Born in Quebec City, Sylvain Bergeron has perfected his expertise on the instruments of the lute family through numerous stays in the United States and Europe with, among other teachers, Paul O'Dette and Eugène Dombois. In 1984 he was a finalist at Toronto’s First International Lute Competition. As a member of Ensemble Anonymus from 1980 to 1990, he performed in all the productions of the ensemble, and was the musical director of three of them. In the spring of 1991 he co-founded La Nef, a musical ensemble of which he is one of the three artistic directors. Since then, he has been at the hel ... More ...

Jay Bernfeld is increasingly admired as a performer of great expressivity on the viola da gamba. He is widely acclaimed as a soloist and continuo player, and for his performances of ornamental and improvisatory styles. Award winning releases of Pièces des Violes by Antoine Forqueray and François Couperin as well as the Folies d'Espagne of Marin Marais and a premiere recording of works by Johannn Schenk have received extravagant praise in the international press. As a teenager Jay Bernfeld witnessed hundreds of live performances of the great singers, foremost among them Renata Tebaldi. It is la ... More ...

Since completing a master's degree in violin (baroque and classical) at the University of Montreal, Olivier Brault has become known as one of the most accomplished specialists in the field of baroque music. He can be found at the heart of many well known ensembles and festivals, in Montreal as well as abroad. A musician at once sensitive, rigorous, imaginative, and ready to improvise, his talents as soloist and musical director have led him to involvement in dance and theatre. He is frequently heard on the radio, both in concert and in recordings. Olivier Brault also teaches at the Conserv ... More ...

Pierre Cartier is a double bass player as well as a composer and a singer. His music is the convergence of the multiple approaches he has pursued since the very start of his career. In continuity with his specialisation in baroque music on original instruments, his desire is to play music as one speaks ones mother tongue, that is, with freedom, fluidity and intelligence, passing from symphonic music to baroque and contemporary music, and from the jazz of Thelonious Monk to the fertile grounds of free improvisation. In the end, however, this fluidity is at its most organic in vocal music, w ... More ...

A recipient of several awards and grants from the Canada Council, the Dutch Governement University Association and the Quebec Governement, Francis Colpron studied at the Utrecht Conservatory in the Netherlands where he followed the teachings of such prominent masters as Marion Verbrüggen, Heiko ter Schegget (recorder) and Marten Root (traverso). Already at a very early age, he played within the Ensemble de flûtes à bec de Châteauguay and toured with the group both in Canada and Europe. Later on, he perfected his skills at Laval University in Quebec City.He has been recognized these past few ye ... More ...

Having brilliantly completed an undergraduate degree in recorder in the Faculty of Music at the University of Montreal, in the class of Francis Colpron, Mélisande Corriveau is now establishing a solid reputation on the viola da gamba, an instrument she plays with as much intelligence as virtuosity. She also studied modern cello with Denis Brott (CMM), plays baroque cello, and is currently doing a Masters degree in viola da gamba with Margaret Little at UdeM. Originally from the Montérégie region of Quebec, she has performed locally and internationally with well-known groups such as Les Voix hu ... More ...

Maxine Eilander was born in Deventer, Holland, and grew up in South Africa. There she earned her Bachelor of Music on the classical harp at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1992. Her special interest in early music led her to further study at the Hochschule für Kunste in Bremen, Germany. She completed her post graduate diploma in early harps and continuo practise there in 1997. Since then she has appeared as a continuo player and soloist with many ensembles including Teatro Lirico, Tragicomedia, Les Talens Lyriques, Tafelmusik, The Toronto Consort, Les Voix humaines, The Si ... More ...

Mike Fentross first studied with Toyohiko Satoh at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, then with Nigel North and José Miguel Moreno. He has built a solid reputation as a "continuist”, playing in renowned orchestras like Les Arts Florissants, and is much in demand in his country as well as abroad. He plays and records regularly with great European ensembles such as Capriccio Stravagante, Les Arts Florissants, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, the Harp Consort, the New London Consort and Al Ayre Espanol. In 1991 he founded La Sfera Armoniosa, a group devoted to the performance of 17 ... More ...

