Notes on the Program
Rarely lost to the publishing industry of the 18th century was the business-potential of a good tune. To them, a musical hit was far too valuable to serve a composer’s original purpose alone. So opera tunes, whole sections of popular cantatas, and even bar songs were recycled with new lyrics and purposes ranging from religious edification to vaudeville satire. Such recycling happened a lot. And a lot of copies were sold.
The technical term for these re-creations is contrafacta, Latin for counterfeit. In 1730’s France, where contrafacta sold especially well, one collection that enjoyed numerous editions with numerous added volumes was Nouvelles poésies spirituelles et morales sur les plus beaux airs de la musique françoise et italienne avec la basse (New spiritual and moral poems on the most beautiful tunes of French and Italian music with the bass). In this collection, new, “counterfeit” spiritual and moral texts were set to well-known tunes of French composers no less than Lully, Campra, Clerambault, Marais, Lambert, Couperin, and Desmarest. In some cases, just a few words were changed from original–from praising Bacchus to praising God, for example. In other cases, an entire, original poem was inserted, such as in “Follies of Youth” which was set to a harpsichord tune of Couperin.
The business of contrafacta had been booming for over a century, due in no small part to the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Both Luther and the counter-reformationists understood music’s inherent power, and passionately recommended home-teaching and worship through family singing. And that meant the purchase of at least one hymn book per family.
But it wasn’t just religion that created the boom for spiritual/moral contrafacta. By the start of the Enlightenment, a new middle-class had begun to sprout, and some found themselves with money like they never had before. How would they spend it? Probably much as families of the 1960s spent their post-war wealth–buying appliances that earlier only the rich could afford, taking vacations like the wealthy took, and indulging in entertainments at a level, as the historian Hobsbawm writes, “previously enjoyed only by emperors.” The middle class of 1730’s France sought to imitate the wealthy in much the same way.
Scholar John Romey observes that members of the new middle class performed instrumental music in their homes just like the rich did. And they welcomed new access to engineering socially-upward marriages for their daughters. Just like daughters of the wealthy, daughters of the middle class wanted to learn an instrument, learn to sing, and to know how to behave respectably in social settings. To potential mates, these skills signaled intelligence, education, self-control, and balanced humors. For just a few francs, publications such as Nouvelles poésies spirituelles et morales could help these young women in their quest. In the indices of Nouvelles poésies, written in red ink, were titles of particular “moral” songs that would be appropriate if a young woman might be asked to sing at a social event. “Moral” did not mean just do-gooder, however. It indicated awareness of human nature and human ends.
Four years after its first edition, a copyist identified only by the initials C.D. and thought to have been a young woman, hand-copied four entire volumes of Nouvelles poésies spirituelles et morales–all 294 songs, including preface, four indices, along with original artwork—into a single, massive tome. The music was written in black ink, texts along with titles of moral party songs were in red, and the figured-bass nomenclature appeared in silver. The hand copying was completed in 1736, and what happened to the volumes over the next nearly two decades is unknown. Then in 1754, a certain Monsieur Nicollet gifted this same grand, beautiful, hand-copied manuscript to—of all places—the remote Ursuline convent established a quarter century earlier in the North American French territory of New Orleans. This convent is where tonight’s program begins.
First sent to New Orleans in 1727, Ursuline nuns had been invited by the French government to aid in the spiritual development of the nascent colony. The convent was established that same year in the heart of today’s French Quarter, followed by the first school for girls in the land, the first orphanage, and the city’s first hospital.
A few years prior, the government had cleared out Parisian prisons and brothels, orphanages and poor houses, sending hundreds of accused prostitutes and destitute girls to New Orleans as marraige prospects for single French men who had settled there. This effort was generally unsuccessful, and the government tried a different route, offering voluntary passage to marriagable girls chosen from respectable middle class families, a practice that continued for some years. These young women stepped off the ship carrying all their worldly possessions in small trunks, their casquettes. They were soon christened the “casket girls,” the name emerging from the confusion of the French word with the English word for coffin, and linked henceforth to a New Orleans vampire legend.
Over many decades, it was toward these women and girls—prostitutes, brides-to-be, unlikely-vampires—as well as Indigenous and enslaved African children in their care, that the Ursuline Sisters directed their calling to teach. Music and song formed a significant part of the teaching of faith, and certainly, part of the curriculum at the convent derived from opening the pages of the stunning music manuscript gifted to the nuns in 1754.
