La Bernardinia Baroque Ensemble
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Rainer Beckmann, recorder, is a
graduate of the Utrecht School of the Arts, Netherlands, where he studied
recorder with Heiko ter Schegget, Baldrick Deerenberg, and Marion Verbruggen.
He is a first prize winner at the Holland Open Recorder Festival Competition
and the Performance Contest of the Dutch Concert Agency. As a founding member
of Il Flauto Giocoso and the Landini Consort, he has performed in Germany, the
Netherlands, France, Belgium, Italy, and Israel. In Brazil, he has taught
recorder and music history at the State University of Ceará and collaborated
with the ensembles Ad Libitum and Syntagma that specialize in Early Music, as
well as Brazilian popular and traditional music. Recent engagements include
performances and recordings with Mélomanie, Tempesta di Mare, the American Society of Ancient
Instruments, Early Music New York, and Fuma Sacra.
Rainer teaches at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music and is the director
of the school’s new Early Music program.
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Donna Fournier, viola da gamba, is a member of Le Triomphe de l'Amour and
Mélomanie. She has performed on gamba and Baroque cello with Tempesta
di Mare, Philomel, Brandywine Baroque, The Chamber Orchestra of
Philadelphia, and The Philadelphia Classical Symphony. She specializes
in repertoire from the French Baroque period as well as works featuring
solo viola da gamba by J.S. Bach. She studied privately
with Laurence Dreyfus supplemented by master classes with John Hsu and
Wieland Kuijken. Donna is affiliate faculty at Temple University
where she coaches viol players from the Early Music Ensemble. She has
recorded Buxtehude cantatas on the PGM label, Telemann trio sonatas on
the Lyrichord label, and Boismortier trio sonatas on the A Casa Discos
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Marcia Kravis, harpsichord, is a member of the
American Society of Ancient Instruments.
She has performed solo and ensemble recitals in Philadelphia,
Annapolis, and Washington, D.C.,
and has accompanied voice master classes by Julianne Baird and recorder master
classes by Marion Verbruggen, Han Tol, and Saskia Coolen. She is a graduate of New England Conservatory
of Music (M.M., 1978), where she studied with John Gibbons. In recent years, she has taken several master
classes and studied privately with Arthur Haas.
Marcia was a music and drama specialist at The Philadelphia School
from 1983-2006. She is currently working
as a Certified Music Practitioner, playing the hammered dulcimer bedside to
patients in hospice and hospital settings.
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Clara Rottsolk, soprano, a
native of Seattle, has been lauded by the New York Times for her “clear, appealing voice and expressive
conviction” and by the Philadelphia Inquirer for her “opulent tone [with which] every phrase has such
a communicative emotional presence.”
Her repertoire extends from the Renaissance to the Contemporary, and she has
worked with ensembles such as Tempesta di Mare, Fuma Sacra, Triomphe de
l’Amour, the Carmel Bach Festival Chorale, Handel Choir of Baltimore, New York
State Baroque, Piffaro—The Renaissance Band, Brandywine Baroque, Ensemble
Florilège, The Praktitioners of Musik, Trinity Wall Street Choir, and Saint
Clement’s Choir Philadelphia. As a recitalist she has performed
extensively throughout the US, from Seattle to Princeton and from Houston to
Boston, most recently in early Lieder programs with fortepianist Sylvia Berry
at the Goethe Institut, Boston, Saint Mark’s Church Philadelphia and Swarthmore
College as well as Purcell and Monteverdi programs at the Carmel Bach Festival
and Whidbey Island Music Festival. Clara was awarded for musical
excellence by the Metropolitan Opera National Council (Northwest Region) and
was also a Semi-Finalist for the Marian Anderson Prize for Emerging Artists.
Among her stage roles are Micaela in Carmen,
Dido in Dido & Aeneas, Arminda in
La Finta Giardiniera, Donna Elvira in
Don Giovanni, Laetitia in Old Maid & the Thief, Madame
Goldentrill in The Impresario, and
Johanna in Sweeney Todd. She earned her Master of Music Degree in Voice Performance and Pedagogy
under Metropolitan Opera soprano Sharon Sweet at Westminster Choir College and
her Bachelor of Music Degree in Voice at Rice University. Currently based
in Philadelphia, she teaches voice at Swarthmore College and the Lawrenceville
School. Clara's recent solo engagements include performances of Handel’s
Messiah at Carnegie Hall with
The Masterwork Chorus and Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, programs
with the Trinity Choir, Triomphe de l’Amour, and Tempesta di Mare, as well as a
tour to Japan of Bach’s Matthaus-Passion
with Joshua Rifkin. Her current season includes a monthly Bach cantata series
with the Philadelphia Bach Festival, appearances with the Baltimore Chamber
Orchestra and Philadelphia Choral Arts Society, and a
recording of solo Scarlatti cantatas with Tempesta di Mare for the Chandos
label.
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Stephen Bard, baroque oboe, performs on a wide range of
historical oboes with many period instrument orchestras and chamber ensembles
throughout North America, including
Tafelmusik, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra,
Ensemble Rebel, American Bach Soloists, Tempesta di Mare, and Musica Angelica.
He has also served as principal oboist for Chicago Opera Theater, Brandywine
Baroque, and Folger Consort. He holds degrees in Historical Performance and
Computer Science from Oberlin
College and Conservatory
of Music where he studied with James Caldwell. Stephen teaches at Oberlin
Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute and is on faculty at the Peabody
Institute.
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Rebecca Harris, baroque violin, performs regularly as a
chamber musician on both modern and baroque violins. Rebecca has performed with
Philadelphia’s Tempesta di Mare since
2007, and in addition has appeared with historical performance ensembles in
Miami, Rochester, Baltimore and Atlanta. As a scholar at the Britten Pears
Young Artists Program, Rebecca worked with specialists in historical
performance including Richard Egarr and Margaret Faultless. Rebecca is also a
passionate advocate for music education, and is a member of the Teaching Artist
Faculty of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Rebecca graduated summa cum laude from the Royal Northern College of Music in her
native United Kingdom, where she studied with Richard Ireland of the
Chilingirian Quartet.
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La Bernardinia Baroque Ensemble,
2439 Brown Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19130,
267-968-0645, bernardinia@comcast.net |
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