Collaborators

Tessa Brinckman

Flute, piccolo, alto flute, contra-bass flute, traverso

New Zealand flutist Tessa Brinckman has been described by critics as a “flutist of chameleon-like gifts” and "virtuoso elegance" (Gramophone), an “excellent...flutist” (Willamette Week) and "highlight of Portland” (New Music Box), who "play(s) her instrument with great beauty and eloquence” (Music Matters New Zealand). She enjoys a versatile career, having worked in many classical music ensembles and concert series in the United States, South Africa and New Zealand. Her orchestral and festival work includes the Oregon Symphony, New Haven International Arts, Oregon Bach, Oregon Shakespeare, Ernest Bloch, Bumbershoot and Astoria Music Festivals. She has recorded and composed for theater in New Zealand, New York and Seattle, for Radio New Zealand, and for TV commercials. In demand as a collaborator, Ms. Brinckman currently works with contemporary flute/percussion duo Caballito Negro, playing traverso with Portland’s new baroque ensemble Risonanti, and with violist Kimberly Fitch and pianist Danny Holt in a new trio in Los Angeles. She has received local and international grants to present unique historic and contemporary chamber music programs, and has premiered numerous works by American composers. Ms. Brinckman's composition for flute and string trio, Glass Sky, can be found on the critically acclaimed CD Glass Sky, and is featured in the South African documentary Inner Landscapes (Climax Films) about Outsider artist Helen Martins, and her Owl House creation. She serves on the faculty of Southern Oregon University and Rogue Community College, and teaches masterclasses in the USA and abroad.

Terry Longshore

Western & non-Western percussion

Terry Longshore is active as a performer, composer, and educator of percussion and has performed nationally and internationally. He performs regularly as a soloist and with the ensembles Skin & Bones, Caballito Negro, Sonoluminescence, and Dúo Flamenco. He can be heard on numerous CD and motion picture recordings and has premiered many compositions for solo percussion, percussion ensemble, chamber ensemble, and symphony orchestra.

Longshore holds bachelor's degrees from California State University at Fresno and Sacramento and the master's and doctoral degrees from the University of California, San Diego where he studied under percussion virtuoso Steven Schick. He has studied Indian classical music extensively under tabla maestro Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri and sitarist Kartik Seshadri. Longshore has taught at several universities and currently holds the position of Associate Professor of Music and Director of Percussion Studies at Southern Oregon University. Terry Longshore is a Yamaha Performing Artist and an artist endorser for Remo drumheads, Vic Firth sticks & mallets, and Zildjian cymbals. His own compositions are published by Go Fish Music.

Victoria Gunn

Viola, viola d'amore

Hailed as "outstanding...agile...with a sweet and warm sound" (Oregon Music News) Victoria Gunn Pich has been principal violist in Portland Baroque Orchestra ever since she returned from Europe 13 years ago, where she was principal violist in Reinhard Goebel's Musica Antiqua Cologne. She has performed extensively on the west coast, with Philharmonia Baroque, Arcangeli Strings, American Bach Soloists, and as a member of the Alard String Quartet. Ms. Gunn Pich received her Bachelor's degree in Germanic and Scandinavian Literature from Harvard University, and her Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Karen Tuttle. She has played at the Marlboro Music Festival, the Taos Music Festival, and the Banff Music Festival, and while living in New York she played in St Luke's Orchestra, Riverside Symphony, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. She continues to play modern viola in addition to baroque viola and viola d'amore. She recorded extensively with Reinhard Goebel, and can be heard on many Deutsche Grammophon recordings, under the Archiv label. She can soon be heard playing viola d'amore on Portland Baroque Orchestra's recording of the St. John Passion, soon to be released. She teaches violin and viola at Reed College and Linfield College, as well as privately. When she isn't playing or teaching music, you may find her digging in her large organic garden or canning produce!

Joanna Blendulf

Gamba, violincello

Joanna Blendulf has performed as soloist and continuo player in leading period instrument ensembles throughout the United States. She holds performance degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Indiana University, where she studied with Stanley Ritchie, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and Alan Harris. In 1998, she was awarded the prestigious Performer's Certificate for her accomplishments on baroque cello from Indiana University. Ms. Blendulf was a principal cellist of The New World Symphony under Michael Tilson-Thomas and has also performed with the Atlanta Symphony. As an early music specialist, she has taught at the University of Oregon as an adjunct professor of musicology and at viola da gamba workshops across the country.

