Breana McCullough

Karuk violist, scholar

Breana Halimé McCullough (she/they) is a Karuk violist, scholar, and advocate whose work bridges Baroque and Classical music with Indigenous cultural sovereignty. Currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Musicology at McGill University, their research explores Indigenous representation in Early Music and the reMatriation of Karuk ancestors, cultural materials, and songs. McCullough has performed with ensembles across North America and lectured at institutions including UCLA, USC, and Bucknell University. A former co-chair of Early Music America’s IDEA Taskforce, they are dedicated to ethical musical practices, Indigenous empowerment, and community engagement. They currently divide their time between Montréal, Québec, and Bozeman, Montana.

Jessica Bissett Perea

Associate Professor

Dr. Jessica Bissett Perea (Dena’ina) is an interdisciplinary musician-scholar whose Indigenous-led and Indigeneity-centered work advances radical and relational ways of being, knowing, and doing to generate more just futures for Indigenous communities. Her current projects include co-directing the “Radical and Relational Approaches to Food Fermentation and Food Security” project, which is supported by an international partnership with researchers from Ilisimatusarfik Kalaallit Nunaat (Nuuk, Greenland), and co-convening an Asia-Pacific Indigenous Studies seminar in partnership with researchers from Universiti Malaya (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).

Ellis Montes

Performer, musicologist

Ellis Reyes Montes is a PhD researcher in Musicology and recipient of the 2024-2025 Research Alive Student Prize. His research focuses on the pipe and tabor— a flute and drum played in tandem—through pre-contact Peruvian iconography and the Codex Trujillo (c.1782), a collection of over 1,400 watercolour depictions and musical transcriptions documenting music-making, dance, and rituals in the colonial era Viceroyalty of Peru.

Anna Mansbridge

Baroque dancer and choreographer

Anna Mansbridge, choreographer, dancer, and educator, is originally from Australia and the UK and now resides in Seattle, Washington. She holds a First-Class Honours Degree in Dance and Education from Bedford College, UK, and an MFA in Choreography and Performance from Mills College, California. In 2000 Anna founded Seattle Early Dance, dedicated to recreating dances from the European Renaissance and Baroque periods. Seattle Early Dance has collaborated with local musicians and performed numerous performances around the Pacific Northwest. Anna has choreographed and directed Early Opera productions in Europe and the USA, including Gluck’s Orphee et Eurydice and Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell with Pacific Musicworks at Meany Theatre, University of Washington; Les Bourgeois gentilhomme by Lully/Moliere at Cornish Playhouse; and Venus and Adonis by John Blow in Varazdin, Croatia. She has taught and reconstructed eighteenth century European dances using the Beauchamp-Feuillet notation system at a number of universities, including the University of Washington, Cornish, and Utah Valley University, and she has taught on prestigious early music courses, including Port Townsend Early Music Summer Workshops, San Francisco, Accademia d’Amore at Cornish, and the Madison Early Music Course. In addition, Anna is Director of Kaleidoscope Dance Company, a youth dance company founded in 1981 by world-renowned dance educator Anne Green Gilbert, and she has been on the faculty of the Creative Dance Center teaching modern, ballet and creative dance to all ages since 1999. She has taught in schools and other community settings as an Artist-in-Residence, and leads workshops and training in the BrainDance and Brain-Compatible Dance Education (developed by Anne Green Gilbert) both nationally and internationally. She co-directs the Summer Dance Institute for Teachers Refresher Course with Creative Dance Center Director Terry Goetz. Anna has taken members of Kaleidoscope Dance Company on international trips with daCi (dance and the Child international) to Taiwan (2012), Copenhagen (2015) and Australia (2018). She organized the daCi USA Sixth National Gathering at the University of Washington in 2014, and has taken members of Kaleidoscope to National Gatherings in Texas (2011) and Utah (2017). Anna joined the daCi USA board in 2009, and was the Chair 2017-2020.

Miquel Rodé

Cantata Trail

Miguel Rodé was born and raised in Montevideo, Uruguay and moved to the United States in 2002 as part of his career in Information Technology. He currently lives in Seattle, WA. A life-long music lover, over the years Miguel developed a special fascination with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and in particular with his cantatas and other vocal works. During the Covid pandemic, Miguel initiated a series of virtual meetings called “The Cantata Trail” with the intent of sharing this incredibly rich musical universe with some close friends. This small community quickly grew organically through word of mouth and is still going strong. In addition to hosting his own meeting series, Miguel has facilitated similar workshops for Artful Journeys and for the Whidbey Island Music Festival. As a musician, Miguel plays the baroque flute under the tutelage of Janet See, and is a member of several chamber ensembles in the Seattle area, for which he also enjoys transcribing and arranging music.

