The Toot is fortunate to present some of the best teachers and players in the Early Music world. This year our distinguished faculty includes (in alphabetical order):

Becky Baxter (Early Harps)

Ms. Baxter's resume as a professional in the field of early harp includes performances of harp literature from the 12th through 18th centuries on a wide variety of historical harps. Becky has performed at events such as: the National Harp Society Convention, Houston Grand Opera's productions of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo and L'Incoronazione di Poppea (including subsequent broadcasts on NPR), the Boston Early Music Festival, the Round Top Early Music Festival, the Texas Early Music Festival, the Amherst Early Music Festival, and the Historical Harp Society Conference/Workshops.

In addition to her full-time career in church music as Associate Director of music and organist at Clear Lake Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas and as a pedal harp performer and teacher, Ms. Baxter currently serves on the faculty of the Amherst Early Music Festival and the Texas Early Music Festival. Her first recording on the Dorian label is titled O Lux Beata, Renaissance Harp Music (DOR 93193.) She also appears as a guest artist with Chatham Baroque on another Dorian CD, Españoleta (DOR 90284.) Both recordings went up in the shuttle with astronaut Bill McArthur in Fall of 2000.

Bruce Brogdon (Lutes)

Bruce Brogdon studied classical guitar at the University of St. Thomas. His interest in early music led him to take up the lute, and he has studied privately and in masterclasses with Paul O'Dette and Pat O'Brien. Bruce has performed with the Texas Baroque Ensemble, the Green Mountain Consort, the Houston Baroque Ensemble, the Texas Early Music Project, La Follia Austin Baroque, Ars Lyrica Houston (based at University of Houston), and Aquinas, the resident ensemble of the University of St. Thomas.

Bruce leads his own group, Canzonetta, which specializes in plucked string continuo (lutes, guitars, and harp), and features music of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Amy Brumley (Voice)

Amy Brumley has sung regularly with Texas Early Music Project since 2000. Her debut performance with the group, singing Almirena in Handel's Rinaldo, earned her a nomination for best classical singer by the Austin Critics Table.

Dr. Brumley is a member of the staff at the Amherst Early Music Festival, and has studied there with Julianne Baird, Andrew Lawrence-King, Howard Crook, Jennifer Lane, Emily von Evera and Ellen Hargis.

While completing her doctorate degree in voice, she collaborated in several concerts and lectures with her husband, Jonathan, who specializes in continuo playing on lute and harpsichord. These performances have included Tears and Flames: 17th Century Love Songs from Italy, England, France, and Spain; Singing Amarilli mia Bella; and Lost Is My Liberty: French airs de cour and English lute songs.

Most recently Dr. Brumley sang 17th century Swedish music with "The Killer Bees" at the Boston Early Music Festival, earning rave reviews in the New York Times and Early Music America. She was also selected to participate in a masterclass with Stephen Stubbs, Paul O'Dette and Ellen Hargis.

Valerie Horst (Recorders and Notation)

Valerie Horst is the Director Emerita of the Amherst Early Music Festival, a former vice president of the American Recorder Society, and past President of Early Music America. Holder of an MFA in Historical Performance from Sarah Lawrence College, she is a long-time member of the faculty of Mannes College of Music, as well as Music Director of the Miami Chapter of the American Recorder Society. Since retiring from the Amherst Early Music directorship, Ms. Horst divides her time between buffing her nails, reading whodunits, and throwing bonbons to the poodle.

Danny Johnson (Voice, Workshop Director)

Award-winning director, international performer, and recording artist Daniel Johnson has been the artistic director of the Texas Early Music Project since its inception in 1987. Johnson has performed and toured both as a soloist and ensemble member in such groups as the New York Ensemble for Early Music, Sotto Voce (San Francisco), and Musa Iberica. He can be heard on various recordings for Koch International, Foné Records (Rome), Amherst Festival Productions, and the Texas Early Music Project label.

