The Vivaldi Project
Violinist Elizabeth Field, distinguished for her passionate and stylistic playing on both period and modern instruments, is the founder of The Vivaldi Project. Field is concertmaster of The Bach Choir of Bethlehem and also performs with a wide variety of ensembles throughout the US: from Washington DC's acclaimed Opera Lafayette to the Sun Valley Summer Symphony. A former member of Brandywine Baroque, Field was also a founding member of the Van Swieten Quartet. In addition to period instrument recordings for Hungaroton, Naxos, and Dorian, Field has performed and recorded extensively for Deutsche Grammophon with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Field holds a DMA from Cornell University in 18th-century performance practice and has coached student & professional performers throughout the U.S. including at the Universities of Maryland, Illinois and Iowa, and the University of Washington. She has held professorships at Sacramento State University and the University of California at Davis, and has served twice as the Alan and Wendy Pesky Artist-in-Residence at Lafayette College in Easton PA. She is an adjunct professor at George Washington University. As co-director of the Institute for Early Music on Modern Instruments with cellist Stephanie Vial, she has given workshops and classes at numerous institutions, working with a variety of string players, from talented young Curtis students, Suzuki teachers and their pupils, to seasoned professional orchestral and freelance players. Her DVD with fortepianist Malcolm Bilson, Performing the Score, explores 18th-century violin/piano repertoire and has been hailed by Emanuel Ax as both "truly inspiring” and “authoritative.”
Stephanie Vial is a widely respected cellist, praised for her technical flair and expressive sense of phrasing. Stephanie performs regularly in early music ensembles throughout the US and has given solo and chamber music concerts, lectures, and master classes at numerous universities and institutions: including The Shrine to Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, The University of Virginia, Duke University, Boston Conservatory, and The Curtis Institute of Music.
Together with Elizabeth Field, she is the co-director of The Vivaldi Project, as well as its educational arm, the Institute for Early Music on Modern Instruments, which offers professional string players the opportunity to study historical performance practices using their own modern instruments. Her book, The Art of Musical Phrasing in the Eighteenth Century: Punctuating the Classical “Period,” published by the University of Rochester Press Eastman Studies in Music series in 2008, is praised by Malcolm Bilson as "inspired scholarship" and "essential reading." She has recorded for the Dorian Label, Naxos, Hungaroton, MSR classics, and Centaur Records.
Stephanie received her Bachelor Degree from Northwestern University, followed by a Master's Degree at Indiana University and a D.M.A. in 18th-century performance practice from Cornell University. She has made Durham, NC her home since 1997, where she performs regularly and is a lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Baroque dancer Paige Whitley-Bauguess interprets, recreates, and performs Baroque theatre dance in venues all over the world as a soloist and with her dance partner of 20 years, Thomas Baird. Prior to teaming up, they were both members of the New York Baroque Dance Company, then under the co-direction of Catherine Turocy and Ann Jacoby. The duo's critically acclaimed collaborations have excited and educated audiences in the US, Canada, and Japan, garnering repeat invitations for the duo to work with some of the finest Baroque music groups in the world. Highlights include repeat concerts with the Little Orchestra Society at Lincoln Center and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra of Vancouver, their reconstruction of the courtly entertainment Le Mariage de la Grosse Cathos in Tokyo and Shizuoka, Japan, Bailles y Danzas, a program they created especially for performances with Chatham Baroque,and Harlequin Unmasked, a program of commedia dell' arte dance and music with REBEL.
Paige has produced two Baroque Dance DVDs, Introduction to Baroque Dance-Dance Types, funded in part by an NC Choreographer's Fellowship, and Dance of the French Baroque Theatre, released in July 2005.
As a master teacher, Paige has served on the faculties of Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin, Modern Early Music Institute, and the East Coast Baroque Dance Workshop at Rutgers and has given masterclasses and lectures at numerous universities, conservatories, and museums in Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, and the United States. From 1992-98 she was on the faculty of the Stanford Baroque Dance Workshop under the direction of Wendy Hilton and from 1991 to 2001, she owned Down East Dance, a dance school in New Bern, NC. Prior to serving as the Craven Community College Visiting Artist from 1989 to 1991, she directed the Pre-Professional Dance Program at the NC School of the Arts. She holds a Graduate Certificate in Online Teaching from Appalachian State University, an MA in Dance History from the University of California at Riverside, and a BFA in Ballet from the NC School of the Arts where she also attended high school.
