Instrumentalists

Gabriel Arregui   Organ, harpsichord

Gabriel Arregui holds degrees from the University of Southern California (Accompanying and Collaborative Piano) and Loma Linda University (Organ Performance). His professors have included Gwendolyn Koldofsky, Brooks Smith and Jean Barr (Accompanying), Anita Norskov Olson (Piano), Malcolm Hamilton (Harpsichord), and Donald J. Vaughn (Organ). He has appeared in recital with Julianne Baird, Rosa Lamoreaux and John Thiessen, has taught 18th-century counterpoint at La Sierra University, and currently serves as Organist-Choirmaster at St Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Encinitas, California.

This is his sixteenth year with the Baroque Music Festival, performing, at one time or another, at each of the five concerts.

Eleanor Choate   Harp

Eleanor Choate completed her undergraduate study in piano at California State University, Fresno, and graduated with a Master of Arts in harp performance at CSU Long Beach. In addition to her private studio, she is on the applied music faculty at UC Irvine, CSU Fullerton, California Baptist University, and Cypress Community College. She has done workshops on arranging, rhythm and pedagogy at USC and for the Los Angeles and Dallas chapters of the American Harp Society. She is Pacific Regional Director and Education Group Coordinator of the American Harp Society, and is President-Elect of the Greater Los Angeles Section of the American String Teachers Association.

Choate has produced four CDs of her classical, pop and jazz arrangements for solo harp. She has published works for harp ensemble and is certified as a therapeutic harp practitioner. Her chamber experience includes recitals and concerts with various artists, including the California Concert Artists, Hutchins Consort, and CalArts New Century Players conducted by Pierre Boulez for the Ojai Festival.

Jolianne von Einem   Violin

Jolianne von Einem currently appears with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Magnificat, the California Bach Society, and the Portland Baroque Orchestra. She has traveled to Japan with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, to Singapore and Hong Kong with the American Bach Soloists, and has appeared in New York City, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, England and France. Her recordings include the Mendelssohn Octet with Hausmusik on EMI, Eighteenth Century Music for Lute and Strings with Trio Galanterie on Audioquest, and Legrenzi cantatas and trio sonatas with El Mundo on Koch International.

A native of Los Angeles, she holds degrees from UCLA and the University of Southern California, where she studied modern violin with Alex Treger and Alice Schoenfeld. Baroque violin study with Monica Huggett led her to specialize in historical performance practice, and she became a founding member of the Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra. She performs regularly with fellow violinist Rob Diggins.

Timothy Howard   Organ/Harpsichord

Timothy Howard is Lecturer in Music at California State University, Northridge, where he teaches organ, harpsichord, music theory and music technology. He is founding Artistic Director of Opus Performing Arts, a professional arts group. He is the organist at the Pasadena Presbyterian Church and has held a number of elected positions in the American Guild of Organists, including Far West Regional Councillor and local chapter Dean. Howard holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree with honors from the University of Southern California and is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, the national music academic honor society.

For some fifteen years, Howard was Chorusmaster for the Los Angeles Music Theatre Company, preparing vocal ensembles for that company’s semi-annual opera productions; in 1998 he made his operatic conducting debut, leading singers and orchestra in Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne and Der Schauspieldirektor. His work as composer, arranger, and collaborative performer can be heard on Christopher Parkening’s Simple Gifts (Angel Records), and he has several published compositions and arrangements to his credit.

Timothy Landauer    Violoncello

Timothy Landauer was hailed as “a cellist of extraordinary gifts” by the New York Times when won the coveted Concert Artists Guild International Award in 1983. He has won numerous prestigious prizes, among them the national Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Cello Award of the Young Musicians Foundation, the Samuel Applebaum Grand Prize in the American String Teachers Association’s National Solo Competition, and the 1984 Hammer-Rostropovich Scholarship Award.

Landauer was born in Shanghai, the son of musicians. He first studied with his father and attended the Shanghai Conservatory Middle School. He continued his studies with Eleonore Schoenfeld at USC, where he earned his master’s degree and was immediately invited to join the faculty as a lecturer and assistant to Lynn Harrell. Since then his extensive engagements have included acclaimed recitals at Carnegie Recital Hall, the Ambassador Auditorium in Los Angeles, and the Orford Art Center in Montreal. He has performed as a soloist with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon), Hong Kong Philharmonic, Taiwan National Symphony, Beijing Symphony, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Maryland Symphony, Pacific Symphony Orchestra, and at the Grand Teton Festival. He received Arts Orange County’s “Outstanding Individual Artist Award” in 2004.

David Shostac   Flute

David Shostac, principal flutist and a frequent soloist with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, has collaborated as a featured artist with conductors Sir Neville Marriner, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Iona Brown, Christopher Hogwood, Cristof Perick, Gerard Schwarz, Claudio Scimone, Karl Richter, Helmut Rilling, Jorge Mester, Henryk Szeryng, Jeffery Kahane, and many others. Solo appearances have included the Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the Casals Festival of Puerto Rico, the Aspen Music Festival, the Ojai Festival, the Stratford (Ontario) Festival, and the Carmel Bach Festival.

Shostac holds a master’s degree from Julliard, where he studied on a scholarship with Julius Baker. He has recorded on the Crystal, Angel, Nonesuch, Excelsior Records and Columbia labels, most recently J.S. Bach: The Six Flute Sonatas with harpsichordist Igor Kipnis and cellist John Walz. He played the flute solos on the 2006 Academy Awards show, heard by over one billion people, and will perform his own Carmen Fantasy for solo flute and orchestra at the National Flute Association Convention in Albuquerque this August. Formerly a faculty member at the University of Southern California and currently on the faculty of California State University Northridge, he is the author of Super Warm-ups for the Flute.

William Skeen   Violoncello, viola da gamba

William Skeen regularly performs as principal cellist with the American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque, and Musica Angelica. He also has appeared as solo cellist with the Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle Baroque orchestras, and has been a long-time member of the Carmel Bach Festival. He is a frequent continuo cellist at major American opera houses, such as the Chicago Opera and San Diego Opera.

A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of Southern California, Skeen has gone on to join the faculty at the University of Southern California, where he has taught Baroque cello and viola da gamba since 2000. In addition, he performs with El Mundo, Galanterie, the New Esterhazy Quartet, and La Monica, which he cofounded in 1999. He has recorded for the Koch, Delos, BIS, Hannsler, Sono Luminus, and Pandore labels. He makes his home in the Berkeley Hills, where he enjoys spending time with his wife and two children.