Music at Eden's Edge Concert Program Archive
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Meet the Artists 2007
Maria Benotti, Violin
Artistic Director
Violinist Maria Benotti founded Music at Eden’s Edge, the North Shore's own resident chamber music ensemble, in 1982. As Artistic Director, she has shaped its programs and artistic vision while performing for 25 seasons. Active in Boston's vibrant musical scene, she is a member of the faculty of the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, where she has been teaching violin, chamber music, and Sonata Duo class since 1977. She has taught a course in string pedagogy in the NEC School for Continuing Education.
Ms. Benotti performs frequently with the Handel & Haydn Society Orchestra on period violin, and as concertmaster and chamber performer on modern violin with the St. John’s Concert Series in Beverly Farms. She is a founding member of the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston.
She has appeared in numerous recitals and chamber concerts throughout New England, including a Jordan Hall solo recital, the Enchanted Circle Series at Jordan Hall, the Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival, the Monadnock Festival, and the Music at Noon Series at Northeastern University and has recorded for Friedrich von Huene and composer Howard Rovics.
A graduate of Oberlin College and New England Conservatory of Music, Ms. Benotti studied with Eric Rosenblith, Dorothy DeLay, Masuko Ushioda, and Valeria Kuchment. Her chamber music studies included such master teachers as Leonard Shure, Josef Gingold, Donald Weilerstein, David Wells, and Michael Schnitzler, with whom she studied while a special student at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, Austria.
Mark Berger, Viola and Composer
Mark Berger attended Boston University as a Trustee Scholar where he studied violin with Roman Totenberg and viola with Steven Ansell. Mr. Berger has performed in numerous summer festivals including the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival and Tanglewood. A strong advocate of new music, Mr. Berger has been a returning member of the New Fromm Players, an ensemble in residence at the Tanglewood Music Center devoted entirely to the performance of contemporary works. Mr. Berger is a highly active violist and violinist in the Boston area and has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Lyric Opera, ALEA III Contemporary Music Ensemble, New World Symphony, and the Vermont and Albany Symphonies. As a composer, Mr. Berger received his master’s degree Boston University where he studied with Lukas Foss and Theodore Antoniou. Mr. Berger’s compositions have been heard internationally in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia, Athens, Greece, and San Jose, Costa Rica. His music has been performed by ensembles such as ALEA III, the Harvard Group for Contemporary Music, New Music Brandeis, the Hellenic Group for Contemporary Music (Athens), and Studio New Music (in residence at the Moscow Conservatory). Mr. Berger is on the faculty of Middlesex Community College in Bedford, MA and is currently a PhD candidate at Brandeis University where he studies with David Rakowski.
Neil Fairbairn studied bassoon in Boston and London. A freelance musician in Britain for twenty years, he toured regularly with the London Opera Group and the Phoenix Wind Quintet. He also worked extensively with the Royal National Theater, accompanying productions on British, European, and North American Tours. In the field of music publishing, Neil was associate editor of The Music Makers, a biographical encyclopedia of musicians. He also co-edited Royal Collection, an anthology of music composed by members of the British royal family. Neil currently lives in Belmont, Massachusetts, where he is a freelance bassoonist and writer. He plays with the wind quintet Solar Winds and teaches bassoon and chamber music at Phillips Andover Academy.
