Musicians

Niklas Eklund is much sought after as a soloist around the world. Besides giving concerts in Sweden and Europe, he has appeared as a guest performer in the US, Australia, the Ukraine, Russia and New Zealand. After five years as solo trumpeter in the Basel Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Eklund left the orchestra in the autumn of 1996 to further his career as a soloist. Since then he has appeared with several leading ensembles and conductors such as John Eliot Gardiner, Nicholas McGegan, Eric Ericson, Gustav Leonhardt, London Baroque, La Stagione (Frankfurt), The Bach Ensemble (New York), De Nederlandse Bachvereniging, The Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble and The English Baroque Soloists. He is presently a prominent participant in John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach recordings (DG, Archiv recordings). Mr. Eklund’s repertoire is extensive and includes the foremost works by Haydn, Vivaldi, Telemann, Purcell, Handel and Bach (including the Brandenburg Concerto No. 2). To date, he has made five CD records in his series The Art of the Baroque Trumpet (Naxos). The first four—"Virtuoso Trumpet Concerts 1"; “Music for Trumpet and Organ,” with the Norwegian organist Knut Johannessen; “Baroque Duets,” with the soprano Susanne Rydn and London Baroque; and "Virtuoso Trumpet Concerts 2"—have all been received with enthusiastic reviews by the press in both Europe and the USA. The latest in the series, “An Italian Concert,” (vol. 5) was released in July 2000, with Niklas performing Italian baroque music together with the Wasa Baroque Ensemble and Maria Keohane. Mr. Eklund was trained at the School of Music and Musicology of Güteborg University and studied further under the tutelage of Edward H. Tarr at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

Jennifer Ellis (left) graduated with a BMA in Voice and History of Art from the University of Michigan , and subsequently completed the Advanced Studies Program in Early Music at the Guildhall School of Music in London. Ms. Ellis has appeared with several leading baroque orchestras including American Bach Soloists, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire (Cleveland, OH), Musica Angelica and Magnificat. Opera highlights include Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, title roles in Handel’s Acis and Galatea and Blow’s Venus and Adonis, Serpina in Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona, and Haydn’s La Canterina with Musica Aeterna in Bratislava, Slovakia. In addition, Jennifer has sung with the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Ellis was an Adam’s Fellow at the 1998 Carmel Bach Festival and took part in the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan with Nicholas McGegan. She has recorded the Monteverdi Vespers with Apollo.

A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, soprano Cathleen Ellis now resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she performs frequently as a soloist and ensemble member. Ms. Ellis holds a Bachelor of Arts cum laude from Columbia University with a double major in English and Music. She went on to complete an M.Phil degree in Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, writing her dissertation on 17th-century song and poetry. She was also a choral scholar at Cambridge, touring and recording with the Trinity College Chapel Choir under the direction of Dr. Richard Marlow. In the United States, Ms. Ellis has performed with American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque, Boston Bach Ensemble, The Schola Cantorum of Boston, and The Church of the Advent Choir. She has recently appeared in the Boston area as Fortuna in Monteverdi’s L'Incoronnazione di Poppea, Eve in Haydn’s Creation, Filia in Carissimi’s Jephte, and as a soloist in Handel’s Israel in Egypt. Highlights this spring include a duet recital with her sister Jennifer with Musica Angelica in Los Angeles, J.S. Bach’s Mass in B minor with the Bach Bay Chorale, J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion with the Marsh Chapel Choir, and a recital of Italian duets (also with Jennifer) at the Connecticut Early Music Festival.

Canadian born trumpeter Norman Engel enjoys a richly diversified career, performing on both modern and historical instruments. On modern trumpet he has performed with the Toronto Symphony; Canadian Opera Company; National Ballet; Hannaford Street Silver Band; Les Violons du Roy and the Stratford Festival amongst others. Major theatre productions he has performed with include Miss Saigon; Phantom of the Opera ; Beauty and the Beast; Ragtime; West Side Story and Cinderella. Mr. Engel’s career on natural trumpet has taken him across North America, to Europe, New Zealand and Asia. In Toronto he performs with Opera Atelier, The Toronto Consort, Aradia Ensemble and for the past seven seasons as a member of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. He has also performed with Apollo’s Fire, Portland Baroque Orchestra, New York Collegium, American Bach Soloists, Magnificat! Orchestra and Santa Fe Pro Musica. Highlights of the 2001-02 season include solo appearances with Tafelmusik and the Portland Baroque Orchestra, and the recent release of Purcell’s Trumpet Sonata and Indian Queen Overture with the Aradia Ensemble on Naxos Records. Mr. Engel has also recorded over 20 discs for Sony Classical; CBC Enterprises, Naxos, and Opening Day Records. Mr. Engel was educated at the University of Toronto, Humber College, and The Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.

Doron David Sherwin became interested in early music at a very young age, studying various early woodwind instruments before finally specializing in the cornett. Since 1984, he has performed throughout the world as a soloist and as a member or collaborator with numerous early music ensembles, including Hesperion XX, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, the Clemencic consort, the Taverner Players, Tragicomedia, Ensemble Sonnerie, Capriccio Stravagante and Cantus Colln. He studied cornett at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis under Bruce Dickey, with whom he has performed regularly since 1986 in the ensemble Concerto Palatino. Mr. Sherwin is also a member of the Medieval ensemble La Reverdie, in which he is active as a singer and arranger as well.

Mr. Sherwin has collaborated in numerous works written specifically for him by William Kraft, Riccardo Malipiero, Rene Clemencic and other contemporary composers fascinated by the unique timbre and expressive possibilities of the cornett. He has performed for radio and television in all of Europe, Russia, Poland, Israel, the United States and Japan, and has a discography of over 50 recordings for companies such as EMI-Reflexe, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Harmonia Mundi France, Erato, Virgin, Arcana, Accent, Tactus and Sony Classical. He has taught cornett and performance practice at the Accademia Chigiana of Siena, Italy, as well as in Vicenza (Italy), Goteborg (Sweden), Trondheim (Norway), Muri, Fribourg and Basel (Switzerland). Since 1994, he has taught cornett and historical improvisation at the Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik Trossingen in Germany.

Natural trumpet player John Thiessen performs regularly with period instrument ensembles throughout the US and Canada and has been Tafelmusik’s principal trumpet since 1989. This season he appears in numerous J.S. Bach anniversary performances, including Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 with Concert Royal, Aston Magna and Dallas Bach Society, Easter Oratorio and Magnificat in D with Santa Fe Pro Musica, and B Minor Mass with New York Collegium and Portland’s Trinity Consort. In December, Thiessen also performed Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. This summer, he will serve as principal trumpet with the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra and record music by Purcell in Montreal. A graduate of Eastman School of Music and King’s College, University of London, he is the recipient of grants from the Canada Council for natural trumpet studies in the UK with Crispian Steele-Perkins and Michael Laird. Thiessen presents master classes throughout the US and Canada and serves on the summer faculties of both Oberlin College’s Baroque Performance Institute and the International Baroque Institute at the Longy School in Cambridge, MA. He has recorded for Sony Classical Vivarte, EMI, BMG/Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, London Decca, Denon and REM, and is heard on NPR and CBC broadcasts.