Staff
Margriet Tindemans, Artistic Director
Margriet Tindemans has performed, recorded, and taught early music on four continents. A 2005 Grammy Nominee, she was named "Best asset to Seattle's classical music scene" in the Seattle Weekly's 2004 "Best of Seattle" issue. She has been called a rare combination of charismatic performing and inspiring teaching, a scholar with a profound knowledge of music, poetry and art of the Middle Ages - "a national treasure". As a player of early stringed instruments, from the medieval fiddle and rebec to baroque viola and viola da gamba, she performs and records with Medieval Strings, Seattle Baroque Orchestra and the Pacific Operaworks. Margriet is a frequently invited guest with the Folger Consort, the Newberry Consort, and other leading early music ensembles. She has performed with both the Seattle Opera and the National Dutch Opera in Amsterdam. In addition to maintaining a busy private studio she is a much sought after director and teacher at many workshops, including the Port Townsend Early Music Workshop, the Pacific Northwest Viols Workshop, the Accademia d'Amore, Viols West, and the Seattle Academy of Opera. Margriet works closely with the Northwest Puppet Center, for whom she has arranged and directed several operas, including The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni, and Francesca Caccini's La Liberazione di Ruggiero. She is a faculty member at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.
Nancy Zylstra, Vocal Coach
Nancy Zylstra's 20-year career as a soloist included performances with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik, American Bach Soloists, Portland Baroque Orchestra and on 4 CDs. She has just finished 2 terms of service on the board of Early Music America. Since 1979 Nancy has been a faculty member of Oberlin Conservatory's Baroque Performance Institute and is currently on the faculty of Seattle Academy of Opera. She teaches voice at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma and is a faculty member at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. In the fall of 2007 she served as active director of the Medieval Women's Choir and conducted a program of medieval English music at St. James Cathedral.