Early Music Foundation: A Cross-Section of Early Music in New York Panel Discussion

Panel Participants Include

Television and radio personality Robert Aubry Davis is a native Washingtonian and an active member of the area’s cultural community. He is the creator and host of Millennium of Music, a program dedicated to music from the thousand years before Bach. Now in its 46th season, it is carried by more than 100 public radio stations nationwide, internationally, and on SiriusXM Satellite Radio. He has been host and moderator of WETA-TV’s weekly arts discussion program “Around Town” since its inception in 1986. Mr. Davis can also be heard on SiriusXM’s classical music channel, is a regular lecturer at various area seminars and performances, and has written liner notes for numerous classical and folk recordings.

Louise Basbas is founder, board president and former executive director of Music Before 1800, New York City’s longest-running early music concert series, now celebrating its 50th season.  She recently retired as director of music/organist at Corpus Christi Church. Since 1975 Ms. Basbas has conducted a professional choir whose repertory encompassed chant, polyphony and commissioned music. She was dean of the New York Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and president of the Bohemians; is a board member of GEMS-NY; and has served on numerous boards and grant-making panels. Ms. Basbas received Early Music America’s Howard Mayer Brown award for lifetime achievement in early music.

Nicola Canzano is a composer, harpsichordist and organist specializing in historical composition and improvisation. He is on the faculty at Michigan State University where he teaches harpsichord, and at The Juilliard School, where he acts as studio accompanist for the Historical Performance (HP) Department and guest lectures on improvisation. Mr. Canzano formed Nuova Pratica, a New York-based ensemble of HP grads from Juilliard that programs mostly its own compositions, primarily in older styles. He teaches improvisation and composition privately in New York City where he resides, and maintains a busy performance schedule as a continuo player with ensembles throughout the United States.

David McCormick is a multi-instrumentalist, scholar, and educator recognized for curating imaginative performances, creating educational opportunities for students of all ages, and guiding prominent arts organizations through the challenges of our time. He is executive director of Early Music America, where he is working to create a more inclusive, equitable space for all who engage with historical performance. As artistic director of Virginia-based Early Music Access Project, Mr. McCormick plays baroque violin and vielle and transforms thoughtful research into dynamic programming. He is a founding member of medieval ensemble Alkemie, with whom he has appeared at Indianapolis Early Music Festival, Music Before 1800, Amherst Early Music Festival, and the Berkeley Festival.

Patricia Ann Neely is an early-bowed string specialist (viola da gamba, violone, vielle, baroque bass). She holds a BA in music from Vassar College and an MFA in Historical Performance from Sarah Lawrence College. Ms. Neely has played with many early music ensembles here and abroad including Sequentia, Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra and Viol Consort, Tempesta di Mare, Washington Bach Consort,  Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra and Rheinische Kantorei Köln, and currently directs Abendmusik – New York’s early music string band. She serves on the boards of Early Music America and the Viola da Gamba Society of America where she chairs the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee.

Tenor, historical harpist, and musicologist Christopher Preston Thompson has performed as soloist in venues throughout the United States, including Carnegie Hall in New York City. He is the founding Artistic Director of Concordian Dawn, ensemble for medieval music, and is on faculty at New York University. He has led performance workshops and lectures for Princeton University, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania, the Modern Language Association, Universities of California-Berkeley and Davis, Stanford University, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, among others. Recordings include Concordian Dawn’s Fortuna Antiqua et Ultra and Medieval Song from Aristotle to Opera, and Pomerium's Musical Games of the Renaissance.

Recognized as one of America’s leading performers on early keyboard instruments, Gwendolyn Toth is equally adept on the organ, harpsichord and fortepiano. Ms. Toth has performed as a soloist on numerous historic organs in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Italy. She is the founder and artistic director of the acclaimed American period instrument ensemble ARTEK; recordings under her direction include Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo and his Complete Madrigals Books 5 and 7, and Cantatas of Johann Rosenmüller. In addition to being director of ARTEK, she is music director at Saint Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church in New York City. Ms. Toth teaches at City University of New York (Professor of Historical Performance Practice).

Free to attend.