She currently performs with the Portland, Seattle and Indianapolis Baroque Orchestras, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra and American Bach Soloists and has also been a member of Apollo's Fire Baroque Orchestra and the New York Collegium. Ms. Blendulf is an active chamber musician, performing and touring with the Catacoustic Consort, American Baroque, Ensemble Mirable, Reconstruction, the Streicher Trio and Wildcat Viols. Her award-winning recording of the complete cello sonatas of Jean Zewalt Triemer with Ensemble Mirable can be found on the Magnatune label. Ms. Blendulf's summer engagements have included performances at the Bloomington, Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals, the Aspen Music Festival as well as the Carmel and Oregon Bach Festivals, where she was viola da gamba soloist.

Hideki Yamaya

Lute, archlute

Praised in performance as "sensitive and impeccable" (Oregon Music News) internationally acclaimed guitarist and lutenist Hideki Yamaya has performed with and for the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Portland Opera, Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, Musica Angelica, and Astoria Music Festival. He has worked with the foremost guitarists and lutenists of today, including Robert Barto. He received his B.A. in music and his M.A. in Ethnomusicology from the University of California Santa Cruz, where he studied with Robert Strizich, and he received an M.F.A. in Guitar and Lute Performance from the University of California Irvine, where he studied with John Schneiderman. He also studied with James Tyler at USC and with Paul Beier at Accademia Internazionale della Musica in Milan, Italy. Active both as a performer and as a teacher in California and Oregon for over 15 years, Mr. Yamaya currently resides in Portland, teaching and performing all over the west coast..

Kimberly Fitch

Viola

Kimberly Fitch holds a Bachelor of Music from the Eastman School of Music, and Master of Music in Viola Performance from UC Santa Barbara.  Fitch’s primary teachers have included world-renowned soloist Helen Callus and Phillip Ying, violist of the Ying Quartet.  As a scholarship recipient, Fitch attended the Aspen Music Festival, Fontainebleau Schools in France, The Britt Institute with the Cavani and Pacifica Quartets, Soundfest Quartet Institute with the Colorado Quartet, and the Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival with the Tokyo Quartet.  Fitch recently performed the Bartok Viola Concerto with the University Symphony Orchestra in Santa Barbara as a first place winner of the Concerto Soloists Competition.  Fitch was a semifinalist at the 2005 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, winner of the 2002 Youth Symphony of Southern Oregon Concerto Competition, and recipient of the John Celentano Award for Excellence in Chamber Music at the Eastman School.  Fitch is a founding member of the East-West Virtuosi, a group of outstanding young chamber musicians from around the world presenting concerts on the West Coast.  Currently, Fitch resides in Ashland, OR where she performs with orchestras throughout the state, teaches viola at Southern Oregon University, and runs a private studio of young violinists and violists.

Danny Holt

Piano, percussion

Called “exceptional” by the Los Angeles Times, pianist Danny Holt specializes in performing contemporary works, 20th century music, and obscure and neglected repertoire from past centuries.  The late music critic Alan Rich praised one of Holt’s recent performances as "phenomenal" (SoIveHeard.com) and The Record (Waterloo, Ontario) called him "the classical music equivalent of an extreme sports athlete."  In addition to championing the works of emerging composers, Holt has worked with composers such as Steve Reich, Louis Andriessen, Christian Wolff, James Tenney, David Lang, Michael Gordon, Augusta Read Thomas, and many others. Holt's Fast Jump CD (Innova Recordings, 2009) was a featured new release on both WNYC and iTunes, and includes world premiere recordings of works by David Lang (co-founder of Bang on a Can), Caleb Burhans, Lona Kozik, Graham Fitkin, and Jascha Narveson.  Gramophone called the disc "a compelling showcase for Holt's innate virtuosity and gregarious temperament" and Sequenza21.com called Holt's playing "brilliant". Holt resides in Los Angeles, where he is an active freelance performer and educator, and he serves on the faculty of the Herb Alpert School of Music at California Institute of the Arts.  For more information, visit: www.dannyholt.net