Alexandra MacCracken, the founder and director of Ensemble Gaudior, has performed as a baroque violinist with the Washington Bach Consort, Opera Lafayette, and Modern Musick, as well as with other period-instrument ensembles in Richmond, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and New York. After earning both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, Ms. MacCracken taught for several years at the University of Virginia, where she also played in the Piedmont Chamber Players, a faculty ensemble. Other highlights of her extensive experience as a chamber musician include membership in the Squareknot Quartet, whose repertoire ranged from the classics to innovative arrangements in popular, folk, and jazz styles; and more recently in the baroque groups La Stravaganza and Harmonia Nova. Ms. MacCracken currently freelances on modern as well as baroque violin and in addition occasionally finds time to play Renaissance consort music on the treble viol.

Leslie Nero, a native Washingtonian, spent many years in Ontario and Quebec performing in modern orchestras before returning to the D.C. area, where she is currently an active freelance musician on both modern and baroque violin and viola. In recent years she has performed locally with Opera Lafayette, Modern Musick, Folger Consort, the Handel Choir of Baltimore and the Washington Bach Consort, and has participated in summer early-music festivals in Oberlin, Vancouver, Boston, Toronto, and Albuquerque. In addition to her performing career, Ms. Nero teaches beginning strings for the Alexandria City Public Schools.

Daniel Rippe received a Maryland State Arts Council 2004 Individual Artist Award for solo performance on viola da gamba, and has appeared as a featured soloist with the Richmond Symphony in J. S. Bach’s St. John Passion and with Anonymous 4 in their final Washington, D.C. area performance: Voices of Light. Other ensemble affiliations, in addition to Ensemble Gaudior, include the Handel Choir of Baltimore, Peabody Renaissance Ensemble, Hesperus, Carmina, and many performances in the creative basso continuo section with American Opera Theater. He has recorded on the Centaur and Koch International Classics labels. Mr. Rippe studied viola da gamba and baroque cello with Ann Marie Morgan at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and in addition to his performance activities is also founding editor of RipMeister Publications, creating performance editions of early music repertory.

Harpsichordist Elena Tsai has performed throughout the United States and Europe. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Frank Huntington Beebe Grant, the Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship, and the Rislov Foundation Grant, which enabled her to study harpsichord in Paris for a year. She was also selected as a finalist in the Pro Musicis competition in New York and was a semi-finalist in the 5th Jurow International Harpsichord competition. Recently, she has performed with the Bach Sinfonia, the Handel Choir of Baltimore, the Hopkins Symphony, La Rocinante, and at the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival. She attended the University of Michigan where she earned degrees in political science, piano, and harpsichord, which she studied with Edward Parmentier. She also teaches piano at the Friends School of Baltimore.

Thomas MacCracken performs in the Washington, DC area primarily on historical keyboard instruments (including harpsichord, fortepiano, and continuo organ) as well as recorder and baroque flute, appearing both in duo recitals with harpsichordist Vera Kochanowsky and with ensembles such as the Washington Bach Consort, Bach Sinfonia, Washington Kantorei, and Handel Choir of Baltimore. While earning a doctorate in musicology at the University of Chicago he was active as an early-music performer in that city and has been a founding member of several ensembles both there and since moving to Virginia in 1985.

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Lori Barnet is currently principal cellist of the National Philharmonic, Orchestra 2001 (Philadelphia), and the Wolf Trap Opera Orchestra, in addition to making frequent appearances as a chamber musician throughout the Washington and Philadelphia areas. A former member of the Augusta Symphony, Alexandria Symphony, and Washington Chamber Symphony, she has appeared as soloist with all of these groups as well as the National Philharmonic, and recently served as acting principal cellist with the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra. A member of the music faculty at George Washington University since 1991, she also teaches at the National Philharmonic Summer Institute for High School String Students, is coordinator and cellist for the National Philharmonic chamber music series, and was for eleven years cello sectional coach for Montgomery Classic Youth Orchestras. Ms. Barnet’s cello teachers include Robert Newkirk, George Finkel and Barbara Stein Mallow, and most recently she has worked with Phoebe Carrai for baroque cello performance.

