Current Artists

Chicago-based violinist Amelia Sie is sought-after for her exuberant, fiery performances and diverse programming. Previous engagements include a solo recital with Gotham Early Music Scene, The Bohemians: Musician’s Club of New York,and Early Music America, as well as solo performances with the Albany Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and Juilliard415. This 2025-26 season, Amelia looks forward to performing with Ars Music Chicago and Bach in the City, as well as performances in with The Cambridge Society of Early Music as first violinist of the Arrow Quartet. She received her Bachelor and Master of Music in Violin Performance from New England Conservatory, and her Master of Music in Historical Performance from The Juilliard School. Amelia proudly performs on a Peter Westerlund modern violin and a Timothy Johnson baroque violin.

Praised for her “sparkling, fluid soprano with admirable flexibility” (Opera News), Kristin Knutson Berka enjoys portraying characters from early music to contemporary musical theatre. She is a frequent collaborator with Haymarket Opera Company, having appeared in their productions of L’Incoronazione di Poppea, La decollazione di San Giovanni Battista, Agar et Ismael, La Susanna (Stradella), and Ariane et Bacchus. Recent solo engagements include Messiah (Sheboygan Symphony), Alcina (Milwaukee Opera Theater), To Catch a Thief (Skylight Theatre), Just Bach Concerts, and Early Music Now’s featured concert of the New Milwaukee Consort. She has enjoyed past collaborations with Alchemy Viols, Indy Baroque Chamber Players, Florentine Opera, The New Group, New York Philharmonic, and Great Lakes Baroque with harpsichordist Jory Vinikour. She received her Bachelor of Music from The Juilliard School and pursued further studies at the Manhattan School of Music. Ms. Knutson Berka resides in Wauwatosa, WI with her husband and two children.

Nicholas Chalmers is a founding member of the Mirandola Ensemble, and has been its Artistic Director since 2015. He has sung with The Bach Society of Minnesota, The Rose Ensemble, the Minnesota Bach Ensemble, Glorious Revolution Baroque, Transept, The Singers-Minnesota Choral Artists, and the Minnesota Chorale. Recent solo engagements include VocalEssence, the Oratorio Society of Minnesota, the Bach Roots Festival, the Schubert Club, the Church Music Association of America, the St. Mark’s Cathedral Concert Series, and Border Crossing. Nicholas received a B.M. in music from St. Olaf College, as well as an M.M. in Choral Conducting at the University of Minnesota. He is the Director of Choirs at Chesterton Academy in Hopkins and is Director of Music at St. Lawrence Catholic Church & Newman Center at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Sought after as an educator and clinician, Nick has recently presented for the Chesterton National Summit and the National Catholic Educators Association Conference. During the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 academic years Nicholas piloted a high-school choral residency program in collaboration with Minnesota Public Radio.

Counter-tenor Patrick Terry was born and raised in Janesville, Wisconsin, but he has been heard on operatic stages across the world. Career highlights include singing Eustazio at the Glyndebourne Festival, Rinaldo with the Minnesota Opera, Rosencrantz with the Bayerische Staatsoper, and premiering Brett Dean’s “In this brief moment” with the Elbphilharmonie. He earned degrees from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, The Royal Academy of Music in London, and was the first countertenor to join the Jette Parker Young Artist program at The Royal Opera House Covent Garden

Stephen Alltop serves as Music Director of the Apollo Chorus of Chicago, the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, and the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra.  A specialist in oratorio and historical performance practice, he is a full-time member of the conducting and keyboard faculties at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University.  Dr. Alltop has conducted numerous opera productions at Northwestern, including Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Piccinni’s La Buona Figliuola, Handel’s Theodora and Alcina, and Orfeo and L’Incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi.  Stephen Alltop has appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as both a harpsichord and organ soloist. He has performed with the Joffrey Ballet, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and every season since 2011 as harpsichordist for Music of the Baroque. Alltop served as Coordinator for WFMT’s Bach Complete Organ Work Project in 2014, and the WFMT Bach Complete Keyboard Festival in 2015, and has performed as a keyboard artist across Europe.