The genius of this volume is its potential to serve varied purposes. The preface of the Ursuline Manuscript indicates that all 294 songs can be performed by solo voice, usually a soprano, accompanied by harpsichord or bass viola da gamba. It suggests that a violin or German flute (traverso) can also be added. The songs in the collection are organized into four categories: Louanges de Dieu (Praise of God); Vices et Vertus (Vice and Virtue); Misteres de N.S. J.C. (Mysteries of Our Lord Jesus Christ), and Les IV fins de L’homme (The Four Ends of Mankind, traditionally “death, judgment, heaven, hell”).
A single nun might sit in the candlelight before dawn or late at night singing from Louanges de Dieu or Misteres or Les IV fins to edify tempted beliefs. Or in pain, she sings the vertus of “Prayer in Sickness.” Or all together the Sisters might sing the Lully duet about “fidelity to vocation.” They likely taught their pupils about the vices of vanity, boasting, and dangerous ambition, set to the tunes of Lully. And likely, once the nuns were gone, the young girls might have laughed, danced and pointed at one another while singing “Follies of Youth.” Or maybe, late one night, one of the nuns or one of the girls just plays a tune that she remembers from her childhood in France, the land to which she’ll never return.
Our hope is that this collection of music serves yet one more purpose: that we might grow in appreciation for the wealth that was brought to North America—by the enslaved Africans, by the Europeans, by the Asians, and as demonstrated in this beautiful manuscript, also the French who transmitted their culture so well with just the potential of a good tune.
~ Philip Spray
Texts & Translations
Louanges De Dieu
Grandeur de Dieu - Henri Desmarest (1661- 1741)
Récit: majestueuse
Loin d’icy profane mortels
Far from here, profane mortals,
Vous, dont la main impie a dressé des autels
You whose impious hands have set up altars
A des dieux impuissants que le crime a fait naître.
To impotent gods engendered by crime!
Qu’aux accents de ma voix tout tremble en l’univers.
Let all things in the universe tremble at the sound of my voice.
Cieux, enfers, terre, mers,
Heaven, hell, earth, sea,
C’est notre auguste maître que je vais chanter dans mes vers.
It is our august master that I shall praise in my verse.
Récit: on éternale
Il est et par lui seul tout être a pris naissance
He is, and by him above, all beings were born
Le néant existe a sa voix:
Oblivion exists at his command:
la nature et les temps agissent par ses loix:
Nature and time act according to his laws;
Tout adore en tremblant sa suprême puissance,
Trembling, all things adore his supreme might.
Invisible et présent on le trouve en tous lieux
Invisible yet present is he in all places:
Il remplit la terre et les cieux
The hills, heaven, and earth with his presence.
Par luy tout se meut, tout respire:
By him all things move and breathe:
Sa durée est l’éternité
He endures in eternity,
Et les bornes de son empire
And the limits of his power
Sont celles de l’immensité.
Are those of immensity.
Air (instrumental) Sa Providence, son immutabilité
Récit: Sa justice
Tu parles et ta voix Enfante le tonnerre:
You speak and your voice gives birth to thunder:
Les anges tombent a tes pieds,
The angels fall at your feet,
Les superbes vancûs,les Rois humiliés
The proud, vanquished, kings humiliated
Rentrent dans le sein de la terre.
Enter the earth’s bosom.
Pour te venger et nous punir,
To avenge you and to punish us,
Tous les éléments vont s’unir,
All the elements will unite,
La mer ouvre ses flôts la terre ses abimes.
The sea opens its yawning billows, the earth its abysses,
L’airs’allume, le feu devore les mortels,
The fire blazes, its fire devours mortals,
Et l’horrible trepas de tant de criminels
And the horrible death of so many criminals
Ne fait qu’eterniser leur tourments et leurs crimes.
Only serves to prolong their torments and their crimes.
Chaconne
Qu’êtes-vous devenus
What has become of you,
Orgueilleux souverains,
Proud sovereigns,
De cent peoples divers,
The living destinies
Vivantes destinées?
of a hundred diverse peoples?
Comment ont disparu
How have they vanished away,
Ces brillantes années,
Those dazzling years
Où les jours des mortels,
When the destiny of mortals
Etaient mis dans vos mains?
Was placed in your hands?
