Recorder

Letitia Berlin teaches in California and at workshops around the country, including the Amherst Early Music Festival and the Oregon Coast Recorder Society Winds and Waves workshop. She directs the Hidden Valley Early Music Road Scholar workshop, the San Francisco Early Music Society Music Discovery Workshop and several small workshops for Tibia Adventures in Music. Besides Farallon, Ms. Berlin performs with the Tibia Recorder Duo, the Wild Rose Ensemble and the Sitka Trio.

Ms. Berlin has performed as a guest artist with the San Francisco Symphony, the Carmel Bach Festival and the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra. Recordings include two CDs with the Farallon Recorder Quartet: Ludwig Senfl: Motets, Lieder and Instrumental Works, and From Albion’s Shores: Music of England from the Middle Ages to Purcell, as well as Ladino love songs with Yátan Atán on the New Albion label.

Ms. Berlin received a master’s degree in early music performance practices from Case Western Reserve University and a Bachelor of Music from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is a three-time recipient of the Recorder Residency at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology in Otis, Oregon, sponsored by the Oregon Coast Recorder Society. Ms. Berlin is a Past President of the American Recorder Society.

Frances Blaker performs on recorders of all types and sizes with the Farallon Recorder Quartet and Tibia Recorder Duo. As a member of Ensemble Vermillian she explores, transcribes and performs chamber music of the 17th and 18th centuries. She has performed as soloist with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Vita Nova, and numerous other groups in the US, Denmark, England, France, Italy and the Netherlands.

Frances is conductor and music director of BABO (Bay Area Baroque Orchestra), a community orchestra for accomplished amateur players. As co-director of Tibia Adventures in Music, she organizes workshops for small groups of adult students in the US and abroad. She teaches private recorder lessons both in person and long distance via Skype and is a sought after instructor at workshops all around the US.

Ms. Blaker is the author of The Recorder Player’s Companion and the “Opening Measures” column in the American Recorder magazine, and a collaborator and performer on the Disc Continuo series of play-along recordings.

Her compositions have been published by PRB Productions and Lost in Time Press. Ms. Blaker can be heard on Ensemble Vermillian’s two-volume survey of German 17th century chamber music centering around Buxtehude’s opus 1, Stolen Jewels and Buried Treasure. The Farallon Recorder Quartet’s recordings include the works of Ludwig Senfl and newly released recording of music from England, From Albion’s Shores.

Héloïse Degrugillier has worked extensively as both a recorder performer and teacher throughout Europe and the United States. Recent performances included a recital at the National Music Museum in South Dakota, with the Dunya ensemble in Jordan Hall, and with the Boston Early Music Festival Opera.

Héloïse is the president of the Boston Recorder Society, and teaches recorder, baroque flute and the Alexander Technique at Tufts University. She has a Masters in Music from the Utrecht Conservatory in the Netherlands. She has studied with Heiko ter Scheggett, Saskia Coolen, and Pedro Memelsdorff.

Jan Jackson, director of Passing Measures, has been directing and performing with professional and educational Early Music ensembles in Central Texas for over 30 years. She has participated in various Early Music festivals and Renaissance faires around the country and in numerous workshops, including those at Amherst College and the Professional Recorder Program at Indiana University.

Ms. Jackson has performed with the Texas Early Music Project, in addition to directing and performing with Passing Measures (medieval, renaissance, and baroque repertoire), Timely Treasures (harp/recorder duo with early music and celtic repertoire) and currently with the Worthy Waites of Whimsey.

She has served on the National Board of Directors for the American Recorder Society and on the Educational Committee for that organization. A registered Suzuki recorder instructor, she is a charter member of the American Recorder Teachers Association, was a member of its board of directors and the chair person for ARTA’s Scholarship Committee. She has served as a faculty member for the Armstrong Community Music School (South Austin), and the Texas TOOT. She teaches in students’ homes, at workshops, with the Lifetime Learning Institute, and privately at her studio, the Academie of Musick (North Central Austin).

Long recognized as one of Canada’s bright lights on historical flutes, Toronto-born Alison Melville began her musical life by playing the recorder in a school classroom in London (UK). Her career as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician with many ensembles has taken her across North America and to New Zealand, Iceland, Japan and Europe. She plays medieval, renaissance, baroque and modern recorders; renaissance, baroque and classical flutes and one-keyed piccolo; and Norwegian seljefløyte.

Besides her work with The Toronto Consort, Alison is a member of the Ensemble Polaris and is artistic director of the mixed-media Bird Project. She appears regularly with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and as a guest with other ensembles across North America.

Some memorable career moments include playing for The Tudors, The Borgias, CBC-TV’s The Friendly Giant and Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter; solo shows in inner-city London (UK) junior schools; a recent recital in sunny southern Spain; and, oh yes, a summer of concerts in Ontario prisons.

Alison has been heard on CBC/Radio-Canada, BBC, RNZ, NPR and Iceland State Broadcast Service, and on over 50 CDs, including five critically acclaimed solo recordings. A professor at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music (USA) from 1999 to 2010, she now teaches at the University of Toronto and Wilfrid Laurier University.
More info: www.alisonmelville.com
Photo © Mary Perdue.