A Baroque Christmas Story

Robert Eisenstein has led over 200 productions and performances with Folger Consort over the past 40 years include Measure + Dido at the Kennedy Center and Napa Valley Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice at Strathmore, The Fairy Queen, and Hildegard Von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum at the Washington National Cathedral. Director of the Five College Early Music Program; Music Director for the Five College Opera Project production of Francesca Caccini’s La Liberazione di Ruggiero; former faculty member of Mount Holyoke College, where he taught music history and performed the viola de gamba, violin, and medieval fiddle. He is an active participant in the Five College Medieval Studies. Recipient of Early Music America’s Thomas Binkley Award for outstanding achievement in performance and scholarship by the director of a college early music ensemble.

Christopher Kendall is founder of the Folger Consort. He is dean emeritus of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance after serving two terms as the school’s dean, where he was responsible for establishing the University of Michigan Gershwin Initiative, for re-instituting international touring, for the funding and design of a $30M expansion/renovation of the music building, and for launching the interdisciplinary enterprise ArtEngine and its national initiative a2ru (Alliance for the Arts at Research Universities). In Washington, in addition to his work with Folger Consort, since 1975 he has been Artistic Director and conductor of the 21st Century Consort, the new music ensemble-in-residence at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Mr. Kendall served as Director of the University of Maryland School of Music from 1996 to 2005 during a period of rapid development and its move to the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Associate Conductor of the Seattle Symphony from 1987 to 1992 and Director of the Music Division and Tanglewood Institute of the Boston University School for the Arts from 1993 to 1996, Mr. Kendall has guest conducted many orchestras and ensembles in repertoire from the 18th to the 21st centuries. His recordings can be heard on the Bard, Delos, Nonesuch, Centaur, ASV, Arabesque, Innova, Bridge, and Smithsonian Collection labels.

Aaron Cates (Tenor) enjoys pursuing performance opportunities both as a featured soloist and professional choral ensemble member. He is especially passionate about collaborative ensemble singing, and has recently appeared with groups including The Thirteen, Washington
Bach Consort, Transept, Spoleto Festival USA Chorus, Seraphic Fire, and Duke Chapel. Aaron has received vocal fellowships for his participation in the Charlotte Bach Akademie, the Illinois Bach Academy, the Voces8 US Scholars Program, the Quintessence Summer Choral Festival, and the Baylor International Choral Conducting Masterclass & Young Artist Program. Aaron holds music degrees in Vocal Performance from the University of South Carolina and Baylor University. Aaron is a native of Charleston, SC, and currently resides in the greater Washington DC area, where he serves as a staff singer for the Washington National Cathedral Choir.

Agnes Coakley Cox (Soprano). Praised for her “enchanting, glowing timbre and perfect intonation, with a good helping of theatrical spirit” (Weiler Zeitung), British-American soprano Agnes Coakley Cox is specialist in the performance of early Baroque music and a sought-after ensemble musician. Agnes is co-founder and co-director of the New England-based ensemble for 17th-century music, In Stile Moderno. She appears this season as a soloist with the Folger Consort, the New Consort, Crescendo, and at the Indianapolis Early Music Festival with Alchymy Viols. Recent choral appearances have been with the Handel & Haydn Society, Ensemble Altera, Zenith Ensemble, and The Thirteen. Agnes is also proud to add “voice of the universe” to her qualifications, as she lends her unerring pitch center and haunting tone quality to the new project Black Hole Symphony at Boston’s Museum of Science. After graduating summa cum laude in Music at Yale, Agnes studied voice, historical performance practice, and pedagogy at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland. www.agnescoakley.com 

Nathaniel Cox (theorbo) enjoys a varied musical career both as one of North America’s leading cornetto players, and as an accomplished continuo player on lute and theorbo. In addition to co-directing the New England-based ensemble for 17th-century music In Stile Moderno, he performs with ensembles such as Apollo’s Fire, Piffaro, Dark Horse Consort, Bach Collegium San Diego, The Toronto Consort, TENET Vocal Artists, and Blue Heron. Nathaniel holds bachelor’s degrees from Oberlin College and Conservatory in both Russian literature and trumpet performance, as well as Master’s degrees from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in cornetto and historical performance practice. He has dedicated himself to the study of historical ornamentation, and has sought to find a performance style that is both authentic to the early Baroque era and unique to his musical voice.Nathaniel loves to share his passion with students, and has taught at the Amherst Early Music Festival and the San Francisco Early Music Society Baroque Workshop. Besides his performance career, Nathaniel works as a software engineer for the data-privacy company Cloaked, and loves spending time with his two-year-old son Simon.

