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Arthur Haas:

Arthur Haas is one of the most sought after performers and teachers of Baroque music in the United States today. He received the top prize in the Paris International Harpsichord Competition in 1975 and then stayed in France for a number of years as an active member of the growing European early music scene. He is a member of the Aulos Ensemble, one of America’s premier period instrument ensembles whose recordings of Bach, Vivaldi, and Rameau have won critical acclaim in the press, as well as Empire Viols, and Aula Harmoniæ. His solo CDs include the Pièces de Clavecin of Jean-Henry D’Anglebert, Suites de Clavecin of Forqueray, music by Purcell and his contemporaries, and a recently released recording of Pièces de Clavecin of Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre and François Couperin. Annual summer workshop and festival appearances include the International Baroque Institute at Longy, and the Amherst Early Music Festival, where he has served as artistic director of the Baroque Academy since 2002. Mr. Haas is professor of harpsichord and early music at Stony Brook University, and is also on the faculty at the Mannes College of Music, as well as Juilliard’s new historical performance program.

Charlotte Mattax Moersch:

Since capturing First and Third Prizes at the International Harpsichord Competitions in Paris and Bruges, in both solo harpsichord and basso continuo performance, Charlotte Mattax Moersch has performed at major venues in the United States and Europe, including New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Royal Albert Hall, Salzburg’s Mozarteum, and Oxford’s historic Sheldonian Theatre, among others.  As a guest artist, she has been heard at international music festivals, including the Festival of the Associazione Musicale Romana, Tage alter musik Regensburg, the Saratoga Festival, the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, and the Bethlehem Bach Festival.  As a chamber musician, she has performed with New York’s Grande Bande as well as San Francisco’s American Baroque, and has toured Europe with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

The recipient of several important awards and prizes, she was honored with a Solo Recitalist Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Woolley Scholarship for study in Paris. A specialist in 17th-century French music, she is the author of the book, Accompaniment on Theorbo and Harpsichord:  Denis Delair’s Traité of 1690, published by Indiana University Press.  Her solo recordings include toccatas and partitas of J.S. Bach (Koch International Classics) and the harpsichord sonatas of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (Centaur). She recently recorded the Pièces de clavecin of Armand-Louis Couperin for Centaur Records, and the harpsichord suites of Charles Noblet and Pierre Février, also for Centaur.  In addition, she recorded selected works of Bach and Vivaldi for Analekta and Baroque chamber music of Bach, Telemann and others for Dorian Recordings, Newport Classic, and Amon Ra Records.

Currently Professor of Harpsichord at the University of Illinois, Charlotte Mattax Moersch studied harpsichord with Kenneth Gilbert, Gustav Leonhardt, Bob van Asperen, and Albert Fuller, and has degrees from Yale and Stanford Universities, and the Juilliard School of Music.  

Davitt Moroney:

Davitt Moroney was born in England in 1950. After studies at King’s College (University of London), he completed the Master’s program in musicology with a thesis on Italian music for the Roman Counter-Reformation: "Giovanni Animuccia, Missarum Liber Primus" (1972). He studied performance with the Austrian organist Susi Jeans, the Canadian harpsichordist Kenneth Gilbert, and Dutch organist and harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt, and holds concert performance and teaching diplomas from London’s Royal Academy of Music (1974) and Royal College of Music (1975). He entered the doctoral program in musicology at Berkeley in 1975. His doctoral dissertation, "Under Fower Sovereygnes: Thomas Tallis and the Transformation of English Polyphony" (1980) was a study of the music composed by Thomas Tallis and William Byrd for the English Reformation. After leaving Berkeley, for twenty-one years he was based in Paris, working mostly as a freelance recitalist in many countries. For his services to music he was named Chevalier in "Order of Cultural Merit" by Prince Rainier III of Monaco (1988), and the French government named him Officier in the "Order of Arts and Letters" (2000). He returned to Berkeley as a Professor in August 2001. He is also University Organist.

