Tale of Two Cities

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.

Tatiana Chulochnikova (Violin) Praised for her “thrilling technique” and “dark plush romantic violin sound”, Tatiana Chuochnikova has been enjoying a diverse international performing career as a soloist, recitalist, guest concertmaster, chamber musician and recording artist. Born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tatiana began playing violin at the age of seven and made her debut aas concerto solists at fourteen with the Kharkiv Philharmonic. Tatiana received her professional training at the Juilliard School, Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the Oberlin Conservatory.

Marcello Mazzetti (Tenor, lute, viola da gamba) has been leading research, teaching, and performance projects for over twenty years, specializing in historical music pedagogy and Italian repertoire from Classical Antiquity to the Baroque with Palma Choralis. He has conducted concerts, masterclasses, and lectures across Europe, the UK, and the US. Since 2015, he has co-directed the Early Music Department in Brescia at the Italian Institute for Early Music. A frequent guest at American and European universities, he teaches at several Italian institutions, including the University of Padua and the Conservatory of Brescia. Since 2016, he has collaborated with the University of Massachusetts, Stanford University and Tasso in Music Project. He also performs and records internationally with Palma Choralis and other prominent ensembles in Europe and the USA.

Sherezade Panthaki (Soprano) enjoys ongoing international collaborations with many of the world’s leading conductors including Nicholas McGegan, Masaaki Suzuki, Martin Haselböck, Stephen Stubbs, Nicholas Kraemer, Matthew Halls, and Gary Wedow. Celebrated for her “full, luxuriously toned upper range” (The Los Angeles Times), and “astonishing coloratura with radiant top notes” (Calgary Herald) particularly in the music of Bach and Handel, recent seasons have included performances with the New York Philharmonic, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Bach Collegium Japan, Wiener Akademie (Austria), NDR Hannover Radiophilharmonie (Germany), the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Early Music Festival, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (Canada), Minnesota Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Mark Morris Dance
Group, St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue New York, The Choir and Orchestra of Trinity Wall Street, and Voices of Music.

William Simms (Theorbo, lute, guitar)  is an active performer of early music. Equally adept on lute, theorbo, and baroque guitar, he regularly performs with Apollo’s Fire, the Washington Bach Consort, Tempesta di Mare, Modern Musick, Ensemble Vermillian, Heartland Baroque, and Three Notch’d Road. He has performed numerous operas, cantatas, and oratorios with ensembles such as the Washington National Opera, the Cleveland Opera, Opera Lafayette, Opera Philadelphia, and American Opera Theater. Venues include the National Cathedral, the Kennedy Center, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, and The Barns at Wolf Trap. Summer festival performances include Tanglewood, Caramoor, and Ravinia. He has toured and recorded with The Baltimore Consort and Apollo’s Fire. His recording with Ronn Mcfarlane, Two Lutes, was CD pick of the week on WETA in 2012. He has recorded for the Centaur, Sono Luminus, and Eclectra labels. Simms received his Bachelor of Music from the College of Wooster in Ohio and his Master of Music from Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. He is instructor of guitar at Mount St. Mary’s University and Hood College, where he is founder and Director of the Hood College Early Music Ensemble.   

Livio Ticli (Hautecontre, harpsichord, renaissance harp, percussions) is a distinguished musicologist and performer with expertise in Musicology, Renaissance Polyphony, Historical Keyboards, Composition, Performance Practice, Gregorian Chant and Historical Singing. Since 2006 he has taught and researched at conservatoires and universities, and performed with Palma Choralis and other prestigious ensembles across Europe, the UK, and the USA. He has several scholarly publications and organized international conferences and festivals such as the Madrigal Symposium in December 2024 and SEMC, the Early Music Summer Campus in Tuscany. Since 2015, Ticli has co-directed the Early Music Department in Brescia teaching Singing, Ornamentation, Improvisation, and Basso Continuo at the Italian Institute for Early Music, and has served as an Artist-in-Residence and Visiting Scholar at US institutions. www.PalmaCHoralis.org