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 on viola da gamba and baroque
cello throughout the Midwest and East Coast regions. Active
as both a soloist and continuo player, Rachel has collaborated
with a variety of chamber ensembles including Music for
a While and The Sprightly Companions. She is
a founding member of Cascata, an ensemble specializing
in seventeenth-century music for voice, bowed strings and
continuo. Increasingly in demand as a teacher, Rachel has
instructed viola da gamba at workshops in New England, Toronto,
at the Amherst Early Music Festival, at Brandeis University
and currently directs the Case Western Reserve University
Viol Consort. She recently finished Graduate Diploma studies
in Early Music at the Longy School of Music and is currently
pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts in Early Music Performance
at Case Western Reserve University where she studies viola
da gamba with Catharina Meints. She also holds a master's
degree in Musicology from Brandeis University.
Peter Geiersbach is a Rhode Island native and graduate
of Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio, where he studied baroque
cello and viola da gamba with Catharina Meints and modern
cello with Peter Reijto. Following a several-year layoff in
which he devoted his energies to a medical career, he returned
to the Boston area to continue graduate studies at the Longy
School of Music. Peter is a baroque cello student of Phoebe
Carrai at the Longy School of Music and remains an active
performer on both cello and viola da gamba with appearances
throughout the Boston area. He is currently member of the
Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra.
Anne Legene was born in Holland and studied cello
at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. She is currently studying
viol with Jane Hershey and baroque cello with Phoebe Carrai
at the Longy School of Music while remaining active as a performer
and teacher in Western Massachusetts. She directs the chamber
orchestra and teaches private lessons at Simon's Rock College
of Bard. She has participated in concerts with the baroque
chamber ensemble The Italian Connection, collaborating
with her husband, harpsichordist Larry Wallach, Ardal Powell,
Dana Maiben, Peter Kupfer, and Lucy Bardo. She was a member
of the baroque ensemble Foundling, and currently
plays with Christine Gevert, Rodrigo Tarrazza, Tricia van
Oers and Lisa Rautenberg in Les Inégales.
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 completing 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.
Guest mezzo-soprano Tracy Cowart
pursues a wide range of vocal interests, from twelfth-century
polyphony to contemporary art music. As an early music specialist,
she has performed with Apollo's Fire, La Donna Musicale,
Music for a While, the Washington Bach Consort, Opera Lafayette
and is a founding member of Cascata. Also known for
her interpretations of new music, Tracy is the resident mezzo-soprano
of the DC-based Great Noise Ensemble. She has created
roles in The Libation Bearers (Nurse) and The
Furies (Mania), and will soon premiere a work by Armando
Bayolo commissioned by the National Gallery of Art. Additional
opera credits are Cendrillon (Spirit - Summer Opera
Theatre Company), La Traviata (Flora), and Amahl
and the Night Visitors (Mother). Recordings include Armide
(Lully) with Opera Lafayette and Handel's Messiah
with Apollo's Fire. Tracy is currently pursuing a
master's degree in Early Music at the Longy School of Music
where she studies with Laurie Monahan.
Long
& Away is available to play at your event. Please email us at info@cama-lekx.com.