David Fallis has been a member of the Toronto Consort since 1979 and its Artistic Director since 1990. He has led the ensemble in many critically-acclaimed programs, including The Praetorius Christmas Vespers, The Play of Daniel, all three of Monteverdi's operas in concert, Cavalli's La Calisto and Carissimi's Jephte, among many others. He has directed the group in its many recordings and tours. He is also one of Canada’s leading interpreters of operatic and choral/orchestral repertoire, especially from the Baroque and Classical periods. He is Music Director for Opera Atelier and for the Toronto Chamber Choir. He has conducted major choral/orchestral works and operas by Monteverdi, Purcell, Handel, Bach and Mozart for Houston Grand Opera, Cleveland Opera, Wolf Trap Theatre, Utah Opera, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Windsor Symphony, Festival Vancouver, the Singapore Festival, the Seoul Arts Centre (Korea), the Elora Festival, the Guelph Spring Festival and the Elmer Iseler Singers. Currently he teaches in the Graduate Department at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto.

A native of Toronto, soprano Michele DeBoer enjoys a busy performing career in Toronto and surrounding areas, reaching as far as Quebec and the Oregon Bach Festival. With an affinity for Early Music, she has sung with groups including Tafelmusik, Opera Atelier, Toronto Masque Theatre, Aradia, Les Voix Baroques, Baroque Music Beside the Grange and La Chappelle de Quebec. Locally, Michele has appeared as a guest soloist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Chamber Choir, Etobicoke Centennial Choir, Grand River Chorus, Durham College Community Choir, Soundstreams Canada and the Toronto Classical Singers. Michele enjoys teaching voice, conducting two choirs at Our Lady of Sorrows Church and spending time with her husband, Esteban, and their daughter.

Ben Grossman is a well known performer of experimental, folk, early, and traditional music in Toronto. His work can be found on many CDs of various genres, as well as in music for theatre, videos, and installations. With the help of the Canada Council and Ontario Arts Council, Ben studied ud and Turkish classical music in Istanbul, hurdy-gurdy in Europe, and has received support for composition and improvisation work as well. http://www.macrophone.org/

Singer and fiddler Katherine Hill has recently returned to her home town of Toronto after 6 years in northern Europe. During this time, she performed and recorded with groups such as the sequentia ensemble for medieval music, Gabriel Garrido’s Ensemble Elyma, as well as the Ars Choralis Coeln and Scivias (Berlin). During these years she also co-founded a medieval music/location theatre company as well as a medieval music/improv fusion ensemble, performing at alternative performance festivals all over Germany, Poland and the Netherlands. Here in Canada, Katherine enjoys her work with the Toronto Consort, the sine nomine ensemble for medieval music, the Toronto Continuo Collective, and the illustrious Ensemble Polaris. In her spare time she hangs out with nuns, studies Medieval latin and Swedish cow-calling, and plays electric vielle with her indie rock friends in Ottawa.

Paul Jenkins cultivates an eclectic musical career as a keyboardist and tenor. A member of the Toronto Consort since 1990, the Aradia Ensemble and Musica Franca, he has appeared with some of Canada's leading baroque and early music groups, including Tafelmusik, Opera Atelier, Ensemble Anonymous and La Nef. He has recorded with Charles Schlueter, Principal Trumpet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Czech-American composer Tomas Svoboda's Duo Concerto for Trumpet and Organ for the Helicon label. He accompanied Russian countertenor Vyacheslav Kagan Paley in his New York debut recital. Guest appearances include Apollo's Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, the Toronto and Windsor Symphony Orchestras, Opera in Concert, the Toronto Chamber Choir, the Esprit Orchestra, I Furiosi, Sine Nomine Medieval Ensemble, Musica Divina, the Canadian Chamber Ensemble, Talisker Players, Toronto Masque Theatre, and many music festivals. This summer's itinerary includes The Grand River Baroque, Ottawa Chamber Music, and Niagara-on-the-Lake Festivals. He will host Aradia in his Philipsville Summer Arts programme in rural Leeds County. Paul eagerly awaits the completion of a new, seven-stop chamber organ by Toronto organ builder Thomas Linken.

Terry McKenna enjoys performing a wide range of musical styles on period and modern lutes and guitars. He’s been with the Toronto Consort for more than 20 years now (!) and also plays with Ensemble Polaris and the Toronto Masque Theatre as well as guest appearances with I Furiosi, Musica Franca and Opera Atelier, among others. In addition to historical-based repertoire, Terry welcomes opportunities to perform contemporary scores by composers such as James Rolfe, Omar Daniel, Peter Hannan, John Beckwith and Harry Freedman. Terry has participated on many recordings and broadcasts and finally did his own feature project, Throw the House Out of the Windowe (and Other Damn Fine Dance Tunes) on the Marquis Classics label. Another one is in the works – stay tuned! Terry gets great satisfaction from teaching guitar and lute at Wilfrid Laurier University. He also enjoys composing and performing music for his wife Susan Kennedy’s youth theatre project Playmakers! (www.play.makers.ca). Terry lives in Stratford, Ontario (where he performs with the Stratford Festival) with Susan and their four children, two dogs, three cats, 1 frog, 1 turtle, 2 cute new anoles and 3 goldfish…

Since her first CBC radio gig at the age of 20, Alison Melville (recorder, early flutes) has performed as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician across Canada, the USA, Japan, Iceland and in Europe. Besides her activities as a member of the Toronto Consort, she appears frequently with Tafelmusik, Opera Atelier, Aradia and numerous other ensembles; a recent highlight was playing (onstage too!) for the Boston Early Music Festival's 2001 production of Lully's Thesée. As a member of Ensemble Polaris Alison also co-creates new versions of Nordic folk music using traditional Norwegian flutes as well as her 'usual' instruments. She has recorded extensively and can be heard on Atma, ebs, Narada, Sony Vivarte, Naxos, Analekta, ibs and SRI. Alison studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis as the winner of numerous awards from the Canada Council, and is currently on the faculties of the Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Toronto. She is also a practitioner of zen shiatsu. http://www.alisonmelville.com/

John Pepper, a native of Annapolis, Maryland, sang for many years with Festival Singers of Canada, Tapestry Singers, The Gents and Elora Festival Singers, and now works regularly with the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, Opera Atelier and the Toronto Chamber Choir. He has recorded extensively with most of those organizations and with Canadian Brass, and has taken part in recordings and premières of music by John Beckwith, R. Murray Schafer, Harry Somers and Arvo Pärt. His work in music theatre includes Huron Country Playhouse, Comus Music Theatre and Rainbow Stage Theatre. John has been a member of the Toronto Consort since 1990.

Laura Pudwell has a well-established international profile, with recent engagements in Paris, Salzburg, London, Houston, Boston and Vienna. She has sung with many leading orchestras and opera companies, including Tafelmusik, Les Violons du Roi, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Calgary Opera, Vancouver Opera, Opera Atelier, Symphony Nova Scotia and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony. Her range of repertoire is immense, ranging from Hildegard of Bingen, through a recording of Dido and the Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas under Hervé Niquet, to Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, and evenings of Stephen Sondheim and Cole Porter. A native of Fort Erie, she lives in Waterloo with her husband and two children. http://www.gossageartists.com/laura.html

© 2008, Toronto Consort

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