Resplendent Joy

Robert Eisenstein has led over 200 productions and performances with Folger Consort over the past 40 years include Measure + Dido at the Kennedy Center 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. 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; former faculty member of Mount Holyoke College, where he taught music history and performed the viola de gamba, violin, and medieval fiddle. He is an active participant in the 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.

Hannah Baslee’s work in the DC area includes performances with Thirteen, the Washington Bach Consort, 21st Century Consort, Washington National Cathedral, and the Schola at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Internationally, Hannah has toured with the Clarion Choir, The English Concert, Washington National Cathedral in Spain, and the American Soloists Ensemble in South Korea. Selected recordings include: the Clarion Choir’s Grammy-nominated Rachmaninoff: All Night Vigil; The Thirteen’s Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 and Monteverdi: The ‘Lost’ Vespers; Washington Bach Consort’s Myths Contested; and the Clarion Choir’s upcoming album Rachmaninoff Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.

Amy Domingues holds a master’s degree in historical performance from the Peabody Institute and performs with Folger Consort, Washington Bach Consort, and Musica Spira. She is a founding member of Sonnambula, Ensemble in Residence at the Frick Collection (2025-2026), and appears on over 70 recordings across multiple genres, including Sonnambula’s Passing Fancy: Beauty in a Moment of Chaos (Avie). Amy is an avid educator, teaching at Amherst Early Music, the Viola da Gamba Society of America Conclave, and workshops abroad. She is a multiple recipient of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Fellowship award.

Robert Eisenstein has led over 200 productions and performances with Folger Consort over the past 40 years include Measure + Dido at the Kennedy Center 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. 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; former faculty member of Mount Holyoke College, where he taught music history and performed the viola de gamba, violin, and medieval fiddle. He is an active participant in the 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.

Elizabeth Hardy performs on historical bassoons and Renaissance woodwinds. She has served as both performer and organizer with Helios Early Opera, Grand Harmonie, 7 Hills Renaissance Wind Band, and the Society for Historically Informed Performance, and was a founding member of 17th-century mixed consort The Weckmann Project. She is principal bassoon of the Austin Baroque Orchestra, and has appeared with Folger Consort, the Handel and Haydn Society, the Bach Project, Newton Baroque, NYS Baroque, Salon/Sanctuary Concerts, the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, and Ensemble Caprice. Elizabeth also played reeds and recorders for Shakespeare on Broadway, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre’s Tony Award-winning productions of Twelfth Night and Richard III.

Crossley Hawn is a DC-based soprano recognized for her versatility and artistry across a wide range of musical genres. She has appeared as soloist with Folger Consort, the Washington Bach Consort, Chatham Baroque, The Thirteen, Choralis, Cathedra, and the City Choir of Washington. An accomplished ensemble musician, she has also performed with Kinnara, True Concord, the US Air Force Singing Sergeants, and other distinguished vocal groups. She has performed at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, the White House, Lincoln Center, and the Washington National Cathedral. Crossley served as Project Manager and ensemble singer for Experiential Orchestra’s GRAMMY-winning premiere recording of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison. She is a cantor and choir member at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Susan Lewis Kavinski is a soprano vocalist and retired service member with the United States Navy Band, Washington, DC. For two decades, Susan has been privileged to perform as a featured soloist and ensemble member; she has sung for presidents, vice presidents, high-ranking military leaders, Congress, popes, and an array of foreign and domestic dignitaries. As a freelance artist, she recently made her debut with Opera Lafayette’s production of Dido and Aeneas. Susan has appeared with Folger Consort, the National Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, Washington Bach Consort, Washington Chorus, and Washington National Cathedral Choir.

Paula Maust is a performer, scholar, and educator dedicated to fusing research and creative practice to amplify underrepresented voices. She is the creator of Expanding the Music Theory Canon, an open-source collection of music theory examples by women and people of color. A book based on the project was released by SUNY Press in 2024. Paula is also an early modern area editor for Grove Music Online Women, Gender, and Sexuality Project and is an Assistant Professor of Music Theory at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. She performs extensively in the region as a harpsichordist and organist and is a co-director of Musica Spira, a DC-based ensemble that tells the stories of early modern women musicians.

Described as “excellent” and “sterling,” by The New York Times, tenor Oliver Mercer performs regularly throughout North America and Europe as a concert soloist, recitalist, and opera singer. A specialist of the Baroque era, he has performed with Glyndebourne Opera Festival; English National Opera; Spoletto Festival USA; Boston Early Music Festival; Opera Theater Company, Dublin, Ireland; Bach Society of Charleston; Savannah Philharmonic, Charleston Symphony, INseries Opera, and Mid Wales Opera. He has appeared as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Trinity Church Wall Street, the Barbican Centre London, Washington National Cathedral, the Kennedy Center, and the Royal Albert Hall.

Dan Meyers is a flexible performer of both classical and folk music; his credits range from premieres of contemporary chamber music to playing Renaissance instruments on Broadway for Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. He is a co-founder of the early music/folk crossover group Seven Times Salt, and in recent seasons has performed with Hesperus, the Newberry Consort, the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Severall Friends, the Henry Purcell Society of Boston, the 21st Century Consort, and In Stile Moderno. He also plays traditional Irish music with the band ISHNA, and eclectic fusion from around the Mediterranean with his ensemble Zafarán. www.danmeyersmusic.com

Labeled a “standout baritone” by the SFGATE, Corbin Phillips is a classical singer with a passion for early music. His most recent solo appearances have included the role of Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Opera Henriette, a newly-founded baroque opera company in Baltimore; bass soloist in Bach’s St. John Passion at the Baltimore Basilica, and bass soloist in Handel’s Dublin Messiah with Tempesta di Mare. Other appearances have included performances with Folger Consort, Gallicantus, Mountainside Baroque, Opera Lafayette, and Big Mouth Society.

John Logan comes to the DC area from Nashville, Tennessee. With roots in bluegrass and gospel, he worked regularly as a studio musician and frequented as a background vocalist. He performed with Nashville Opera, was tenor soloist for Orff’s Carmina Burana with Nashville Symphony, and again at Smetana Hall in Prague, portrayed both brothers in a film adaptation of Weill’s Die Sieben Todsünden, and was accompanist for a music therapy group through Vanderbilt and The Peterson Foundation for Parkinsons. He has performed with many ensembles in the DMV and is a member of the choir at the Basilica of the National Shrine, where he is also on staff as cantor.

Hideki Yamaya is a performer of lutes, early guitars, and early mandolins based in Connecticut. Born in Tokyo, Japan, he spent most of his career in the West Coast before settling in New England. As a soloist and as a continuo/chamber player, Hideki has performed for Portland Baroque Orchestra, Portland Opera, Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Los Angeles Opera, California Bach Society, Oregon Bach Festival, Astoria Music Festival, Music of the Baroque, and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. He is one half of the Schneiderman-Yamaya Duo and is the artistic director of Musica Maestrale, an early music collective based in Portland, Oregon.