MEET THE FACULTY

Harpsichordist Wendy Young has performed at many of America’s major concert halls, at numerous international festivals, and with many early music ensembles, as well as dance and theatre groups, and is recognized as both a soloist and collaborative continuo player. Always striving to stretch the limits of the harpsichord, her playing can also be heard on a recording with the the Art Farmer Trio playing jazz versions of the Bach Brandenburg Concerti, and numerous commercials and movie soundtracks, including the soundtrack for the Warner Bros. movie “Interview with the Vampire.”

In addition to being the director of Early Music Princeton, she is the Music Coordinator for the Chigiana Global Academy Programs,  a 6-week summer chamber music program in Siena, Italy, for undergraduate students. 

Wendy has been studying the healing effects of sound, music, and vibration for over 30 years, and co-directed the Sound and Music Institute, a 9-month program in therapeutic sound and music at the New York Open Center. She has created a practitioner training in therapeutic sound, and is the director of the Princeton Sound School, specializing in sound meditation.

Dr. Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, mezzo-soprano, is a singer, conductor, educator, and composer. She was a member of the world-renowned vocal quartet Anonymous 4 from 2000-2015. She recorded twelve award-winning CD’s with the group, including American Angelswhich twice topped Billboard’s classical music charts, and The Cherry Tree, one of the top selling classical CDs of 2010. Anonymous 4′s performance of the Irish lament “Caoineadh” on Christopher Tin’s album Calling All Dawns, with Jacqueline as featured soloist, led to a Grammy for Best Classical Music Crossover Album. She is the founder and Artistic Director of ModernMedieval Voices, a women’s ensemble dedicated to creating programs that combine early music with new commissions. The ensemble has performed and given residencies all over the U.S.

As a composer, Dr. Horner-Kwiatek  has written pieces for MMV and the Folger Consort, amongst others, and her music has been described by The Washington Post as “beguiling and succinct.” She has been a guest soloist with many renowned ensembles and opera companies, including English National Opera, Washington Bach Consort, Royal Opera Covent Garden, The Folger Consort, Armonia Nova, Ensemble Modern Frankfurt and Ensemble InterContemporain Paris, performing at many of the world’s leading venues, including Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and Disney Concert Hall. 

 Dr. Horner-Kwiatek has a D.M.A. from The Juilliard School and is on the Performance Faculty at Princeton, where she teaches voice, directs the Early Music Princeton Singers and co-directs the consort music minor program with Gabriel Crouch. She is in demand as a clinician and gives masterclasses, ensemble technique workshops, and vocal pedagogy for composers seminars all over the USA. http://modernmedieval.org

Gold medalist and first-ever American laureate of the International Bach-Abel Competition, Arnie Tanimoto has quickly established himself as one of the foremost viol players in the United States. He has performed and recorded in venues across North America and Europe with the likes of Barthold Kuijken, the Boston Early Music Festival Ensemble, and the Smithsonian Consort of Viols. Arnie was the first-ever viola da gamba major at the Juilliard School, where he soloed on both viola da gamba and baroque cello. In 2017 he was awarded with a Frank Huntington Beebe Fund Fellowship and subsequently finished his studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland. His principal teachers include Paolo Pandolfo, Sarah Cunningham, Christel Thielmann, and Catharina Meints. As a teacher, Arnie regularly serves on faculty at the Mountainside Baroque Summer Academy and the Viola da Gamba Society’s Conclave, as well as maintaining a private studio in New York City. He holds additional degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and the Eastman School of Music.

Leah Gale Nelson, violinist, has performed throughout North America and in Europe as soloist, leader, and orchestral player with Smithsonian Chamber Players, Washington Bach Consort, Musica Angelica, Brandenburg Collegium, Clarion Music Society, and Trinity Wall Street Baroque Orchestra, among others. She has served as concertmaster for Music of the Baroque (Chicago), Gotham Chamber Opera (NYC), Aspen Festival Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, and is Artist in Residence, soloist and concertmaster for the Church of St. Luke in the Fields (NYC). An avid educator, Leah directs the New York Continuo Collective String Band, teaches historical performance at Rutgers University and Northwestern Bach Academy, and is a frequent guest instructor for Yale’s Collegium Musicum. Holding degrees from Chicago College of Performing Arts and Mannes College of Music, primary studies were with Alice Preves and David Nadien; historical performance with David Schrader, Nancy Wilson, Arthur Haas, and Michael Sand. Her recording Biber: The Sacred Mysteries was released on the Lyrichord label in 2011 – “an elegant and beautiful recording.” Early Music [Oxford].