Look for these guest artists during the 2024-25 season
Jonathan DeLoach began recorder studies in earnest in the early music ensembles at Florida State University, where he earned his B.A. in Music with studies in piano, organ, and music history. He has been music director of Ritornello Baroque Ensemble for its numerous Atlanta appearances since its debut in 2000; he has also performed with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, New Trinity Baroque, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He holds a Master of Sacred Music from Emory University and is the music director and organist at St. Luke Lutheran Church in Atlanta.
Violinist and violist Dana Duncan-Davis was raised in Augusta, and received a Bachelors of Music degree at Augusta State University and a Masters of Music degree at The University of Akron. She has participated in Brevard Music Festival, Meadowmount School for Strings, and The Encore School for Strings. Additionally, she completed a certificate in Arts Management with the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts. Her musical career has spanned over three decades and has included private studio teaching of beginners through standard repertoire, directing a high school orchestra and college studio teaching of violin, viola and string orchestra, as well as maintaining positions as an orchestral violinist including with the Augusta Symphony, Akron Symphony, Ashland Symphony, Mansfield Symphony, Wooster Symphony, West Virginia Symphony, Corpus Christi Symphony, Victoria Symphony, Battle Creek Symphony, Kalamazoo Symphony, Savannah Philharmonic and the Hilton Head Symphony.
In addition to a busy performance career, Dana is a highly sought-after Suzuki instructor, having founded and expanded several programs from Augusta, Akron, OH, Kalamazoo, MI, and Corpus Christi, TX. She was Orchestra Director at Beaufort County High School in South Carolina before moving back to Georgia. Her students have won many prestigious competitions and attained high level teaching positions. Dana continues to joyfully teach students from preschool ages to adults.
Violinist Ute Marks lives in Metro Atlanta, but is a native of Germany, having grown up in the state of Saxony, where the cities of Leipzig and Dresden are central to the history of Baroque music. Ute came to Georgia State University in 1994 to study with violinist Oliver Steiner, then returned to Germany to complete Masters’ degrees in both Music Education as well as English and American Studies at Humboldt University in Berlin. Moving back to Atlanta in 1997 to live with her American husband, besides teaching private violin lessons, she became a founding member of the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra and established her career as a Baroque violinist. Besides having performed regularly with Dr. George Lucktenberg at Reinhardt University, she plays with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, New Trinity Baroque and other early music ensembles in the Atlanta area. For more information about Ute, please watch her interview on the Atlanta Early Music Alliance’s Polyphonic Voices series.
Dan McCarthy’s playing has been described as “virtuosic” by Seen and Heard International. He was a part of the first class of baroque violists accepted into the historical performance program at The Juilliard School. There, he was also featured in performances on violin, viola da gamba, and viola d’amore. He enjoys a varied career that takes him everywhere from Myanmar to England and his hometown New York in between.
Dan has served as section violist with the Trinity Wall Street Baroque Orchestra, concertmaster of the Austin Baroque Orchestra, and tenor gambist with Parthenia. He has also toured extensively throughout North America, East Asia, and Europe with artists and groups such as Jordi Savall, Masaaki Suzuki, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and American Bach Soloists. On the east coast, he plays with Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity, Washington Bach Consort, Clarion Music Society, Grand Harmonie, Artek, REBEL, Teatro Nuovo, Queens Consort, Academy of Sacred Drama, and New Amsterdam Consort. Dan leads the recently founded Emfindsamer Ensemble, which presents the music of the Emfindsamer Stil or the ‘sensitive style’ of the mid 18th century.
