“Stunning and supercharged music...
performed with visceral passion.”
~ clevelandclassical.com
Previous Guest Artists
Sarah Lynn, baroque flute
Hailed by the Cleveland Classical as an upcoming artist with “musical prowess,” Sarah Lynn is a baroque flutist who devotes her time to the historical performance practice of Baroque and Renaissance music. A resident of Baltimore, Maryland, Lynn has performed with groups in the region, such as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Mountainside Baroque, Peabody Consort, Baltimore Baroque Band, and Peabody Renaissance Ensemble.
Before moving to Baltimore, Lynn lived in Oberlin, Ohio, where she performed as a soloist with Apollo’s Fire; The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, The Case Western Reserve University Baroque Orchestra, The Maple City Chamber Orchestra, and The Trinity Cathedral Orchestra. Her robust musical instruction began in high school, when she became the recipient of the Young Artist Scholarship at Oberlin.
Every June, Lynn teaches at the Mountainside Baroque Academy, which provides middle and high school students with the background that will enable them to understand how and why Baroque music was originally performed, and its relevance in the 21st century. As well as playing the baroque flute, Lynn also plays baroque and renaissance recorders, the renaissance flute, and sings predominantly renaissance repertoire.
Glenna Curren, baroque cello
Cellist and baroque cellist Glenna Curren has performed across the United States and five European countries as a recitalist, orchestral musician and continuo player. A native and current resident of Rochester, NY, she has been featured with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, at the Rochester Early Music Festival, and live on Public Radio.
Glenna's performance practice interests have taken her from the fourteenth through the nineteenth centuries; currently, she explores lesser-known works of the Renaissance with her small chamber ensemble, Ogni Sorti, and is a founding member of Upstate New York’s only Classical period orchestra, Ensemble Perihipsous, currently in its first season. Other recent projects include a series of performances of early romantic works for cello and fortepiano, Bach's unaccompanied cello suites, and extensive works of Michael Praetorius. As soprano, Glenna also performs with Rochester’s critically acclaimed performance practice vocal ensemble, the Christ Church Schola Cantorum.
A passionate teacher, Glenna maintains a large private studio and serves on the faculty of St. Peter’s Community Arts Academy. She has earned degrees in performance at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Eastman School of Music.
Aaron Grad, composer
Composer Aaron Grad merges his rock and jazz roots with his classical training to create music that The Washington Post has described as “inventive and notably attractive.” He majored in jazz guitar at New York University, and for his master’s degree at the Peabody Conservatory he studied composition with Christopher Theofanidis. While a student, Aaron won awards from the ASCAP Foundation in both their classical and jazz competitions. Recent commissions include arrangements for the North Carolina Symphony featuring vocalist Rhiannon Giddens, as well as Strange Seasons, a concerto for the Seattle Baroque Orchestra that pays tribute to Aaron’s adopted home city of Seattle. As a performer, his greatest joy is playing the electric theorbo that he designed and built himself, as heard in Old-Fashioned Love Songs, a song cycle with countertenor. Aaron also channels his enthusiasm for communicating with audiences into the program notes he writes for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony, Seattle Symphony and many other ensembles.
Jennifer Bullis, librettist
Jennifer Bullis is author of the poetry collection Impossible Lessons (MoonPath Press, 2013). Her book manuscript "Wild-Caught Gods," in which mythical and invented characters explore doubt, environmental crisis, and possibilities for redemption, was a finalist for the 2017 Moon City Poetry Award. Her book manuscript "The Tongue of Narcissus," in which Jennifer uses mythology, family history, and her experiences as a horseperson to engage the current political situation in psychological, esthetic, and ecological terms, was a finalist for the 2018 Brittingham & Felix Pollak Poetry Prizes. She is recipient of a 2019 Artsmith Artist Residency Fellowship, and her work has been published in Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Terrain.org, Water~Stone Review, Nasty Women Poets: An Unapologetic Anthology of Subversive Verse, and elsewhere. Originally from Reno, Nevada, she earned a Ph.D. in English at the University of California, Davis. She lives with her family in Bellingham, Washington, where she taught community-college writing and literature for 14 years.
Sarah Elizabeth Cranor
Violinist Sarah Elizabeth Cranor is passionate about the freedom of sonic possibilities found in both early and new music. Current collaborations include commissioning “Partita for Sarah” for solo baroque violin by Jake Gunnar Walsh, performances with Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Sun Sneeze new music in Dallas, and the Bloomington Bach Cantata Project. Recent engagements include the Berwick Academy at the Oregon Bach Festival, Junges Stuttgarter Bach Ensemble, Weimarer Bachkantaten-Akademie, Chatham Baroque, new music festival “fresh inc,” the Amherst Early Music Festival, and producing and performing “Strings for Kinshasa,” a benefit recital for the Kinshasa Symphony. Sarah is pursuing a Doctor of Music in historical performance with Stanley Ritchie at the IU Jacobs School of Music. When she doesn’t have a violin under her chin, she runs Sarah’s Violin Bags LLC where she makes silk instrument bags sold world-wide, and she enjoys whitewater kayaking and trout fishing with her husband, conductor Alejandro Gómez Guillén.