Wade Davis is in high demand as a solo performer and chamber music collaborator. He regularly performs with Folger Consort, the Washington Bach Consort, as a guest with the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society, and his own baroque ensemble, S’amusant, co-founded with Patrick Merrill, harpsichordist in 2013. Other appearances include Piccolo Spoleto Festival’s Early Music Series, Indianapolis Early Music, MOJA Arts Festival, The Spire Series, and Bach Ascending. Known for wide variety of styles, he’s also featured on popular indie music concert series such as Sofar Sounds Baltimore and has guested with New York-based band Reserved for Rondee and Baltimore-based band Outcalls in addition to the “Swans for Relief” project video curated by Misty Copeland to raise funds for dancers whose companies had been affected by the 2020 pandemic shutdowns. Wade maintains a private studio of cello students in both Baltimore and Washington, DC. He holds both a master’s degree in Baroque Cello Performance and a Graduate Performance Degree in Historical Cello from Peabody Conservatory as a student of John Moran.

Robert Eisenstein has led over 200 productions and performances with Folger Consort over the past 40 years include Measure + Dido at the Kennedy Center and Napa Valley Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice at Strathmore, The Fairy Queen, and Hildegard Von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum at the Washington National Cathedral. Director of the Five College Early Music Program; Music Director for the Five College Opera Project production of Francesca Caccini’s La Liberazione di Ruggiero; former faculty member of Mount Holyoke College, where he taught music history and performed the viola de gamba, violin, and medieval fiddle. He is an active participant in the Five College Medieval Studies. Recipient of Early Music America’s Thomas Binkley Award for outstanding achievement in performance and scholarship by the director of a college early music ensemble.

Nina Falk is a Fulbright scholar in London and Rome. She has played for years with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Boston Orchestra’s Handel and Haydn Society, Opera Lafayette, the Carmel Bach Festival, Apollo’s Fire, and her ensemble, Arcovoce. She is the founder and director of A Musical Heart, which brings live music to the bedsides of hospice patients.

Paul Greene-Dennis (Vocalist) hails from Brentwood, NY. He is a versatile musician, mainly an opera singer, who also lends his bass to other styles and genres of music, including jazz. He has performed opera and oratorio with various organizations in the New York area including the Oratorio Society of New York, the Long Island Choral Society and the Queens College Opera Studio. Paul also does voice-over for various projects to which he has lent his voice and artistry.

Haitham Haidar (Tenor) is a Lebanese-Palestinian Canadian tenor based in Montreal. A proud graduate of Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music, McGill University, and the University of British Columbia, Haitham is praised for his ‘musical and linguistic versatility’ and his ‘bright’ and ‘innately lyrical voice’ and enjoys performing oratorio, opera, and chamber music across North America, Europe, and Asia. Haitham is also a proud member of Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble (KVE), whose mission aims to present vocal music with the highest artistic excellence, while celebrating racial, ethnic, and gender diversity.

Haitham has been seen as a tenor soloist on a US and European tour with Apollo’s Fire and as the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion at the Winnipeg Baroque Festival. He has also been a recent soloist and ensemble member TENET Vocal Artists, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Conspirare.

Upcoming highlights include Pilatus in Pärt’s Passio under the direction of James Blachly and the tenor soloist in Bach’s Easter Oratorio with Apollo’s Fire.

Haitham’s approach to performance has always been humanity first. Being an Arab immigrant in North America comes with its unique set of oppressive challenges and it is because of that and what he sees around him in the field, that he aims to touch people’s hearts with music and compassion and make change in the world the best way he knows how.

