Maureen Murchie performs on modern and baroque violin and viola across the US as well as in China, Japan, and Europe. In addition to her work as acting concertmaster of the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra and principal viola of Bach Akademie Charlotte, recent performing engagements include Handel and Haydn Society, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, NOVUS NY, Helicon, American Classical Orchestra, New York Baroque Incorporated, The Sebastians, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the Broadway pits of Tootsie and Farinelli and the King. In December 2021 she performed the viola solo in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Aisslinn Nosky and the American Classical Orchestra at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Maureen holds a doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she wrote a dissertation on the history of the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra. Having grown up in Japan and attended Japanese schools through high school, Maureen is fluent in Japanese and in demand as a Japanese translator, interpreter, and editor. She is the Marketing Operations Manager at BIA, a Manhattan-based eDiscovery and digital forensics firm.   maureenmurchie.com

Renée Hemsing, a native of New Mexico, specializes in chamber music and early music performance on violin and viola. In addition to recent performances with such ensembles as the Handel and Haydn Society, Connecticut Early Music Festival, Seraphic Fire, she is the violist of Beacon String Trio with violinist Susanna Ogata and cellist Guy Fishman. She earned her doctorate at the University of Colorado where her string quartet, Ajax Quartet, was Quartet-in-Residence for two years with mentorship by the Takacs Quartet. She earned her masters at the University of North Texas with Emanuel Borok, where she also studied baroque violin with Cynthia Roberts, and her bachelors from the University of New Mexico with renowned Brazilian soloist Cármelo de los Santos. In addition to her primary instructors, Renée’s mentors include Brandon Chui, Paul Kantor, Charles Wetherbee, and David Halen. Renée has been presented in master classes with the Takacs Quartet, Pacifica Quartet, Jupiter Quartet, Escher Quartet, American Quartet, Augustine Hadelich, Don Weilerstein, Sylvia Rosenberg, Vadim Gluzman, Matt Albert, Stephen Rose, and Peter Otto.

Marta Soderberg Howard, violist, performs in groups throughout the Washington, DC area and the Carolinas, from the Folger Consort and the Manassas Ballet to Three Notch’d Road and the Residents’ Own Baroque Orchestra, in venues ranging from Washington National Cathedral and Signature Theatre to assisted living facilities around Northern Virginia. She is the viola soloist with Wyoming Baroque, which premieres modern works for baroque instruments, and Assisi Performing Arts, a modern chamber music festival held each summer in the historic Umbrian hill town. Marta is also a long time performer with The Washington Bach Consort and The North Carolina Baroque Orchestra. A native of Duluth Minnesota, she is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy, the University of Wisconsin, the Manhattan School of Music, and the University of lowa. Her many years’ teaching experience on the faculties of the Preucil School in Iowa City, the Cleveland Institute of Music/Case Western Reserve University, Georgetown University, and presently at Sheridan College in Wyoming have aided new generations of string players in the pursuit of self expression and camaraderie through music. Marta plays a Jason Viseltear copy of a c.1650 Giacomo Gennaro viola.

Guy Fishman is principal cellist of the Handel and Haydn Society. He is in demand as an early music specialist in the U.S. and Europe. Guy has performed with Seraphic Fire, Arcadia Players, Connecticut Early Music Festival, Querelle des Bouffons, Les Violons du Roi, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Boston Baroque, Apollo’s Fire, Emmanuel Music, the Boston Museum Trio, Boulder Bach Festival, and El Mundo, among others. In addition to concerto appearances he has been presented in recital with Dawn Upshaw, Mark Peskanov, Eliot Fisk, Richard Eggar, Lara St. John, Gil Kalish, Kim Kashkashian, and Natalie Merchant. Guy’s playing has been praised as “plangent” by the Boston Globe, “electrifying” by the New York Times, and “beautiful....noble” by the Boston Herald, and “dazzling” by the Portland Press Herald. The Boston Musical Intelligencer related having “…heard greater depth in [Haydn concerto] than I have in quite some time.” Guy studied with David Soyer, Peter Wiley, Julia Lichten, and Laurence Lesser, with whom he completed Doctoral studies at the New England Conservatory of Music. He now serves on the faculty there. In addition, he is a Fulbright Fellow, having worked with famed Dutch cellist Anner Bylsma in Amsterdam.

Ryan Murphy received his master’s degree from the Juilliard School and bachelor’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. As the result of placing second in the Sphinx Competition in 2003, Ryan made his solo debut with the Detroit Symphony, followed by an additional appearance with the Cleveland Orchestra. Ryan is an avid orchestral player and participated in the Juilliard Centennial Orchestra tour across America in 2006. He has also participated in the PMF, Tanglewood, Kent Blossom, and Round Top Festival. He is a former member of the Canton Symphony and served as the assistant principal cellist in the World Youth Orchestra for Peace, presenting concerts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of those two cities. Ryan’s radio appearances have include the From the Top radio show at the Kennedy Center, where he won the audience choice award and two appearances on Classic 99’s Young Heroes in Music in St. Louis. He has participated in master classes with Peter Salaff of the Cleveland Quartet, the Cavani, Miro, and Brentano Quartets, as well as master classes and coachings with Janos Starker,  Norman Fischer. Ryan was fortunate enough to travel to Zimbabwe, where he worked with orphan and schoolchildren in and around the capital of Zahare, teaching music composition and related musical subjects. He has also performed many various outreach concerts across the country in such cities as St. Louis, Seattle, Austin, Cleveland, and New York.

Sue Yelanjian, contrabass, is the principal bassist for Apollo’s Fire and The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra. She has performed with many North American baroque orchestras, including Tafelmusik, the Handel and Haydn Society, Chatham Baroque, and Indy Baroque. She has toured extensively and has performed at music festivals such as Tangelwood, Ravinia, Aspen, the Drottingholm Opera Theater in Sweden, and the Klang und Raum Festival in Germany.  Sue appears on numerous recordings on the Koch, Analekta, Electra, and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation labels. She attended Oberlin Conservatory and received degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Boston University.

Bach Akademie Charlotte Artistic Director Scott Allen Jarrett trades his baton for the keyboard this concert. He is recognized as one of the nation’s leading teachers and interpreters of the vocal works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Building on a lifetime and career devoted to the study and performance of Bach’s music, Scott was appointed Artistic Director of the Bach Akademie of Charlotte in July of 2017, with responsibility to build an annual cantata series and summer festival of national profile and reach for the Charlotte region. A resident of Boston, Scott Allen Jarrett is the Director of Music at Boston University’s Marsh Chapel and Resident Conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society. His recitals of Debussy and Fauré with tenor Nicholas Phan and the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago in 016 were met with critical acclaim. He can be heard as continuo player on Seraphic Fire's recording of the Monteverdi Vespers and as pianist on their 2012 Grammy-nominated recording of the Brahms Requiem. He joined the faculty of Seraphic Fire’s Professional Choral Institute in residence in the summer of 2018 at the Aspen Music Festival and School. He is a baritone in the professional chorus of Boston's Handel and Haydn Society and may be heard in the bass section throughout the H+H season and on their recent recordings for the CORO label.