Saskia Coolen -- Recorders

Saskia Coolen studied the recorder with Kees Boeke and Walter van Hauwe at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, as well as musicology at the University of Utrecht. For many years, she has been a member of La Fontegara and Camerata Trajectina, which have given numerous concerts at home and abroad. She has also played in the Taverner Players, the orchestra of the Nederlandse Bachvereniging, the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Gabrieli Consort, Tragicomedia, the King's Consort, and other major ensembles and chamber music groups throughout Europe.

In 1994 she founded Ensemble Senario, which focuses on Baroque chamber music in which the recorder is featured as a major instrument. With her own Recorders Foundation she works in the field of multi-disciplinary music theatre. Saskia Coolen gives courses and master-classes throughout Europe and America, and she teaches at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.

At the Texas Toot Summer 2002, Saskia Coolen will be teaching Virtuoso masterclasses for Baroque repertoire, 20-th century recorder ensemble, mixed ensemble, and, as a typical Dutch touch, a course in how to make up your own van-Eyck-style variations.

Frances Blaker -- Recorders

Frances Blaker earned pedagogy and performance degrees in recorder from the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen. She performs as a soloist and in ensembles including Vermillian Trio and Farallon Recorder Quartet. She is the author of "The Recorder Player's Companion" and the "Opening Measures" column in American Recorder Magazine.

Frances can be heard on the Disc Continuo series of play-along recordings. She has taught at several Fall and Summer Toots and is on the Executive Advisory Board of Amherst Early Music.

At the Texas Toot Summer 2002, Frances Blaker will be teaching masterclasses on divisions and other virtuosic Renaissance music; recorder technique for all levels, based on her technique book; mixed consorts on the music of Attaignant (a choice selection of motets and chansons for instruments and voices of all levels); and Bach sonatas on the recorder.

Martha Bishop -- Viols

Martha Bishop is an artist faculty member in viola da gamba at Agnes Scott College and Emory University. She is past President of the Viola da Gamba Society of America and is currently Music Director of its annual Conclave. She performs with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra and the Knoxville Early Music Project (KEMP), and has been guest artist with Atlanta's Harmonie Universelle, the Tallahassee Bach Parley, and Washington's Folger Consort. She has been viola da gamba soloist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra.

Martha's instructional publications and compositions for viola da gamba are used worldwide and she has taught at viola da gamba workshops across the U.S. and in Puerto Rico, Canada, and England. She is also a cellist in several local Atlanta organizations.

Martha Bishop will be teaching her English Fantasia Hit Parade for upper-intermediate levels, Holborn and Lupo for various and mixed skill levels, and festival music for all sized viols -- celebrate a wedding, Christmas and Easter from various countries, for a mixed-level group. If there are advanced players, a master class might be substituted for one of the ensemble courses.

Tom Zajac -- Recorders and Reeds

Tom Zajac is a multi-instrumentalist widely praised for his versatility,

"and sacbut player Tom Zajac...was particularly versatile, also playing a bagpipe, flutes and recorders and, in some numbers, fingering a recorder with his right hand while he played a drum with his left." [Washington Post, October 14th, 2002]

"The art of improvisation, long before the jazz era, was explored in a bagpipe solo dashingly played by Tom Zajac." [Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 5th, 2002]

Tom is a member of Piffaro, the Philadelphia-based renaissance wind band, and the musical/theatrical group Ex Umbris. He's a regular guest artist with the Folger Consort, of Washington, DC, and has also appeared with other leading ensembles in the US including the King's Noyse, Newberry Consort, Violins of Lafayette, Waverly Consort, Concert Royal, and New York's Ensemble for Early Music.

Tom can be heard on over 30 recordings, ranging from Medieval dances and baroque opera, to contemporary folk-rock for Dorian, Deutsche Gramophon, Angel EMI, Virgin Veritas, Harmonia Mundi, Lyrichord, Windham Hill, and others. With his group Ex Umbris, he performed at the 5th Millennium Council event in the East Room of the Clinton White House. He played serpent in a work by Peter Schickele for the nationally broadcast radio show "A Prairie Home Companion", hurdy gurdy for an American Ballet Theater Company performance of a work choreographed by Twyla Tharp, bagpipe for an internationally broadcast sports beverage commercial, and percussion for a 16th-century equestrian ballet at the Berkeley Early Music Festival in California. The sound of his bagpipe also awoke the astronauts every morning on a recent space shuttle mission.