Charles Asch performs as a baroque cellist throughout Minnesota with ensembles including Bach Society of MN, Lyra Baroque Orchestra, and Bach Roots Festival. He has also performed solo cello and chamber music recitals through the Twin Cities Early Music Festival, where he also got his training on baroque cello from Jaap ter Linden. He obtained his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Minnesota, as well as his Master of Music degree from Juilliard. His undergraduate studies were completed at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, in both German studies and Music Performance.

Kiyoe Matsuura enjoys a vibrant freelance career performing baroque violin and viola with orchestras and chamber ensembles across the United States. Recent engagements have included Ensemble Affect, Apollo’s Fire, Haymarket Opera Orchestra, Philharmonie Austin, Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, and the Madison Bach Musicians. Based in Chicago, Kiyoe also performs locally with Bella Voce Sinfonia, Music of the Baroque, The Newberry Consort, Callipygian Players, the Bach and Beethoven Experience, and Ars Musica Chicago. She is a co-founder of Ensemble Vitelotte, a violin and keyboard duo dedicated to works by historical women composers.www.kiyoematsuuraviolin.com

Praised for his “gripping performances” by The New York Times, baritone Ryne Cherry is a regular with various professional Early Music and Choral ensembles from around the country. Ryne’s current season includes performances of Handel’s Saul and Messiah with Handel and Haydn Society, Bach’s B Minor Mass with Madison Bach Musicians, Bach’s St. John Passion at University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, and performances with Lyra Baroque in Minneapolis, MN. Recent highlights include his solo debut with Handel and Haydn Society in Handel’s Israel in Egypt with Jonathon Cohen at Symphony Hall in Boston, Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion with Bernard Labadie and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall and Mozart’s Requiem with La Chapelle de Quebec and Bernard Labadie at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada, and a national tour of Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spaulding’s jazz-opera Iphigenia. Ryne was a 2022 Virginia Best Adams Vocal Fellow at Carmel Bach Festival, a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow from 2016-2018, and 3rd prize winner of the 2020/2021 Lyndon Woodside Oratorio Competition in New York City. Ryne is currently in his 4th year as Vocal Director of Just Bach Concerts, a Baroque ensemble based in Madison, WI.

Ilana R. Schroeder received a bachelor’s degree in viola performance from the New England Conservatory of Music and a Ph.D. in historical musicology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a dissertation focusing on Parisian liturgical and paraliturgical music of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. She is currently a Lecturer at the UW where she helps lead the early music ensemble and teaches courses in premodern and premodern-adjacent music and culture which examine not only contemporary topics but also the ways in which those topics still influence and define modern culture and society.

Charlie Rasmussen, baroque cello and viola da gamba, is the Instrumental Director at Just Bach Concerts in Madison and serves on the board of directors of Early Music Now in Milwaukee. Charlie has recently performed with the Madison Bach Musicians, Aperi Animam, Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble, the New Milwaukee Consort, Milwaukee Opera Theatre, ViolMedium, and the Lyra Baroque chamber series. Charlie has also performed with the Gesualdo Six for their Secret Byrd program. Charlie coaches the viol consort at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and has been on faculty at the Madison and Whitewater Early Music Festivals. He has released two albums on the Centaur Records label. Charlie is a cello faculty member and the Suzuki Coordinator at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee.

Mark Brampton Smith serves as the current organist at Grace Episcopal Church. Mark began his church music career as a boy soprano at St. Paul’s Parish (K St.) in Washington, D.C., eventually serving on the music staff of churches in seven states. He holds degrees in organ performance from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan. As an organist, Mark won prizes in the Fort Wayne, Ann Arbor, and American Guild of Organists National Competitions, and he’s performed solo recitals at venues such as Overture Hall. As a collaborative pianist, Mark has worked with numerous singers, instrumentalists, and ensembles, including the Ann Arbor Cantata Singers, University of Michigan choirs, Colgate University Chorus, and the Wisconsin Chamber Choir.  

Stacey Berk is Professor of Oboe and Music Theory/Composition at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point. She performs as principal oboist with the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra and is a frequent solo and chamber music recitalist. She also performs baroque oboe with the Just Bach Concerts ensemble in Madison, Wisconsin. Stacey’s compositions are performed throughout the United States and internationally, especially in the double reed community.