Honneurs, faste, grandeurs,
Honors, splendor, grandeur,
Vains fantômes de gloire,
Vain phantoms of glory:
A peine un reste de mémoire,
Scarcely a remnant of memory
Aux portes du néant prolonge votre sort.
Prolongs your fate at the gates of oblivion,
Le vérité parait,
Truth appears,
Les ombres dissipées ne laissent voir
Dispersing the shadows
A vos âmes trompées,
And letting your deceived souls see
Que l’horreur, L’enfer, et la mort.
Nothing but horror, hell and death.
Airs from Vices and Vertus
La Vanité - Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687)
Si le paon a pour partage,
If the peacock’s share is
La grandeur et la beauté
Grandeur and beauty
Le Rossignol a pour lui le ramage
The Nightingale has the better song
Et par dessus il est sans vanité
and above all, he is without vanity.
Le premier est magnifique
The first is magnificent,
par l’éclair de ses couleurs
with the brilliance of its colors,
Mais c’est de tous le plus sot en musique
but it is in Music the most foolish of all
et l’on ne peut supporter ses hauteurs
and one cannot bear its lofty heights.
Le second quoi qu’il enchante
The second, though it enchants
par le charme de ses sons
with the charm of its tones,
ne vous fait point une montre arrogante
does not make an arrogant display
du merveilleux de ses belles chansons
of the marvel of its beautiful songs.
Le Faste - Lully
Ce superbe Étalage, que le monde applaudit,
This superb display, which the world applauds,
A beau citer L’usage quand le ciel le maudit
may well invoke custom when heavens condems it;
L’on veut et L’on se trompe, que l’abus ait prescrit,
We wish and we are mistaken, thinking the abuse has passed
En faveur de la pompe quand le ciel la proscrit.
in favor of pomp when heaven forbids it.
Ce superbe étalage que le monde applaudit
This superb display that the world applauds
a beau citer l’usage quand le ciel le maudit.
may well cite custom when heaven curses it.,
On dit le monde entraîne et le coeur et l’esprit:
They say the world leads both heart and mind:
Que cette excuse est vaine!
What for a vain excuse!
La raison même en rit.
Reason itself laughs at it.
Ambition dangereuse - Lully
Le vent fait aller la chaloupe,
The wind pushes the jolly-boat
ainsi la faveur est un vent
thus, good fortune is a gust of wind
Tout cède devant lorsque l’air presse à la poupe,
Everything yields ahead when the wind pushes at the stern;
Tout cède devant, on va toujours en avant
Everything yields ahead, one must ever press forth
mais elle ne peut sans pilote
But she cannot, without a pilot,
Sauver des écueils le vaisseau
Save the ship from the reefs;
par elle en pleine eau
by her in open water,
le courtisan vogue et flotte,
the courtesan sails and floats,
par elle en pleine eau
by her in open water,
il vole comme l’oiseau.
he flies like a bird.
La mer en naufrage féconde
The sea, fertile with shipwrecks
peut-être l’est moins que la cour
perhaps less so than the court;
quelqu’un chaque jour
someone each day
est submergé dans cette onde
is submerged in its waves;
quelqu’un chaque jour s’y voit noyé sans retour.
someone each day is drowned there with no chance of return.
Duet: Fidelité á la vocation - Lully
Quelle voix se fait entendre, dans le secret de mon coeur?
What voice is heard, in the secret of my heart?
C’est mon créateur: ah ! puis-je m’en défendre,
It is my Creator: ah! How could I ignore it?
Parlez, parlez, je suis prêt à me rendre
Speak, speak, I am ready to surrender.
Parlez, dieu jaloux d’un coeur formé pour vous
Speak, God, jealous of a heart formed for you.
Mon sort sera doux
My fate will be sweet.
De vos lois qu’il est doux de dépendre,
How sweet it is to depend on your laws.
Parlez je suis prêt à me rendre
Speak! I am ready to surrender
Parlez, Dieu jaloux d’un coeur formé pour vous.
Speak, God, jealous of a heart formed for you.
L’avenir- André Campra (1660-1744)
Récit vivement: Attentif
Attentif à ma voix, écoute moi prédire
Listen attentively to my voice, hear me as I predict
Ce que dans l’avenir l’esprit saint me fait lire.
What the Holy Spirit will have me read.