Mía Mangano is a Cuban multi-instrumentalist who has lived in Georgia since 2017. Her cello studies began at age 7, but she was a fulltime cellist with the Villa Clara Symphony Orchestra by the time she was 20. She also performed with National Symphony of Cuba, Soloists of Havana, and Katedra Studio de la Musica Antigua. As viola da gamba soloist she toured with Los Tiempos Pasados. Mía currently performs on cello or double bass with Pensacola (FL) Symphony Orchestra, Shoals Symphony (AL), LaGrange (GA) Symphony Orchestra, Jackson (TN) Symphony Orchestra, Johnson City (TN) Symphony, and Albany (GA) Symphony Orchestra. She also regularly appears with Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, New Trinity Baroque, and Saint Petersburg Baroque. Mía studied cello and double bass at the Higher Institute of Arts of Cuba, with a mention in bowed continuo period instruments.
Dr. Gregory Hamilton was born in Livonia, Michigan, and attended Baldwin Wallace College in Ohio for his undergraduate work. His interest in musicology and early music took him to London, England, and the Royal College of Music. He completed his M.Mus and recital diploma while studying several early music instruments, including lute and theorbo. He returned to the United States and began organ study with Dr. Marilyn Mason, completing his doctorate in sacred music/organ in 2000.
He is an active recitalist, playing organ recitals and early music concerts, as well as chamber music concerts and piano accompaniment in the U.S. and abroad. He has performed at the York Music Festival (York, England), The Boston Early Music Festival and Music in Time Festival (Stanford, California), and has appeared on WFMT (Chicago) and BBC England. He is featured on several CDs, including a recent recording of the Vespers of 1610 by Claudio Monteverdi as recorded by Apollo’s Fire on Koch Classics. Future projects include recording the organ works of Dom Paul Benoit.
Kelly Stewart is a harpist who continues to find herself in new and unusual musical endeavors. She is an avid and enthusiastic educator in the fields of classical and traditional music and has performed throughout Europe and the United States. Fortunate enough to be raised between traditions, she has a lifetime of experience in both celtic and classical music.
Kelly performs regularly in chamber ensembles on the renaissance harp, triple harp, lever harp, and modern pedal harp, with repertoire ranging from medieval to 21st century compositions. She maintains a large teaching studio in her home in Atlanta, GA, and coaches students for competitions throughout the country. Kelly tours regularly with the celtic/appalachian duo, The Reel Sisters, and has performed in venues from New Mexico to New York. She is a National Scottish Harp Champion, has received a BMUS in Classical Performance, and holds a Masters Diploma from the University of North Wales in performance and traditional musicology.
Guest artists from previous seasons
Aimée Marcoux is a classically trained singer, actor, and award-winning journalist. Known for her depth of character and musical sensitivity, Marcoux has performed over 50 operatic, musical theater, and oratorio roles with leading orchestras and opera companies across the globe. These include Florida Grand Opera, New World Symphony Orchestra, Florentine Opera, Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, The Bulgarian National Orchestra, Opera Frankfurt, Paraguay Symphony Orchestra and The Hungarian State Opera.
In a dramatic departure from her singing career, Marcoux worked as a reporter and producer for Reuters Television, Showtime, the BBC, NBC, and Fox affiliates throughout the United States, and was a reporter/producer for Entertainment Drive, one of the first online news outlets. Marcoux has been spotted at The Emmys, The Tony Awards and the Academy Awards interviewing such celebrities as Sir Anthony Hopkins, Salma Hayek, Tony Bennett, and Mariah Carey. At the United Nations, she interviewed Kofi Annan, Senator Bill Richardson, President Bill Clinton, and HRH Prince Phillip.
On September 11, 2001, Marcoux was in New York covering an early morning fashion show when she received a call from Reuters urging her to grab her cameraman and “go to a plane crash downtown.” She was one of the first reporters on the scene at The World Trade Center, embarking on a tragic day of news. Her footage and story were featured in the HBO documentary, “In Remembrance.” Marcoux was lauded by The Royal Television Society as “an invisible giant of TV news” for her coverage at Ground Zero.
The true story of Aimee Marcoux and her ex-husband, Michael Spurlock was told in the 2017 Sony Affirm pictures release All Saints. The film recounts the story of salesman-turned-pastor Michael Spurlock (actor John Corbett), Aimee Marcoux-Spurlock (actress Carla Buono), and a group of refugees from Southeast Asia, who risk everything to save their tiny church in Tennessee and transform their future.
