I am an opera director.

I moved to NYC in 2010 to work for New York City Opera on their directing staff. Their dissolution last fall raised questions for me about opera production and audience in NYC, and I am making work to address these questions.

I have been programmed by Whitebox Art Center on the LES Manhattan September 6 – 21 to premiere a work in their upper gallery. For two weeks I am installing the rehearsal and performance of an operatic score, open to the public daily except Thursdays, culminating in two fully produced performances, in Italian, with live orchestra and projected English titles. I have chosen one of my favorite operas, Handel’s Alcina, as the source material, and assembled a team of opera professionals I admire to join in uniquely providing access to our process.

I am grateful that Whitebox is championing this premiere as part of their fall program WhiteboxLab: SoundLounge, a platform for artists working in temporal mediums like sound and performance art.

It is important to me that this installation be free and open to the public to provide maximum accessibility to the material and the performers, which is why we are launching this campaign. The music director, Geoffrey McDonald, and I are responsible for the following budget:

$8,000 Orchestra costs

$3,000 Orchestra rentals

$15,000 Singer costs

$12,000 Designer costs

$4,000 Installation costs

The majority of the budget goes toward the fees of the accomplished artists we are honored to be working with. We appeal to crowd sourcing to give this project social heft and reach our funding goal. This independently produced project can only succeed through the efforts of the audience - to attend, to donate, and to promote on social media. We humbly ask that you advocate for this installation by sharing it with your social network of friends, by email, by Twitter, by Facebook, and by word of mouth.  Indigogo asks to remind you to use their share tools!

I hope you will consider sponsoring us, as we greatly need the help.

R. B. Schlather (Stage director) is a New York City based director. Schlather’s recent directing credits include Werther for Opera Company Brooklyn, Treemonisha for New York City Opera, and Some Call Refuge at Vaudeville Park. Additionally, Schlather has directed The Arianna Project for lauded early music group Musica Nuova, a concert with Nico Muhly and Gotham Chamber Opera at the multimedia art cabaret (le) Poisson Rouge. He is also accredited for I. Were., a pastiche created with countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and dramaturge Joe Cermatori for the Salon/Sanctuary Concerts. He regularly assists Christopher Alden, most recently at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Lyric Opera, English National Opera, New York City Opera, and the Canadian Opera Company. He has assisted Kevin Newbury at Bard Summerscape and Central City Opera. Upcoming projects include Lizzie Borden at Tanglewood Music Festival and Norma at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona.

Geoffrey McDonald (Music director) Hailed by The Philadelphia Inquirer as a "promising and confident" member of the newest generation of conductors, Geoffrey McDonald commands a broad repertoire of operatic, symphonic, and choral works. He has recently completed his first season as the music director of the Longy Conservatory Orchestra in Cambridge, Massachussets. Under his leadership this season, the orchestra has earned praise as "an ensemble with an impressive level of technical polish and uniform blend," and he has been noted for "firmly-paced, sensitive, and detailed readings" (Boston Classical Review). He is music director of the Bard College Orchestra and an instructor in the Bard Conservatory's Conducting Program. McDonald has served as music director of the Philadelphia Young Artists Orchestra and the Columbia University Bach Society, and has worked as assistant conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra, Gotham Chamber Opera, and Opera Company of Philadelphia. He holds degrees from Princeton and Mannes, and is a member of indie rock band Miracles of Modern Science.

Whitebox Art Center presents
as part of its program
WhiteboxLab: SoundLounge

R. B. SCHLATHER: OPERA: ALCINA
George Frideric Handel, 1735

September 6 - 21, 2014
Open to the public daily except for Thursdays | 11 - 6pm

General Rehearsal | September 19th | 7pm
Performances | September 20th & 21st | 7pm

Talk back after the performance September 21

Scenography Paul DePoo, Costume Terese Wadden, Lighting JAX Messenger, Hair and Makeup design Dave Bova, Titles Steven Jude Tietjen, Assistant Director Emily Cuk, Production Stage Manager Audrey Chait