Christine Schornsheim:

Christine Schornsheim has been working as a freelance harpsichord player since 1985 while she continued her studies through master courses with Gustav Leonhardt, Ton Koopman, Johann Sonnleitner, and Andreas Staier. Ms. Schornsheim has performed with numerous conductors including Sir Georg Solti, Seiji Ozawa, Claudio Abbado, Leopold Hager, Peter Schreier, Markus Creed, Georg Christoph Biller, Hellmuth Rilling, Andreas Spering, and Hermann Max as well as with Christoph Poppen. She has performed, playing both solo harpsichord and pianoforte, at numerous festivals across Europe, Isreal, Asia and the US. In 1994, she made her debut in pianoforte accompaniment with Peter Schreier. Among her performing partners are renowned musicians such as Andreas Staier, Christoph Huntgeburth, Ulla Bundies, and Mary Utiger. Since autumn 2003, she joined “Münchner Cammer-Music” and plays very often with the Italian ensemble “Zefiro”. Christine Schornsheim has often been a jury member at international harpsichord competitions.

Ms. Schorsheim has also made numerous recordings. Among these are Goldberg-Variations, rare harpsichord works by J.S. Bach, and several Piano Concertos by W.A. Mozart. She performed in the first recording of works by Ludwig Von Beethoven for piano and flute with baroque flauto traverso player Christoph Huntgeburth . Ms. Schornsheim has performed Basso Continuo both harpsichord and organ as well as chamber music works. In 1999, she was awarded the ECHO Award for classical music in acknowledgement of her recording three harpsichord concertos by C.P.E. Bach, W.FR. Bach and J.Chr. Bach (published by Capriccio). In spring, 2005 ihe whole recording of all piano works of Joseph Haydn appeared in five different historical keyboard instruments with Capriccio. This recording was distinguished with the prize of the German record criticism, the Diapason d’Or, and the ECHO / CLASSICAL PERIOD PRIZE. Ms. Schornsheim teaches harpsichord and foretpiano in Germany, first at the Musical and Theatrical Academy in Leipzig and then at Musical and Theatrical Academy in Munich.

Kenneth Slowik:

Artistic Director of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society, Kenneth Slowik first established his international reputation primarily as a cellist and viola da gamba player through his work with the Smithsonian Chamber Players, Castle Trio, Smithson String Quartet, Axelrod Quartet, and with Anner Bylsma’s L’Archibudelli. Conductor of the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra since 1988, he led the Santa Fe Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra from 1999 to 2004, and has been a soloist and/or conductor with numerous other orchestras, including the National Symphony, the Baltimore, Vancouver, and Québec Symphonies, the Filharmonia Sudecka, the Pleven Philharmonic, and the Cleveland Orchestra.

Slowik’s impressive discography comprises over seventy recordings featuring him as conductor, cellist, gambist, and keyboard player for music ranging from the baroque era to the early twentieth century. Of these, many have won prestigious international awards, including France’s  Diapason d’Or and Choc, the “British Music Retailers’ Award for Excellence,” Italy’s Premio Internazionale del Disco Antonio Vivaldi, two GRAMMY® nominations, and numerous “Record of the Month” and “Record of the Year” prizes. Recent projects include a recording of the Rameau Pièces de clavecin en concerts with violinist Marc Destrubé and gambist Paolo Pandolfo, a CD of the Schubert Op. post. 137 Sonatas with violinist Vera Beths, and a DVD film about Schönberg’s First Chamber Symphony and Verklärte Nacht with the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra. Slowik serves on the faculties of the University of Maryland and L’Académie de musique du Domaine Forget, and was named Artistic Director of the Baroque Performance Institute at the Oberlin College Conservatory in 1993. In 2011, he was named recipient of the Smithsonian Secretary's Distinguished Research Lecture Award.

James Weaver:

James Weaver founded the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society, establishing the comprehensive presentation of historically informed performances which has gained international prestige. He devised and directed entertainments ranging from evenings of 19th-century American Ballroom Music (released as an award-winning disc on Nonesuch Records) to Handel’s Messiah (the first American recording with historic instruments and a men- and-boys choir. As a performer, his award-winning recording (with Sonya Monosoff) of J. S. Bach’s Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord was the first museum recording with historic instruments made for commercial distribution. He divides his time among the harpsichord, fortepiano, and organ, appearing throughout the United States, Europe, and South America, including the Edinburgh and Innsbruck festivals, and with the National and Baltimore symphonies. For many years Chair of the National Museum of American History’s Division of Cultural History, he left the Smithsonian to serve as Executive Director of the ten-year-long project to develop a National Music Center and Museum in association with the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress. He served on the faculties of Boston University, Cornell University, the University of Maryland, Catholic University, Aston Magna, and as a founding faculty member of the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute. He currently serves as Executive Director of The Organ Historical Society.