Olivier Fortin began studying the harpsichord at the age eight, graduating with distinction from the Quebec Conservatory in 1995. He continued his training with Dom Andre Laberge, and received several scholarships for studies in Paris with Pierre Hantaï and in Amsterdam with Bob van Asperen before obtaining a Master's degree at the Université de Montréal with Réjean Poirier. In 1997, he was awarded top prizes at the Montreal Bach Competition and the Bruges Festival, and in 1998 he received the Capriccio Stravagante Prize. Olivier Fortin is a frequent grant recipient of the Conseil des Arts et ... More ...

Johanne Goyette studied music at Université de Montréal and at the Conservatoire du musique du Québec, and sound engineering at McGill University. She free-lanced as a musician and was a producer for musical programs for Radio-Canada FM in Montreal. In 1994 she founded her own classical music recording studio, "Studio l'Esplanade”. She has recorded over a hundred CDs for lables such as ATMA, Harmonia Mundi, Analekta, Naxos, Oratorio and Amberola. She has received critical acclaim for the quality of the sound and technique of these recordings.In 1999, she becomes president and sole shareho ... More ...

Canadian-American violinist David Greenberg enjoys a busy career as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician, and folk fiddler. He is recognized as a master Cape Breton fiddler, and he co-authored the definitive treatise on the music from that legendary Nova Scotian island near his Halifax home. Since the 1990s Mr. Greenberg has specialized in Scottish baroque-folk music, first with his group Puirt A Baroque and currently with the trio Ferintosh and Glasgow's Concerto Caledonia. As a baroque violinist, Mr. Greenberg has performed and recorded with many of the best North American earl ... More ...

Harpsichordist, organist, composer and conductor Luca Guglielmi was born on 1977 in Turin where he completed his musical and humanistic studies.“Honorable Mention” to the XII International Organ Competition of Bruges (1997), he studied organ with Vittorio Bonotto, harpsichord with Ton Koopman and Patrizia Marisaldi, piano accompaniment as well as lieder and opera repertoire with Eros Cassardo, composition with Alessandro Ruo Rui, choir and orchestra conducting with Sergio Pasteris.Since 1993 he has been engaged in intensive concert activities that took him to perform - as a soloist and with an ... More ...

Lucas Harris keeps a busy schedule as a continuo player for dozens of Baroque ensembles across North America.  He is the regular lutenist with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and is based in Toronto since 2004.  Lucas is on the faculty of Oberlin Conservatory's Baroque Performance Institute, the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, and the International Baroque Institute at Longy.  He directs the Toronto Continuo Collective, a weekly class and performing ‘pluck band’ dedicated to learning the art of seventeenth-century accompaniment.  Lucas was music director for a production ... More ...

For over 30 years, Christopher Jackson has been a leader in the field of ancient music in Montréal. An accomplished musician and choirmaster, Mr. Jackson co-founded the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal (SMAM) in 1974 and, in 1988, became its Artistic Director.A graduate of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, Mr. Jackson’s interest in organ music and choral conducting led him to further his studies in Europe. Reminiscent of the Baroque composers whose works he now brings to the public, Christopher Jackson is a complete musician and a specialist in vocal polyphony of the Renaissance ... More ...

Matthew Jennejohn leads a very active career as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician on the cornetto,  baroque oboe and recorder, performing and recording with many of the leading early music ensembles in North America including  Ensemble Arion, Tafelmusik, La Bande Montréal Baroque, Les Boréades, Les Voix Humaines, Constantinople, Les Voix Baroques, Pacific Baroque Orchestra and the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra.Born and raised in British Columbia, he eventually studied early music at  the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, McGill University and the University of Br ... More ...

