Core Ensemble

Praised by the New York Times for her “splendid playing,” Natalie Rose Kress is a period violinist based in Washington, D.C.. Following three summers as a Tanglewood Fellow, she was awarded the Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize from the Tanglewood Music Center and performed with Yo-Yo Ma at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors, honoring Seiji Ozawa. Recent highlights include winning the 2022 English Concert in America Fellowship, the 2021 Mercury Chamber Orchestra Fellowship, as well as performing the World Premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s “Music for String Quartet” at The Tanglewood Music Center in 2021 with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She can be heard on the premiere recording of Bernstein’s quartet paired with the rarely performed, "Elegies" for violin and viola by Aaron Copland, to be released this September by Parma Records. She performs as a core member of Quartet Salonnières, Relic Ensemble, Repast Baroque Ensemble, and Musicivic Baroque and is concertmaster of La Grande Bande. Natalie plays regularly with The Handel and Haydn Society, the Washington Bach Consort, The Washington National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra, The English Concert, Opera Lafayette, and the Staunton Music Festival. An alumni of Stony Brook University and The Juilliard School, she is currently a Doctorate student at the University of Maryland and lives with her husband, Jonathan Davies, and dog, Henry, in Greenbelt, MD.

A curiosity in the cultural background behind the music she plays led Sarah Stone to baroque cello and viola da gamba. "The show is not over... Questlove keeps spinning into the early morning. Sir Patrick Stewart has been reading a Shakespeare sonnet everyday. Sarah Stone, who plays cello and viola da gamba, has stuck to her “Bach Everyday” performances...Since March 19, she’s done a Bach Chorale each day.” (Geoff Edgers, The Washington Post, 2020). At the start of the pandemic Sarah created Everyday Bach, recording multi-instrumental Bach everyday for a year, featured in the Washington Post, The Greene Space (WNYC), and Early Music America. Sarah is Associate Artistic Director of New York Baroque Incorporated and a core member of Repast Baroque. She performs with The Sebastians, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Seraphic Fire, Washington National Cathedral, Apollo’s Fire, The Thirteen, and Baroque Music Montana. Sarah holds degrees from The Juilliard School, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Rice University. www.sarahabigaelstone.com

Harpsichordist Gabe Shuford performs throughout North America and abroad, and is the recipient of several awards, including the 2011 Baron Prize from Stony Brook University and second prize at the 2007 Mae and Irving Jurow International Harpsichord Competition. He is a member of Repast Baroque Ensemble and has been a frequent guest of others, including A Far Cry and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The New York Times called his performance with Speculum Musicae of Elliott Carter’s Sonata “assured, polished and beautifully nuanced.” Gabe earned a doctorate from Stony Brook University, where he studied with harpsichordist Arthur Haas. He has served on the faculties of Luther College and Sarah Lawrence College.

Described by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a dignified and beautiful singer, bass-baritone Paul Max Tipton performs and records in opera, concert, and chamber music throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. In 2023-2024 he debuted at Seattle Symphony in Bach’s St. John Passion as Christus, returned to Tokyo for Handel’s Messiah with Bach Collegium Japan, and sang the role of Jupiter in John Eccles’ Semele with American Baroque Opera, being called “gloriously godly” by Scott Cantrell at the Dallas Morning News. 

Recent seasons include Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Bach Collegium Japan and Masato Suzuki for a debut in Tokyo, covering the title role in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at Handel and Haydn Society under Raphaël Pichon, Haydn’s Creation with Pacific Symphony and Robert Istad, Christus in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion for a debut at Spoleto Festival USA, the role of Street Singer in Bernstein’s Mass in a collaboration between Austin Opera & Austin Symphony Orchestra under Peter Bay, the role of Archibald Grosvenor in Gilbert & Sullivan’s Patience with Odyssey Opera & Gil Rose, and Plutone in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo with Göteborg Baroque, in addition to regular collaborations with Conspirare, Washington Bach Consort, True Concord, Kinnara, and Tenet Vocal Artists. Recent recordings include the role of Christus in Bach’s St. John Passion and the Mass in B Minor with Cantata Collective and Nic McGegan for Avie Records, the role of Phoebus in Bach’s Cantata No. 201, Geschwinde, ihr wirbelnden Winde with Dana Marsh & the Washington Bach Consort for the Acis label, and solo bass cantatas by Nicolaus Bruhns with Masaki Suzuki at Yale Institute of Sacred Music for BIS Records, along with several releases with Cut Circle & Jesse Rodin for Musique en Wallonie.