Barbara Hollinshead, mezzo-soprano, has appeared with many of the East Coast’s finest early music groups, including Chatham Baroque, Opera Lafayette, the Washington Bach Consort, and the New York Collegium, and has sung under the baton of eminent conductors such as Christopher Hogwood and Andrew Parrott. She performs extensively in Manhattan and its environs as a member of the New York-based chamber group ARTEK, with which she has also travelled to perform at festivals in Regensburg (Germany), Bloomington (Indiana), and Edinburgh (Scotland). High points of her career to date have included singing Bach at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Monteverdi at San Marco in Venice, and the St. Matthew Passion one-to-a-part with Tafelmusik in Toronto. Ms. Hollinshead began her vocal studies at her opera-singing mother’s knee, and as an adult has studied with coaches in New York and Washington, and in the Netherlands with Max Van Egmond. Her educational endeavors include serving as professor of voice at American University and as a cast member of “Bach to School,” as well as giving master classes on Renaissance and Baroque singing styles.

Marta Howard, baroque viola, performs throughout the Washington, DC area in groups as diverse as the Washington Bach Consort and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and in venues ranging from the National Cathedral to Signature Theater. A native of Duluth, Minnesota, she holds degrees in viola performance from the University of Wisconsin, the Manhattan School of Music, and the University of Iowa, and has studied chamber music with the Cleveland, Tokyo and Stradivari Quartets. She has participated in summer festivals around the U.S., Canada, and Italy, including the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute, and has taught at the Preucil School of Music in Iowa City, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Georgetown University.

Caroline Levy has played baroque violin with the Bach Sinfonia, Washington Kantorei, and at American University, with additional performances in Williamsburg and Richmond. She studied both baroque and modern violin with Linda Quan at Vassar College, earned a master’s degree in violin performance at The University of South Carolina, and has done additional study on baroque violin with Marilyn MacDonald at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute and with Risa Browder. Formerly a music teacher in the Fairfax County Schools and at the Levine School of Music, Ms. Levy’s career has also included playing with symphony orchestras in Augusta and Savannah (Georgia), Charleston and Columbia (South Carolina), and Asheville (North Carolina), as well as locally with the Alexandria Symphony, National Gallery Orchestra, and Washington Concert Opera.

Adam Pearl was recently appointed instructor in harpsichord at the Peabody Conservatory, where he was formerly a doctoral student of Webb Wiggins. He performs regularly in the Baltimore, Washington, and Philadelphia areas, as well as around the country, with such ensembles as Tempesta di Mare, the Richmond Symphony, and the Catacoustic Consort. As music director of American Opera Theater (formerly Ignoti Dei Opera), based in Baltimore, Mr. Pearl has led performances of Blow’s Venus and Adonis, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Cavalli's La Calisto and La Didone, Handel’s Acis and Galatea, and Charpentier’s David et Jonathas, in addition to performing in other baroque operas with the Peabody Chamber Opera, Tempesta di Mare, and Opera Vivente. In August 2004, competing against 90 harpsichordists from 29 countries, he won third prize at the international harpsichord competition in Bruges, Belgium.

William Simms, theorbo and baroque guitar, appears regularly with such groups as Opera Lafayette, Apollo’s Fire, Modern Musick, and Olde Friends Concert Artists, and is also a founding member of the ensemble La Rocinante. Active as a continuo player, he has performed numerous operas and oratorios, including performances with the Cleveland Opera, New York State Baroque, and Tempesta di Mare. Having earned degrees from Peabody Conservatory (M.Mus.) and College of Wooster (B.Mus.), Mr. Simms currently serves on the faculties of Mount Saint Mary’s College; Hood College, where he is founder and director of the Hood College Early Music Ensemble; and the Interlochen Center for the Arts. He has recorded for the Dorian, Centaur, and Eclectra labels.