Cast includes Anne - Carolyn Bird, Eve Gigliotti, Jamie Van Eyck, Katharina Hagopian, Samuel Levine, and David Adam Moore

Orchestra includes Elliot Figg, Ellen Hindson, Johanna Novom, Kristin Olson, Katie Rietman, Elizabeth Weinfield, Yang Wen, Jude Ziliak

Alcina is an opera seria by George Frideric Handel, with libretto by Riccardo Broschi, based on Ludovico Ariosto’s famous best-seller Orlando Furioso. It is a story of love and illusion that premiered during Handel’s remarkable hit London season in 1735, and is regarded as among his most inventive and melodic musical scores.

The sorceress Alcina lives on an island in the ocean, and enchants the knights that arrive on her shores. When tired of her lovers she transforms them into rocks, trees and wild beasts.

The heroic knight Ruggiero has fallen under her spell, and forgotten his fiancée, Bradamante. Bradamante, in male disguise as “Ricciardo,” has set out with her guardian, Melisso, to recover Ruggiero, and the two are shipwrecked on Alcina’s island by fate. There they encounter Alcina’s flighty sorceress sister, Morgana, who instantly falls in love with “Ricciardo.” They discover Ruggiero in Alcina’s embrace, with no memory of his betrothal. He angrily rebukes “Ricciardo” as competing for Alcina’s affections.  Alcina’s general, Oronte, in love with Morgana and stung by her sudden infatuation with “Ricciardo”, arrives to challenge “him” to a duel. This dramatic scenario of identities and transformations plays out until the source of Alcina’s magic power is broken, and all, including Alcina’s transfigured lovers, are returned to human shape and sanity.

Reservations for admission to the General rehearsal on September 19 and Performances September 20 – 21 will be available through the Whitebox Art Center event page in early September.

Special thank you to Tony Guerrero, Executive and Artistic Director, Juan Puntes, Founding Director, and the staff at Whitebox Art Center for their support and dedicated work on this premiere.

Katharina Hagopian (Alcina) German soprano Katharina Hagopian has been praised by national and international press for her “hauntingly beautiful colors”, “ethereal top voice” and “differentiated and deep portrayals” of major operatic roles. She has performed as soloist in Art Song Recitals including Schumannfest Düsseldorf, Carnegie Hall, and International Festivals for Contemporary Music in Germany and Belgium. Since the 2011/12 season, she has been a principal in Theater Aachen, Germany, where her roles have included Micaela (Carmen), Contessa Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Pamina (Magic Flute), Ginevra (Ariodante), Alcina (Alcina) and Rosalinde (The Bat). In the summer of 2012, she performed Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff at Opera Festival Berbiguieres, and gave her operatic debut with the Mannes Opera as Mme Lidoine in Poulenc´s Dialogues of the Carmelites. She is a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship (2007/08), a DAAD grant (2008/09), as well as scholarships from the Tavitian Foundation, the German Forum, and Horst-und-Gretl-Will-Stiftung. She has participated in Martina Arroyo´s Prelude to Performance Program, and in master classes with Regina Resnik, Luana DeVol, Kurt Widmer, Rudolf Piernay and Edda Moser.

Jamie Van Eyck (Ruggiero) With polished, elegant vocalism and committed dramatic portrayals on-stage, mezzo-soprano Jamie Van Eyck appeals to audiences and critics alike as a compelling young artist in opera and concert. She has recently performed with Santa Fe Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Wolf Trap Opera, Arizona Opera, Utah Opera, and Madison Opera. An avid proponent of contemporary music, she has premiered works by American composers George Crumb, Ned Rorem, and Elliott Carter. She is featured on commercial recordings for Bridge Records, Centaur Records, and Albany Records. In concert, Ms. Van Eyck has recently performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the American Symphony Orchestra, and Handel’s Messiah with the Phoenix Symphony and Colorado Symphony. This season, she debuts with the Pacific Symphony as Flora in La Traviata, and with Musica Angelica Baroque as Dido in Dido and Aeneas. She also sings recitals in the US and on tour throughout South Africa.

