Festival. Recent recordings include the complete Sonatas for Two Violins by Jean-Marie Leclair for Sono Luminus, and a compilation of pieces by contemporary Chinese composer Chen Yi with Third Angle New Music Ensemble. |
Basses
Nathan Whittaker
cello |
Nathan Whittaker, violoncello, enjoys a unique and diverse career as a concert soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, teacher, and historical cello specialist. He plays regularly with the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and is a founding member of the Op. 20 String Quartet. Recent concert appearances have included the Indianapolis Early Music Festival, Vancouver Early Music Festival, and Pacific Baroque Festival (Victoria, B.C.), as well as other concert stops ranging from Seattle to New York to Dubai. He also composed and recorded an original score for the Emmy nominated documentary "When Seattle Invented the Future". He can be heard on recordings by ATMA Musique, Centaur, and Harmonia and broadcasts by NPR, CBC, and KING FM. An active pedagogue, he maintains a dynamic private studio and is faculty at the Cornish College of the Arts and the founder and director of the Seattle Chamber Music Coaching Sessions (SCMCS). Along with his busy performance and teaching schedule, he completed a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Washington in 2012. Dr. Whittaker also holds degrees from Indiana University.
www.nathanhwhittaker.com |
Anna Marsh
bassoon |
Anna Marsh is a Baroque wind specialist, who is also fluent in Medieval, Renaissance, Classical and Modern instruments. Her interests lie principally in the double‐reed family, though she also performs on the Renaissance and Baroque recorder. Originally from Tacoma, WA, Anna appears regularly with Opera Lafayette (DC), Tempesta di Mare (Philadelphia), Ensemble Caprice (Montreal), Opera Atelier (Toronto), Tafelmusik (Toronto), Washington Bach Consort (DC), and Pacific MusicWorks (Seattle), among others. She has been the featured soloist with the Foundling Orchestra with Marion Verbruggen, Arion Orchestre Baroque, The Buxtehude Consort, The Dryden Ensemble, the Boulder Bach Festival, New York State Baroque, the Indiana University Baroque Orchestra and others. She co‐directs Ensemble Lipzodes and has taught both privately and at festivals and master classes at the Eastman School of Music, Los Angeles Music and Art School, the Amherst Early Music, and Hawaii Performing Arts Festivals and the Albuquerque, San Francisco Early Music Society, Rocky Ridge Music Center and Western Double Reed Workshop. She tours internationally, mostly to Europe and South America, and has also been heard on Performance Today, Harmonia and CBC radio and recorded for Chandos, Analekta, Centaur, Naxos, the Super Bowl, Avie, and Musica Omnia. Marsh studied music and German studies at Mt. Holyoke College, The Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California and holds a Doctor of Music from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.
www.annamarshmusic.com |
Pluckers
John Lenti
theorbo, lute, baroque guitar |
John Lenti's performances as a soloist and chamber musician on theorbo, renaissance lute, baroque lute, archlute, and baroque guitar across the United States and abroad have been described as “a joy to behold” (Seattle Times) and praised for his “nuanced beauty and character” (Gramophone). He regularly deploys his "unusually big sound" (Third Coast Digest) on various early music concert series across the country and has been presented at festivals such as the Boston, Berkeley, Indianapolis, Magnolia Baroque, Carmel Bach and Salish Sea Early Music Festivals. He has had the pleasure of sharing the stage with American Bach Soloists, Apollo's Fire, Bach Collegium San Diego, Catacoustic Consort, Farallon Recorder Quartet, Haymarket Opera, Magnificat, Mercury Baroque, Mr. Jones and the Engines of Destruction, Musica Pacifica, Newberry Consort, New World Symphony, Seraphic Fire and opera pit with Opera Omnia, Portland Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, and Seattle Opera. He enjoys nothing so much as making music on tour as a founding member with his chamber groups I-90 Collective, Ostraka, Sacro Profano, and Wayward Sisters. His recording credits include "Division" with Ostraka, "And I remain: three love stories," with soprano Linda Tsatsanis, chamber music of Matthew Locke with Wayward Sisters, and work as a sideman with La Monica, Seattle Baroque, and Portland Baroque Orchestra. As a founding member of Plaine & Easie and Wayward Sisters, he has twice taken top prizes in Early Music America competitions. He is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts and Indiana University. He studied lute with Nigel North, Jacob Heringman, and Elizabeth Kenny and he strives to make himself worthy of that pedagogical legacy. Great musical help and inspiration have come at crucial intervals from Ronn McFarlane, Ricardo Cobo, Pat O'Brien, and Walter Gray.