Johnson was the director of the UT Early Music Ensemble, one of the largest and most active in the U.S., from 1986-2003. In 1998, he was awarded Early Music America's Thomas Binkley Award for university ensemble directors. He is also the recipient of the 1997 Quattelbaum Award at the College of Charleston. Johnson teaches master classes in performance practice and also serves on the faculty, staff, and the Executive Advisory Board of the Amherst Early Music Festival. He has been on the faculty of the Texas Toot since 1994.

Douglas Kirk (Reeds and Brass)

Douglas Kirk studied musicology at The University of Texas at Austin and McGill University (Montréal, Canada), and early music performance practice at the Royal Conservatorium of Music in The Hague, Holland. He is a well-known cornettist and shawm player, and has concertized widely throughout North America and Europe with such groups as the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal, the Boston Camerata, the Boston Shawm and Sackbut Ensemble, the Taverner Consort of London, Les Sonneurs (Montréal), the Toronto Consort, Tafelmusik, and the Ensemble Claude Gervaise.

He can be heard on numerous recordings of seventeenth century Venetian, Spanish, and German music with such ensembles as the Taverner Consort of London directed by Andrew Parrott, the Gabrieli Consort of London directed by Paul McCreesh, the Boston Camerata under Joel Cohen, and the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal directed by Christopher Jackson. Dr. Kirk directs large-scale early music performance projects at McGill University, where he also teaches cornetto and other early wind instruments. He lectures on medieval and Renaissance music at Concordia University.

Rosamund Morley (Viols)

On treble, tenor and bass violas da gamba, and their medieval ancestors, Rosamund Morley has performed with many distinguished early music ensembles as diverse as ARTEK, The Boston Camerata, Piffaro, The Catacoustic Consort, Sequentia and Les Arts Florissants. She is a member of Parthenia, New York's premiere consort of viols, and a founding member of the Elizabethan ensemble My Lord Chamberlain's Consort. For many years she toured worldwide with the Waverly Consort and she developed an interest in contemporary music while playing with the New York Consort of Viols.

Her busy teaching schedule has included numerous national and international workshops such as Charney Manor and the Benslow Music Trust in Hitchin, UK, Triora Musica in Liguria, Italy, the Cammac Music Center in Quebec, Amherst Early Music in New England, the Port Townsend workshop in Seattle and the annual conclave of the Viola da Gamba Society of America. She directs the Viols West Workshop in San Luis Obispo, California and teaches the viol consort for the Collegium Musicum at Yale University.

Gwyn Roberts (Recorders)

Gwyn Roberts has been a featured soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, Recitar Cantando of Tokyo, Piffaro and the Washington Bach Consort. American Record Guide has called her 'a world-class virtuoso', and a critic from Los Angeles remarked, "she is special, her playing full of accent, humor, and the sort of expression I wish I heard more from singers."

She is Director of Early Music at the University of Pennsylvania and is on faculty at Peabody Conservatory. As co-director of Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra Tempesta di Mare, she records for Chandos (UK) and leads the ensemble in its frequent performances, including the Prague Spring International Music Festival (Czech Republic), the Oregon Bach Festival, Swarthmore College and Cornell University. Her recording of Veracini Recorder Sonatas on PGM earned a five-star rating from BBC Music Magazine. Other recording credits include Deutsche Grammophon, Dorian, Sony, Vox, PolyGram, NPR, Newport and Radio France. She studied recorder with Marion Verbruggen and Leo Meilink and baroque flute with Marten Root at Utrecht Conservatory in the Netherlands.

Frank Shirley (Recorders)

Dr. Frank Shirley holds a Master of Music degree in musicology from the University of Texas, where as a Ph.D. in mathematics he teaches courses in math for non-math majors. He has performed in early music ensembles in Ithaca NY, Dallas, and Austin, and has taught for several years at the Fall and Summer Toots. He has studied recorder in workshops with Saskia Coolen, Reine-Marie Verhagen, and Aldo Abreu. In addition, Dr. Shirley has performed as a bass chorister in the UT Early Music Ensemble, the Austin Civic Chorus, the Victoria Bach Festival, and the Dallas area Renaissance Polyphony Weekend.