May Kohler graduated with an M.M. and B.A. in Vocal Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied under Dr. Julia Rottmayer. Her favorite role credits include Calisto (La Calisto) and Franca (The Light in the Piazza) with UW Madison. Additionally, May maintains a voice studio with Academy of Sound in Oregon, WI, and has sung with the Madison Bach Musicians for their performances and workshops.

Madison Barrett is a mezzo-soprano based in Madison, Wi. She was recently seen performing with the Ohio Light Opera, the Middleton Community Orchestra, the University of Wisconsin- Madison Opera Theatre, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and Middleton Player’s theatre. Recent role credits include Songbird (Songbird), Margaret (Light in the Piazza), Lady Jacqueline (Me and My Girl), Ilene Cavanaugh (The Arcadians), Endimione (La Calisto), and Flora (La Traviata) among others. She is currently pursuing her Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in Voice Performance at the University of Wisconsin where she holds the prestigious Collins Fellowship. Madison is also an active educator and teaches voice at Beloit College.

Micah Behr received his Doctorate in Viola Performance at UW Madison where he studied viola with Sally Chisholm and collaborative piano with Martha Fischer. His original compositions and transcriptions have been premiered by the Madison Bach Musicians and the Stoughton Chamber Music Players. He also composes music for Geneva Campus Church where he serves as Worship Director and Artist-in-Residence.

Eleanor Mayerfeld is a soprano from Madison hailed for her “free, clear top range and finely pointed phrasing” (South Florida Classical Review). She currently tours the upper Midwest as Pamina in Opera for the Young’s adaptation of The Magic Flute. She has also performed Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), and Papagena (The Magic Flute).
Concert soloist appearances include Caccini’s Alme luci beate and Vedrò’l mio sol (Middlebury Bach Festival), Strauss’s Saüsle, liebe Myrthe (AIMS-Graz), and the world premiere of Salve Regina, a commission from the Middlebury Commun ity Chorus by Ukrainian composer Dmytro Malyi.

Anna Rasmussen (violin) has been a faculty member at the Wisconsin
Conservatory of Music since 2016. She has played Baroque violin with Sonata a Quatro, Musica Maxima, Just Bach, New Milwaukee Consort, and other Baroque ensembles in Milwaukee. She is principal second in the Menomonee Falls Symphony Orchestra and has played in orchestras in Wisconsin, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Texas, including the Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra, Norwalk Symphony Orchestra, Western Piedmont Symphony, Raleigh Symphony Orchestra, Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra, and Waco Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Rasmussen received her Master’s in Violin Performance at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Baylor University. Her primary teachers include Julia Hardie, Eka Gogichashvili, and Fabian Lopez.

Matthew O’Sullivan, organ, serves as Interim Music Director at Grace Episcopal Church in Madison. Prior to moving to Madison in 2024, he was based in Portland, Oregon, where he directed the music at St. Bartholomew Episcopal Church in Beaverton, and was organist in residence and tutor in organ at Lewis & Clark College, serving also as Dean of the Portland Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. As an organist, he has appeared as soloist with Bozeman Symphony and Helena Symphony in Montana, while presenting many solo recitals. Originally from the UK, he studied Music at Cambridge University, where he was Organ Scholar at Christ’s College.

Anton TenWolde, cellist, originally from the Netherlands,  studied with Sylvain van Amerongen, cellist with the The Hague Philharmonic Orchestra (Residentie Orkest). While earning his degree in Applied Physics at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, Anton performed with Ton Koopman, and toured with the Netherlands Student Chamber Orchestra and the Netherlands Student Baroque Orchestra. In 1973 he moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where he worked for 27 years as a Research Physicist and Project Leader at the Forest Products Laboratory. For many years he played principal cello with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. He is the founding member of the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble and regularly performed with the Madison Bach Musicians and the Fort Wayne Bach Collegium. Anton recorded his first CD, together with Charlie Rasmussen, of Tommasso Giordani’s Six duos for two cellos, opus 18. This is the first recording on period instruments of all six sonatas.