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Jillon Stoppels Dupree
harpsichord |
Described as “one of the most outstanding early musicians in North America” (IONARTS) and “a baroque star” (Seattle Times), harpsichordist Jillon Stoppels Dupree has captivated audiences in cities ranging from London to Amsterdam to New York. Her world premiere recording of Philip Glass’s Concerto for Harpsichord and Chamber Orchestra with the Northwest Chamber Orchestra (heralded as “superb” by the New York Times) was released to high acclaim in fall of 2006 on the Orange Mountain Music label. Her playing can also be heard on the Meridian, Wild Boar, Decca and Delos record labels; and she has appeared live on BBC England, Polish National Television, CBS Television and National Public Radio. Jillon has been a featured artist at the highly-respected early music festivals of York (England), Boston and Berkeley, as well as at the National Music Museum, the Cleveland and Santa Barbara Museums of Art, and numerous universities and colleges. Her chamber music collaborations include performances with violinists Ingrid Matthews, Stanley Ritchie and Jaap Schröder; viola da gambists Wieland Kuijken and Margriet Tindemans; singers Julianne Baird, Ellen Hargis and Ann Monoyios; and recorder virtuosi Marion Verbruggen, Eva Legene and Vicki Boeckman. Recent activities include a residency at Stanford University, concerts with the Seattle Symphony, participation in the Gustav Leonhardt Tribute recital at the Berkeley Early Music Festival, and a solo Bach recording project. A recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalists grant, Jillon has taught at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, the University of Washington, and the University of Michigan. She is currently on the early music faculty at Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts and is the founding director of the Gallery Concerts early music series in Seattle.
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Byron Schenkman
harpsichord, fortepiano |
Byron Schenkman has recorded more than thirty CDs of 17th- and 18th-century repertoire, including recordings on historical instruments from the National Music Museum, Vermillion, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A recipient of the Erwin Bodky Award from the Cambridge Society for Early Music “for outstanding achievement in the field of early music,” he was voted “Best Classical Instrumentalist” by the readers of Seattle Weekly in 2006, and his piano playing has been described in The New York Times as “sparkling,” “elegant,” and “insightful.” He has been a featured guest with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, the Daedalus Quartet, the Northwest Sinfonietta, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Philharmonia Northwest, and the Portland Baroque Orchestra. He was also founding co-director of the Seattle Baroque Orchestra with violinist Ingrid Matthews. In 2013 he launched “Byron Schenkman & Friends,” a Baroque and Classical chamber music series at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. Recently he has been studying Klezmer music with Shawn Weaver and has begun collaborating on performances of Russian Jewish art music with violinist Steven Greenman. Schenkman is a graduate of the New England Conservatory and received his master’s degree with honors in performance from the Indiana University School of Music. He currently teaches at Seattle University and Cornish College of the Arts. In 2012 he also served as guest lecturer in harpsichord and fortepiano at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
www.byronschenkman.com |
Bangers
Peter Maund
percussion |
A native of San Francisco, Peter Maund studied percussion at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and music, folklore and ethnomusicology at the University of California, Berkeley. A founding member of Ensemble Alcatraz and Alasdair Fraser’s Skyedance, he has performed with early and contemporary music ensembles including Alboka, Anonymous 4, Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players, Chanticleer, Davka, El Mundo, The Harp Consort, Hesperion XX, Kitka, Los Cenzontles, Musica Pacifica, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Voices of Music, among others. Presenters and venues include Cal Performances, Carnegie Hall, Celtic Connections (Glasgow); Cervantino Festival (Guanajuato), Confederation House (Jerusalem); Edinburgh Festival; Festival Interceltique de Lorient; Festival Pau Casals; Folkfestival Dranouter; Horizante Orient Okzident (Berlin); The Kennedy Center; Lincoln Center; Palacio Congresos (Madrid); Queen Elizabeth Hall (London); and Tage Alter Musik (Regensburg). He is the author of “Percussion” in A Performers Guide to Medieval Music, Indiana University Press, 2000. He has served on the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley as well as in workshops sponsored by Amherst Early Music, the San Francisco Early Music Society, the American Recorder Society and the American Orff-Schulwerk Association. Described by the Glasgow Herald as “the most considerate and imaginative of percussionists” he can be heard on over 50 recordings.
www.petermaund.com |
Tom Collier
vibes |
Seattle-based vibraphonist Tom Collier has received much critical acclaim for his recordings and performances with his own group as well as with other jazz and popular artists. Tom has appeared in concert and on recordings with Eddie Daniels, Ry Cooder, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Roger Kellaway, Frank Zappa, Howard Roberts, Ernie Watts, Dave Holland, Shelly Manne, Alex Acuna, Laurindo Almeida, Buddy DeFranco, Diane Schurr, Peggy Lee, Natalie Cole, Morganna King, Herb Ellis, Bill Mays, Bobby Shew and Ernestine Anderson, In addition to his long and varied professional career, he has been the Director of Percussion Studies at the University of Washington since 1980.
www.tomcolliervibes.com |