Barthold Kuijken (baroque flute and recorder) was born in 1949; he grew up in a musical environment: two of his elder brothers were studying music and became increasingly interested in early music and early instruments. He studied modern flute at the Bruges Conservatory and the Royal Conservatories of Brussels and The Hague. For playing early music he originally turned to the recorder, but while still studying, he had the good fortune of finding a splendid original baroque flute, which became in fact his best teacher. Research on authentic instruments in museums and private collections, freque ... More ...

Wieland Kuijken was born in 1938 in Dilbeek, near Brussels, to a family with longstanding musical interests on both the maternal and paternal sides. He was 14 years old when his family moved to Bruges, a city known for its rich cultural life. One year later, he quit school and devoted himself to studying the cello and the piano. He graduated from the Brussels Conservatory in 1962 with a diplôme supérieur in cello. In the course of his studies, he taught himself to play the viola da gamba, and became interested in the performance practices of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.His car ... More ...

Sara Lackie is one of the few harpists in Canada to specialize in the Baroque triple harp, a rarely heard historical instrument which has only been revived in recent years. She is a founding member of La Fiorenza, the award-winning early music ensemble based in Montreal, and is in demand as a continuo specialist and accompanist in Montreal and beyond.After her initial schooling in piano, conducting, and modern harp, Sara pursued further studies in music history and historical performance practice at Carleton University and McGill University. She has also trained with some of the world's leadin ... More ...

Guillemette Laurens, incarnating Arianna, Dido and Medea, is the singularly impassioned Mediterranean heroine of Baroque music. Her sensuous timbre and evocative stage persona have delighted and fascinated audiences throughout the major capitals of Europe, the United States, South America and Japan. She performs a diverse and exotic repertoire ranging from that of the Middle Ages to Stravinsky, via Monteverdi, Purcell, Handel, Mozart, Bellini, Brahms, Poulenc and Britten. She has sung to international acclaim, remarking her dramatic intensity in concert and staged productions - Opera de Pa ... More ...

Acadian-born Suzie LeBlanc has established a international career specializing in 17th and 18th century repertoire, French mélodies and Acadian traditional music. Critically acclaimed by the international press for her luminous presence, vocal magic and impeccable phrasing, she enjoys performing a wide range of musical styles and her discography of over 50 cds ranges from the 12th to the 21st century.She can be seen in the music documentaries More than a thousand kisses and  Suzie LeBlanc and a man named Quantz, both for Prometheus Productions, and more recently in Suzie LeBlanc: A musica ... More ...

Born in Paris, Arnaud Leroy began studying saxophone with Claude Delangle at the Conservatoire national de région (CNR) de Boulogne-Billancourt. He was awarded First Prize, with special congratulations from the jury, in the quartet category at the Concours National de Granges-les-Valences. Subsequently, Leroy reoriented his studies toward Early music on the viola da gamba, and obtained a Premier Prix from the CNR de Cergy-Pontoise in Jérôme Hantaï's class. Through internships he was also able to study with Philippe Pierlot and Marianne Muller. Leroy has performed solo, in chamber music a ... More ...

One of Quebec's leading artist on the early music scene, Mathieu Lussier is principal bassoon of such ensembles as Les Violons du Roy, Ensemble Arion, I Musici de Montréal and the Montreal Baroque Orchestra. He is also co-principal basson of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and has recently been invited by Apollo"s Fire of Cleveland and The Boston Early Music Festival to perform historical performances of works from Lully to Mozart. Since 1999, Mathieu Lussier toured in Canada, United States, France, Belgium, Germany and Japan. As a chamber musician, Mathieu Lussier is a member of Ensembl ... More ...

Baroque violinist Ingrid Matthews is the Music Director of Seattle Baroque, and one of today's most respected exponents of her instrument. First-prizewinner of the Erwin Bodky International Competition for Early Music, she has performed throughout North America and abroad. Matthews" extensive recorded output ranges from the rich solo violin repertoire of seventeenth-century Italy to the pinnacle of the violinist’s repertoire, the Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin of J.S. Bach. Of the latter, the critic for American Record Guide writes: "This superb recording is now my top ... More ...

