Virtuosos of Violin and Verse

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.

Tatiana Chulochnikova (Viol) Praised for her “thrilling technique” and “dark plush romantic violin sound”, Tatiana Chuochnikova has been enjoying a diverse international performing career as a soloist, recitalist, guest concertmaster, chamber musician and recording artist. Born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tatiana began playing violin at the age of seven and made her debut aas concerto solists at fourteen with the Kharkiv Philharmonic. Tatiana received her professional training at the Juilliard School, Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the Oberlin Conservatory.

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.

Paula Maust (Harpsichord) is a performer, scholar, and educator dedicated to fusing research and creative practice to amplify underrepresented voices and advocate for social change. She is the creator of Expanding the Music Theory Canon, an open-source collection of music theory examples by women and composers of color. A print anthology based on the project was released with SUNY Press in December 2023. Paula also researches the pejorative language used to describe early modern women on stage and harmony books by 19th-century women. She has published articles in Women and Music and the Journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music, and she is an early modern area editor for Grove Music Online Women, Gender, and Sexuality project.

Rebecca Myers (Soprano) Philadelphia based soprano Rebecca Myers is a soloist, vocal chamber singer, collaborator, recording artist, and creator in high demand. Indulging and specializing in vocal repertoire, spanning from the Medieval to scores written especially for her, Rebecca has gained a reputation for her “timbral clarity and flawless pitch,” and “nimble coloratura” (South Florida Classical Review). In recent seasons Rebecca has appeared as a soloist with the New World Symphony, Tempesta di Mare, Verità Baroque, Portland Baroque, and Apollo’s Fire. She appears regularly with Seraphic Fire, Lorelei Ensemble, and The Crossing. She is proud to be the Artistic Director, and a founding soprano for the cutting-edge vocal chamber music ensemble, Variant 6.  

Rose Solari (Poet) is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, The Last Girl, Orpheus in the Park, and Difficult Weather; the one-act play, Looking for Guenevere, and a novel, A Secret Woman. She has lectured and taught writing workshops at many institutions, including Arizona State University’s Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing; the University of Maryland, College Park; St. John’s College, Annapolis; the Jung Society of Washington; and the Centre for Creative Writing at Oxford University’s Kellogg College. As an actor, she has appeared in staged readings as the title character in two Grace Cavalieri plays: Anna and Mary Wollstonecraft: Hyena in Petticoats. In her writing for the stage, she has collaborated with modern dance artists, composers, and musicians. Her awards include the Randall Jarrell Poetry Prize, and Academy of American Poets’ University Prize, The Columbia Book Award, an EMMA award for excellence in journalism, and multiple grants.