Help support Music City Baroque:
Musicians
Murray Somerville, Artistic Director
Harpsichordist, organist, conductor, born in London, grew up in Rhodesia. Student of Bach conductor Karl Richter, studied at Oxford (Organ Scholar of New College under Sir David Lumsden) and in New York; doctorate from New England Conservatory in Boston. Formerly Founding Conductor of Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra, Music Director of Winter Park Bach Festival in Florida. Has conducted Nashville Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony, Florida Symphony, City of Oxford Orchestra. Collaborated with Christopher Hogwood, Joel Cohen, William Christie, Robert Mealy; recorded for ASV, Centaur, Gothic, Raven, Koch. Watch a performance of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor on the Flentrop organ at Harvard University's Adolphus Busch Hall.
Karen Clarke, Concertmaster
Founding member of Belle Meade Baroque/Music City Baroque. Faculty of the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt, having been previously Professor of Violin at Florida State University School of Music; she serves also as concertmaster of the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra. She has performed and recorded with the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, the Apollo Ensemble and the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra; her students have been finalists in solo and chamber competitions.
Winds
George Riordan, oboist, a founding member of Belle Meade Baroque, is Director of the School of Music at Middle Tennessee State University, a post he has held since August 2003. In addition to serving as a founding member of Belle Meade Baroque, Dr. Riordan regularly appears as principal oboist with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra.
Angela DeBoer, horn
Dr. Jessica Dunnavant is an instructor for both Belmont Academy, where she teaches flute and provides piano accompaniment for flute students, and Middle Tennessee State University, where she teaches Introduction to Music, flute and other courses as needed. She performs with Music City Baroque on Baroque flute and recorder, and she serves on their Musicians Council. Dr. Dunnavant also plays with saxophonist Paula Van Goes as the Greenbrook Ensemble. She is a blogger for The Music Collective and she is the Vice President/President-Elect of the Mid-South Flute Society. She maintains a large private flute studio in Middle Tennessee. Previous Visiting Assistant Professor appointments include the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where Dr. Dunnavant taught flute and Music Theory; Florida State University, where she taught flute, Baroque flute and recorder; and Texas A&M University-Kingsville, where she taught flute, Early Music Ensemble, Music Appreciation, and Aural Skills. Dr. Dunnavant holds degrees from the University of Maryland (DMA), Florida State University (MM) and Middle Tennessee State University (BM).
Jared Hauser, oboe
Lara Lay, oboe
Violin
Rebecca Cole is a member of the Nashville Symphony. She performed at the Oregon Bach Festival for 18 years, and was Principal Second Violin at the Peter Britt Festival for 12 years. This past summer, she attended the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, where she studied with Tafelmusik Concertmaster Jeanne Lamon, and also participated in the Vancouver Early Music Programme, working with Marc Destrube, Jacques Oggs, and Jap ter Linden.
Alison Gooding
Laura Ross has been a member of the Nashville Symphony since 1984 and was previously a member of the Toledo Symphony. Laura is the Nashville Symphony union steward, serves on the executive board of Local 257 and is secretary of the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM).
Andrea Dawson has performed extensively in Mexico and the United States. She received graduate degrees from Eastman and undergraduate from Oberlin. After teaching at the University of Texas Pan-American for five years, she is now on the music faculty at Middle Tennessee State University.
Tammy King
Donna Stallings is currently a freelance violinist in the Nashville area; she was previously Assistant Principal Second of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. She holds degrees from Illinois State University and Rice University, studied with Paul Kantor at the University of Michigan, and has attended Aspen, Tanglewood (TMC), GRAZ, and the Carmel Bach Festival. Concurrent with her music career she is pursuing an M.S. in Information Science from University of Tennessee.
Viola
Sarah Cote was a member of the San Antonio Symphony for 18 years and moved from there to Nashville; she teaches at Belmont and MTSU. She studied Baroque violin and viola with Marilyn MacDonald and Simon Standage.
Clare Yang joined the Nashville Symphony in 1995. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, she grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, and holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Indiana University.
Continuo
Christopher Stenstrom Cellist Christopher Stenstrom joined The Nashville Symphony in 1999, and has performed with the Colorado Music Festival, the Shreveport Symphony, and numerous regional and festival orchestras.
An avid chamber musician, Christopher can be heard regularly with the ALIAS Chamber Ensemble, of which he is a founding member, the Eclectic Chamber Players, the Gateway Chamber Ensemble, and as a guest on WPLN's Live in Studio C.
Christopher attended Oberlin College to pursue a career in molecular biology research, but found his focus shifting from the laboratory to the concert hall. He received a Bachelor's of Music degree in performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, studying cello with Andor Toth, Jr. and Vagram Saradjian, and viola da gamba and baroque cello with Catharina Meints. He holds a Master's of Music degree from Bowling Green State University, where he had an assistantship as a member of the graduate string quartet and studied with Dr. Alan Smith.
Kevin Lay, viola da gamba
Keith Nicholas holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a Master of Music degree from Florida State University. He joined the Nashville Symphony in 1999 and currently teaches cello as adjunct faculty member at Austin Peay State University and Belmont University.
Francis Perry has appeared with Belle Meade Baroque since 2006, shortly after he moved to Nashville from the New York metropolitan area. He has performed on both lute and guitar at The Boston Early Music Festival. His article "A Recipe For Learning A New Piece of Music" was published in a recent issue of SOUNDBOARD magazine.
Glen Wanner, bass
Music City Baroque Chamber Chorus
Sopranos: Rebecca Davis (manager), Hazel Somerville,
Laurel Fisher, Nicole Naumann, Rachel Anderson
Altos: Mareike Sattler, Michelle Cox
Tenors: Stanley Warren, Will Griffin
Basses: Alex Favazza, John Sevier
The Music City Baroque Chamber Chorus, which made its debut singing Bach’s Motet No. 3, "Jesu, meine Freude" at the March 2009 Blair School of Music concert, is a group of stylistically aware choral musicians from the Nashville area. Manager is soprano Rebecca Davis, who teaches at Harpeth Hall School, and was previously a member of the Washington Bach Consort under J. Reilly Lewis. Laurel Fisher, Rachel Anderson, Michelle Cox, Mareike Sattler and Alex Favazza are all current members of St. George’s Choir; Nicole Naumann sings with the Nashville Symphony Chorus. Tenor Will Griffin is Chairman of the Board of Music City Baroque, and Classical Music Director of WPLN.
Stanley Warren, tenor, studied at Eastman School of Music as a student of Jan DeGaetani, and in England with Sir Peter Pears. A noted exponent of Baroque vocal literature, he is Associate Professor of Voice and Coordinator of Vocal Studies at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. John Sevier, bass, holds degrees from Indiana State University and Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He has appeared with the St. Louis Symphony under Leonard Slatkin, as well as the Nashville Symphony and Nashville Opera; for ten years he was bass section leader at St. George’s Church.
The group repeated the Bach motet for "Bachanalia" at Christ Church Cathedral at the end of March 2009; an audience member wrote "[re:] the motet setting of "Jesu, meine Freude" as presented by Belle Meade Baroque … I believe audiences in Leipzig at either St. Thomaskirche or St. Nikolaikirche at a minimum would be stunned to hear these superb artists."