Eric Milnes has been critically acclaimed throughout North America and Europe as one of the most dynamic and compelling early music directors and keyboard artists of the younger generation. A native New Yorker, his imaginative and energized performances have been applauded at the Utrecht, Bremen, Regensburg, Lufthansa, Passau, Boston, Mostly Mozart, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Berkeley, Santa Fe and San Francisco Early Music Festivals, and in performances in every major North American and European center. As conductor he has directed New York Baroque, The New York Collegium, Trinity Consort, ... More ...

Soprano Ann Monoyios concertizes extensively throughout Europe and North America in a wide variety of repertory including opera, oratorio, chamber music and recitals. Although she is primarily a specialist in the performance of Baroque and Classical music, her repertory extends from Bach to Britten and de Falla.In concert engagements, Miss Monyios has collaborated with the leading Baroque specialists of the world including Gustav Leonhardt, Frans Brueggen, Christopher Hogwood, John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe, Reinhard Goebel and Nicholas McGegan. She has been featured as soloist on to ... More ...

Nigel North was initially inspired into music, at age 7, by the early 60's instrumental pop group "The Shadows". Nigel studied classical music through the violin and guitar, eventually discovering his real path in life, the lute, when he was 15. Basically self taught on the lute, he has (for over 30 years) developed a unique musical life which embraces activities as a teacher, accompanist, soloist, director and writer. Some "mile stones" on the way have included the publication of a continuo tutor (Faber 1987)- representing his work and passion for this subject. The music o ... More ...

Réjean Poirier's musical studies  were completed at the Montreal and Toulouse conservatories with renowned masters such as Bernard Lagacé, Kenneth Gilbert and Xavier Darasse. He was awarded First Prizes in organ and chamber music and won, at the end of his studies, First Prize at the J.S. Bach International Competition in Bruge. Upon returning to Montreal in 1974, he founded, together with Christopher Jackson and Hélène Dugal, the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, and acted as its joint Artistic Director for nearly fifteen years. In 1990, he put together the Da Sonar ensemble. He is ... More ...

Rafik Samman completed a Master's degree in musicology at the Université de Montréal. He studied choir directing and ethnic percussion in Paris and New York. As a percussionist, singer and lute player he recorded over 20 CDs with several ensembles specializing in Baroque, Renaissance and Medieval music as well as popular music, such as Marcabru, La Nef, El Extasis, Les Boréades, Les Idées Heureuses, Les Voix humaines, Caprice, and le Cirque du Soleil. He has toured the United States, South America, Europe and Japan. He teaches percussion instruments, Gregorian chant and Medieval music. ... More ...

Skip Sempé, virtuoso harpsichordist, director and founder of Capriccio Stravagante, is at the forefront of today’s musical personalities in Renaissance and Baroque music.  Sempé grew up in New Orleans, studied music, musicology, organology and the history of art in the United States at the Oberlin Conservatory and completed his training in Europe with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam.  His distinctive harpsichord playing, musicianship and interpretive flair were immediately recognized as the invention of an exotic, multi-dimensional and uncompromising musical personality.  Sempé re ... More ...

Israeli born Mezzo Soprano Rinat Shaham has received accolades for her operatic and concert performences internationally.In the fall of 2003 she debuted at the Berlin State Opera as Melisande in the revival of Pelleas et Melisande under Michael Gielen. She subsequently appeared in Berlin as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro under Daniel Barenboim, a role she is singing this March at the New York City Opera. In February she made her exciting debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Ravel's Sheherazade under Sir Simon Rattle. Rinat Shaham appeared with Les Arts Florissants under William Christie a ... More ...

Stephen Stubbs, born 1951 in Seattle, has been engaged in music-making since early childhood. Parallel interests in new and pre-romantic music led him to take a degree in composition at University and to study the lute and harpsichord. Further years of study in Holland and England preceded his professional debut as lutenist at the Wigmore Hall, London in 1976. Since 1980 he has lived in North Germany where he is the professor for lute and performance practices at the Hochschule für Künste, Bremen. Over the past 25 years Stubbs has been professionally active as both lutenist and director. His e ... More ...