Hailed by John Williams, Grammy award winning composer and conductor as “an outstanding cellist and truly dedicated artist”, Emmanuel Feldman enjoys an active career as a soloist and chamber musician. With a repertoire ranging from Bach to Ligeti, Mr. Feldman has concertized throughout Europe and North America. He has performed as soloist with the Boston Pops, Nashville Chamber Orchestra, New England String Ensemble and many others. An avid chamber musician, he was invited to participate in the Marlboro Music Festival and has collaborated with fellow artists Gilbert Kalish, Robert Levin, Joy Cline Phinney, Yehudi Wyner, the Borromeo String Quartet, and soloed with pop and jazz artist Bobby McFerrin. In the Boston Globe Richard Dyer wrote “Feldman was superb” in his recent Celebrity Series debut. He has CD’s on the Naxos, Arsis and Zimbel labels and the New York Times called his CD of Virgil Thomson’s Cello Concerto on Albany Records an “excellent recording…the concerto sounds exhilarating in this bracing and confident performance”. A consummate advocate of new music, he has premiered cello works by composers Aaron Kernis, David Diamond, Gunther Schuller, and many others. Co-founder of Cello e Basso with bassist Pascale Delache-Feldman, they have been called “a musical Lewis and Clark” by NPR’s Ron Schacter. He has performed at the Pablo Casals, Schlesswig Holstein, Yellow Barn, Killington, and Summit Music Festivals. A Curtis Institute graduate with studies at the Paris Conservatory, Mr. Feldman currently is on the cello faculty at Tufts and Brown Universities and New England Conservatory.
Cellist Sarah Freiberg is a member of the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque and the Freeman/Freiberg Duo. She has performed with the New York Collegium, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (San Francisco), Portland Baroque (Oregon), Seattle Baroque, the Boston Early Music Festival and Arion (Montreal). As a corresponding editor for STRINGS magazine, she has contributed numerous articles to that publication. Sarah has edited the six cello sonatas of Guerini for both PRB Productions and Broude Brothers, and recorded them and Laurenti sonatas for Centaur. She teaches in the early music program at Boston University as well as at the Powers Music School in Belmont. Sarah received her D.M.A. and M.M. degrees from S.U.N.Y. at Stony Brook, and holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory, Brown University (in American Civilization) and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. Ms. Freiberg can be heard on numerous recordings, including as soloist in Mozart's Concertone.
A graduate of Merrimack College and the Berkeley College of Music, Reid Jorgensen was trained as an arranger and composer as well as in drum and percussion performance. For fifteen years he managed Studio 203, a performance space in Boston. His Classical performance includes free-lancing with such groups as the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston and the Zamir Chorale. He has performed for many years with the Spectrum Percussion Trio and as Group Leader in its performances for Young Audiences for twenty-five years.
Mr. Jorgensen performs regularly in shows, theater, and on television, having recently played several times on Basic Black on WGBH. He has performed with Jazz greats Lionel Hampton, Cab Calloway, Errol Garner, and the North Shore’s Herb Pomeroy.
Besides his long-standing work with Young Audiences, Mr Jorgensen also teaches at the Rivers Music School in Weston, MA.
Leningrad State Conservatory. Former Assistant Professor at Sverlovsk State Conservatory, Soviet Union. After emigrating to the U.S., performed as soloist at Mechanics Hall with symphony orchestras. "Making Music together," 1988. Frequent guest artist on NPR's "Morning Pro Musica". Awards: Laureate of the Latvian Republic Competition, the Best Accompanist Award in All-Union Competition, the Second Prize in the International Piano Competition, Michigan. Currently co-chair of piano faculty at Longy School of Music and VP of MMTA.
Julia McKenzie, Baroque violin
Julia McKenzie, violinist, is an alumna of the New England Conservatory, the Aspen Music School, and the University of California, Irvine. She performs with numerous Boston ensembles including Boston Baroque, the Handel and Haydn Society, Cantata Singers, Emmanuel Music, Foundling Baroque Orchestra and Women's Advocacy Project, and the multi-media group "Melodic Vision" with the Riverview Chamber Players. As a specialist in historical performance practice, she has performed in early music festivals in Germany, Mexico, Indianapolis, and Boston, and has traveled internationally on tour with Boston Baroque. Also a consultant of fine violins, she is employed by Johnson String Instrument and acquires instruments and bows from all over the world for string players nationwide. A dedicated teacher, Ms. McKenzie coaches students in the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory Preparatory School where she teaches privately and conducts workshops in Baroque performance practice. She has recorded for the Telarc, Meridien, Arabesque and Titanic record labels.