Aimee holds a Bachelor of Music degree from The Boston Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music degree in Opera from The New England Conservatory of Music.
Macarena Sánchez is an award-winning cellist from Spain. She graduated with honors in cello performance by the Professional Conservatory of Music in Madrid and holds degrees in Romantic cello from The Superior Conservatory of Music of Castilla y León and in Baroque cello from The Royal Music Conservatory in Madrid. In 2009 she was recognized for her outstanding performance at the Community of Madrid Music Performance Competition.
Over the course of her musical career, she has received Master Classes by renowned cellists as Maria Kliegel (Cologne), Peter Bruns (Leipzig), Roel Dieltiens (Zurich), Marc Coppey (Paris) and Jaap ter Linden (The Hague) among others.
Macarena has offered many baroque concerts and workshops in Germany, Italy and Spain. She has collaborated on several performance projects with Transbaroque Ensemble, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Community of Madrid Symphony Orchestra and Camerata Musicalis Symphony Orchestra, to name a few, and was awarded first prize at the FEMUBA Baroque Festival Competition with her Ensemble, “La Rejouissance”. Solo performances include the Vivaldi Cello Concerto RV418 with the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid Baroque Orchestra in 2017.
Macarena moved recently to Georgia, where she intends to continue her career as a musician and where she collaborates with Amethyst Baroque Ensemble and the Georgia Symphony Orchestra.
Erik Schmalz received degrees in trombone performance from Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, but discovered early music and period instruments shortly thereafter and was hooked. With a current historic instrumentarium ranging from a 14th century straight trumpet copy to original romantic era trombones, he has been a historic trombone specialist and performer for more than fifteen years. As a member of Piffaro, The Renaissance Band, and Dark Horse Consort; a regular performer with large ensembles such as Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society, Tafelmusik, Trinity Baroque Orchestra; and an active freelancer, Erik can be heard on many stages and on numerous recordings. His musical and instrumental versatility also led him to be cast as one of the seven instrumentalists in the Globe Theatre’s Tony nominated production of Shakespeare on Broadway. Erik currently resides in Collinsville, CT.
Krysta Therieau, soprano, holds a bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Mercer University’s Townsend School of Music. While at Mercer, she studied voice with Dr. Martha Malone and performed with the Mercer Singers under the direction of Dr. Stanley Roberts. She has performed as a choir member and soloist in works by Vivaldi, Handel, Schubert and others. Recently, Krysta was thrilled to perform several Early Music solos in Macon’s Cherry Blossom Festival. She is currently an Elementary Music teacher in Bonaire, Georgia, where she teaches General Music, leads a children’s choir, and leads an Orff ensemble.
Ian Jones is a violinist based in the Atlanta metropolitan area, finishing his undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia where he is earning a bachelor’s degree in Music Performance. Ian Jones is attending the Hugh Hodgson School of Music on scholarship: The Hugh Hodgson School of Music Scholarship Award, as well as the Claasen Orchestral Excellence Award. He has performed in multiple ensembles around the Athens, Georgia area, including the University of Georgia Symphony Orchestra, the University of Georgia Opera Orchestra, the “Over the Hill” English String Orchestra, the Chamber Music Athens Chamber Orchestra, The Secret Sits Ensemble, the Hodgson Duo, the Hodgson Piano Trio, and the Athena Piano Quintet.
Ian found a passion for historical performance early in his undergraduate degree, and has recently pursued performance opportunities in conjunction with Early Music and Baroque violin. In addition to studying both modern and Baroque violin performance, Ian also plays the Pardessus de viole, on loan from the Viola da Gamba Society of America. Ians interests also include historical musicology, as well as Art History, with published writings including “The Sacred Connection of Music and Illumination During the Early Medieval Period in the Caligula Troper” and “The Compositional Process Behind Johann Sebastian Bach’s Setting of the St. John Passion, BWV 245: Innovation of Biblical Narratives.”