Con Gioia has featured such internationally renowned musicians as violinists Eduard Melkus, Monica Huggett, Daniel Stepner, Elizabeth Blumenstock and Greg Maldonado; flutists John Solum and Stephen Schultz; recorder player Mathias Maute; viola da gambists, Wieland Kuijken, Laura Jeppesen, and Mark Chatfield; oboist Gonzalo X. Ruiz; sopranos Julianne Baird and Sharon Baker; glass harmonicist Dennis James and others.

Based in London, Rohan de Saram was, for over twenty years, the 'cellist of the Arditti Quartet, renowned as Europe's leading champions of contemporary music for string quartet. In 2005, Mr. de Saram resumed his solo career, in order once more to perform repertoire from the baroque, classical, romantic, and contemporary periods. Although he has been more recently known as an outstanding performer of contemporary music, it was as a classical artist that Rohan de Saram earlier gained recognition. Having studied 'cello from the age of 11 with Gaspar Cassado in Italy in Siena and Florence, he was awarded, at the age of 17, the coveted Suggia award to study in the UK with Sir John Barbirolli and in Puerto Rico with Pablo Casals--the most renowned 'cellist of the twentieth century. In 1957 Rohan de Saram was invited to give his Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Philharmonic, playing Khatchaturian's Cello Concerto.

"There are few of his generation that have such gifts."--Pablo Casals
"de Saram is a Cello Phenomenon, one of the greatest cellists of our time."--Kölnische Rundschau, Germany

Rohan de Saram has performed with the major orchestras of Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, and the former Soviet Union with conductors such as John Barbirolli, Adrian Boult, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa and William Steinberg, as well as with composers conducting their own works such as Luciano Berio. De Saram has an impressive discography with numerous recordings on labels such as Sony, Phillips, and Montaigne and his recording of the Complete Sequenzas of Luciano Berio was rated one of the New York Times' "10 Best Recordings of 2006." In December 2004 he was awarded an honorary D. Litt., from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. A year later, in December 2005 he received the Deshamaniya, a national honour of Sri Lanka, given by the President of Sri Lanka. More details at www.rohandesaram.co.uk


Canadian soprano Anne Harley specializes in performing music from early oral and written traditions, and in creating new works by contemporary composers. She has appeared as a soloist across North America and Europe with The Handel & Haydn Society, The Boston Camerata, Opera Boston, Opera Unlimited, The American Repertory Theatre, The Banff Centre for the Arts (Alberta, Canada) and at the Tanglewood Festival. She has been oratorio soloist in many standard works of the baroque, such as Handel’s Messiah, Israel in Egypt, Bach’s Passions, Magnificat, Cantata No. 51 “Jauchzet Gott,” Lutheran Mass, Christmas Oratorio, and Monteverdi’s Vespers. She débuted in Europe at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw as the lead in Handel’s Acis and Galatea and created the roles of Imagination and Zélide in the modern-day première of Royer’s Le Pouvoir de l’Amour in conjunction with the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles and Oberlin College. The Boston Globe acclaimed her performance in theAmerican première of Peter Eotvos's Angels in America as “vocally and dramatically outstanding.”The Village Voice described her singing in the Boston Camerata's American Shaker program at Brooklyn Academy of Music as transmitting a “heart-wrenching purity.” Her solo performances have been released on Naxos, Sony Classics, Dorian, and Musica Omnia, among others.

In 2000, she founded the ground-breaking early Russian music ensemble, TALISMAN, with Dr. Oleg Timofeyev (www.talismanmusic.org). Their first recording project won the Noah Greenberg award of the American Musicological Society and was praised by Gramophone and Early Music America. Since then, the group has recorded several more CDs of early Russian and Gypsy music and has presented programs and residencies at the Boston Early Music Festival, Harvard University, Yale University, Wellesley College, Brown University, and Oberlin College, among others. In June 2009, she was thrilled to play the role of Margaret Mead in the world première of the dance-opera A House in Bali by Evan Ziporyn, with libretto by Paul Schick, in the Water Palace Theater in Ubud, Bali. A graduate of Yale College, she received the doctorate in historical performance with a concentration in voice from Boston University (2006), and this fall, is delighted to join the faculty of the Music Department at Scripps College.


Stephen Schultz, heralded by the Los Angeles Times as "one of the rising stars of the period movement," is founder and director of American Baroque. He is principal and solo flutist with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica of Los Angeles, and performs with the American Bach Soloists, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, and Joshua Rifkin's Bach Ensemble. Concert tours have taken him throughout Europe and North America with featured appearances at the Tage Alter Musik Festival, Regensburg, Berkeley Early Music festival, Monadnock Music, J. Paul Getty Museum Summer Series, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, San Jose Chamber Music Society, and the Nakamichi Early Music Festival. A graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Holland, Schultz also holds several degrees from the California Institute of the Arts and the California State University of San Francisco. Currently a lecturer at Holy Names College in Oakland, Schultz's engaging teaching style has left its mark at California State University at Long Beach and Sacramento, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the University of Southern California, and the University of California at Davis and Los Angeles. 

Appearing on more than twenty-nine recordings for Harmonia Mundi USA, New Albion, Amon Ra, Koch International Classics, RGB, XDot25, Heru, and the Musical Heritage Society, Schultz enters his multi-year recording contract on the Naxos label with a wealth of experience. Innovative playing styles and experimentation with world music groups such as D'CuCKOO and Haunted By Waters have given Schultz a perspective on the music world unparalleled by his peers.  Schultz's unique processed baroque flute sounds characterize a new genre of alternative music that offers listeners of early music a new platform to enjoy formerly traditional instruments.