Lynn Nowels, cellist, performs in Boston with groups including The Cantata
Singers & Ensemble, Emmanuel Music, & Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra. She was
a founding member of the Artemis String Quartet which specialized in the
quartets of Shostakovich. She is a graduate of the University of
Washington
School of Music where she studied cello & chamber music with Eva Heinitz,
Denes Zsigmondy, & Donald McInnes. She was awarded a fellowship to the
Blossom Festival Chamber Music School where she worked with Josef Gingold &
Leonard Rose. Recent appearances include concerts in Nebraska with the
Emmanuel Trio and in Maine with Winsor Music. She looks forward to
returning
to the International Musical Arts Institute this July. Ms. Nowels has
taught
at Wheaton College and the Lexington Waldorf School and has recorded for
the
CRI label.
An active freelance flutist in the Boston area, Whitney Pencina has performed and toured with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and performs as a substitute player in the flute sections of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Springfield Symphony, Indian Hill Symphony, and the Hingham Symphony Orchestra. She appeared as a soloist with the Southwest Virginia Chamber Orchestra in March 2006 and was the 2001-2002 flutist for the ALEA III New Music Ensemble in Boston. Whitney was a 2002 Tanglewood Music Center fellow and a fellow at the Wintergreen Music Festival of Virginia in 2000. A native of Roanoke, Virginia, Whitney received a Bachelor of Music and Performer’s Certificate from Indiana University, a Master of Music degree from Boston University and an Artist Diploma from the Longy School of Music. Her teachers include Marianne Gedigian, Thomas Robertello, Robert Willoughby, and James Copland Scott.
Barbara Poeschl-Edrich grew up in Germany, between Munich and Salzburg. She has performed in recitals throughout Germany, Austria, Italy, England, Japan, and the United States. Since moving to Boston in 2000, Mrs. Poeschl-Edrich has played with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Classical Orchestra, Boston Baroque, Cantata Singers, Collage New Music, Providence Singers, the Tanglewood Music Center, as well as many orchestras in New England.
Mrs. Poeschl-Edrich appeared as a soloist with the Lexington Sinfonietta, the New England String Ensemble, and in 2004, with the Boston Classical Orchestra, performing Handel's Harp Concerto and Debussy's Danses for Harp and Strings on just five days notice, filling in for Ann Hobson Pilot.
As a member of the Historical Harp Society, Mrs. Poeschl-Edrich also plays a Bavarian single-action harp, a small Celtic harp, and an Italian Baroque triple harp. She has earned degrees in Salzburg and London. In 2005, she graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts from Boston University, where her principal teacher was Ann Hobson Pilot. She is a faculty member at both the Brookline Music School and Boston University.
William Riley maintains an active schedule as a performer and educator. He currently teaches classical guitar as a member of the applied music faculty at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Mr. Riley has won prizes in several national and international competitions, including first prize in the ECU National Guitar Competition 2000, fourth prize at the 10th International Guitar Competition at the Portland, Oregon, Guitar Festival, and semi-finalist at the 2001 Guitar Foundation of America International Competition. He has recorded and premiered several new works for solo guitar, including “Remembrances of Jerusalem” by Israeli composer Lior Navok, for which he was called a “fine soloist” by American Record Guide.
Mr. Riley’s recent appearances include a solo recital and master class at Texas State University, the premiere of a new work for solo guitar for the “Composer’s Series” at the Juilliard School, a performance for the New York Young Musician’s Forum, the “Guest Artist Series” at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, as well as chamber music performances for the “Noon Concert Series” at the Boston Athenaeum, King’s Chapel, Boston, and the “First Monday at Jordan Hall” Concert Series. He is also a founding member of the Quadrivium Guitar Quartet, which recently completed a 40 concert outreach tour in rural Kentucky schools, performing for over 10,000 students.
William Riley holds a Bachelor of Music degree from The University of Texas at Austin, and studied on scholarship with world-renowned guitar virtuoso Eliot Fisk at the New England Conservatory of Music, where he received his Master of Music degree, with honors. In addition to his university duties, he also teaches a large studio of young guitarists as director of the Childbloom Guitar Program of Boston.
