Biographies

Karen Burciaga earned a Master of Music in Early Music Performance from the Longy School of Music studying Baroque violin with Dana Maiben and viol with Jane Hershey. She holds a Bachelor of Music from Vanderbilt University, where she began playing viol. She has performed with The King's Noyse, Newport Baroque, Arcadia Players, and other period ensembles, as well as appearances at the Boston, Bloomington, and Amherst Early Music Festivals. Karen is a founding member of Seven Times Salt, a broken consort specializing in 16th-century English music and ballads. She teaches on the string faculty of the Texas TOOT, where she also leads the baroque ensemble The Killer Bees. Other musical interests include traditional Scottish fiddle and dance, American shape-note music, and Italian Renaissance dance.



Rachel Cama-Lekx
performs professionally on viola da gamba throughout the New England area and beyond as a soloist, continuo player and with various small ensembles including Cascata and Music for a while. In demand as a teacher, Rachel has taught viola da gamba at workshops in New England, Toronto, at the Amherst Early Music Festival and at Brandeis University. She was a 2006 winner of a Young Artist Grant-in-Aid from the Viola da Gamba Society of America. Rachel discovered the viola da gamba through study with Sarah Mead at Brandeis University where she earned a Master of Fine Arts in Musicology. She recently finished studies in early music at the Longy School of Music where she studied viola da gamba with Jane Hershey. In Fall 2008, Rachel will begin a Doctor of Musical Arts in Early Music Performance at Case Western Reserve University.



Joshua Schreiber Shalem
studied cello at Bennington College with Maxine Newman, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts. While at Bennington, he was a member of the Early Music Ensemble, where he first became acquainted with the viol. Chronic hand pain necessitated a hiatus in his playing activities, until he discovered the Feldenkrais Method. Now a Guild-Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner, Josh maintains a private practice with an emphasis on functional movement for musicians. Currently, Josh studies viol with Jane Hershey and is working on his Master’s degree in Early Music Performance at the Longy School of Music. He is also a founding member of Seven Times Salt. In addition to his performance and Feldenkrais activities, Josh is active in Boston's Jewish community as an educator and cantorial soloist.

 



Tobi Szuts
was studying and playing cello during his undergraduate studies at Reed College in Portland, Oregon when he first came across the viol. His first question was, "Why does it need frets?" After a brief interlude with jazz bass, he returned home to Boston–ostensibly to study Neuroscience–and began to play the viol in earnest, studying with Jane Hershey. He now embraces frets for the chordal style of playing they facilitate, and urges any composers reading this to include chords in their works for viol. He has had the pleasure of playing at Renaissance dances, weddings, funerals, and with the Harvard Early Music Society, the Brandeis University Chorus, Rialto Arts, and Les Bostonades. He directs the Mather House Consort at Harvard University.


long and away - zoe


Zoe Weiss
is currently completing Masters degree in Historical Performance at Boston University where she is studying viol with Laura Jeppesen and Baroque cello with Sarah Freiberg. Originally from Ithaca, New York, she did her undergraduate work at Oberlin Conservatory where she discovered and fell in love with Renaissance and Baroque music. At Oberlin, Zoe studied both viol and Baroque cello with Catharina Meints. In addition to her work as a performer, Zoe has adapted and directed Purcell's The Fairy Queen for a school-sponsored performance at Oberlin and also designed and taught a beginning viol class. Since moving to Boston this past fall, she has been an active performer in period orchestras at both Harvard and Boston universities and the Baroque ensemble Cambridge Concentus.

          Long & Away is available to play at your event. Please email us at info@cama-lekx.com.

 
 

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