Ansámbl Luython is the USA’s premier performing group of Eastern European Renaissance and Early Baroque Music, using original instruments, pitch, and temperament. The group relies on extensive musicological, organological and linguistic research in an attempt to perform the music in its original spirit. One of our trademarks is that every instrument is commissioned in customized form that are as close to historical museum pieces or musical treatise as possible. Our group does not play at the pitches and temperament that other HIP group uses because of convenience. We believe that musical instruments serve the music, not the other way around. Subsequently all instruments of the group are unique. We commission our instruments not just from the best luthiers, but also those that will go the extra mile in their craft. The unique instruments that we use also pose challenges to our musicians that other HIP groups will not encounter.
For Ansámbl Luython, we consider ourselves as spiritual descendants of pioneer groups and individuals from the dawn of the early music revival movement. Our motto is a!=392Hz.
Ansámbl Luython, Vince B Ho, artistic director
Doris Williams, Soprano; Ashley McGinnis, Alto; Michael Mohammed, Counter-Tenor; Dan Stanley, Tenor; Derek Tam, Tenor; Brendan Hartnett, Bass; Eric Finley, Renaissance Soprano Violin; Colin Hamilton, Renaissance Alto Violin; Talia Sucrow, Renaissance Tenor Violin; Colin Shipman, Bass Violin; Millie Martin, Contrabass; Amy Brodo, Bass Gamba; Joyce Hamilton, Cornetto; Joshua Romatowski, Renaissance Tenor Flute; Alissa Roedig, Renaissance Tenor Flute; Peter C Fisher, Renaissance Bass Flute; Gesine Lohr, Harpsichord; Vince B Ho, Regal
Amy Brodo (cello and gamba) performed for many years in Italy, Israel, and England before moving to San Francisco, with positions including assistant principal cellist of the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Italy, and cellist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. She has performed with Andrew Parrott and the Taverner Players, the Norskbarok Orchester, and the Hanover Band. In the Bay Area, Ms. Brodo has performed on viola da gamba and Baroque cello with groups that include Lux Musica, Sex Chordae Consort of Viols, Magnificat Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, El Mundo, I Favoriti, Musica Angelica and the Albany Consort. She has performed at Festivals such as the Santa Cruz Baroque, Berkeley Early Music, the Beaunne, France, and the San Luis Obispo Mozart. Ms Brodo has recorded for CDI, Centaur, Sony, DDG, Koch, Helicon, Kleos, MRS, and New Albion. She is a founding member of Harmonia Felice. Ms. Brodo has also performed with the Philadelphia Classical Symphony, among other East Coast ensembles, recently completed her term as Music Director and was a President of the Junior Bach Festival. Amy also is an active freelance and chamber musician on modern cello. Ms. Brodo is an active teacher, both privately and through the Young Musician Program at UC Berkeley.
Violinist Eric Finley started his musical training at the age eight, and now plays both the modern and baroque violin. He has played with, and served as concertmaster with many orchestras and ensembles in the Bay Area, including the Berkeley West Edge Opera, Redwood Symphony, Nova Vista Symphony, the San Jose State University Symphony and Chamber Ensemble. He has also played in early music ensembles throughout the Bay Area including Les Savages, Gabrieli West, and The Pacific Collegium. He currently studies baroque violin with Carla Moore. In addition to his musical life, Eric is a 5th grade teacher in the San Jose Unified School District.
Peter Fisher plays baroque flute with the ensemble Briarbird and is Director of Coro Ciconia, a chamber choir specializing in 14th & 15th C. music. He studied renaissance flute with Nancy Hadden, baroque flute with Kathleen Kraft, and modern flute with John Krell of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Colin Hamilton studied music at University of Oregon and teaches privately in the Bay Area in addition to performing as a guitarist, pianist, violist, bassist, and singer. He holds a BA in Psychology from UC Santa Cruz. For more information on Colin or to hear audio samples of his music, visit www.chamiltonmusic.com.