Anne – Carolyn Bird (Morgana) A versatile performer, Anne-Carolyn Bird can be seen in concerts and operas around the world. She has performed Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro with Nashville Opera, Opera Columbus, Opera North, and Virginia Opera, where she was cast opposite her husband, Matthew Burns, as Figaro. Other performances include Don Giovanni (Zerlina), Candide (Cunegonde), The Mikado (Yum-Yum) and the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor. A featured performer at the Metropolitan Opera since her debut in 2007, she has been seen in new productions of L’elisir d’amore (Giannetta) and Manon (Poussette). Other roles in the house include Barbarina in Figaro, Naiad in Ariadne auf Naxos, and the Dew Fairy in Hansel & Gretel. Ms. Bird appears regularly as a collaborator with pianists and composers in and around NYC, including the New York Festival of Song, Opera America, 21C Liederabend, and Gotham Chamber Opera. She recently returned to the Spoleto Festival USA for Facing Goya, a new opera by Michael Nyman; the production will tour as part of the Singapore Arts Festival. Ms. Bird returns to the Metropolitan Opera this season for roles in Manon and The Merry Widow. Concerts will include appearances with the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra (Strauss Four Last Songs) and the AIDS Quilt Songbook, curated by Thomas Bagwell. 

Eve Gigliotti (Bradamante) This season brings significant company debuts for Ms. Gigliotti, including Houston Grand Opera to sing Siegrune in Die Walküre, as well as Opera Santa Barbara to reprise the title role of Isabella in L’italiana in Algeri. Future seasons include a debut with Washington National Opera and a return to Gotham Chamber Opera. After her debut with the Metropolitan Opera as Mercedes in Carmen, Ms. Gigliotti returned in 2010-2011 reprising the role of Mercedes and appearing as Siegrune in Die Walküre, led by James Levine, broadcast worldwide in HD. Ms. Gigliotti appeared as Siegrune in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of The Ring Cycle as part of the 2012-13 season. She was also recently seen as Nazimova in Dream of Valentino with Minnesota Opera, Cornelia in Giulio Cesare with Florentine Opera, and Ruth in the World Premiere of Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters, produced by Gotham Chamber Opera, Music Theater Group, and Opera Philadelphia.

Samuel Levine (Oronte) Samuel Levine has emerged as an elegant and robust tenor on the cusp of a major career. His 2014 performance with Gotham Chamber Opera, in the dual roles of Testo in Monteverdi’s Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and Noah in the world premiere of Lembit Beecher’s I Have No Stories to Tell You, was called “eloquent, full-bodied,” “bright-voiced and skillful” (Wall Street Journal) and “well-sung” (New York Times). Other recent highlights inclue the title roles of Kurt Weill’s Der Protagonist at Fire Island Opera Festival and Massenet’s Werther at the Chautauqua Institution, Man/Neighbor/Ravan in Jack Perla’s River of Light with Houston Grand Opera East + West, Traveler  in James MacMillan’s Clemency with Boston Lyric Opera, and Handel’s Messiah at Chicago Symphony Center, and performances with Arizona Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and The Santa Fe Opera. Mr. Levine holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and Yale University, and debuts later this season as Narraboth in Salome with Virginia Opera.

David Adam Moore (Melisso) With over 60 principal roles to his credit, David Adam Moore has become a highly sought-after leading baritone by major opera houses and orchestras worldwide, including Teatro alla Scala, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Carnegie Hall, Théâtre du Châtelet, Bunkamura (Tokyo), Grand Théâtre de Genève, Israeli Opera, New York City Opera, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, LA Phil, Staatsoper Hannover, Orchestra of St. Luke's, and American Symphony Orchestra, and many others. His performances have been broadcast on BBC, Arte television, NPR, Radio France, RAI, and Radio Netherlands, and recorded by BMG, GPR, and Innova records. A renowned interpreter of contemporary music, he has created roles for some of today’s most important living composers, while simultaneously garnering critical acclaim for his interpretations of classic works from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras. Also notable for his work as a multimedia artist, Moore is a founding member of the NYC-based arts collaboratives GLMMR and Choreo Teatro. 

