Soloists
Margriet Tindemans
Margriet Tindemans has performed, recorded, and taught early music on four continents. A 2005 Grammy Nominee, she was named "Best asset to Seattle's classical music scene" in the Seattle Weekly's 2004 "Best of Seattle" issue. She has been called a rare combination of charismatic performing and inspiring teaching, a scholar with a profound knowledge of music, poetry and art of the Middle Ages - "a national treasure". As a player of early stringed instruments, from the medieval fiddle and rebec to baroque viola and viola da gamba, she performs and records with Medieval Strings, Seattle Baroque Orchestra and the Pacific Operaworks. Margriet is a frequently invited guest with the Folger Consort, the Newberry Consort, and other leading early music ensembles. She has performed with both the Seattle Opera and the National Dutch Opera in Amsterdam. In addition to maintaining a busy private studio she is a much sought after director and teacher at many workshops, including the Port Townsend Early Music Workshop, the Pacific Northwest Viols Workshop, the Accademia d'Amore, Viols West, and the Seattle Academy of Opera. Margriet works closely with the Northwest Puppet Center, for whom she has arranged and directed several operas, including The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni, and Francesca Caccini's La Liberazione di Ruggiero. She is a faculty member at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.
Shira Kammen, Strings
Multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Shira Kammen has spent well over half her life exploring the worlds of early and traditional music. A member for many years of the early music Ensembles Alcatraz, Project Ars Nova, and Medieval Strings, she has also worked with Sequentia, Hesperion XX, the Boston Camerata, and the Balkan group Kitka. She is the founder of Class V Music, an ensemble dedicated to performance on river rafting trips. Shira has performed and taught in North and Central America, Europe, Israel, Morocco, and Japan, and on the Colorado, Rogue and Klamath Rivers. She happily collaborated with singer/storyteller John Fleagle for fifteen years, and performs now with several groups: a medieval ensemble, Fortune's Wheel; a new music group, Ephemeros; an eclectic ethnic band, Panacea; a Renaissance violin band, The King's Noyse; and in many theatrical and dance productions. Shira is featured on the choir's first CD 'River of Red'.
Bill McJohn, Harp
Bill McJohn studied early harps with Cheryl Ann Fulton and medieval music with Margriet Tindemans. He is co-director of the chant ensemble Peregrine, the medieval ensemble Contrafacta, and the Seattle Continuo Ensemble, and performs with the Angelorum Harp Choir and the Medieval Women's Choir.
Laurie Monahan
Laurie Monahan, mezzo-soprano, is known for her spirited performances of early and contemporary music. Ms. Monahan is well-known as co-founder of Ensemble Project Ars Nova (P.A.N.) She appears on over twenty recordings. For the past twelve years she has directed and sung in the Boston-based ensemble of women's voices, Tapestry, which made its concert debut with Steve Reich's Tehellim at Jordan Hall in Boston, in a performance deemed "a knockout" by the Boston Globe. Tapestry has made six recordings, including "Song of Songs: Come into My Garden" and "Faces of a Woman". Upcoming performances with Tapestry in the 2009-2010 season include a program for the Bucerius Kunst Forum in Hamburg, Germany, and the debut of the "American Dreams" program for the Library of Congress in Washington DC and the Frick Museum in New York City. Laurie is on the faculty at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA.
Peggy Monroe
Peggy Monroe specializes in historical percussion instruments. She has taught and performed across the USA, and in Canada, England, Spain, and Germany. She has written scripts for musical dramas performed by the Medieval Women's Choir and the Early Music Guild, and her many school appearances earned her Early Music America's Bringing History Alive award in 2004. Peggy is the only non-singing member of the Medieval Women's Choir and is featured on the choir's CDs 'River of Red' and 'Laude Novella'.
Marian Seibert, Soloist
No stranger to fans of the Medieval Women's Choir, soprano Marian Seibert is a soloist with the Trinity Consort and the Early Music Guild's Continuo Ensemble. She has performed with many local ensembles and organizations, including the Tudor Choir, St. Mark's Cathedral, the Esoterics, Northwest Baroque, the Early Music Guild, St. James Cathedral, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Gallery Concerts, Seattle Opera, Northwest Puppet Center, Seattle Experimental Opera, and the Seattle Academy of Opera. She is a featured soloist on the Medieval Women's Choir's second CD, Laude Novella.