Patrice Calixte, violin
Stephen Redfield, violin
Bruce Williams, viola
Douglas Harvey, cello
Gil Zilkha, bass, has performed in a wide range of repertoire with such ensembles as the Texas Early Music Project, La Follia, Conspirare, the Oregon Bach Festival Berwick Chorus, Vox Humana, and Spire Chamber Ensemble of Kansas City. Some of Gil's favorite solo credits include Bach's St John Passion and Ich habe genug, Durufle's Requiem, Dvorak's Stabat Mater, Handel's Messiah, Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, Mozart's Requiem and C Minor Mass, and Vaughan Williams' Five Mystical Songs. His opera roles include Captain Corcoran in H.M.S. Pinafore with the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Austin and Count Ceprano in Verdi's Rigoletto with Austin Opera. Gil received his Masters in Voice Performance from the University of Texas at Austin in 2000, studying with acclaimed mezzo-soprano Rose Taylor.
David Polley is an adjunct Professor of Organ at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX and currently serves as the Music Director of Grace Episcopal Church in Georgetown. He earned degrees from Concordia University, Seward NE; Northwestern University, Evanston, IL; and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE. He has served Lutheran, Catholic, and Methodist churches in Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Texas. He has performed as a featured recitalist in concerts in the Georgetown Festival of the Arts playing music of Schubert, Schumann, Saint-Saens, and Vierne as well as Scandinavian and Latin American composers. His most recent invited recitals include the Church of the Heavenly Rest in Abilene, TX, St. Austin Catholic Church in Austin, TX, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Austin.
Violin 1
Karen Stiles - Concertmaster
Megan Zapfe
Antonio Cevallos
Toby Blumenthal, piano
Oboe/English Horn
Julianne Webner - Principal
Jennifer Bernard
2023 Texas Bach Festival Performers
Hailed by Gramophone UK Magazine and Concerto Magazine as “unmissable”, “impactful” and “courageous”, Brazilian violinist Mariama Alcântara leads a multifaceted career as a performer and educator. Her debut album ‘Brazilian Landscapes: Music for Solo Violin from Brazil’, released by the Italian-Japanese label Da Vinci Classics, has earned international recognition for her artistry.
Mariama grew up in a musical family, making her solo debut at the age of 12 with the Paraiba Symphony Orchestra. Presently, she is a member of the Austin Opera, Iris Chamber Orchestra, and also performs with the Austin Symphony Orchestra. She has given solo recitals in Brazil, Austria, France and the United States. In addition to her extensive solo and orchestral career, Mariama is an avid chamber musician. She currently plays with the Artisan String Quartet and has been a guest artist with the Aizuri Quartet, Dali Quartet and the Allenspark Chamber Music Festival.
Passionate about improving equality and diversity in classical music, Mariama worked as a researcher with the Boulanger Initiative, an advocate of women composers based in Washington D.C.
A strong advocate for music education, Mariama serves as a faculty member at Austin Chamber Music Center, Texas Lutheran University, and has conducted masterclasses at Conservatório Jose Siqueira (Brazil), Universidade Federal da Paraíba (Brazil), and the University of Colorado Boulder. A 2019 recipient of the prestigious Dorothy Delay Starling Foundation Fellowship, Mariama earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Colorado Boulder as a student and teaching assistant of Professor Harumi Rhodes and Ed Dusinberre of the Takács Quartet.
David Polley, organ
Gil Zilkha, bass
Texas Bach Festival Choir
Trumpet
Micah Killion - Principal
Timothy Shaffer
Samuel Acosta
Violin 2
Richard Kilmer - Principal
Helen Cooper
Paula Bird
Rick Rowley, piano
Tenor
Michael Dixon *
Cristian Cantu
Gary Goethe
Jeffrey Jones-Ragona*
Holt Skinner * (alto soloist)
* Soloists
Bass
Joel Nesvadba *
Gil Zilkha *
Eric Johnson *
Benedict Anwukah
Michael Follis
Rick Rowley has given concerts with many of the world’s finest instrumentalists and singers and his solo and collaborative performances have taken him throughout the United States, to Europe and Latin America. He has recorded several solo CD’s, as well as chamber music and songs for voice and piano. His recording with flutist Marianne Gedigian, “Revolution,”was one of the first CD’s on the University of Texas Longhorn Label. In addition to his performing career, Mr. Rowley has been on the faculty of the Butler School of Music for the past twelve years. He coaches singers, works with collaborative pianists and has taught classes in a variety of subjects. He has also performed Beethoven’s “Choral” Fantasy and Bernstein’s “Age of Anxiety” with Gerhardt Zimmermann and the University of Texas Symphony Orchestra. His performance of Schumann’s C major Fantasy, Op. 17, won the Austin Critics’ Table award for Instrumentalist of the Year, and was named one of the 10 Best Performances of Music and Dance by the Austin Chronicle.