Mr. Tipton trained on full fellowship at the University of Michigan School of Music in Ann Arbor, being mentored by mezzo-soprano Luretta Bybee, tenor George Shirley, and collaborative pianist Martin Katz. He is a 2010 graduate of the Yale University Institute of Sacred Music in Oratorio & Early Music, studying with tenor James Taylor. In 2012 he was made a Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow at Emmanuel Music in Boston. Mr. Tipton resides in New York City. www.paulmaxtipton.com

Violinist Shelby Yamin brings signature vivacity to performances across the globe, from the historic state rooms of George Washington's Mount Vernon to the storied chapel at Versailles. Shelby has appeared as a soloist with Philharmonia Baroque Chamber Players, Voices of Music, New York Baroque Incorporated, House of Time and The Oregon Bach Festival orchestra. Dedicated to diversifying the canon, Shelby regularly researches, performs, and records lesser known works, including 18th-century repertoire from the music library of Nelly Custis and, more recently, the violin duets of Maddalena Lombardini Sirmen (1745-1818). Shelby's discography includes the first ever recording of Sirmen's entire opus of violin duets on period instruments (Orpheus Classical Label, 2021). In addition to performing regularly with the Cleveland based ensemble Les Délices, Shelby is also the Associate Producer of their early music webseries, SalonEra. Shelby has earned degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and The Juilliard School, where she won the Historical Performance Concerto Competition. She currently resides in New York City.

Violinist Beth Wenstrom’s chamber playing has been praised as “elegant and sensual, stylishly wild” (The New Yorker) and is an original member of the “eclectic and electrifying early-music ensemble," ACRONYM (Boston Globe.) As a soloist and concertmaster, she has performed with Trinity Wall Street Baroque Orchestra, New York Baroque Incorporated, Sebastian Chamber Players, TENET as well as the Washington Cathedral Baroque Orchestra. She has also performed in Apollo’s Fire, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra and other ensembles throughout the country and abroad. Beth serves as string coach for the baroque ensemble at SUNY Stony Brook and has taught violin and baroque orchestra as a recurring guest teacher at Oberlin Conservatory. She has also coached at Cornell University, Rutgers University, Vassar College, as well as summer institutes such as the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin and the Amherst Early Music Festival.

Heloise Degrugillier has worked extensively as both a recorder and traverso performer, and teacher throughout Europe and the United States. She has performed with leading period ensembles, including Handel and Haydn, the Boston Camerata, Boston Early Music Festival, Piffaro, and Tempesta Di Mare.

Heloise also enjoys an active teaching career. She teaches at Tufts university and Rhode Island College. She is the president and music director of the Boston Recorder Society. She has completed her studies in the Alexander Technique and has a Masters in Music from the Utrecht Conservatory in the Netherlands. 

New York City-based musician Erin Hall has been sashaying the city streets for more than a decade; performing in music venues, comedy shows, and independently releasing three albums; two under the name Erin and Her Cello, and the latest album under her name. The singer, songwriter, and cellist has been featured on WNYC’s New Sounds, Broad City Live, and has opened for the Portland Cello Project, comedian Tig Notaro, and others. 

Erin Hall’s latest album, Great Blue (self-released 2019), defies easy categorization, jumping from latin, funk, jazz and blues, to French pop. Her lyrics tell stories about the ordinary details of city life, and discovering the beauty of urban nature — like the pond in Central Park where she found magic and inspiration from a Great Blue Heron. Her music can be found on all streaming sites, and www.erinhallmusic.com. I@erinandhercello