Guest Conductors

Shira Kammen

Multi-instrumentalist and occasional vocalist Shira Kammen has spent well over half her life exploring the worlds of early and traditional music. Shira was a member for many years of several prominent early music ensembles, and is the founder of Class V Music, and ensemble dedicated to providing music on river rafting trips. She has performed and taught in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Israel, Morocco, Latvia, Russia and Japan, and on the Colorado, Rogue, Green, Grande Ronde, East Carson and Klamath Rivers. A frequent collaborator with Margriet Tindemans, Shira often collaborates with music ensembles, storytellers, and on theatrical and dance productions. She has worked with students in many different settings, played on several television and movie soundtracks, and has recently taken courses in taiko drumming and voiceover acting.

Ensembles

  • Alcatraz
  • Project Ars Nova
  • Medieval Strings
  • Sequentia
  • Hesperion XX
  • The Boston Camerata
  • Kitka
  • The King’s Noyse
  • Newberry Consort
  • Folger Consort
  • Class V Music
  • Fortune’s Wheel
  • Ephemeros
  • Panacea
  • Roguery
  • Cançoniér
  • In Bocca al Lupo
  • Oregon Shakespeare Festival
  • California Shakespeare Festival
  • San Francisco Shakespeare Festival

Teaching

  • Yale University
  • Case Western Reserve University
  • University of Oregon
  • Fondazione Cini in Venice, Italy
  • Scuola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland

Nancy Zylstra

Soprano Nancy Zylstra enjoyed a 20-year international career as a soloist, performing on numerous chamber music series around North America and in major festivals. Besides vocal technique and historical performance practice, her professional interests include choral vocal techniques, and rehabilitation of patients experiencing voice use issues. She can be heard on the Erato, Wildboar, and Koch labels.

Ensembles

  • Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra
  • Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (Toronto)
  • American Bach Soloists
  • Portland Baroque Orchestra

Teaching

  • Oberlin Conservatory Baroque Performance Institute
  • University of Washington
  • Pacific Lutheran University
  • Cornish College
  • Seattle Opera

Aaron Cain

Dr. Cain has performed and recorded with a variety of instrumental and vocal ensembles, most of which have made early music their focus. He appears on several recordings and performs frequently as both a soloist and ensemble singer. In 2015, Aaron and his wife, Baroque cellist and Gambist Joanna Blendulf, joined Atlanta’s Ensemble PhiloMelante in a Western hemisphere premiere of recently-discovered solo cantatas by Georg Philipp Telemann, and also joined the orchestra of the Montana Baroque Festival for a performance of JCF Bach’s rarely-heard solo bass cantata, Pygmalion. Dr. Cain holds a Bachelor’s of Music from The University of Iowa and continued his studies at the University of Oregon, where he received a master’s degree in choral conducting and a doctoral degree in vocal performance with a specialization in historically-informed performance practice.

Ensembles

  • Los Angeles Philharmonic
  • Portland Baroque Orchestra
  • Cappella Romana
  • Musica Angelica
  • Cascade Consort
  • Los Angeles Chamber Singers
  • PhiloMelante
  • Montana Baroque Festival
  • Los Angeles Master Chorale
  • Berwick Chorus of the Oregon Bach Festival

Selected Discography

  • Robert Kyr: A Time for Life, Cappella Romana, Cappella Romana, 2014
  • The Vanishing Nordic Chorale, Musik Ekklesia, Sono Luminus, 2011
  • Toensing: Kontakion on the Nativity of Christ, Cappella Romana, Cappella Romana, 2008
  • Padilla: Sun of Justice, Los Angeles Chamber Singers, Rubedo Canis Musica, Awarded the Grammy