Cascata early music ensemble

Rachel Cama performs professionally on viola da gamba and baroque cello throughout the Midwest and on the East Coast. Active as a soloist and continuo player, Rachel has collaborated with a variety of chamber ensembles including Long & Away, Music for a While and The Sprightly Companions. Increasingly in demand as a teacher, Rachel has instructed viola da gamba at workshops in New England, Toronto, at the Amherst Early Music Festival, at Brandeis University and at Case Western Reserve University. Rachel was the winner of a Young Artist Grant-in-Aid from the Viola da Gamba Society of America and has been awarded several scholarships for both her performing talents and academic writing in early music. She completed both a Master's degree in Musicology at Brandeis University and a Graduate Performance Diploma in Early Music at the Longy School of Music. Rachel is currently a staff writer for Yoga International, a yoga and holistic living magazine. She is also a certified yoga instructor and seeks to draw on Eastern practices for body and mind to enrich her teaching and performing of early music.

A native of Ontario, Canada, Peter Lekx performs internationally on period violin and viola as well as medieval strings. In addition to Cascata, he has performed with the early music ensembles Cambridge Concentus, Concerts Doux, Music for a While, Quicksilver, Rossignol, and has appeared with Baroque & Beyond: North Carolina, and on the Allegro: Baroque & Beyond series in Spokane, Washington. Known also for his exciting interpretations of contemporary music on viola, he has premiered numerous compositions and performed in small chamber ensembles and orchestras throughout the Midwest and New England. Peter received a Bachelor of Music from Wilfrid Laurier University and a Master of Music from Pennsylvania State University. More recently, he completed a Performance Diploma at Boston University, where he studied viola with Michelle LaCourse and baroque violin/viola with Jane Starkman.

A laureate of the 2007 Mae & Irving Jurow International Harpsichord Competition and the 2007 Montréal Baroque Galaxie-CBC Rising Star Competition, Sonia Lee performs in the Americas, Europe, and Asia on harpsichord, fortepiano, clavichord, and organ. Praised by critics for her "very high standard of playing" and her ability "to dazzle an enraptured audience," she has been a soloist at the Boston Early Music Festival Fringe Concerts, the Early Music Colorado Fall Festival, Rome Festival, and the Early Keyboard Music Cycle of Buenos Aires. A skilled continuo player, she has collaborated with the Chamber Music Players, Concerto Urbano, La Donna Musicale, Amor Musicae, and La Réunion Musicale and can be heard on Mark Records, Fairy and the Syntagma label. Sonia has performed works by award-winning contemporary composers such as Dagmar Feyen, James Dorsa, Asako Hirabayashi, and Luis Mucillo. She studied historical keyboards and musicologyy at McGill University and at the University of Illinois. Currently, she is a visiting music faculty member at Illinois Wesleyan University.

2009-2010 Season Performers

Mezzo-soprano Mary Gerbi appears frequently on New England stages as a soloist, chamber musician, and ensemble member, singing everything from chant to new music premieres. Recently, she toured with Liber unUsualis, performing medieval and Renaissance Christmas music in Texas, England, and The Netherlands. With the quartet Boston Cantoris, she was chosen to perform in the Egida Sartori and Laura Alvini Early Music Seminars under the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, Italy this past May. Mary can be heard with Boston Secession on their albums Afterlife and Surprised By Beauty, and with the Handel and Haydn Society on their album All Is Bright. She has also sung with Boston Baroque, Emmanuel Music, Choir of the Church of the Advent, Philovox, Exsultemus, and Schola Cantorum of Boston. She is a founding member and manager of the renaissance octet Cut Circle, which will release a recording later this year. Mary earned her Bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance from Boston University.

Dieter Hennings, a native of Mexico, is one of the few concert artists devoted both to early music for plucked strings and new music for guitar. Dieter was part of the modern premieres of Cavalli’s Apollo and Daphne and La virtù de’stralli d’Amore, both directed by Paul O’Dette. Recent concert engagements include appearances at Milan’s Spazio Tadini, the Arizona Early Music Society, and the Rochester Early Music Society. On guitar, Dieter has been a soloist with numerous ensembles, and has won several prestigious competitions, most recently the Aaron Brock Memorial International Guitar Competition held at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory. Recording projects include pieces by Silvius Leopold Weiss for baroque lute and the guitar works of Mexican composers Juan Trigos and Hebert Vazquez. Dieter completed a Doctor of Musical Arts in both Guitar Performance and Early Plucked Instruments at the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Paul O’Dette.

Violinist David McCormick performs regularly on both baroque and modern violin. In 2008, he made his professional solo debut, performing "Autumn" from Vivaldi's Four Seasons with Prince William Baroque. In addition to Cascata, David performs with the Cavalier Consort and the Baltimore Baroque Band. He has recently given solo and chamber music recitals on baroque violin in Williamsburg, Virginia and Birmingham, Alabama and has also performed alongside recorder virtuoso Eva Legene as part of the Bach-Handel Festival in Winchester, Virginia. David graduated from the Artist Diploma in Quartet Studies program at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Virginia. As a member of the Viandante Quartet, he was awarded top honors in the Virginia Music Teachers Association chamber music competition. Currently, David is working toward a Master of Arts in Early Music Performance at Case Western Reserve University where he studies baroque violin with Julie Andrijeski and serves as concertmaster of the Case/CIM Baroque Orchestra.

Soprano Brenna Wells has been praised by the New York Times for her “star turn” as a soloist. She has performed a wide range of operatic roles including Galatea in Acis and Galatea, La Poesie in Les Arts Florissants, Venus in L’Europe Galante, and the lead role of Christian Woman in a world premiere opera The Prioress’s Tale. In 2005, she made her Carnegie Weill Hall Debut as a winner of the International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition. She has sung with such acclaimed ensembles as Vox Consort, Seraphic Fire, Britten-Pears Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, Boston Baroque, Handel and Haydn Society, the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, and can be heard as Nymphe de l’Acheron on the BEMF, Grammy nominated recording of Lully’s Psyche. In 2008, Brenna was chosen to perform in the Egida Sartori and Laura Alvini Early Music Seminars under the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, Italy and was honored with this fellowship again in 2009. Brenna holds a Post-Graduate Diploma from the Royal College of Music in London.

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