Eric Kernfeld (Euphonium) studied euphonium with Aaron Tindall and Velvet Brown. He studied early music under Liza Malamut and Jane Hershey, and he has made professional appearances playing alto sackbut in Boston and in the Pioneer Valley. Eric holds degrees in mathematics and statistics; he is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Bradley King (Vocalist) is a dynamic and versatile artist whose captivating performances have won acclaim from both reviewers and audiences. With a deep and engaging style, he brings a fresh perspective to a broad range of musical genres, from contemporary to ancient. 

As a regular member of several esteemed ensembles, including the Rose Ensemble, Les Canards Chantants, Brandywine Baroque and Apollo’s Fire, Bradley has built a reputation as one of the most exciting voices in the world of early and folk music. He has also recently joined the Grammy-nominated ensemble The Western Wind, further expanding his reach and influence as a performer. 

Anna Marsh (Bassoon) early bassoons and recorders is a multi-instrumentalist fluent in Renaissance, Baroque, Classical and Modern styles. Originally from Tacoma, WA, Anna holds a doctorate of music in historical performance from Indiana University and has appeared worldwide with Opera Lafayette, Tempesta di Mare, Folger Consort, Musica Angelica, Tafelmusik, Washington Bach Consort and Atlanta Baroque among others.  She has taught privately & at festivals at the Eastman School of Music, Los Angeles Music and Art School, Amherst Early Music, San Francisco Early Music Society, the Hawai’i Performing Arts Festival & Western Double Reed Workshops.  She also has been heard on dozens of recordings & on Performance Today, Harmonia, CBC radio & recorded for Chandos, Analekta, Centaur, Naxos, the Super Bowl, Avie, and Musica Omnia’s Grammy nominated album, Handel’s Israel in Egypt. www.annamarshmusic.com 

Paula Maust (Organ) is a performer, scholar, and educator dedicated to fusing research and creative practice to amplify underrepresented voices and advocate for social change. She is the creator of Expanding the Music Theory Canon, an open-source collection of music theory examples by women and composers of color. A print anthology based on the project was released with SUNY Press in December 2023. Paula also researches the pejorative language used to describe early modern women on stage and harmony books by 19th-century women. She has published articles in Women and Music and the Journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music, and she is an early modern area editor for Grove Music Online Women, Gender, and Sexuality project.

P. Lucy McVeigh (Alto), Baltimore native, is an avid interpreter of early and contemporary music. She currently serves as an alto and enlisted conductor in the United States Army Field Band. McVeigh also enjoys singing with the Washington National Cathedral Choirs, The Washington Bach Consort, Cathedra, and the Folger Consort. McVeigh holds degrees in music from Wellesley College and the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. She is most passionate about bringing new music to life, and in her free time greatly enjoys playing board games and dancing with her husband Clyde and two wonderful kitties, Stevie and Alexis.

A versatile multi-instrumentalist, Dan Meyers is a flexible and engaging performer of both classical and folk music; his credits range from premieres of contemporary chamber music, to headlining a concert series in honor of Pete Seeger at the Newport Folk Festival, to playing Renaissance instruments on Broadway for Shakespeare’s Globe. He is a founding member of the early music/folk crossover group Seven Times Salt, and in recent seasons he has performed with the Newberry Consort, Hesperus, the Henry Purcell Society of Boston, Early Music New York, Amherst Early Music, 21st Century Consort, In Stile Moderno, and the Cambridge Revels, making concert and theatrical appearances in New York City, Washington, DC, Chicago, Minneapolis, Memphis, Santa Fe, at the Yellow Barn Summer Festival in Vermont, and at the “La Luna e i Calanchi” festival in Basilicata (Italy).

Jamet Pittman (Vocalist) majored in Piano Performance at Oberlin Conservatory, but changed majors after she saw her first opera there. She then earned both B.M and M.M. degrees in Voice (Opera Concentration) from The Catholic University of America.
Soon after receiving her Professional Studies Certificate from MSM, she made her Carnegie Hall debut at the 75th Birthday Gala of Sir Neville Marriner with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Not long afterward, Jamet would be part of the first American broadcast of Porgy and Bess in a Live from Lincoln Center telecast with New York City Opera. Jamet has had the incredible experiences of singing under the batons of Julius Rudel, Kent Tritle, Sir Colin Davis, Loren Maazel, Zubin Mehta and Riccardo Muti, among others. She has particularly enjoyed working with choir directors like Gary Wedow and Donald Palumbo.