Joyce Johnson Hamilton (cornetto) performs frequentlywith The Whole Noyse and WAVE (Women’s Antique Vocal Ensemble). She has performed on both cornetto and baroque trumpet with early music ensembles in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Carmel Bach Festival, the Northwest Chorale in Seattle, Vancouver, B.C., Washington (D.C.) Sackbut and Cornett Ensemble and the Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra. She teaches trumpet at Stanford. She was formerly Principal Trumpet of the Oakland and San Jose Symphonies. She has been a frequent guest conductor and trumpet soloist with the Seoul Philharmonic. She has served as principal trumpet of the Oregon Symphony, The Oakland Symphony and San Jose Symphonies as well as principal trumpet of the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra. She has been a member of the San Francisco Symphony and the Aspen Festival Orchestra. In 2011 Joyce Johnson Hamilton retired from a 30-year career as a symphony conductor. She has been a featured soloist at International Trumpet Guild and International Women’s Brass Conferences. She earned Bachelor and Masters Degrees in music from the University of Nebraska and has done doctoral study historical performance practice and conducting at Stanford University.
Brendan Hartnett received his Bachelor’s of Music degree in vocal performance from UC Santa Cruz in June of 2011. His credits while singing with UCSC Opera include Donizetti’s *L’Elisir D’amore*, Britten’s *Albert Herring*, and Mozart’s *Le Nozze di Figaro*. Professionally, he has sung with the the Bay Area *Ensemble Parallelle, *in their most recent productions of Virgil Thompson’s *Four Saints in Three Acts*, and John Harbison’s *The Great Gatsby*. He most recently performed with SF based
Pocket Opera in their production of Rossini’s *Le Comte Ory*.
(Kathy) Gesine Lohr studied harpsichord with the late Eileen Washington, who was a participant in the early early-music renaissance. She then studied harpsichord with Kathleen McIntosh. Her first public harpsichord performance was playing a master class for Edward Parmentier (told by Kathy M, ‘no, really, it’s no big deal’).
At Cal State Long Beach in 1980 in the early music program, her baroque and early-music quartets were coached by Stephen Schultz.
Discovering the diminution manuals of Ganassi and Ortiz, and realizing 4 part chordal dance music (like Susato) would have been divided, she got into blues and rock music which is very similar. She played Hammond B3 with Leslie speaker for 13 years in psychedelic rock blues groups. Gesine ran broken consorts for some years, playing renaissance recorder and percussion.
Gesine has played harpsichord for Alameda’s Sing-it-yourself-Messiah for the past decade. She volunteers teaching rock keyboard at Bay Area Girls Rock Camp, which uses music as a metaphor for empowerment.
Ashley McGinnis recently completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance at the University of California Santa Cruz. While in Santa Cruz, she performed with UCSC Opera, Chamber singers and Concert choir. Her opera credits include Britten’s Albert Herring, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, and Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’amore. She currently teaches private voice and piano lessons in the East bay, in addition to performing
throughout the Bay Area.
Michael Mohammed has received acclaim as a performer, director, and choreographer. Recently, he was a soloist in *Carmina Burana* with the Mendocino Music Festival and performed with the Vinaccesi Ensemble. Stage roles include St. Ignatius (*Four Saints in Three Acts*), Avenant (Philip Glass’s *La Belle et la Bete*), Jake (*Porgy & Bess*), and Peggy (*Jungle Red*). Directing credits include *Full Monty* (American Conservatory Theater – MFA Program), *X: The Life & Times of Malcolm X* (Oakland Opera Theater), and *Wilde Boys *(New Conservatory Theater). He is on faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Community Music Center.
Alissa Roedig is a flutist performing on historic and modern flutes. Originally from Germany, she came to the United States to study at Cornell University completing a B.A. in Music, and then received her M.A. in music from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a focus on performance practice. Her masters thesis and recital presented a comparative study of improvisation practices on the transverse flute in different musical cultures. Since then her performance and research interests have concentrated on the baroque flute. As a free-lance musician Alissa has performed with the SC Baroque Festival, SC Chamber Players, the San Jose Symphonic Choir, Jubilate and the SF Choral Society, the California Bach Society, and others. She has a website at www.alissaroedig.com
Joshua Romatowski holds a Masters of Music degree in Flute Performance from
the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he studied under the principal flutist of San Francisco Symphony, Timothy Day. He also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Flute Performance from the University of Texas at Austin where he studied with Marianne Gedigian, who was acting principle flute of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for ten years. Earlier teachers include Jeffery Zook, piccolo player of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. In 2005, Joshua won 1st place in the South Eastern Michigan Flute Association Young Artist Competition, and in 2006 won the Dearborn Symphony Concerto Competition, performing the Nielson Concerto for Flute and Orchestra under the baton of Kypros Markou. Recently a winner of the 2012 San Francisco Conservatory of Music Baroque Ensemble Concerto Competition, Joshua will
perform the C.P.E. Bach Concerto for Flute and Orchestra in D Minor in the Fall of 2012 with the SFCM Baroque Ensemble on the baroque flute. Joshua is based in San Francisco and teaches privately.
