Alison Melville
Recorders, Baroque flute

Official Website: www.alisonmelville.com

Since playing her first CBC radio gig at 20, Alison Melville's career as a performer on recorders and historical flutes has taken her across Canada and to the USA, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand and Europe. A member of Toronto Consort and Ensemble Polaris, and the Artistic Director of the Bird Project, she also plays frequently with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra as a soloist and orchestral player and has appeared with the Toronto Symphony, Opera Atelier, Aradia Ensemble, Soundstreams, New Music Concerts, ArrayMusic, Boston Early Music Festival, Chatham Baroque, and many, many others. Alongside performances in Tokyo's Bunkamura Hall, Carnegie Hall and other celebrated venues, she has also concertized in cinemas, convents, gardens, barns, ferries, school gymnasiums, and prisons! With extensive television, film and radio credits (CBC/Radio-Canada, BBC, RNZ, NPR, Iceland State Broadcast Service and others), Alison has been heard on the soundtracks of The Tudors, The Borgias, CBC-TV's beloved The Friendly Giant, Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter and other films by Amnon Buchbinder and Ang Lee. She can also be heard on over fifty CDs on the Atma, ebs, Narada, SRI, Sony, CBC, Naxos, ibs, Analekta and other labels, including five critically acclaimed solo recordings. Her forays into the creation of original music have been heard with Ensemble Polaris, '999 Years of Music (directed by Peter Hannan), the Post-Medieval Syndrome, and the Bird Project. Alison Melville was on the teaching faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in the USA from 1999 to 2010, and currently teaches at the University of Toronto.

Colin Savage, recorders

Colin Savage has performed on recorder and clarinet with ensembles in Canada, the USA and Japan, including Artek, New York Collegium, Tafelmusik, Canadian Opera Company, Opera Atelier, la Nouvele Sinfonie, Aradia Ensemble, Apollo’s Fire and the Toronto Consort. In 2006 he appeared as soloist in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with the American Virtuosi for their collaboration with the Jose Limon Dance Company in "Concerto Six Twenty-two." Colin is principal clarinetist in the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra and frequently performs chamber and orchestral music on period clarinets and basset horn. Regularly heard on CBC Radio, he has recorded for Sony Classical, ebs, Naxos, Atma, Analekta and Dorian. He has taught for the Young Artists Performance Academy at the Glenn Gould Professional School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and for many years was co-Artistic Director of the chamber concert series Baroque Music beside the Grange. Colin studied at the University of Saskatchewan, McGill University and in London, England.

Rona Goldensher, Baroque violin

Originally from New York City, Rona Goldensher completed her studies at the Mannes College of Music with Dora Schwarzberg and Shirley Givens and subsequently studied baroque violin with Nancy Wilson and Stanley Ritchie. She has performed extensively with leading period instrument ensembles throughout North America including Aston Magna, Waverly Consort, and Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra (New York), Tafelmusik (Toronto), Toronto Consort, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (San Francisco), City Musick (Chicago), and Seattle Baroque. In addition to the Windermere String Quartet, Rona can often be heard in a wide variety of chamber and orchestral projects from early to new music. Her recording credits include Sony, Harmonia Mundi, Analekta, Newport Classics and MHS/ Musicmasters. Rona is also active teaching violin in Toronto where she resides with her husband, Ray and their magnificent golden retrievers, Penny and Lincoln.

Paul Jenkins, harpsichord

Paul Jenkins cultivates an eclectic musical career as a keyboardist and tenor. A member of the Toronto Consort since 1990, he also performs regularly with the Aradia Ensemble, and has appeared with some of Canada's leading baroque and early music groups, including Tafelmusik, Opera Atelier, Ensemble Anonymous and La Nef. Guest appearances include Apollo's Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, the Windsor, Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto Symphony Orchestras, Orchestra London, Opera in Concert, the Toronto Chamber Choir, Esprit Orchestra, I Furiosi, Toronto Masque Theatre, and many music festivals. Paul also enjoys touring, recording and giving recitals.

Laura Jones, bass viol, Baroque cello

Laura Jones is a native of Brandon, Manitoba, and it was at Brandon University that she started her formal music education. She completed a Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Toronto, and went on to receive her Master’s Degree in Performance from the University of Michigan. Now living in Toronto, she enjoys a busy and multi-faceted career on both modern and period instruments. Laura has been a member of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra since 1989; as well, she is the principal cellist of the Nota Bene Period Orchestra, and has also performed with Opera Atelier and the Aradia Ensemble, with whom she has made several recordings on the Naxos label. As a chamber musician, she performs regularly as a member of the Windermere String Quartet on Period Instruments, Talisker Players Chamber Music (with whom she has appeared at chamber music festivals in Elora, Ottawa, and Vancouver), and L’Intemporel Baroque Ensemble. Serenade Française, a CD of music by French composers that Laura recorded with her father, pianist Lawrence Jones, was released in January of 2008.