Ensemble Vermillian
http://www.ensemblevermillian.com/
the performers
Frances
Blaker
(Recorders)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.
Ms. Blaker has performed as a soloist
and with various ensembles in the
United
States, Denmark, England and the Netherlands,
including Ensemble
Vermillian,
the Farallon Recorder Quartet and the recorder duo Tibia.
She teaches
privately
and at workshops throughout the United States, including the
San
Francisco
Early Music Society Baroque workshop and Port Townsend; she is an
assistant
director of the Amherst Early Music Festival, Inc. Ms. Blaker is the
author of
The Recorder Player's Companion and the "Opening Measures" column in
the
American Recorder, and a collaborator and performer on the
Disc
Continuo
series of recordings. She can be heard on Ensemble
Vermillian’s “Stolen
Jewels”
and the Farallon Recorder Quartet’s Senfl CD.
Stauffer. She changed her focus to Baroque cello after attending the San Francisco Early Music Society’s
Baroque Workshop, and went on to study with Viola de Hoog in the Netherlands, and Pheobe Carrai at the
Conservatory of Music in Hilversum, NL. She has toured all over Europe and recorded with Concerto Köln, of
Germany, and is currently a member of various early music groups including the Wild Rose Ensemble, Vita Nova
and Ensemble Vermillian. She is a sought-after teacher of cello in Davidson, North Carolina, and can be
heard on Ensemble Vermillian’s CD “Stolen Jewels”, as well as on the Disc Continuo series of recordings.
Henry
Lebedinsky (Harpsichord)
A native of
Russia, historical keyboardist Henry Lebedinsky is an active
performer
on
harpsichord, clavichord, and organ, both as a soloist and with The
Firebird
Chamber
Orchestra, Seraphic Fire, The Wild Rose Ensemble, Ensemble
Vermillian,
and The Charlotte Symphony.
With Grammy® award-winning countertenor
Ian Howell he founded the innovative early music ensemble
Tableau, and has also
performed
with Saltarello, Revels, the Portland Early Music Consort, the Harvard
Baroque
Orchestra, The South Coast Chamber Music Society, Concertino Ensemble
of
Rostock, Germany, and
Holland's Ensemble New Amsterdam among others. In
addition to performing, Mr. Lebedinsky has
led workshops on historical
keyboards and performance practice at Davidson College, The University
of
North
Carolina at Greensboro, and Appalachian State University. His editions
of works
by Isabella
Leonarda, Barbara Strozzi, and Maria Xaviera Peruchona for
Saltarello
Editions have been performed
across the country and recently in Italy,
France,
South Korea, and Lebanon. In his spare time, he plays
bouzouki and
guitar with
several Celtic bands including The Beggar Boys, whose second CD,
Salem's
Musick: Songs and Dances of the Puritans, was recently praised as 'lush
and
revealing' by the Boston Globe.
Lebedinsky holds degrees from Bowdoin
College
and the Longy School of Music, where he earned a
Master of Music in
historical
organ performance as a student of Peter Sykes. A church musician
since
the age
of 17, he currently serves as organist and director of music at St.
Alban's
Episcopal
Church in Davidson, North Carolina, where he also directs the
successful Music at St. Alban's concert series.
and Europe, including Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and Los Angeles
Baroque Orchestra, and as concertmaster with Jubilate Baroque Orchestra, California Bach Society, Apollo
Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica, Dayton Bach Society, and Ensemble Musical Offering. He has
performed in Germany with Metamorphosis (Cologne), the Carissimi Consort (Munich), Münchner
Barockorchester, Barockorchester Düsseldorf, and Barockorchester Rhein-Ruhr. An avid chamber
musician, he has played with chamber ensembles which include the Benevolent Order for Music of the Baroque,
Magnificat, Music's Re-Creation, The Winthrop Fleet, and Lux Musica, and he is a founding member
of Florilegia, Ensemble Seicento, and the Wisconsin Baroque Quartet. A co-founder of the Bloomington Early
Music Festival, he performs regularly at the Boston Early Music Festival, the Berkeley Early Music Festival, and
the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival. He has taught Baroque violin at Indiana University, where he
earned the Doctor of Music degree in Early Music, and he holds degrees in violin from Bowling Green State
University in Ohio and The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He is the
author of Georg Muffat on Performance Practice, published by Indiana University Press.
William Simms, lute, theorbo, and guitar
William Simms, lute, theorbo, and guitar,
holds degrees from Peabody Conservatory (MMus) and College of Wooster
(BMus).
He performs on guitar, baroque guitar, lute and theorbo. He appears
regularly with such groups as Opera Lafayette,
Modern Musick and Olde Friends Concert Artists. He is also a founding
member of the Baroque ensemble La Rocinante.
In demand as a continuo player, he has performed numerous operas and
oratorios,
including performances with the Cleveland Opera and New York State
Baroque. He serves on the faculties of
Mt. St. 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.
Ensemble Vemillion at the Newcombs
Charlottesville,Virginia 2009