Danse (instrumental)
Récit
Et vous, et vos sagesses mortelles
And you, and your mortal wisdom
Qui servez le Seigneur,
who serve the Lord,
Venez et connaissez quel est votre bonheur,
Come and discover what your happiness is;
Rien n’est plus doux que l’espérance
Nothing is sweeter than the hope
Qui vous doit soutenir
that owes you support;
De vos légers travaux, le Salaire est immense:
For your light workload, the reward is immense:
Je l’aperçois dans l’avenir.
I behold it in the times ahead.
Air: dans legerement italien
Voyez la gloire éblouissante,
Behold the dazzling glory,
Où règnent l’amour et la paix:
Where love and peace reign:
A sa lumière ravissante contemplez les plus deux objets
In its ravishing light, contemplate the fairest sights
sans vouloir tromper votre attente
And, without letting your hopes waver,
c’est le sort que je vous promets:
Embrace the destiny I offer you:
Avec la troupe triomphante,
With the triumphant host,
Vous triompherez à jamais;
You shall triumph forever;
Voies la gloire éblouissante
Behold the dazzling glory,
où règnent l’amour et la paix
Where love and peace reign.
Air: Prière dans la Maladie - Jean-Baptiste Drouart de Bousset (1662-1725)
Grand dieu tes châtiments
Great God, your punishments
sont remplis d’équité:
are filled with justice:
sans murmurer, je les adore
without murmuring, I adore them,
dans les cris, dans les pleurs, sans cesse tourmenté,
in cries, in tears, ceaselessly tormented,
nuit et jour un feu me dévore
night and day, a fire devours me.
grand dieu tes châtiments
Great God, your punishments
sont remplis d’équité:
are filled with justice:
sans murmurer, je les adore.
without murmuring, I adore them.
Ah! mes péchés ont mérité
Ah! my sins have deserved
De plus grands maux encore,
Even greater troubles,
et ce sont mes péchés
and it is my sins
qu’ici mon coeur déplore.
that here my heart laments.
Les IV fins de L’homme
La Mort - Nicolas Clerambault (1676-1749)
Récit
Près de ces marbres qu’on révère
Near these marble statues that are revered,
Où nous voyons régner la Mort
Where we see Death enthroned
de notre triste sort,
Let us reflect
Méditons, pleurons la misère.
and cry for the misery of our sad fate.
Air lentement
Funèbres objets de ces lieux
Somber objects of these dwellings,
tombeaux ouvrez-vous à mes yeux
Tombstones, open up to my eyes
Laissez-moi contempler cette horreur si profonde,
Let me contemplate such profound horror
Où vont s’anéantir les vanités du monde.
Where the vanities of the world go to vanish away.
Doucement
Que dévient l’éclat orgueilleux
What becomes of the proud splendor
Dans votre séjour ténébreux ?
In your shadowy abode?
Ah ! que devient une idole mortelle ?
Ah! What becomes of a mortal idol?
Ce n’est plus qu’une ombre éternelle
It is now nothing but an eternal umbra
Qu’un fantôme, qu’un spectre affreux.
A phantom, a dreadful specter.
La Solitude - Marin Marais (1656-1728)
Agréable solitude
Pleasant solitude
Vous ferez tous me plaisirs
You shall be all my delight
Par le charme de l’étude
Through the charms of contemplation
Vous suspendez mes soupirs
You dismiss my signs.
Vous calmez l’inquiétude,
You calm the worry
Des plus tristes souvenirs ;
Of the saddest memories;
Agréable solitude,
Pleasant solitude
Vous ferez tous mes plaisirs
You shall be all my delight
A vos doux loisirs,
To the gentle leisure you afford
Je borne mes désirs,
I mark off my desires
Agréable solitude
Pleasant solitude
Vous ferez tous mes plaisirs
You shall be all my delight.
Amour de la Sagesse (instrumental) - Nicolas Clerambault
Misteres de notre Seigneur J.C.
