Faculty
Lucas Harris, music co-director, theorbo/lute/Baroque guitar
Borys Medicky, music co-director, harpsichord/chamber organ
Guillaume Bernardi, stage direction, text analysis, diction
See biographies below:
Lucas Harris is pleased to have moved the base for his freelance lute activities to Toronto early in 2004.
Lucas began his musical life as a jazz guitarist in his hometown of Phoenix, AZ, and began to experiment with lutes during his liberal arts studies at Pomona College (Claremont, CA), where he graduated summa cum laude in 1996. He received his early music training during two years in Europe, first at the Civica Scuola di Musica di Milano as one of the first scholars of the Marco Fodella Foundation, then 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 has been engaged for concerts and recordings by many ensembles such as The Harp Consort, Apollo's Fire, New York Collegium, The Toronto Consort, Seattle Baroque and the Smithsonian Chamber Players. Lucas is now a regular lutenist with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and several other ensembles in Toronto.
Lucas’s passion for baroque theater has animated opera productions by the Juilliard Opera Center, the Utrecht and Connecticut Early Music Festivals, Monadnock Music, Opera Atelier, and the Boston Early Music Festival. He has also played in Baroque projects of such various modern-instrument ensembles as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Metropolitan Opera, Orcheste Symphonique de Montréal, and Via Salzburg.
In addition to private teaching, Lucas is on faculty at Oberlin Conservatory's Baroque Performance Institute as well as the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute. He has also taught for the New York Continuo Collective, the Amherst Early Music Festival and will be joining the faculty of the Longy International Baroque Institute in 2008.
Beyond continuo work, other recent projects include a lute concerto program for CBC’s 'Music Around Us,' a solo recital for the Minnesota Guitar Society (see newsletter interview here), and a staged production of Cavalli’s La Calisto at Ohio State University for which he served as musical director. Upcoming projects include a new solo recording, an outreach tour of Nunavut with soprano Ann Monoyios (with Piano Plus), and an invitation to direct the Pacific Baroque Orchestra in October 2008. Lucas also has an ongoing duo recital project with Wen Zhao, a virtuoso of the pipa (traditional Chinese lute); the two have a new duo recording which was funded by an award from the Ontario Arts Council.
Borys Medicky has appeared as solo harpsichordist and continuo player in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Currently residing in Toronto, he is active as a freelance performer, having appeared with major ensembles in Toronto and beyond such as Tafelmusik, The Toronto Consort, Opera Atelier, Aradia, Baroque Music Beside the Grange, Via Salzburg, the Grand River Baroque Ensemble and the Elora Festival Chamber Players. He enjoys co-directing (with lutenist Lucas Harris) the Toronto Continuo Collective, an all-continuo ensemble dedicated to fostering an increased interest in the stylish basso continuo accompaniment of seventeenth-century vocal and instrumental music. He is the artistic director of the Waterloo-based Nota Bene Period Orchestra, with whom he performs as a soloist and continuo player, and serves as organist of the Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist in Toronto.
Borys studied harpsichord with Michael Jarvis in Canada and with Arthur Haas at the Eastman School of Music and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, as well as Baroque performance practice with lutenist Paul O'Dette. Upon the completion of his doctoral degree at Stony Brook he was awarded the Samuel Baron Prize, given to an outstanding graduate. He is known for his strong interest in historical dance and its influence on instrumental music. In addition he carries out harpsichord maintenance duties for institutions and private owners in the Toronto area.
Guillaume Bernardi is a Toronto-based stage director and teacher. His directing work covers a wide range of genres, from theatre and opera to movement pieces. An artist of great depth and versatility, Bernardi has collaborated with many leading figures in the world of music, theatre and dance, including conductors René Jacobs; singers Suzie LeBlanc and Andreas Scholl; and choreographers Peter Chin, Heidi Strauss and New York-based Trisha Brown.
Recent directorial projects include productions of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro for Frankfurt Oper and for the Canadian Opera Company, Molière’s George Dandin for Théâtre Français de Toronto; a commission from Marie-Josée Chartier to choreograph Bas-Reliefs, Caldara’s staged oratorio La conversione di Clodoveo, (co-production by Montréal’s Les Voix Baroques and Berlin’s I Confidenti, performed at Montréal Baroque Festival and Vancouver Early Music Festival); Haydn’s L’isola disabitata for Frankfurt Oper); Handel’s Belshazzar for Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels; a semi-staged version of Handel’s Saul with Andreas Scholl for Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels (both with conductor René Jacobs); and Dal Male il bene, a 17th-century “Commedia in Musica” at the Innsbruck Early Music Festival.
Since 2004, he teaches at Glendon College, the bilingual faculty of York University in Toronto, where he is the Coordinator of the Drama Studies Programme.