A young musician of enviable experience, the Montreal-based viola da gamba player Elin Soderstrom is active on both sides of the Atlantic. After studying at McGill University, she travelled to the Netherlands to perfect her art with Wieland Kuijken. Rapidly assimilated into Dutch musical scene, Elin is invited to join the Dutch viol consort "The Spirit of Gambo" with which she is regularly heard throughout Northern Europe, notably with Emma Kirkby. Invited to perform with the Capriccio Stravangante in France, in the United States and in Canada, Elin's talents are called upon to ... More ...

"The beauty of his voice will stop you in your tracks"Gramophone, UK"Vastly refined singing... a voice of purity, clarity and surprising power."The New York Times, USAWinner of Quebec's 1999-2000 Opus Prize for International recognitionDaniel Taylor is now one of today's most sought-after countertenors. His Glyndebourne operatic debut in Peter Sellar's production of Handel's Theodora was greeted with unanimous critical praise and followed on his stunning professional operatic debut in Jonathan Miller's production of Handel's Rodlinda. He receives invitations from an ever-wi ... More ...

Born in Brussels, Steven van Dyck graduated in voice from the Brussels Royal Conservatory and in musicology from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He continued his studies with René Jacobs and Rachel Yakar at the Studio Versailles Opera and at the Paris Conservatory with William Christie. Since then he has worked with many ensembles including La Chapelle Royale (Herreweghe), Organum (M. Perez), Huelgas (P. Van Nevel), Janequin (D. Visse), and Binchois (D. Vellard).As soloist, Mr. Van Dyck has worked with Les Talents Lyrique (C. Rousset), Les Arts Florissants (W. Christie), Ricercar Consort (P ... More ...

Kate van Orden studied modern bassoon at Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam and baroque bassoon at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague. She began her performing and recording career on period instruments with European ensembles including Les Arts Florissants, La Petite Bande, and La Chapelle Royale. In America she has performed regularly with Tafelmusik, Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and the American Bach Soloists. She also studies the French Renaissance and is assistant professor in the Music Department at the University of California, Ber ... More ...

Catherine Webster soprano, is engaged regularly with many leading early music and chamber ensembles in North America. Deemed one of the finest rising young singers of baroque repertoire, she has appeared as a soloist with Tafelmusik, Tragicomedia, Theatre of Voices, American Baroque Orchestra, Magnificat, Musica Angelica, Camerata Pacifica, El Mundo, Four Nations Ensemble, Ensemble Masques, Les Voix Baroques (Montreal), Early Music Vancouver, and in the Berkeley and Boston Early Music Festivals. Active also in contemporary music, Webster has appeared with The Kronos Quartet in Terry Riley's Su ... More ...

In recent years, Alexander Weimann has emerged as one of the most sought-after Ensemble directors, soloists and chamber music partners of his generation. As such, he could be heard in Festivals in Boston, Tanglewood, Vancouver, Graz, Salzburg, Vienna, Bremen, Halle, Irsee, Karlsruhe, Schleswig-Holstein, London, Brussels and Utrecht. He is a member of the Ensemble Tragicomedia, as well as a frequent guest of Boréades, Cantus Cölln, the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Gesualdo-Consort, Tafelmusik and Les Voix Baroques, to name a few. In 2003, he launched his new ensemble, called "Tempo Ruba ... More ...

Matthew White was born in 1973 and began singing as a treble with St. Matthew's Men and Boys Choir in Ottawa, Canada. He graduated in English Literature at McGill University and currently studies with Jan Simons in Montreal. His singing career has already taken him all over North America, to Europe, South America, Asia, and New Zealand. Operatic engagements have included work with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Glyndebourne Touring Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, Cleveland Opera, Opera Atelier, and Pacific Opera Victoria. On the concert stage he has worked with groups such as Bach Coll ... More ...