Air: Dans ces bas lieux - Thomas-Louis Bourgeois (1676-1750)
Dans ces bas lieux les noires ombres
In these lowly scenes, the dark shadows
avaient régné jusqu’à ce jour
Had reigned until this day;
pour dissiper les voiles sombres
To dispel the somber veils,
Un dieu descend dans ce séjour
A God descends into these dwellings
D’un peuple assis dans les ténèbres
Of a people sitting in darkness
Le seigneur vient changer le sort
The Lord comes to change the fate
Disparaissez objets funèbres
Depart at once, deadly objects
Dissipe-toi, nuit de la mort
Vanish away, deadly night
Musette:Bergers reprenéz vos musettes - Nicolas Clerambault
Bergers, reprenez vos musettes
Shepherds, pick up your musettes
Elevez vos sons dans les airs
raise your songs in the air
Célébrez de nouvelles fêtes
Celebrate with new festivities
Jésus revient triomphant des enfers
Jesus has triumphantly returned from Hell
Quand il vint naître dans le monde
When he was born to this world
Tour retentit de vos concerts
Your music echoed all around
Montrez une ardeur qui réponde
Make show of a keenness that echoes
A l’ardeur de vos premiers airs
the flame of your first songs.
from Vices and Vertus
Folies de la Jeunesse - François Couperin (1668-1733)
La jeunesse rebelle à la sagesse,
Youth, rebellious against wisdom,
Ne forme des désirs que pour les vains plaisirs ;
Shaped by desires solely for fleeting pleasures;
La jeunesse dans une folle ivresse,
Youth, in a state of wild intoxication
Source de mille maux prend les jours les plus beaux
source of a thousand ills enjoys the fairest days.
Une vie qu’on ne voit remplie,
A life perceived only as filled
Que de jeux amusants et dangereux,
With nothing but amusing yet dangerous games,
N’est qu’une folie qui ne peut être suivie
Is nothing but folly, destined to be followed
Que d’un noir chagrin et d’un malheur sans fin
Only by dark sorrow and endless sadness.
Tout enchante, l’on vit, on danse
Everything is enchanting: one lives, one dances,
On chante qu’en revient-il après
One sings, but what remains once it is finished?
Repentirs, soucis regrets,
Repentance, bitter regrets,
Douleurs, et pleurs cris soupirs,
Pains, tears, cries, and sighs;
Remords frayeur quand le temps
Remorse and dread, when time,
Qui fuit toujours vient finir son cours
Forever fleeting, finally runs its course.
Air italien:Amour de La Sagesse - André Campra
Pour l’aimable Sagesse,
For gentle Wisdom,
pour ses charmants attraits
For its charming allure,
Ma voix toujours chanta
My voice always sang
Ma voix toujours chanta
My voice always sang.
Sa douceur m’invita
Its sweetness invited me
Sa beauté m’enchanta
Its beauty enchanted me
Me remplit d’allégresse et me transporta.
Filled me with joy and elation.
Chaconne: La Sagesse- Jean-Baptiste Lully
Ah! Loin de toi divine sagesse,
Ah! Far from you, divine wisdom,
Mes plus beaux jours ne sont
My most beautiful days are
Que des jours malheureux
But unhappy days
Non ce n’est que tristesse,
No, it is only sadness,
Sans cesse, ce n’est que tristesse.
unendingly, it is only sadness.
Tour est contraire à mes voeux
Everything contradicts my wishes
Sous tes lois j’étais content,
Under your laws I was content,
Mon repos était toujours constant.
My peace was always constant.
J’étais heureux chaque instant
I was happy every moment.
Reviens dans mon coeur
Return to my heart,
Rends-moi la douceur
restore the gentleness
De mon premier bonheur.
Of my first happiness.
Reviens dans mon coeur
Return to my heart
Rends-moi la douceur
Give me once more the sweetness
Que je goûtais avant mon erreur.
I tasted before my mistake.
ne me quitte plus désormais
Never leave me again
Je ne veux plus aimer que tes attraits,
I want to love only your charms,
Ne me quitte plus désormais
Never leave me again
je te serai fidèle à jamais.
I will be faithful to you forever.
Translations by Nathalie Colas
except Grandeur de Dieu, translated by Charles Johnston
Artist Bios
Praised for her “natural warmth” (LA Times) and “clear, beautiful tone” (NY Times), Canadian-American soprano Molly Netter can be heard on six GRAMMY-nominated albums since 2017. Recent solo debuts include the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Julia Wolfe’s “Steel Hammer” at Carnegie Hall, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Kitchener-Waterloo symphony, and gallant music from “the New Spain” with Camerata Antonio Soler in Madrid. Netter has also performed as soloist with the Boston Early Music Festival, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, the New World Symphony, and on tour in Japan, Singapore, and Myanmar under Masaaki Suzuki. The 2025-26 season includes Bach’s B Minor Mass with the San Antonio Philharmonic, Mozart’s Requiem and Schubert's Mass in G with the Bach Society of St. Louis, “The Secret Garden” with Voices of Music, Praetorius’s Christmas Vespers with Apollo’s Fire, David Lang’s Oscar-nominated ‘simple song #3’ with Vicky Chow from Bang on a Can, solo programs with Parthenia Viols in NYC and Alychmy Viols in Indianapolis, and Bellezza in Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno and Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Staunton Music Festival in VA. Molly holds a BM in music composition from Oberlin Conservatory and an MM in early music voice from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. She currently teaches on the voice faculty at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute.