Reynaldo Patiño
Reynaldo Patiño, baroque violinist and violist, has performed recently with Mountainside Baroque (Cumberland, Md.), Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Bach Collegium - Ft. Wayne, and the Princeton Festival Baroque Orchestra.
He received his Bachelor of Music from Texas Tech University, M.M. from Indiana University, and is currently pursuing his D.M. in baroque violin with professor Stanley Ritchie at Indiana University.
Reynaldo was a charter member of Early Music America's Youth Advisory Board and has recently performed internationally in Beijing (‘Sound of Baroque Festival’) and Shanghai (Shanghai Camerata).
Jessica Korotkin
Early Music America’s scholarship recipient, Jessica Korotkin, is an innovative musician and outreach specialist. Jessica’s vision is to use music to create a strong element of community and connection between people. Jessica’s first solo debut was at the age of 18 when she was invited to play Glazunov’s “Chant Du Menestrel” with the Interlake Chamber Orchestra. In the past year, she won Peabody’s BBB concerto competition, and was invited to play the Vivaldi Double Cello Concerto with the Baltimore Baroque Band. Jessica has an array of experience in organizing community engagement musical events. She lead and facilitated an outreach concert series at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Hospital, Johns Hopkins Meyer Psychiatric Unit, and Sinai Cancer Treatment Institute. Jessica is currently a first year historical performance master’s student at the Oberlin Conservatory studying baroque cello and viola da gamba under the tutelage of Catharina Meints. She received a BM at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University studying cello with Amit Peled, and received minors in early music, and business of music.
Josefien Stoppelenburg
Called “ an astonishing singer’” by the Chicago Tribune, Dutch soprano Josefien Stoppelenburg, has performed as a soloist in the United States, Europe, Asia and South America and the Arab Emirates. In 2013, Stoppelenburg won the Chicago Oratorio Award, as well as a second place in the American Prize Opera Competition. She performed for Dutch King Willem Alexander in March 2014. She has appeared with Camerata Amsterdam, Radio Philharmonisch Orkest, Noord Nederlands Orkest, Haymarket Opera Company, Music of the Baroque, Boulder Bach Festival and the Arizona Bach Festival. She was be the soloist of a series of twenty Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s St. Matthew Passions with Camerata Amsterdam in the Spring 2016.
The ensemble Brothers and Sisters (vocal duo Charlotte and Josefien Stoppelenburg and piano duo and brothers Martijn and Stefan Blaak) recently appeared live on Radio 4, the Dutch classical radio station and just made their ensemble debut in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. As a vocal duo, Charlotte and Josefien have performed in nearly every Dutch concert hall.
Josefien’s second love is painting. She was the artist in Residence at the Evanston Art Center in 2014 and paints frequently on commission. See also www.josefienstoppelenburg.com and www.inspiration-paintings.com.
Phillip W. Serna
Phillip W. Serna performs on double bass with Midwestern orchestras as well as on viols with ensembles including Black Tulip, Harmonie, the Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, New Comma Baroque, the Newberry Consort of Viols, the Secret of the Muses, the Spirit of Gambo, and many others. Phillip has appeared on Chicago’s 98.7FM WFMT, Wisconsin Public Radio, Milwaukee Public Radio and WUIS NPR and can be heard on CD releases from Clarion, Cedille, Soundbyte and Varèse Sarabande Records.
Holding Masters and Doctoral degrees from Northwestern University, Phillip teaches double bass and viola da gamba at Valparaiso University, double bass at North Central College, viola da gamba and viol consort at the Music Institute of Chicago, and is assistant director and sponsor of viol consorts and Illinois' first public-school period-instrument Baroque ensemble and viol consort at Adlai E. Stevenson High School, and is music director of the Early Music outreach program Viols in Our Schools - which earned him Early Music America’s Outreach Award for 2010 and their Early Music Month prize for 2016.
Anna Steinhoff
Anna Steinhoff, cellist, has been described by critics as “soulful,” and “the rhythmic heart of the ensemble.” Based out of Chicago, Anna specializes in period instruments such as the baroque cello and viola da gamba. She is a member of Second City Musick and the Haymarket Opera Company, and was the principal cellist of Chicago’s baroque orchestra, Baroque Band, until the end of its run in 2016. Anna performs with early music ensembles across the Midwest such as the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Newberry Consort, Callipygian Players, Music of the Baroque, and Madison Bach Musicians. During the summers, Anna has the pleasure of being a part of the Staunton Music Festival and the Princeton Festival Baroque Orchestra, as has taught at the Madison Early Music Festival.
Anna is also a founding member of Wayward Sisters, which won first prize in the 2011 Early Music America competition. Wayward Sisters released their debut album of music by Matthew Locke on the Naxos label in 2014 and are releasing their second recording, a Restless Heart, in 2017.
In addition to classical music, Anna has performed or recorded with an array of indie rock bands such as Saturday Looks Good To Me, Frisbie, Mysteries of Life, and children’s artist Justin Roberts.
Anna completed degrees in cello performance from the Oberlin Conservatory and Northwestern University where her principal teachers were Peter Rejto and Hans Jensen respectively. She has studied baroque cello privately in the Netherlands with Jaap ter Linden.