On November 24, 2005, Music Around Us featured Lucas Harris in concert with Geneviève Gilardeau (violin), Christopher Verrette (violin), Patrick Jordan (viola) and Margaret Gay (cello). This performance was broadcast on CBC Radio Two Sunday, December 4, 2005.

Joachim Bernhard Hagen
(1720-1787)
Concerto for lute in A major
i.   Allegro moderato
ii.  Largo
iii. Allegro

Silvius Leopold Weiss
(1687-1750)
Introduzione & Allegro
Ciaccona

Johann Friedrich Fasch
(1688-1758)
Concerto for lute in D minor
i.   Allegro moderato
ii.  Andante
iii. Un poco allegro

attr. Johann David Scheidler
(1748-1802)
Variations on a theme by Mozart

Finale from Hagen's A major Lute Concerto
REALPLAYER   WINDOWS MEDIA   QUICKTIME
(04:23)

Lucas Harris, lute

Lucas Harris began his musical life as a jazz guitarist in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. After graduating summa cum laude from Pomona College (Claremont, California), he studied for a year in Milan, Italy as one of the first group of scholars sponsored by the Marco Fodella Foundation. The following year he spent in Germany, studying with Stephen Stubbs and Andrew Lawrence-King at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen.

Since returning to North America in 1998, Lucas has quickly become one of the foremost continuo lutenists in the U.S. and Canada. He plays regularly with ensembles such as Apollo's Fire, Chatham Baroque, New York Collegium, Trinity Consort, Seattle Baroque, and the Smithsonian Chamber Players. Lucas's passion for Baroque theater has animated opera productions by the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Toronto Consort, the Boston Early Music Festival, and Opera Atelier. He has also given solo recitals recently on the New York Early Music Series, at St. Lawrence University, and at the Festival Lamèque and the Été musical series in New Brunswick. Lucas is now the regular lutenist with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and has been living in Toronto since early 2004. In 2005-6, Lucas's travels will take him outside North America to Edinburgh (ARTEK), Tel Aviv (La Broderie), Barcelona & London (Tafelmusik), and Stockholm (BIS recordings).

Lucas has been on faculty at Oberlin Conservatory's Baroque Performance Institute since 2002, where he directs a staged opera scene project. He has also served on faculty for the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, the Lute Society of America Summer Seminar, and the New York Continuo Collective.

Geneviève Gilardeau has just completed her seventh season with Tafelmusik. She has had the opportunity to record some solos with the orchestra; you can hear her on Analekta's 'Baroque Feast' playing Vivaldi's Concerto in A minor for two violins together with Jeanne Lamon, and on CBC's 'Mozart Noir' playing a movement of Leclair's Concerto in F major. She also plays regularly with the Aradia Ensemble, the Toronto Consort, and Masques. Geneviève was born in Montréal, where her family still lives. She completed most of her studies at the Conservatoires in Montréal and Chicoutimi in Québec, as well as at the Université de Montréal, from which she holds a Masters degree. She is forever grateful to her teachers Jean-François Rivest and Jeanne Lamon.

Christopher Verrette is a member of Tafelmusik, with whom he is a frequent soloist and leader, has performed around North America, Europe and Asia, and has recorded over 30 CDs for Sony Classical, Analekta and CBC. He is a founding member of Ensemble Voltaire in Indianapolis and the Chicago Baroque Ensemble, with recordings on the Dorian, Cedille, Centaur and Catalpa labels. A frequent collaborator with the Musicians in Ordinary, he has also been a guest artist with the King's Noyse, Apollo's Fire, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Newberry Consort and Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra.

Christopher is a graduate of Indiana University, where he was awarded the first-ever Performer's Certificate for accomplishment on the Baroque violin and was a student of Stanley Ritchie. Recent recording projects range from old favorites like Beethoven Symphonies with Tafelmusik and Pachelbel Canon with Seattle Baroque to new arrangements of Playford tunes by Terry McKenna on "Throw the House out of the Windowe" and John Welsman's score (using Medieval vielle) to "The Limb Salesman", an independent Canadian film that debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2004.

Patrick Jordan, viola Patrick Jordan, a native of West Texas, studied with Susan Schoenfeld before moving to Boston in 1981 to study with Walter Trampler. Mr. Jordan holds a Bachelor's degree from the New England Conservatory and an Artist's Diploma in Chamber Music from the Longy School, where he began several years' study with Eugene Lehner. Now a resident of Toronto, Patrick is a member of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra with whom he tours throughout Canada, the United States, Mexico, Asia and Europe. He is also the Artistic Administrator and violist with the Gallery Players of Niagara, and co-Director of Re-Muse, a multi-disciplinary project with music as its starting point.

Patrick has been a member of the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra since 1997 and has appeared recently with the New York Collegium. While living in Boston, he performed regularly with D.C. Hall's Band (a recreation of a 19th-century dance and concert band), the van Swieten Quartet, a period instrument string quartet, and the Handel & Haydn Society Orchestra. He was a member of the Boston Quartet, a modern instrument string quartet, and the Really Eclectic String Quartet (RESQ), a group that explored popular dance and lyrical music from many cultures. From 1988 to 1993 he was Lecturer in Violin and Viola at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA; he is currently on the faculty of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He has recorded for Sony, Sony Classical, Dorian, Newport Classic, NorthStar, Analekta and Northeastern.

Margaret Gay is a member of Modern Quartet, a string quartet dedicated to the performance of new works, the Mississauga Sinfonia, the Hamilton Baroque Players, the Burdocks, a foursome specializing in works of the 20th century, the Critical Band, and the Gallery Players Association, based in St. Catharines. She has also performed with the Toronto Symphony, Esprit Orchestra, the Oshawa Symphony, and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. In the summers, she has performed at the Stratford, Elora, and Lameque Baroque Music festivals, as well as teaching cello and coaching chamber music at Toronto Music Camp, and at the University of New Brunswick Summer Music Camp.

After completing a Bachelor of Music degree at the Boston University School for the Arts, Margaret accepted an invitation to the Banff Centre for Fine Arts, where she completed the Winter Program. From there, she moved to Toronto, where she earned a Master's degree at the University of Toronto and began a remarkably active freelance career performing on both modern and period cello.

Margaret can be heard on numerous CDs, including "A Curious Collection for the Common Flute", several CBC recordings, a release from New Music Concerts, and a recent Hungaroton disc of 17th century English theatre music.