Behind the Musik: The Garden of Harmony

Patricia Ahern was educated at Northwestern University, Indiana University, and the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland. She taught baroque violin at the Freiburg Conservatory in Germany and Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute, and has given masterclasses‬ at McGill, York University, Wilfrid Laurier, University of Windsor, Western‬ University, University of Toronto, University of Wisconsin, Grand Valley State University, California State University Long Beach, Sookmyung Women’s University (Seoul), and the Sydney Conservatorium (Australia). She has concertized throughout Canada, the US, Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America, and has performed with Milwaukee Baroque, Ars Antigua, Chicago Opera Theater, Toronto Consort, Aradia, I Furiosi, Newberry Consort, Musica Pacifica, and the Carmel Bach Festival. Tricia has been invited to play this season with the Eybler quartet and Banff’s Evolution Quartet program. Tricia has‬ recorded for Sony, Naxos, and Analekta, and joined Tafelmusik in 2002.‬

Geneviève Gilardeau has been a core member of Tafelmusik since 1999. She has been featured as a soloist several times with the group, in recordings of concertos by Vivaldi and Leclair, and in concert playing concertos by Bach and Telemann. She was introduced to baroque performance practice by the violinist and conductor Jean-François Rivest, at the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec à Chicoutimi and at the Université de Montréal, where she obtained her Master’s degree. A core member of Les Violons du Roy from 1995 to 1998, she commuted during those years from Quebec City to Toronto in order to study baroque violin with Jeanne Lamon at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory. Geneviève also performs with several groups in Toronto (Aradia, Toronto Consort, Classical Consort) and in Montreal (Masques, Les voix humaines). With her husband, lutenist Lucas Harris, she released the CD The Bach-Weiss Sonata. She is the proud mother of 11-year-old Daphnée Gilardeau Harris.

Keiran Campbell was drawn to the cello after he stumbled across one in his grandmother’s basement and was baffled by its size. Once he turned 8, he began taking lessons—on a much smaller cello—in his native Greensboro, North Carolina. After studying extensively with Leonid Zilper, former solo cellist of the Bolshoi Ballet, he received his Bachelors and Masters at the Juilliard School, working with Darrett Adkins, Timothy Eddy, and Phoebe Carrai. Keiran also spent several springs in Cornwall, England, studying with Steven Isserlis and Ralph Kirshbaum at Prussia Cove.

Keiran has performed with ensembles including The English Concert, NYBI, Philharmonia Baroque, The Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Four Nations Ensemble, and Les Violons du Roy. He recently performed with Le Concert Des Nations under Jordi Savall, touring Europe performing Beethoven Symphonies before recording them on Savall’s new Beethoven CD. During the summers, Keiran has performed with Teatro Nuovo, Lakes Area Music Festival, and The Carmel Bach Festival. He is also on faculty at the recently formed, UC Berkeley-based, Chamber Music Collective, which focuses primarily on post-1750 performance practice. Recent performance highlights include concerto appearances with Tafelmusik and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, a concert of Monteverdi Madrigals with Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations in Carnegie Hall, a solo recital with fortepianist Sezi Seskir at the Berkeley Early Music festival, and performances of Handel’s Saul and Solomon with English Concert at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh Festival.

Keiran is also fascinated by instrument making, which he studies with the maker of his cello, Timothy Johnson.

As a performer, Charlotte Nediger’s first love is playing continuo in an orchestral and/or choral setting, something she’s been delighted to do with Tafelmusik since joining the orchestra in 1980 at age 21. She also works being the scenes as Assistant to the Music Director, Librarian, and Program Editor, and oversees Tafelmusik’s Artist Training programs, notably as Artistic Coordinator of the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute. A native of southwestern Ontario, Charlotte holds Bachelor and Master degrees from the University of Western Ontario and a Solo Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in the Netherlands. She teaches at the University of Toronto.