Q: You had a rich history with the Waverly Consort, a Renaissance ensemble, before you became a soloist and recording artist of Baroque early music. What initially attracted you to the Baroque style? And how does the Baroque vocal technique differ from that of the Renaissance?

A: My professional life started with this group in 1978 while I was a music doctoral student at Stanford. Although I left Stanford on a “one year leave” to take the position, Waverly provided the opportunity to sing extensively at Lincoln Center. So this group actually launched my career. It was 13 years before I finished my doctorate in Musicology at Stanford, but the intervening years were essential to establishing myself and besides, I had always had great passion for Renaissance music.

But during 1985, the bicentennial celebrations for both Handel and Bach occurred, and I was in demand as a soloist for many groups. Baroque music requires very fast coloratura, and a great deal of melismatic singing [“Melisma” - a decorative phrase or passage in vocal music, especially one in which one syllable of a plainsong text is sung to a melodic sequence of several notes].

Baroque music requires a singer with well-established technique: not only an extended range, and a clear sound, but a great deal of agility and a greater degree of passion. The solo virtuoso female singer (as a paid occupation) emerged from the Italian 16th century courts of Mantua and Ferrara. For example, the music of Sigismondo d’India written in 64th notes, cannot be performed by amateurs.

By Purcell’s time, the Italian style was popular. He can be considered one of the first great English composers of Recitative. (continued on page 2...)