Spring 2013
Frances Blaker
Frances Blaker received her Music Pedagogical and Performance degrees from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen where she studied with Eva Legêne. She also studied with Marion Verbruggen in the Netherlands. In addition to regular appearances with Tibia, the Farallon Recorder Quartet, and Ensemble Vermillian, Blaker has performed as a soloist and with various ensembles in the United States, Denmark, England and the Netherlands. She teaches privately and at workshops throughout the United States, including the San Francisco Early Music Society Baroque workshop, Port Townsend and Amherst Early Music; she was co-director of the SFEMS Medieval and Renaissance workshop from 1996-2001 and is a co-director of Amherst Early Music. Blaker is the author of the acclaimed The Recorder Player's Companion and a collaborator and performer on the Disc Continuo series of recordings. Learn more about Frances.
Frances Blaker
Louise Carslake
Louise Carslake is a member of the Farallon Recorder Quartet, the Baroque ensemble Music's Re-creation, and Magnificat, and has performed in England, New Zealand, Poland, Ireland, China and the Netherlands. She has recorded for radio and television internationally, and appeared with the San Francisco Opera and Carmel Bach Festival. She has made CD recordings for the Meridian, Centaur, Intrada, and Musical Heritage labels. Louise directs the Early Music Ensembles at Mills College in Oakland, California, and teaches Baroque flute at University of California at Berkeley.
Louise Carslake
Frances Feldon
Frances Feldon specializes in baroque flute and recorder, is a musician whose activities include teaching, conducting, performance, arranging, and writing about recorders. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area; is music director of Flauti Diversi; and principal conductor of The Barbary Coast Recorder Orchestra. She holds a doctorate from Indiana Universitys Early Music Institute, and has taught at Indiana University, UC Davis, Albany Adult School, and The Greenwood School. She recently recorded the complete Op 37 trio sonatas of Boismortier. She is currently in search of her jazz/pop recorder voice.
Frances Feldon
April Marie Hale
A transplanted Southerner living and working in Bozeman, Montana for the past six years, April Marie Hale creates large-scale adornment based on our relationships with the landscape. The materials she uses—felted wool, found natural and human-made objects—serve as a metaphor for the interaction between human and wild. In addition, April sells a line of sustainable enamel and steel jewelry. Learn more about April.
April Marie Hale
Dr. Kirk Johnson
Dr. Kirk Johnson, the Sant Director of the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum, is a paleobotanist who has worked on all continents and has discovered more than 1400 new fossil localities. He collaborates with artists to make his science accessible. He is the author of award-winning popular books and has appeared on many television programs—most recently NOVA's Ice Age Death Trap. He and Alaskan artist Ray Troll were awarded a joint Guggenheim Fellowship to create a book about the fossil history of the West Coast.
Dr. Kirk Johnson
Christine Martell
Christine Martell has spent the last decade showing organizations, through her company VisualsSpeak, how art and photography can be used to enhance communication, create break-through visions and get people juiced about the possibilities. Returning to her studio, she is now immersed in using painting as a means of storytelling. Her newest work dances the edge of visual and verbal, discovering a relationship between place and personal story. Christine holds a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and MS from Portland State. Learn more about Christine.
Christine Martell
Ben Moorad
Ben Moorad is a Fellow of The MacDowell Colony, has received two residencies from Caldera, and has been awarded three grants from the Regional Arts & Culture Council for public poetry projects. He is the co-Founder of Write Around Portland, an innovative nonprofit that runs networks of free writing workshops to transform lives and lower social barriers. He is currently a nonprofit consultant and is working on his creative nonfiction manuscript The Envelope of Suicides.
Ben Moorad
Gayle Stuwe Neuman
Gayle Stuwe Neuman, a performer on violin, recorder, sackbutt, and many other instruments, is also a vocalist who has received international acclaim for her singing on Ensemble De Organographia's CD "Music of the Ancient Greeks." She has performed in the United States, Japan, Israel, Turkey, Greece, Canada, Norway, Germany, and Jordan. She co-directs the Oregon Renaissance Band, is a member of the Trail Band, sings with Cappella Romana, teaches Recorder and Renaissance Song Classes at Portland's Community Music Center, and Music History at Marylhurst University. She has given workshops and presentations at Oberlin Conservatory, Rice University, Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Getty Museum. She has built with her husband Philip over 400 early wind and stringed instruments, including crumhorns, cornamusen, racketts, and vielles.
Gayle Stuwe Neuman
Philip Neuman
Philip Neuman, a performer on recorder, sackbutt, and numerous other instruments, co-directs the Oregon Renaissance Band, which has performed for the Regensburg Early Music Festival and recorded the CDs "Now make we joye" and "Carnevale." He has written and recorded for productions by Oregon Public Broadcasting. He has taught Recorder, Renaissance Winds, and Loud Band Classes at the Community Music Center in Portland since 1980. He teaches Music History at Marylhurst University. Philip is a member of the Trail Band, has played with the American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, The Chicago Chorale, and the Handel & Haydn Society Orchestra. He has composed, arranged and transcribed over a thousand works for recorder ensemble, brass ensemble, and symphonic wind ensemble.
Philip Neuman
Loren Schwerd
Loren Schwerd is a multi-disciplinary artist based in New Orleans. Her works have been exhibited at The Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design, the Dana Women Artist Center at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and in the Prospect 1.5 New Orleans Biennial. Loren received her BFA in Studio Art from Tulane University and her MFA in Sculpture in from Syracuse University, and she is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Louisiana State University. Learn more about Loren.
Loren Schwerd
Dr. Nolan Stolz
Dr. Nolan Stolz is from Las Vegas, Nevada. He has a unique compositional voice that is influenced by jazz and progressive rock, yet is firmly rooted in the contemporary classical tradition. His compositions have been performed throughout the United States, Canada, South America and Europe. Learn more about Nolan.
Dr. Nolan Stolz
Lindsey Thordarson
Lindsey Thordarson is a recipient of the Doug Fir Fiction Award. Her work has been published in ZYZZYVA, California Northern Magazine, and received an honorable mention in the Atlantic's Student Writing Competition. She holds an MFA from St. Mary's College of California, where she now lectures part-time. She lives in Petaluma, California. Learn more about Lindsey.
Lindsey Thordarson
Ray Troll
Ray Troll hales from Ketchikan, Alaska, where he draws & paints fishy images that migrate into museums, books and magazines and onto t-shirts sold around the planet. Basing his quirky, aquatic images on the latest scientific discoveries, Ray brings a street-smart sensibility to the worlds of ichthyology and paleontology. Learn more about Ray.
Ray Troll