Artist bios

Harmonious Blacksmith:

Aaron Berofsky

Violinist Aaron Berofsky has toured extensively throughout the United States and abroad, gaining wide recognition as a soloist and chamber musician. As soloist, he has performed with orchestras in the United States, Germany, Italy, Spain and Canada. His acclaimed recordings can be found on the Sony, Naxos, New Albion, ECM, Audio Ideas, Blue Griffin and Chesky labels. Mr. Berofsky was the first violinist of the Chester String Quartet for fifteen years. The quartet has been acclaimed as "one of the country's best young string quartets" by the Boston Globe.

Mr. Berofsky is known for his commitment to teaching and is Professor of Violin at the University of Michigan and served as visiting Professor at the Hochschule fur Musik in Detmold, Germany. He taught at the Meadowmount School of Music for many summers and is currently on the violin faculty of the Chautauqua Institution.

Mr. Berofsky's interest in early music led him to perform with the acclaimed chamber orchestra Tafelmusik on period instruments, also making several recordings with them for the Sony label.

Aaron Berofsky has been concertmaster of the Ann Arbor Symphony since 2003.   He has also served as guest concertmaster for many orchestras throughout the US and Europe. Aaron Berofsky is represented by Great Lakes Performing Artist Associates.

 

Kathie Stewart

Hailed as a virtuoso by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Kathie Stewart is a founding member and principal flute of Apollo’s Fire: The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra. An advocate of the baroque flute as a mainstream instrument, Stewart serves as Teacher of Baroque Flute at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Kulas Visiting Artist at Case Western Reserve University, and is Assistant Director for the Seattle Baroque Flute Workshop. Stewart has performed as soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Opera, Oberlin Baroque Ensemble, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and more.

Stewart appears on fourteen recordings with Apollo’s Fire, including solo performances in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. IV (AVIE) and Telemann’s Concerto in E Minor for Flute and Recorder (AVIE). An accomplished Irish flute player, she can be heard on Scarborough Fayre: Traditional Tunes from the British Isles and the New World, Come To The River: an Early American Gathering, and Sugarloaf Mountain: an Appalachian Gathering.

She completed doctoral coursework at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as a student of George Hambrecht and participated in Eiji Hashimoto’s Baroque Ensemble. Fascination with the traverso led her to the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin Conservatory where she studied baroque flute and recorder with Christopher Krueger.

 

Jaap ter Linden

As one of the first early music specialists, Jaap ter Linden witnessed the very beginnings of many of the oldest and finest baroque ensembles as co-founder of Musica da Camera and principal cellist of Musica Antiqua Köln, The English Concert and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. From these auspicious beginnings, he moved further into the spotlight, either playing solo concerts and intimate ensemble repertoire with the world's finest interpreters or at the helm of an orchestra as conductor.

He founded and directs the Mozart Akademie (with which he has recorded the complete Mozart symphonies) and is a regular guest director and soloist with the Arion Ensemble (Canada). He has led many period instrument orchestras such as the San Francisco Philharmonia Baroque, Portland Baroque and Amsterdam Bachsoloists and has lent his expertise to modern ensembles such as the Amsterdam Sinfonietta and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie.

His extensive discography as player and conductor boasts many award-winning recordings for labels such as Harmonia Mundi, Archiv, ECM, Deutsche Grammophon and more recently Brilliant Classics.

 

Joseph Gascho

Harpsichordist Joseph Gascho has performed for enrapt audiences across the world, from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to Paris, Tokyo and Taipei. Trained under the mastery of Webb Wiggins and Arthur Haas, Gascho has garnered multiple awards for his playing, including first prize in the Jurow International Harpsichord Competition.

Gascho is an accomplished recording producer, recording many celebrated artists, including Pomerium, the Folger Consort, Trio Pardessus, the 21st Century Consort, Ensemble Gaudior, Three Notch’d Road, pianist/composer Haskell Small, Cantate Chamber Singers and the Washington Master Chorale.

He serves on the faculty at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and at the Twin Cities Early Music Festival’s Baroque Instrumental Program. He has spent years mentoring students at the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin College, where he teaches basso continuo, coaches chamber music and conducts the student orchestra. Educational institutions across the world have invited Gascho to lecture and give master classes, including Gettysburg College, the University of South Dakota and the Conservatoire in Strasbourg, France.

Gascho holds masters and doctoral degrees in harpsichord from the Peabody Conservatory and the University of Maryland, where he also studied orchestral conducting with James Ross.