Paul Tate DePoo III (Scenography) is a production designer for opera, musicals, plays, concerts, resorts, and special events, based in Manhttan. Most recently, Paul created sets for Pagent the Musical (Off-Broadway), A Christmas Carol (Capital Rep), Annie (Maltz Jupiter – Carbonell Award Nominee for Best Scenic Design), Look Upon our Lowliness (NYC Movement Co.), Hello Dolly (Cape Playhouse), Avenue Q (Adirondack Theatre Festival), Broadway’s 2013 Beauty Pageant, and was select designer for the 2013 Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. Upcoming productions include the new web series Oh Liza, Master Harold and the Boys (Luna Stage), and Sweeny Todd at Lincoln Center, Lady Day on Broadway, and Chicago Lyric Opera’s Marriage of Figaro with scenic designer James Noone. Originally from Key West, FL, Paul is a Production Design graduate of Boston University and a member of United Scenic Artists. 

Terese Wadden (Costume) Terese is a Brooklyn based costume designer who, in addition to R. B. Schlather, has collaborated with a variety of opera and theater directors including Christopher Alden, Daniel Fish, Garry Hynes, and Catherine Malfitano.  Her recent projects include Lizzie Borden (Boston Lyric Opera and Tanglewood), Kat’a Kabanova (Spoleto Festival USA), New Work for the Desert (NYLA), Dialogues of the Carmelites (Curtis Institute/Opera Philadelphia), Eternal (Incubator Arts Project and Under the Radar Festival), House For Sale (Transport Group), and Sunday in the Park With George (Short North Stage).  She has designed costumes for As You Like It (The Acting Company), A Florentine Tragedy & Gianni Schicchi (Canadian Opera Company - Dora Award Nomination), Cosi Fan Tutte (New York City Opera), Don Giovanni (New York City Opera and Portland Opera), La Clemenza di Tito (Canadian Opera Company and Chicago Opera Theatre), and Elliot Carter’s only opera, What Next? (The Miller Theatre at Columbia University).  She has also collaborated with the architectural firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro on the exhibit, How Wine Became Modern, at the San Francisco MoMA.  Terese is a graduate of the Motley Theatre Design Course in London, UK and Vassar College.

JAX Messenger (Light) maintains a successful career as a lighting professional. He has lit productions for such companies as Bard SummerScape (Oresteia), Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (Laurencia, Waltzpurgisnacht, Majisimas), Merola Opera (Barber of Seville), The Washington Ballet (Sleeping Beauty, Fluctuating Hemlines, WAM2, Shostakovich Concerto, WAM!, Don Quixote), The San Francisco Opera (Requiem, The Elixir of Love for Families). He has recreated the designs of Tony Tucci, Mark McCullough, Nick Phillips, Keven Meek, Nacho Duato, Jeff Bruckerhoff, and Jennifer Tipton. As an assistant lighting director he has managed the creation of 4 operas for New York City Opera and 48 operas for The San Francisco Opera. As a lighting supervisor he has produced tours for The Washington Ballet and Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo in hundreds of venues around the world including The John F. Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Theatre Du Chatelet in Paris, Theatro degli Archmboldi in Malan and Victorian Arts Center in Melbourne.   

Steven Jude Tietjen (Titles and Dramaturgy) is a Jersey-born writer and dramaturg based in New York City. He is closely associated with the Glimmerglass Festival, where he has worked in the Titles and Dramaturgy department for the past three seasons. Steven Jude has written and designed titles for the Glimmerglass Festival, Manhattan School of Music, American Lyric Theater, Hubbard Hall Opera Theater and Resonance Works (Pittsburgh.) Since February 2013, Steven Jude has been a contributor to Opera News. Additionally, he has written program notes and translations for concerts and recitals by Christine Goerke, Lise Lindstrom, Dolora Zajick, Eric Owens, Dolora Zajick, Deborah Voigt and Hei-Kyung Hong. Upcoming projects include titles for Ernest Bloch’s Macbeth at Manhattan School of Music. Steven Jude is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and completed graduate studies in musicology at Rutgers University.