Hailed for her “floating, silky soprano” and deemed “a standout in acting and voice” as well as “luminous” and “hypnotic,” soprano Nathalie Colas has been a featured soloist with Haymarket Opera Company, Operetta Ardez, Chicago Choral Artists, Incantare, Alchymy Viols, Indianapolis Baroque, The Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest, Fonema Consort, Cappella Romana, Music of the Baroque, Chamber Music on the Fox, Newberry Consort, Madison Bach Players and more. An enthusiastic choral musician, Natalie participates regularly in Chicago’s rich choral culture, including with Grant Park Music Festival, Chicago Symphony Chorus, Bella Voce, Eco Voice Project, and the New Earth Ensemble. A dedicated educator, she teaches applied Voice and lyric diction at Concordia University Chicago as well as at Triton College. She is a regular guest artist at colleges across the Midwest to coach voice students on French Mélodie, and she maintains an active French lyric diction coaching studio. Nathalie was born and raised in Strasbourg, France. She enjoys sewing, cooking and gardening with her husband, composer David Grant, as well as building Lego sets with her son, Leonard.
SophiaDuray is equally dedicated to teaching and performing. An active soloist and ensemble musician from Indianapolis, Indiana, Sophia performs with such organizations as Apollo’s Fire, Leipzig Baroque Orchestra, Valparaiso University Bach Institute, and the Indianapolis Early Music Festival. Sophia holds a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from Valparaiso University and is currently completing a Master of Arts in Historical Performance Practice and Voice at Case Western Reserve University. She plans to move to Chicago to pursue performance and teaching full time, in collaborations with Bella Voce ensemble, the William Ferris Chorale, Sphere Born, and Cut Circle. Sophia also specializes in performing Baroque dance choreographies written in Feuillet-Beauchamp notation, and plans on incorporating more dances in future programs throughout the United States.
Thomas Gerber is a founding member of the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, ensemble-in-residence at the Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center at the University of Indianapolis. In 1987, he was a founder of the early music chamber group Ensemble Ouabache, which in 2004 morphed into Ensemble Voltaire. Gerber is Keyboardist of the period-instrument ensembles Alchymy Viols and Echoing Air, Gerber also appears with Catacoustic Consort, Callipygian Players, Ars Antiqua Chicago, Musik Ekklesia, Pills to Purge Melancholy, Haydn by the Lake, Bourbon Baroque, and Anaphantasia, among other bands. He is the harpsichordist of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, and has participated for the past 15 years as continuo player in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s annual Messiah. Gerber serves as harpsichord teacher at Butler University’s Jordan College of Fine Arts, where he formerly served as a collaborative keyboard player and teacher of music history and graduate review. He was professor of music history and humanities at Marian University, as well as of music history and early music at the University of Indianapolis. Gerber holds degrees from Indiana University, Ball State University, and Hillsdale College, where his teachers included Fernando Valenti, Anthony Newman, and Elisabeth Wright. Summers have found him studying and performing at such places as the Aspen Music Festival, the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute, the Chautauqua Institution, the Ardingly International Music School (UK), and the Accademia Internacional del Verano (Mallorca). Gerber is currently vice president of the Board of Directors of IndyBaroque Music, Inc. He can be heard on the Naxos, Dorian, Concordia, Indy Barock, Catalpa Classics, and Navona records labels.