Soprano Clara Sandler, has performed in opera and oratorio, and has presented recitals in Boston, New York, Washington DC and in her native Argentina. Her operatic roles include Oscar (“Un Ballo in Maschera”), Nella (“Gianni Schicchi”), Zulma (“L’Italiana in Algeri”), Yum-Yum (“The Mikado”), Elsie Maynard (“Yeomen of the Guard”), Papagena (“Magic Flute”) with Boston Academy of Music, Cape Cod Opera and New Bedford Symphony. She received critical praise for her performance of Wagner’s “Wesendonck Lieder” with the Boston Chamber Ensemble. Also with this orchestra she appeared as the featured soloist in the Boston premiere of Gorecki’s “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”, for soprano and orchestra. Her oratorio credits include the soprano solos in Haydn’s “Harmoniemesse”, Bizet’s “Te Deum”, Haydn’s “The Creation”, Mendelssohn’s “Elijah”, Mozart’s “Coronation Mass”, Bach’s “Magnificat” and Handel’s “Messiah”, performed with various organizations in the Boston area. Ms. Sandler is on the voice faculty at Boston College, and at the New England Conservatory’s Preparatory School, where she co-chairs the Voice department. She will sing the soprano solo in Dvorak “Mass in D” in May with the New Bedford Choral Society, and will sing music of Jacques Brel with The Bostonians, in August. Her recordings include Pinkham’s opera “Cask of Amontillado” with Arsis Records, and her solo CD “Alma Apasionada” Songs from Spain & Argentina, with pianist William Merrill, released in 2006 on Newport Classic.
Michael Sponseller, Harpsichord
Mr. Sponseller has appeared throughout Europe and North America with critical acclaim as a soloist, conductor, and chamber musician. Winner of the American Bach Soloists Competition (1998) and the Jurow International Harpsichord Competition (2002), he holds the distinction of being a two-time prizewinner at the Festival of Flanders International Harpsichord Competition (Bruges), as well as taking prizes in Montreal and Kalamazoo. His recitals, which favor the French “clavecinists” and English virginal repertoire, have been heard at the Smithsonian Institution, Saint Cecilia’s Hall, Alliance Francaise and at festivals such as Boston, Berkeley, and Edinburgh. Following his return to the US in 1999, Mr. Sponseller has performed and recorded frequently with the Handel and Haydn Society, Smithsonian Chamber Players, American Bach Soloists, New York Collegium, and Apollo’s Fire. Michael Sponseller performs in partnership with leading artists in both instrumental and vocal mediums, and performs with numerous chamber ensembles such as La Luna, Aradia, and Rhetoric. In addition to holding degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague, Mr. Sponseller was a teacher of harpsichord at the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music and has been on staff at Boston University. Mr. Sponseller's passionate interest in 17th and 18th century opera led to making his conducting debut in 2000 with Dido and Aeneas of Henry Purcell. Since then he has performed and been assistant conductor in a wide range of repertoire, including Castor et Pollux, Ariodante, Amadigi, Alcina, Cephale et Procris, and Les Arts Florissants. In 2000, he became a research assistant at the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, working with Lisa Goode Crawford on the operas of Joseph Nicolas Pancrace Royer (1705-1755). This work culminated in 2002 in the modern-day premiere of Royer’s Le Pouvoir de la Amour with the New York Baroque Dance Company, Oberlin College, and the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, which received recognition and praise from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Opera News. Mr. Sponseller can also be heard on several recordings from Electra, Vanguard Classics, Naxos, Delos and Centaur. Since 2002, he has be part of the famed Bach cantata cycle at Emmanuel Church in Boston, in which has performed nearly 50 cantatas. With that ensemble, he also also performed in Peter Sellars' stagings of Bach cantatas for the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson on tour in 2005, and Mark Morris' production of Handel's L'Allegro, Il Moderato, e Il Penseroso. In 2006, Mr.Sponseller was named Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow by Emmanuel Music, in recognition of his achievements as emerging young artist.