Bassist Anne Trout has performed, toured and recorded with most of the prominent early ensembles in North America including Handel & Haydn Society, REBEL, Trinity Wall Street, Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque, Tafelmusik, American Classical Orchestra, Boston Baroque, Opera Lafayette, Clarion Society, Concert Royal, the Atlantic Trio, Sarasa and Emmanuel Music, among many others. She is a long-time member of Aston Magna, Green Mountain Project, Vivaldi Project, and Blue Hill Bach. Active as a modern bassist as well, she has appeared throughout the US with organizations such as the Mostly Mozart Festival and Orchestra of St. Lukes (NY), the Colorado Music Festival, Cabrillo Festival (CA), Chamber Music Society of Martha’s Vineyard. Sought for her experience as well as her interest in new collaborations, recent engagements include a contemporary Handel opera project with NYC director R.B. Schlather, a Vivaldi Project regional tour with conductor/scholar John Hsu, concerts with Boston’s Les Bostonades and New York’s Four Nations. She is overseeing the final stages of an unprecedented restoration of the five-string 'Delmas' Maggini, a rare Brescian bass from 1610, for which she intends to commission new works and form unique partnerships with small select vocal, string and wind ensembles. Anne was recently named baroque consultant for L’Archet, a new concert series just launched in northeastern Pennsylvania. A long-time member of the faculties of Longy School of Music of Bard College and Boston College, she worked with teen bassists at the Groton School for ten years. Anne also conducts seminars and masterclasses on Bowed Continuo Practice and Classical Period Style for bassists at conservatories and colleges throughout the Northeast.
William Simms is an active performer of early music. Equally adept on lute, theorbo and baroque guitar, he appears regularly with Apollo’s Fire, The Bach Sinfonia, The Washington Bach Consort, Ensemble Vermillian and Harmonious Blacksmith. He has performed numerous operas, cantatas, and oratorios with such ensembles as The Washington National Opera, The Cleveland Opera, Opera Lafayette, and American Opera Theatre. Venues include The National Cathedral, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The Library of Congress, The Corcoran Gallery, The Kennedy Center and The Barns at Wolftrap. He has toured and recorded with The Baltimore Consort as well as with Apollo’s Fire. His recording with Ronn McFarlane, Two Lutes, was the CD pick of the week on WETA in Washington DC in 2012. Mr. Simms received a Bachelor of Music from The College of Wooster and a Master of Music from Peabody Conservatory. He serves on the faculties of Mount St. Mary’s University and Hood College, and is the founder and director of the Hood Early Music Ensemble. He has recorded for the Dorian, Centaur, Naxos and Eclectra labels.
D.M.A., M.M., B.M., University of Southern California. John O’Brien was born into a musical family. He studied piano with his father from the age of five until graduating from high school. While in high school he also studied violin, flute and later harp. He began his undergraduate studies as a double major in violin and piano performance studying violin with Robert Gerle and piano with William Masselos. He continued his college piano studies with John Perry. In 1989 Dr. O’Brien was awarded the DMA in accompanying from the University of Southern California. There he studied with Gwendolyn Koldofsy and Jean Barr. While at USC he also studied organ with Cherry Rhodes and harpsichord with Malcolm Hamilton. Dr. O’Brien has been on the faculty of East Carolina University since 1985. He has been the Professor of Accompanying, Chairperson of the Department of Vocal Studies and Director of the ECU Opera Theatre. Currently he teaches group piano, harpsichord and directs the Early Music Ensemble. Dr. O’Brien has collaborated with such artists as Metropolitan Opera stars Hilda Harris and Victoria Livengood, violinist Eliot Chapo, tenor Bill Brown, flautist Carol Wincence (The Juilliard School), and clarinetist Deborah Chodacki. He has performed in New York's Merkin Recital Hall and at the Istanbul Festival with cellist Selma Gokcen. As harpsichordist he performs regularly with Clarino Consort and Baroque dance soloist Paige Whitley-Bauguess. He has performed recitals with soprano Julianne Baird and baroque violinist Julie Andrijeski, (Apollo’s Fire). He was a featured artist at the 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010 Magnolia Baroque Festival in Winston-Salem NC and he has performed two times at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival with Chatham Baroque. Dr. O’Brien is Organist/Choirmaster at First Presbyterian Church in Kinston NC and he is the conductor of the Eastern Youth Orchestra.
Noted for the beauty of her playing as well as for her versatility, violinist Allison Edberg Nyquist is one of the preeminent performers of baroque and modern violin. She has been praised by The Chicago Sun Times as “impeccable, with unerring intonation and an austere beauty”. Equally at home as an orchestral and chamber musician, she also performs regularly as a violist. Ms. Nyquist has performed throughout North America, collaborating with many of the top baroque ensembles, including Chatham Baroque, Olde Friends, and Apollo's Fire. She is frequently featured at the Indianapolis Early Music Festival. Her discography includes recordings for the Eclectra, Delos, MSR Classics, and Centaur CD labels. Highly regarded as a teacher, Ms. Nyquist has served on the faculties of Indiana State University, DePauw University, Ohio State, the Interlochen Arts Camp and Lawrence University. She is currently Adjunct Professor of Baroque Violin at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music.
Ms. Nyquist is concertmaster of the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, and a member of Ensemble Voltaire, The Haymarket Opera Company, Third Coast Baroque, The Vivaldi Project, and the newly appointed Artistic Director of Music City Baroque (Nashville). She is happy once again to make her home in Indiana after three years in the Chicago suburbs. She now lives in Warren County where she hopes to soon have chickens.