ABOUT
member bios
Elizabeth Blumenstock · Gonzalo X. Ruiz · Stephen Schultz ·
Katherine M. Shao · Roy Whelden
Elizabeth Blumenstock is
widely recognized as one of the country's leading baroque violinists. A riveting
and deeply expressive performer, she is concertmaster and frequent soloist with
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, and the Boston Early
Music Festival Orchestra. In addition to her orchestral activity, Ms. Blumenstock
keeps a very busy schedule of chamber music and is a founding member of the
Artaria Quartet, Arcadian Academy, American Baroque, Concerto Amabile, Arcangelli
Strings, and Musica Pacifica.
Gonzalo X. Ruiz has been called "a master of expansive
phrasing, lush sonorities and deft passagework" by the San Francisco Examiner
and "one of a small handful of truly superb baroque oboists in the world" by
Alte Musik Aktuell, Germany. He performs and records with Philharmonia Baroque
Orchestra, Boston Handel & Haydn Society, American Bach Soloists and the Portland
Baroque Orchestra, and was a prizewinner at the Brugges International Early
Music Competition in Belgium. In addition to an active schedule of chamber music
and solo work, he serves on the faculty of the Baroque Performance Institute
at Oberlin College. His CD of the Handel sonatas was described by one reviewer
as "the best record of baroque oboe music I've heard."
Stephen Schultz,
called "among the most flawless artists on the baroque flute" by
the San Jose Mercury News, and "flute extraordinaire" by the New Jersey Star-Ledger,
is principal and solo flutist with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and performs
with other leading early music groups such as Chatham Baroque, the American Bach Soloists,
Trinity Consort, and Musica Angelica of Los Angeles. 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. Mr. Schultz is an
Artist Lecturer in Music History at Carnegie Mellon University, and his engaging
teaching style has left its mark at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music,
Holy Names College, and the University of California at Davis and Los Angeles.
Mr. Schultz, founder of American Baroque, has produced and edited over thirty-five
CDs for his colleagues and lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Tina Blaine.
Katherine M. Shao, harpsichordist and managing director, has performed
with many of California' finest ensembles, including the New
Century Chamber Orchestra, Magnificat, and the San
Francisco Symphony. A Master's Degree recipient from the University of Indiana's
School of Music, she also works frequently in the contemporary music realm,
and has incorporated new music and performance art elements in many of her endeavors,
including the production of the unique work, The Path to the New Music,
a radio drama about the composer Anton von Webern. She was also a founding member
of the ground-breaking, all-female sensation BIMBETTA.
In addition to her many endeavors as a performer, Ms. Shao also works as a technology
manager in the software industry near her home in the Bay Area.
Roy Whelden, like
most musicians before the twentieth century, balances mutually supportive careers
in performance and composition. As a performer on the viola da gamba and vielle,
he has played and recorded with such ensembles as Sequentia (Koln), American
Baroque, Ensemble Alcatraz, and Musica Pacifica. Mr. Whelden received a Doctorate
of Music at the Indiana University School of Music, where he studied with the
legendary Thomas Binkley. He has recorded his compositions on the New Albion
label, and has arranged countless works, old and new, for American Baroque.