Emily Cuk (Assistant director) This summer, Emily Cuk worked as an Assistant Director with Tara Faircloth for Wolf Trap Opera’s production of Carmen. Her past Assistant Directing credits include an Opera Double Bill of Britten’s Turn of the Screw and the world premiere of Shawn Jaeger’s Payne Hollow, both directed by Nic Muni for Bard College’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program; Sergey Taneyev’s Oresteia with Thaddeus Strassberger for Bard SummerScape; and John Corigiliano’s Ghost of Versailles with Jay Lessenger for Manhattan School of Music. For the past two years, Emily has been a guest Stage Director for Bard’s undergraduate opera program, directing Gluck’s Orfeo ed Eurydice and a fully-staged performance of opera scenes. Additional directing projects include Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, and La Migraine: an original pastiche comprised of art songs. Emily is a graduate of Bard College, where she studied music with an emphasis on opera production and vocal performance.

Elliot Figg (Harpsichord) Mr. Figg is a keyboardist and composer from Dallas, Texas. He graduated in 2012 from the Historical Performance Program at The Juilliard School where he studied with Kenneth Weiss. He later studied with Arthur Haas at the Yale School of Music and served as vocal coach with the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale. Elliot is an active member of several New York based early music and contemporary ensembles, including The Colonials, ACRONYM, and Trio Coprario. Elliot received Bachelor's and Master's degrees in music composition from the University of North Texas where he studied composition with Cindy McTee and Joseph Klein, and harpsichord with Lenora McCroskey. His own works combine Baroque performance techniques with altered tuning systems and modern formal approaches. Elliot’s And Music Shall Untune the Sky, on a text by John Dryden, was written for and recorded by tenor Richard Croft.

Ellen Hindson (Oboe) earned her Bachelor of Music in oboe performance at the University of Minnesota, where she studied with John Snow, Associate Principal Oboe with the Minnesota Orchestra.  Ellen graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2011, and moved to New York City to pursue her Masters at Mannes College.  Since arriving in New York, she has performed in venues ranging from Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall to Brooklyn lofts, seeking to share music with as wide-ranging an audience as possible.  Ellen has performed as a soloist at the United Nations, at the 2014 International Double Reed Society Convention in New York, and has appeared as a featured soloist with the Nairobi Symphony Orchestra in Kenya.  Ellen is co-founder of the outreach woodwind quintet Trade Winds, and traveled to Kenya with her ensemble in the summer of 2013 for a teaching residency in Nairobi.  Ellen currently studies with Sherry Sylar, Associate Principal Oboe with the New York Philharmonic.

Johanna Novom (Violin) A first prize winner of the ABS' Young Artist Competition, violinist Johanna Novom has been Associate Concertmaster of Apollo's Fire since completion of her Master's degree at Oberlin Conservatory. She appears with ensembles such as the American Bach Soloists, Trinity Wall Street Baroque Orchestra, Concert Royal, Washington Bach Consort, Clarion Music Society, Chatham Baroque, the Sebastian Chamber Players, and is a founding member of the Diderot String Quartet, a new ensemble dedicated to the performance of 18th and early 19th century quartets on period instruments. Regular festival engagements include the Boston Early Music Festival and the Carmel Bach Festival. Johanna was a 2010-11 fellowship member of the Yale Baroque Ensemble under the direction of Robert Mealy.

Kristin Olson (Oboe) is active on both modern and historical instruments. Based in New York, she is often found performing with ensembles all over North America. The 2014-15 season will see her perform with ensembles such as Early Music Vancouver, the Handel and Haydn Society, Seraphic Fire, the Houston Bach Society, and Trinity Wall Street. Kristin is also a co-artistic director of Grand Harmonie, a classical and romantic period-instrument orchestra based in both New York and Boston, and SacroProfano, a baroque chamber ensemble based in Seattle. Kristin is also an entrepreneur, owning and operating a successful reed-making business, ReedLizard, which supplies modern and historical reeds to customers all over the world. She holds degrees from the California Inst. of the Arts, the University of Southern California, and the Juilliard School.

