An English Garden

Robert Eisenstein, Artistic Director (bass viol)

Robert Eisenstein has led over 200 productions and performances with Folger Consort over the past 40 years, including Measure + Dido at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Napa Valley Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice at Strathmore, The Fairy Queen, and Hildegard Von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum at the Washington National Cathedral. Recently retired as the Director of the Five College Early Music Program; Music Director for the Five College Opera Project production of Francesca Caccini’s La Liberazione di Ruggiero; Mount Holyoke College faculty emeritus, where he taught music history and performed on the viola de gamba, violin, and medieval fiddle. He is an active participant in Five College Medieval Studies. Recipient of Early Music America’s Thomas Binkley Award for outstanding achievement in performance and scholarship by the director of a college early music ensemble.

Christopher Kendall is founder of the Folger Consort. He is dean emeritus of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance after serving two terms as the school’s dean, where he was responsible for establishing the University of Michigan Gershwin Initiative, for re-instituting international touring, for the funding and design of a $30M expansion/renovation of the music building, and for launching the interdisciplinary enterprise ArtEngine and its national initiative a2ru (Alliance for the Arts at Research Universities). In Washington, in addition to his work with Folger Consort, since 1975 he has been Artistic Director and conductor of the 21st Century Consort, the new music ensemble-in-residence at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Mr. Kendall served as Director of the University of Maryland School of Music from 1996 to 2005 during a period of rapid development and its move to the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Associate Conductor of the Seattle Symphony from 1987 to 1992 and Director of the Music Division and Tanglewood Institute of the Boston University School for the Arts from 1993 to 1996, Mr. Kendall has guest conducted many orchestras and ensembles in repertoire from the 18th to the 21st centuries. His recordings can be heard on the Bard, Delos, Nonesuch, Centaur, ASV, Arabesque, Innova, Bridge, and Smithsonian Collection labels.

Robert Eisenstein, Artistic Director (bass viol)

Robert Eisenstein has led over 200 productions and performances with Folger Consort over the past 40 years, including Measure + Dido at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Napa Valley Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice at Strathmore, The Fairy Queen, and Hildegard Von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum at the Washington National Cathedral. Recently retired as the Director of the Five College Early Music Program; Music Director for the Five College Opera Project production of Francesca Caccini’s La Liberazione di Ruggiero; Mount Holyoke College faculty emeritus, where he taught music history and performed on the viola de gamba, violin, and medieval fiddle. He is an active participant in Five College Medieval Studies. Recipient of Early Music America’s Thomas Binkley Award for outstanding achievement in performance and scholarship by the director of a college early music ensemble.

Lawrence Lipnik (tenor viol)

Lawrence Lipnik performs with many acclaimed early music ensembles and is a founding member of the viol consort Parthenia and vocal ensemble Lionheart. He has served as gambist and recorder player for staged opera productions including Monteverdi’s Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts and Telemann’s Orpheus with the New York City Opera, and has prepared an authoritative edition of Francesco Cavalli’s La Calisto, commissioned by the Juilliard School. Recent performances include appearances with the Venice Baroque Orchestra and early opera residencies at Carnegie Mellon University. He is a contributor to The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Contemporary Dramatists.

Emily Noël (soprano)

Emily Noël performs a wide variety of repertory expanding from the Medieval to the contemporary. Favorite Folger performances include: Gloria!, Davenant’s Macbeth, The Second Shepherds’ Play, An English Garden, Play of Love, Measure + Dido, The Merchant of Venice, Christmas in New Spain, and Map of the World. She has also appeared as a soloist with the Washington Bach Consort, Washington National Cathedral, LyricFest, Ente Concerti Città di Iglesias, Amsterdam Grachtenfestival, American Opera Theater, Mountainside Baroque, Seven Times Salt, Early Interval, and Santa Fe Desert Chorale. A passionate educator, Emily has served on the faculties of Franklin & Marshall College, Notre Dame of Maryland University, and The Community College of Rhode Island. She currently teaches voice at Denison University and directs the Cardinal Singers at Otterbein University.

Mark Rimple (lute and tenor viol)

Hailed “among the first rank of US Lutenists” (Lute Society of America), Mark Rimple has appeared with Folger Consort, Trefoil, the Newberry Consort, Severall Friends, Piffaro, the King’s Noyse, Mélomanie, Tempesta di Mare, Blue Heron/Les Delices, Ex Umbris, Hesperus, and Seven Times Salt. He is a composer, with recent performances by Network for New Music and counter)induction. His recording January (New Focus) includes works for countertenor, lute, harpsichord, and viol. He has authored several articles on the history of music theory and notation. Mark is Professor of Music Theory, History and Composition at the Wells School of Music at West Chester University and currently serves as the President of the Lute Society of America.

Mary Springfels (treble viol)

Mary Springfels is a veteran of the American early music movement. She is a native of Los Angeles, but moved to New York at the age of 21 to join the New York Pro Musica as their viola da gambist. From that time on, Mary has been an active participant in prominent early music ensembles, including Folger Consort, the Waverly Concert, Concert Royal, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Ars Lyrica Houston, and the Texas Early Music Project (Austin). Mary directed the Newberry Consort in Chicago for 20 years, during which time the group made a number of critically acclaimed recordings. She has also been a continuo player for the Chicago Opera Theater, Central City Opera, and the New York City Opera. Currently, she is a co-director of Severall Friends, an early music ensemble based in Santa Fe. Mary teaches all over the country.

Holly Twyford (narrator)

Folger Theatre: Dark Lady: A Musical Theater Work (Reading Room Festival 2026), All’s Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Helen Hayes Award), Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet (Helen Hayes Award), Arcadia, Melissa Arctic, The Second Shepherd’s Play, Orestes: A Tragic Romp, Mary Stuart, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King John; Over eighty productions at DC Area theater including: Shakespeare Theatre Company, Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Round House Theatre, and others. Awards & Affiliations: 5 Helen Hayes Awards, Emery Battis Award for Acting Excellence, Lunt-Fontanne Fellow, Studio Theatre Cabinet Member, Ford’s Associate Artist.