Frances Blaker -- Recorders (back to top)

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.

Martha Bishop -- Viols (back to top)

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.

Tom Zajac -- Recorders and Reeds (back to top)

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.

Dale Taylor -- Recorders (back to top)

Mr. Taylor worked with Phil Levin Historical Instruments for a number of years and has maintained his own repair shop for years. He has worked in the ARS National Office and has written extensively for musical journals. He has also performed with many groups around the country and has taught at ARS workshops around the US.

Becky Baxter -- Early Harps (back to top)

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 -- Lute (back to top)

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.

James Brown -- Viols (back to top)

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 (back to top)

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.

Jan Jackson -- Recorders (back to top)

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.

Daniel Johnson -- Voice and Workshop Director (back to top)

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 -- Percussion (back to top)

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.

Frank Shirley -- recorder (back to top)

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.

Laurie Young Stevens -- violin (back to top)

Laurie Young Stevens is a member of the Texas Early Music Project, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra of San Francisco, the Chanticleer Sinfonia, the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, the Texas Bach Collegium, Ars Lyrica of Houston and has guested with many of the eminent period instrument ensembles in the U.S. She has studied primarily with Manfred Kraemer but has also been wonderfully guided by Elizabeth Blumenstock, Phoebe Carrai, Paul Leenhouts, Arthur Haas and and, of course, Daniel Johnson who started her down this road. Ms. Stevens lives in Austin with her husband, David and their 3 children.