Katie Rietman (Cello) has performed as a baroque cellist on over 45 CD recordings and numerous concerts and radio broadcasts with notable baroque and classical period instrument ensembles worldwide. Her performing career has taken her to 19 countries in Europe, North America and South America. Ms. Rietman studied modern cello at the Cleveland Institute of Music, baroque cello in the Netherlands, and subsequently lived and worked in Cologne, Germany for 10 years before moving to New York City, where she currently resides. She is principal cellist of the Trinity Wall St. Baroque Orchestra, the Clarion Society, the West Side Chamber Orchestra, Concert Royal, the Toronto Chamber Orchestra, and the Aradia Ensemble. This season she will perform with groups in New York, Washington, Toronto, Halifax, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlanta, Phoenix, Cleveland, Kansas City, El Paso, and Santa Fe as well as at the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy.  She is a chamber music prizewinner of the Bonporti Competition (Italy) and semi-finalist of the van Wassanaer competition (Netherlands). In addition, she has coached baroque and modern string players at Yale University, Bard College, Catholic University of Peru, and University of Alabama

Elizabeth Weinfield (Viola) is the artistic director of New York-based viol consort, Sonnambula. She is active as a viol and viola player with numerous ensembles including Anonymous 4, Bacheler Consort, Buxtehude Consort, Lionhart, New Vintage Baroque, The New York Consort of Viols, Parthenia, Trio Coprario, The Sebastians, Holland’s Ensemble La Silva, and has appeared as viola da gamba soloist with the Yale Schola Cantorum under Masaaki Suzuki, the American Baroque Orchestra, and others. 2013 winner of the Oxford University Press OBO Award for her scholarly work on the viola da gamba, she holds a Master’s degree in early music from Oxford University and is a PhD candidate in historical musicology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where she is writing on 17th-century viol music, patronage, and iconography. Her work in museums has included the design of a baroque plucked strings exhibition at the Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments; she is also the content editor of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, a publication to which she contributes as a writer on musical instruments. She has taught at The City College of New York, Stern College and Fordham University. Recent recording credits include Gregory Spears’s Requiem (New Amsterdam Records).

Wen Yang (Double bass) Since her graduation from Juilliard’s Historical Performance Program, Wen Yang has become an active figure in the early music world in New York City. She is the founder and executive director of New York Baroque Incorporated, a period-instrument ensemble has quickly gained its reputation as one of the most dynamic, virtuosic and entrepreneurial baroque orchestras in the United States, and was awarded the “Bootstraps Trophy” by The New York Times in 2012.  As a performer, Wen has been described as “knocking people off their seats,” (Sarasota  Herald-Tribune) and has appeared at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas under the direction of Mark Morris, American Bach Soloists Academy, 4x4 Baroque Festival, Spoleto Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, Sarasota Music Festival, New York String Seminar, and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. An almunus of The Juilliard School and Yale School of Music, Wen studied viola da gamba with Sarah Cunningham, and double bass with Don Palma, Timothy Cobb and Robert Nairn. She also enjoys cooking and living in New York City with her husband, baroque cellist Ezra Seltzer.

Jude Ziliak (Violin) is a New York-based violinist and independent scholar, specializing in historical performance practices. He is an inaugural recipient of the English Concert American Fellowship, which recognizes emerging artists “who appear likely to make significant contributions to the field of early music.” Active from Myanmar to Miami, he appears this season with the American Bach Soloists, Gotham Chamber Opera, Sonnambula, New Vintage Baroque, Clarion Music Society, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, and Concert Royal. Recent highlights include performances with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants at the Rencontres musicales en Vendee and with Richard Egarr at the Britten-Pears School. He has presented his historical work on 19th century Bach reception for the Society for Eighteenth Century Music and at the Juilliard School. After studying the modern violin with Bayla Keyes, Ziliak earned a Graduate Diploma in Juilliard’s Historical Performance program, studying with Monica Huggett and serving as concertmaster for Juilliard415 under Jordi Savall.