Musicians

The San Francisco Bach Choir also performs with many renowned vocal soloists and instrumentalists, as well as with its own orchestra and chamber consort selected from internationally acclaimed instrumentalists. The 2002-2003 season will include Steven Bailey, Louise Carslake, Richard Cheetham, Tekla Cunningham, Daria D'Andrea, Rob Diggins, John Dornenburg, Claire Garabedian, Dennis Godburn, Daniel Hutchings, Tim Krol, Carla Moore, Debra Nagy, Marianne Pfau, Heidi Powell, Ruth Rainero, Elizabeth Reed, Cynthia Roberts, Doron David Sherwin, John Thiessen, Kiri Tollakson, Kate van Orden, Kristin Zoernig and others.

Tenor Daniel Hutchings graduated from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, where he studied voice under Richard Miller. Recent solo appearances have included Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin, Schütz’s Psalms of David, and some of the Bach arias. Mr. Hutchings has performed with a number of San Francisco Bay Area ensembles including Philharmonia Baroque, American Bach Soloists, San Francisco Bach Choir, and Baroque Choral Guild. He also sings regularly at the National Shrine of St. Francis.

Tim Krol is from Long Island, New York. For nine years (1991-2000) he performed with Chanticleer, America’s premier a cappella vocal ensemble. He has toured with the group in all fifty states and abroad, and can be heard on thirteen Chanticleer recordings, including the Grammy-winning Colors of Love. Opera credits include: “The Ferryman” in Benjamin Britten’s Curlew River; “Harry or Larry” in Elliot Carter’s What Next?; “Jim Easton” in David Conte’s The Dreamers; and “Schaunard” in Puccini’s La Boheme. Mr. Krol sings the lead role of “Jim” on the new and critically acclaimed national release of David Conte’s The Gift of the Magi (Arsis label). He has also appeared as a concert soloist in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Austin. Works include numerous Bach Cantatas, including 46, 82, 172, 182, and 196; Bach’s St. John Passion (Jesus); Handel’s Messiah, Judas Maccabeus, and Aci, Galatea e Polifemo; Haydn’s Theresienne Messe, Paukenmesse, and Creation; Vivaldi’s Magnificat; Ralph Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem; and Mendelssohn’s Elijah (title role).

Mezzo-Soprano Ruth Rainero received her Masters in Voice and Voice Pedagogy from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. She lived in The Netherlands for many years, performing a wide range of styles and periods of music throughout Europe. Conductors included Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Phillippe Herreweghe, and Steve Reich. Since returning to San Francisco, she has primarily concentrated on teaching voice, but has also performed with a number of different ensembles, including performances and a CD of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Philharmonia Baroque. Ms. Rainero is particularly fond of chamber music and lieder, and has a wide repertoire extending from the early Baroque to the 20th century. She speaks five languages and sings in five more. Ruth’s background in modern dance and theater has led to her exploration of voice combined with other media, and she has been responsible for the choreography and vocal coaching of other performers as well.

Countertenor Paul Flight has sung with several distinguished groups, including The Waverly Consort, Theatre of Voices, The New York Collegium, Voices of Ascension, Pomerium Musices, and the American Bach Soloists. He has also sung in England, working as a lay-clerk in the choir of Norwich Cathedral. Mr. Flight is in demand as a soloist, having performed Messiah, the St. John Passion, the B Minor Mass, and several of Bach’s cantatas with groups in the Northeast and the Midwest. He recently performed Handel’s Solomon for the Sacramento Early Music Consort, and upcoming engagements include John Adams’ El Niño with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Bach’s Christ lag in Todesbanden with The San Francisco Choral Society. His operatic roles include Dardano in Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula, and Montezuma in Karl Heinrich Graun’s Montezuma. He is also a member of the Concord Ensemble, an award-winning group whose Dorian CD “The Victory of Santiago” was chosen Best of 1999 by the editors of Goldberg magazine. Recording credits include Dorian, Harmonia Mundi, and Glissando.

Mr. Flight has been Director of Choral Activities at Smith College and at the University of Mississippi, and has also been a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at the University of California at Berkeley. For the past two seasons, he has been guest conductor for the San Francisco Early Music Society and for the Madison (WI) Early Music Festival.

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.