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.
Elizabeth Blumenstock
Violin
Elizabeth
Blumenstock is one of the country’s leading Baroque violinists.
A frequent soloist, concertmaster, and leader with Philharmonia
Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Chicago Opera Theater,
and the Italian ensemble Il Complesso Barocco, she is also a member
of several of California’s finest period-instrument ensembles,
including Musica Pacifica, Trio Galatea, Trio Galanterie, the
Arcadian Academy, and American Baroque.
Bluemenstock has over 80 recordings to her creditand
has appeared with period orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout
the United States and abroad, as well as at numerous chamber,
early music and opera festivals, including the Santa Fe Chamber
Music Festival, the Carmel Bach Festival, and the San Luis Obispo
Mozart Festival. She is instructor of Baroque violin at USC and
UC Berkeley, and is the organist and choir director at the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Richmond.
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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.
Rob
Diggins Viola/Violin
Rob Diggins, recipient of a Soloist Diploma in violin
from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in 1993, is equally at
home in a concert hall performing a violin concerto or a small
club improvising with fellow jazz musicians. He has performed
on the stage and in the studio with many important period instrument
orchestras and ensembles, including Les Arts Florissants, the
Collegium Vocale of Ghent, La Chapelle Royale, the Gabrieli Consort,
Cantus Köln, Musica ad Rhenum, Ricercar Consort, Kammer Orchester
Stuttgart, and the American Bach Soloists. Today he continues
to lead or participate in several Baroque bands, including Magnificat,
the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Music from Green Mountain, and
the Dizzy Vipers.
Diggins has recorded more than 20 compact discs
for major labels. While touring with his wife, violinist Jolianne
von Einem, and their daughter, he studies South Indian classical
music and teaches yoga and meditation in the Himalayan yoga tradition.
When not on the road, he enjoys teaching and attending to various
sustainable gardening and community projects.
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.
Paul
Sherman Oboe
Paul Sherman received his Bachelor of Music degree
at the California Institute of the Arts and his Master of Music
from the University of Southern California. He teaches Baroque
oboe performance and directs Le Canards du Roy, a baroque oboe
band at USC. He is also music director of the Santa Clarita
Valley Youth Philharmonic Orchestra; Prelude Strings, a 200-student
organization based at College of the Canyons; and the Chapman
University Wind Symphony.
On period instruments Sherman performs with the
Grammy-nominated Santa Fe Pro Musica, as well as with Musica
Angelica, San Diego Bach Collegium, Harmonia Baroque Players,
Del Mar Baroque, and Jealous Nightingale Baroque. He is a passionate
advocate for contemporary music, serving as director and oboist
with Ensemble Green, which presented ten world premieres during
last year’s sold-out season. He also records jazz and new music
with the Brad Dutz 4tet, which recently released its second
album, When Manatees Attack.
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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.
John
Thiessen Trumpet
John Thiessen appears as soloist and principal trumpet
with early music ensembles in the US and Canada, including Tafelmusik,
the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the American Bach Soloists,
the Boston Early Music Festival, and Boston Baroque. Highlights
have included Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, his Christmas
and Ascension oratorios, and numerous cantatas; Handel’s
Messiah and Birthday Ode for Queen Anne; Purcell’s
King Arthur; recordings of Beethoven symphonies; concertos
by Torelli and Fasch; and various recitals throughout the U.S.
and Canada.
Thiessen is a graduate of the Eastman School of
Music and King’s College, University of London, and is the
recipient of grants from the Canada Council and Ontario Arts Council
for studies in the United Kingdom. In recent years he has presented
master classes at the Juilliard School in New York and the University
of Texas, is an adjunct faculty member for Carnegie Hall’s
Academy program, and has taught for Baroque institutes at Oberlin
College and the Longy School. He has recorded extensively for
major labels such as Sony Classical Vivarte, Telarc, EMI, BMG,
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, London Decca, Analekta, CBC, and Denon,
and is heard playing baroque trumpet on the film Casanova. His
playing has been called “flawless” by the New York
Times and “brilliant” by the San Francisco
Chronicle.
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