Texas Bach Festival Camerata
Timpani
Cindy Willis
Italian tenor Angelo Ferrari has been performing professionally for over 30 years, delighting audiences throughout the world. Trained in the Italian art of bel canto by his father and acclaimed tenor Lazzaro Ferrari, Mr. Ferrari has specialized, to critical acclaim, in the dramatically and vocally challenging roles written by composers such as Bellini, Donizetti, and Puccini, that few tenors have undertaken successfully. Mr. Ferrari's talent inspired Maestro Kurt Herman Wilhelm to write "Angelo will be one of the important tenors of the 21st century."
Winner of the first prize in the 2007 Mario Del Monaco Foundation competition, he has performed the leading tenor role in La Boheme, La fille du Reginment, Rigoletto, Don Pasquale, La Sonnambula, La Favorita, Il Trovatore, I Puritani, I Pescatori di Perle, La Traviata and many more in major theaters in Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and many other countries. He is also in great demand as a soloist for oratorios, both from the early music period as well as modern pieces such as the Missa Basniensi world premiere.
Mr. Ferrari's 2013 album Pasion Latina is a collection of famous romantic melodies and showcases his versatility. 2014 and 2015 included several concerts in Europe, most notably Verdi's masterpiece Messa da Requiem in Vienna. In 2016, Mr. Ferrari's talent and contributions to the Houston arts scene were recognized when the City of Houston proclaimed April 24, 2016 as "Angelo Ferrari Day". He continues to perform and is a firm believer in opportunities for young artists and exposing new audiences to the wonders of music.
Viola
Bruce Williams - Principal
Alexander Smith
Bass
Jonathan Rouse
The Artisan Quartet is comprised of mostly Austin Symphony principal players and has been referred to as "Austin's hometown string quartet". Hometown yes, but not local. The Artisan Quartet took its music out of state in 2012, traveling to the crucible of classical music when the quartet made its New York debut performing on the Carnegie Hall Weil Recital Hall Chamber Music Series. The concert in New York was made possible with very generous gifts from the Classical Artist Development Foundation and the Amatius Foundation, and was commemorated by the Texas House of Representatives on March 13, 2013 with H.R. 703 read into the Texas Congressional Record with the Artisans present. It was also around that time that the Artisan's completed their three season long "Genius at Play" Series, featuring the complete string quartets of Beethoven and started their own "Artisan Quartet Series" in Austin originally presented by the Austin Symphony. They performed several seasons at the Victoria Bach Festival, and are presently the Quartet in Residence for the Mozart Festival Texas in San Antonio, the Mason County Chamber Music Festival, and the Texas Bach Festival.
Flute
Adrienne Inglis - Principal
Nicholas Goodwin
Continuo
David Polley
Angelo Ferrari, tenor
Mariama Alcântara, violin
Ms. Blumenthal has appeared as soloist with many ensembles including the Chicago and Houston Symphony Orchestras. She has received high acclaim for her numerous chamber music performances with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and duo recitals with her late husband Philadelphia Orchestra cellist, Bert Phillips, and other internationally renown artists. A native of Chicago, she is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Music, and the University of Houston (graduate studies); post graduate studies with Leonard Shure at the University of Texas, and Rudolph Serkin at Marboro Chamber Music Institute in Vermont. Ms. Blumenthal is a Steinway Artist.
Ms. Blumenthal is currently director of the CHAMPS (chamber music public schools) for Salon Concerts, Austin, Texas. and Artistic Director and Pianist for Classic Chamber Concerts in Georgetown and Round Rock. She has participated in the Georgetown Festival of the Arts for the past five seasons. Toby and her late husband, Bert Phillips founded the Luzerne Music Center and the Luzerne Chamber Music Festival in Lake Luzerne, NY in 1980 where they shared executive and artistic directorships, and Toby developed the Piano Studies Program where she shared her talents each summer with many aspiring young musicians. She was also Founder and Co- Artistic Director of Classic Chamber Concerts in Naples, Florida where she performed with the Luzerne Trio (Raymond Gniewek-violin, Bert Phillips-cello), and the Philadelphia Piano Quartet (Norman Carol-violin, Lamar Alsop-viola, Bert Phillips-cello) from 1995 to 2009.
Cello
Douglas Harvey
Bassoon
Daniel Chrisman
ARTISAN STRING QUARTET
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