Colin Shipman began playing the viol in 1992, a few months before he actually saw .Tous Les Matins du Monde., and studied with Mark Chatfield. In 2000 he received his Master.s degree in Music, Viola da Gamba Performance, from Indiana University where he studied with Wendy Gillespie from 1997-1999. Colin performs regularly with Les Violettes and Faire Violls. He repairs cellos, double basses, and viols at Ifshin Violins in El Cerrito. Colin still rides a skateboard and has recently rediscovered kayaking.
Tenor Dan Stanley has been a tenured member of the San Francisco Opera Chorus since 1990. Before joining the Chorus in 1988, he was a member of the renowned all-male ensemble, Chanticleer. Mr. Stanley has appeared as tenor soloist with many of the Bay Area’s finest choral groups and orchestras specializing in the music of Handel, Mozart, and the Bach family. Past engagements have included the roles of Peneo in the U.S. premiere of Tomasso Albinoni’s 1717 serenata, Il Nascimento dell’Aurora, Damon in Georg Frederic Handel’s Acis and Galatea, and Kaherdin in Le vin herbé, Frank Martin’s 1941 retelling of the Tristan and Isolde legend, all under the auspices of City Concert Opera Orchestra, as well as tenor soloist in Charpentier’s Te Deum at the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Mr. Stanley is a voice student of Marian Marsh of San Rafael, California.
Talia Suckow has been studying and playing music ever since she was young. She was exposed to the performance world through years of violin lessons, youth symphonies, wedding gigs, concerto competitions, and solo recitals. Her recently accomplished Bachelors of Violin Performance from Western Washington University has helped pave a way for her to expand upon her abilities through professional playing and teaching. She is currently a member of the Basoti Orchestra in San Francisco, studio musician for various independent bands, composing works for small ensembles, and teaching at Music Land School of Music. Her love of the early Renaissance and baroque music has led her most recently to play the bass violin for the Ansambl Luython.
Currently based in the Bay Area, harpsichordist and conductor Derek Tam performs frequently with many ensembles. The assistant music director of the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra, he also serves as a conductor with the Star Valley Children’s Choir, based in Millbrae, and was recently appointed artistic director of Opus Q, a men’s vocal ensemble based in Berkeley. Derek is also the music director at Bethany Presbyterian Church in San Bruno. Derek is also a founding member and harpsichordist with MUSA, a new Baroque ensemble in the Bay Area. He also teaches private piano lessons and is also in demand as a piano accompanist and continuo player. Derek graduated from Yale University with a degree in music and political science; his principal teachers there were Jeffrey Douma for conducting, Elizabeth Parisot on piano and Ilya Poletaev on harpsichord. Visit his website, www.dereksaihotam.com for more information.
Ms. Doris Williams received degrees from Oakland University of Rochester, MI, and Stanford University of Stanford, CA, in vocal music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. She has performed with numerous chamber choirs, including the California Bach Society, Philharmonia Baroque Chorus, and the San Francisco Choral Artists. Also, she has presented numerous recitals, including jazz, French, Italian, sacred, Renaissance and Celtic repertoire. She has studied with Gregory Wait and Maureen Chowning in Palo Alto, and also had master classes with some of the top early music performers in the world, including Andrea von Ramm, Nigel Rogers and Julianne Baird. She has also directed chamber vocal groups in early music, jazz, and spiritual music. Her recent CD “Renaissance and Beyond” has had rave reviews. She performs with Howard Kadis, Mary Prout, and Jonathan Harris in her early music group Musica della Doria, specializing in lute songs of the 16th and early 17th centuries. Ms. Williams also directs Celtic Rose, a Celtic Band that has performed at various festivals and venues. Within the last six months, Ms. Williams has been inspired to write original settings to scripture based texts, and other spiritual poems.