At the Texas Toot Summer 2002 Tom will teach classes in Renaissance recorders (exploring the ensemble repertory of music for the early recorder); "Mixed Ensemble: Music of Three Worlds" (open to singers and instrumentalists, this class explores the music of Islamic, Jewish and Christian Spain in the Renaissance), and technique for shawms and bagpipes, as well as a special class for pipe and tabor.

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.

At the Texas Toot Summer 2002, Becky Baxter will be teaching historical harp techniques review (for several levels of students: those with absolutely no harp experience, those with some historical harp experience, and lever or pedal harpists who want an introduction to various historical harp techniques); Italian & Spanish dances and grounds of the 16th and 17th centuries (for a mixed ensemble of bowed and plucked strings and soft wind instruments, including percussion players); and Beginning (no experience necessary) and a beginning continuo class (no experience necessary) for plucked strings and bowed bass instruments (harp, guitar, theorbo, and viols). This class is also open to singers.

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.

Bruce will be teaching lute technique, lute song class (in conjunction with Danny Johnson) and beginning continuo class (in conjunction with Becky Baxter)

James Brown -- Viols

James A. Brown, received his degrees in organ performance and choral conducting from the University of Houston, before moving to New York City to pursue studies in viola da gamba and historical musicology. While in New York, Mr. Brown served as musical director for Polyhymnia, a group dedicated to the performance of Medieval and Renaissance sacred repertory.

As gambist, Mr. Brown is a core member of La Follia Austin Baroque, and has performed with the New York Continuo Collective, Texas Early Music Project, Conspirare, Ars Lyrica and Polyhymnia. Mr. Brown has served as faculty and Executive Advisory Board member for Amherst Early Music. As a conductor his primary efforts have been in the choral/orchestral repertoire of the French Baroque, and in the music of Claudio Monteverdi. Mr. Brown is also full time director of Worship and the Arts for First Presbyterian Church, Austin and the Artistic Director of the Saint Cecilia Music Series.

Dr. Sara Funkhouser -- Reeds and Recorders

Dr. Sara Funkhouser attended the Juilliard and Manhattan Schools of Music, where she studied oboe with Harold Gomberg, and Baroque oboe with Ku Ebbinge at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague and recorder with Saskia Coolen in Amsterdam. She resides in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where she performs on Baroque oboe and recorder with a number of early music ensembles: Dallas Bach Society, Fort Worth Early Music, Texas Baroque Ensemble, Texas Bach Choir (San Antonio), Dayton Bach Society (Ohio), Sarabande (Washington, D.C). She now teaches recorder at the University of North Texas.

Sara's courses will include a class in the making and maintenance of double reeds (primarily for shawms and krummhorns), a class on the playing of capped reed instruments (mostly krummhorns and cornemusen), and a Renaissance ensemble for recorders.

Jan Jackson - Recorders

Jan Jackson, director of Passing Measures (renaissance/medieval music) and Passing Fancies (baroque music), has performed in early music realms for 20 years. She has served on the national boards of directors for the American Recorder Society and its educational committee.

A charter member of the American Recorder Teachers Association and a registered Suzuki instructor, she teaches privately at her studio, The Academie of Recorder Musick, at the Armstrong Music School, and at workshops, including several years at the Fall and Summer Toots. She performs frequently with the Texas Early Music Project and Two Early, a newly formed duo playing Renaissance and Baroque music on period woodwinds.

DanielJohnson -- Voice and 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.

Peggy Sexton

Peggy Sexton has played percussion with the Austin and San Antonio Symphony Orchestras, Austin Symphonic Band and University of Texas Early Music Ensemble. Currently she performs with the Texas Bach Choir, Heralds & Minstrels, and the Balcones Community Orchestra in addition to regular freelance performing in the central Texas area. She is the author of five books on historic and ethnic percussion and writes a regular column on early percussion for the Early Music Colorado Quarterly.

Additional Faculty