Seattle Bach Festival: Bach Cantatas
$50 (students free)
- Danielle Reutter-Harrah, soprano
- Cecilia Duarte, alto
- James Reese, tenor
- Tyler Duncan, baritone
- Tekla Cunningham, baroque violin
- Christine Wilkinson Beckman, baroque violin
- Cynthia Keiko Black, baroque violin
- Eleanor Legault, baroque violin
- Chloe Meyers, baroque violin
- Brandon Vance, baroque violin
- Byron Rakitzis, baroque violin
- Stef Creswell, baroque viola
- Lindsey Strand-Polyak, baroque viola
- William Skeen, baroque cello
- Elisabeth Reed, baroque cello
- Michael Kleinschmidt, organ
- Paul Tegels, organ
- Debra Nagy, baroque oboe
- Curtis Foster, baroque oboe
- Matthew Hugdens, baroque oboe
- Kris Kwapis, baroque trumpet
Georg Philipp Telemann — Concerto for 3 Oboes, 3 Violins, and Continuo, TWV 44:43
Johann Sebastian Bach — Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben ("Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life"), BWV 147
Two of Bach's most beloved cantatas, BWV 140 Wachet auf and 147 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, are paired with Telemann's exuberant Concerto for 3 Oboes and 3 Violins.
About Evergreen Ensemble
Evergreen Ensemble is a professional vocal ensemble located in the greater Seattle area. Bringing together some of the finest singers in the Pacific Northwest, as well as from around the country, Evergreen provides opportunities for vocal artists to collaborate at the highest level and to enrich our community through artistic excellence. The ensemble seeks to use choral music as a way of exploring a variety of voices and cultures, as well as a means to support advocacy work that cultivates a more caring, inclusive, and compassionate world.
https://www.evergreenensemble.comAbout Seattle Bach Festival
The Seattle Bach Festival serves the Seattle area with great performances of the masterworks of J.S. Bach and pearls of the Baroque. From large scale works like oratorios, cantatas, and passions to chamber music and solo works, we offer you a portal into a world of beauty, passion, joy, learning, and community. Our mission is to inspire with performances of masterworks of Bach and pearls of the Baroque that move and uplift the spirits, nourish hearts, open minds, and convene community.
https://seattlebachfestival.orgAbout Danielle Reutter-Harrah, soprano
https://pacificmusicworks.org/profile/danielle-reutter-harrah/
About James Reese, tenor
About Tyler Duncan, baritone
About Tekla Cunningham, baroque violin
Baroque violinist Tekla Cunningham delights in bringing the music of the baroque, classical and romantic eras to life with vivid and expressive historically informed performances.
Praised as "a consummate musician whose flowing solos and musical gestures are a joy to watch", her performances have been described as "ravishingly beautiful" and "stellar". Her greatest musical love is music of the baroque and chamber music of all stripes, though she can’t seem to quit Johannes Brahms. She is co-artistic director of Pacific MusicWorks in Seattle, artist-in-residence at the University of Washington and founder and director of the Whidbey Island Music Festival.
Tekla plays regularly as concertmaster and principal player with the American Bach Soloists. Her new release 'Stylus Phantasticus' with Pacific MusicWorks is delighting critics. "Tekla is a marvel…an endlessly songful bird". Early Music America describes the recording as "played with verve, the music presented here reaffirms the old notion that instrumental music can have the flair of any theatrical spectacle. … a stellar vessel for the boldest showmanship".
Tekla plays on a violin made by Sanctus Seraphin in Venice in 1746.
http://www.teklacunningham.com/About Cynthia Keiko Black, baroque violin
About Eleanor Legault, baroque violin
About Chloe Meyers, baroque violin
About Brandon Vance, baroque violin
Internationally acclaimed Scottish fiddler and violinist Brandon Vance is the recipient of Scotland's 2017 Royal National Mòd "Sutherland Cup" in Scottish Fiddle, as well as being the youngest to win the U.S. National Open Scottish Fiddling Championship in both 1999 and 2001.
Vance has performed and taught internationally, serving as a guest lecturer at the University of Limerick's Irish World Academy, appearing as guest artist for the 50th Anniversary of the Armagh Piper's Club at the William Kennedy Piping Festival, and being selected as a featured soloist at the 2017 Scottish Royal National Mòd in Fort William.
Vance holds a B.M. and M.M. in Violin Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Vance is the second violinist of the Skyros Quartet, and fiddler for folk ensembles Keltoi, as well as being a founding member of Celtic ensemble Dréos, and crossover ensemble Crossing the North Sea. He is a member of the chamber orchestra Northwest Sinfonietta and baroque ensemble Pacific MusicWorks, as well as having a vibrant career as a recording artist and composer. Vance had the honor of performing his own composition, Gael Storm, with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra at Severence Hall and premiering his Shetland Fantasia for String Quartet as part of the Auburn Symphony Orchestra Chamber Series.
http://www.brandonvance.com/About Byron Rakitzis, baroque violin
About Stef Creswell, baroque viola
Stef Creswell is an enthusiastic and lifelong proponent of both early music performance and chamber music. They have played with members of the Lafayette Quartet, studied with the Juilliard and Borodin quartets, and performed as a member of both the Alighieri Quartet and the Alder Quartet. Stef has attended International String Quartet competitions and several workshops. Their first teacher in early music endeavors was Stanley Ritchie, at Indiana University. Thereafter they worked with August Wenzinger, Gustav Leonhardt, Phoebe Carrai, and Jean Lamon, among others, having studied at the Amherst and Oberlin summer institutes, and also performed and recorded with Tafelmusik. In Seattle, Stef has performed with Tekla Cunningham and Caroline Nicolas in Pacific MusicWorks projects and in the Whidbey Island Music Festival, and with Henry Lebedinsky in Early Music Underground, Classical Uncorked! and for the American Guild of Organists Seattle Convention, 2022. They have played solos with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra and Seattle Baroque Orchestra, been a founding member of the Seattle New Music Ensemble, taught chamber music in the schools for 12 years through the Seattle Chamber Music Society, and recently completed their third year as Chamber Music Program Coordinator at Summer Strings, the Cascade Youth Orchestra day camp for young musicians.
https://seattlebachfestival.org/team-member/stef-creswell/About Lindsey Strand-Polyak, baroque viola
Lindsey Strand-Polyak divides her time between viola and violin and homes in Los Angeles and on Whidbey Island. Director of the San Francisco Early Music Society's Summer Baroque Workshop, she appears with Baroque Music Montana, Bach Collegium San Diego, Musica Angelica, Sinfonia Spirituosa, Bitterroot Baroque, Baroque Festival Corona del Mar, the Oregon Bach Festival, Byron Schenkman & Friends, the Salish Sea Early Music Festival and as principal violist with Seattle Baroque Orchestra. She also serves on the boards of Early Music Seattle as the SBO liaison and Pacific Northwest Viols, and holds a PhD/MM in musicology and violin performance from UCLA.
https://www.strandpolyak.com/About William Skeen, baroque cello
About Elisabeth Reed, baroque cello
About Michael Kleinschmidt, organ
Michael Kleinschmidt was appointed Canon for Cathedral Music at Saint Mark's in 2015 after serving in similar positions at Trinity Cathedral, Portland, Oregon, and Trinity Church, Boston. Michael's primary mentor in church music was the late Gerre Hancock, with whom he worked as Assistant Organist of Saint Thomas Church, New York City, in the early 1990s. Michael holds degrees in organ performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Eastman School of Music. In addition to his vocation, he enjoys exploring the natural wonders of the Pacific Northwest on foot.
https://saintmarks.org/staff/michael-kleinschmidt/