Brian Kay is a modern-day troubadour. He is the Artistic Director of the early music meets early theater group THEATRO, overseeing their international recording of music from the plays of William Shakespeare, and he won a GRAMMY® Award for his work on Apollo's Fire's Songs of Orpheus album. A recording artist for the Netflix music lab, Kay is a featured soloist on the soundtrack of their original series The Witcher and The Decameron. He also created arrangements of Russian folk songs for Guillermo del Toro’s 2025 film Frankenstein. He has performed throughout the world at venues such as the National Concert Hall of Dublin, Belfast Castle (Ireland), Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Folger Theater. His live radio appearances include NPR, Baltimore's WYPR, Baltimore's 98ROCK, Boston's WGBH, and Cleveland's WCLV. A multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, arranger, and a traditional and historical music specialist, Kay has recorded with labels Avie and Sono Luminus and has appeared on releases which include original, early music, folk, traditional Sephardic, chamber and orchestral music.
Joanna Blendulf is professor of music in baroque cello/viola da gamba at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Currently co-principal cellist and principal viola da gamba player of the Portland Baroque Orchestra, she has also performed as principal cellist of Pacific MusicWorks, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra, and the New York Collegium. She was a principal cellist of the New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas and has performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra. Blendulf appears regularly on major concert series and numerous recordings with her chamber groups, the Ensemble Electra, Ensemble Mirable, Music of the Spheres, Nota Bene Viol Consort, and Wildcat Viols. She is a frequent guest viol player with the Catacoustic Consort and Parthenia, and has collaborated with acclaimed artists Monica Huggett, Stephen Stubbs, Matthias Maute, Bruce Dickey, and Joan Jeanrenaud. Blendulf’s world-premiere recording of the complete cello sonatas of Jean Zewalt Triemer with Ensemble Mirable was released in 2004. Her festival engagements have included Tage Alter Musik Regenburg, Musica Antigua en Villa de Leyva in Colombia, the Bloomington, Boston, and Berkeley early music festivals, the Ojai Music Festival, and the Carmel and Oregon Bach Festivals. Sought after as a teacher and chamber music coach, Blendulf has served as a classroom and private instructor at the University of Oregon and the Berwick Academy. An active member of the Viola da gamba Society of America, she teaches regularly at the annual Conclave, Viols West, and Young Players Weekend, and has served as a national Circuit Rider teacher. She holds performance degrees with honors from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Jacobs School of Music.
Ingrid Matthews is professor of practice in historical performance, baroque violin at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. A graduate of IU, where she studied with Josef Gingold and Stanley Ritchie, Matthews is one of today’s most respected baroque violinists. Since winning first prize in the Erwin Bodky International Competition for Early Music in 1989, Matthews has appeared as soloist, guest director, chamber musician, and concertmaster with leading early music ensembles including the New York Collegium, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Ars Lyrica (Houston), Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (Toronto), Musica Pacifica (San Francisco), and many others. Matthews cofounded the Seattle Baroque Orchestra in 1994 and served as its music director until 2013. She has earned high critical acclaim for her extensive discography, including her recording J. S. Bach: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Violin, which was named “top recommendation for this music ... on either period or modern instruments” by American Record Guide.
Leighann Daihl Ragusa, historical flutist, has concertized throughout central Europe as well as the United States both as a soloist and as a collaborator of chamber and orchestral music. Her playing has been regarded as “invigoratingly fresh and perky” (Backtrack) as well as “some of the most spirited, stylish, and nuanced playing” (Chicago Classical Review). Leighann regularly performs with numerous period instrument ensembles throughout the United States and since Spring 2023, she has been the Managing Director of the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra. A passionate teacher, Leighann has presented masterclasses and workshops throughout the country including her acclaimed “Bach to the Future: bringing music to life through ornamentation,” an interactive class which allows students to learn about ornamentation and how to develop an ornamental language. Leighann holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Flute Performance from DePauw University, where she studied flute with Anne Reynolds, and a Bachelor of Music degree in Historical Flute Performance from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where she studied with Wilbert Hazelzet. Additionally, she holds Master of Music degrees in Flute and Historical Flute Performance from Indiana University. Leighann was also the recipient of the prestigious Netherland-American Fulbright grant.
Philip Spray, artistic director and founder of Alchymy Viols, performs, records and consults with period instrument ensembles and publishers across the country. He co-founded the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra under Barthold Kuijken and later Musik Ekklesia whose first recording, The Vanishing Nordic Chorale, was part of a 2011 Grammy nomination for Best Classical Producer. He has long maintained interest in writing, composing, teaching, and arranging. His discography includes recordings on Dorian, Naxos, SFM, Concordia, and most recently with Michael Walker on Navona/PARMA mixing traditional spirituals with period instruments.