Antonio Gomez

arts administrator, educator, producer and musician

I am a nonprofit arts administrator, educator, producer and musician based in Tacoma, Washington. I create economically and culturally accessible arts experiences for all ages. As a musician, I focus on the “in-between” spaces connecting seemingly disparate experiences and worldviews. I recently joined Early Music Seattle as the Director of Partnerships and Education. Previously at Tacoma Arts Live, I advanced arts education and served creative entrepreneurs. I’ve worked with Humanties Washington, ArtsWA, PBS, museums, universities and taught K12 in California. Musically, I co-founded Trío Guadalevín and worked with Pacific MusicWorks, Orquesta Northwest, Tango del Cielo and others. My musical and cultural studies have been in Mexico, Panama, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Morocco, Spain and Italy.

Danielle Reutter-Harrah

Singer, Voice Teacher

Danielle Reutter-Harrah, known for her “expressive, silvery voice and outstanding technical finesse” (Classical Sonoma) is a soprano specializing in baroque music. She most recently sang a concert of Dolly Parton and French baroque with Whidbey Island Music Festival, performed the titular role in Charpentier’s Actéon with Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, sang the soprano solos in the Fauré Requiem with Victoria Symphony. Last June she reprised the role of Vespetta in Telemann’s comedic two-person opera Pimpinone for the 2025 Boston Early Music Festival which she performed with “delicious rhythmic vitality and boisterous fun” (Boston Observer). In August she recorded an album of Monteverdi with the Boston Early Music Festival in Bremen, Germany.

Ben Hunter

Artistic Director, Northwest Folklife; Adjunct Professor, Cornish College of Music, Seattle University

Benjamin Hunter is an award winning multi-instrumentalist, composer, creative & culture advocate, social entrepreneur, producer, and educator. He is the founder of Community Arts Create, co-founder of the Hillman City Collaboratory, co-founder of Black & Tan Hall, and currently serves as Artistic Director for NW Folklife and as Adjunct Professor at Cornish College of Music, Seattle University. He served on the Seattle Music Commission from 2017-2021, and co-chairs the Columbia Hillman Arts & Culture District. Benjamin was the recipient of the 2015 Governor’s Arts & Heritage Award and the 2016 City Arts Magazine Future’s List Award. In 2016, his roots duo, Ben Hunter & Joe Seamons, took 1st place in the International Blues Challenge. Benjamin is a 2019 Gordon Ekvall Tracie Memorial Awardee, a 2020 Artist Trust Fellowship Awards recipient, and served as a 2020/2021 Artist-in-Resident at On The Boards.

Patricia Ann Neely

Early bowed-string player (viola da gamba, violone, medieval fiddle), EMA Board Member

Pat has appeared as a string player with the Washington Bach Consort, the Folger Consort, Tempesta di Mare, Opera Lafayette, Smithsonian Chamber Players, Pegasus, Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, and Sequentia, among others. She is currently director of Abendmusik, New York’s Period Instrument String Band which has recently recorded, Antonio Vivaldi’s L’estro armonico concerti on the Parma Recordings label to be released in the spring. She has also recorded for Arabesque, Allegro, Musical Heritage, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Ex Cathedra, Classic Masters, Erato, Lyrichord, and Music Masters labels. Pat has taught at Amherst Early Music, the VDGSA Conclaves, Pinewoods Early Music, Pittsburgh Early Music Workshop, and Mountain Collegium and has been on the music faculty at The Brearley School and Wagner College. She currently teaches viol at Vassar College. Pat is featured in the History Makers, Digital Archive, developed by Carnegie Mellon University, providing unique access to thousands of African American lives.

David McCormick

EMA Executive Director

I’m thrilled to be at the helm of EMA as its sixth executive director, with the ambition of creating a more inclusive, equitable space for all who engage with historical performance. In recent years, I served as executive director of Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival and Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival. I am artistic director of Early Music Access Project and a founding member of Brooklyn-based medieval ensemble Alkemie. I play vielle, rebec, and Baroque violin.

Karin Brookes

Associate Director, Juilliard Historical Performance

Now in her sixth year as associate director of Juilliard Historical Performance, Karin was previously executive director of Early Music America. She long been committed to supporting emerging professional musicians throughout their formal education and beyond, promoting an environment in which they feel valued and empowered to develop both as artists and as individuals. A native of the United Kingdom, she was assistant to Christopher Hogwood and manager of the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, before relocating to the United States, where she worked for Pacific MusicWorks and Early Music Seattle. She has degrees in French and music from the Universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge, and a master of journalism degree from Temple University.

Shulamit Kleinerman

Founder/Director, Seattle Historical Arts for Kids

In 2005, Shulamit Kleinerman launched the series of children's exploratory workshops that would later become Seattle Historical Arts for Kids. She continues to direct SHAK's operations and, in collaboration with an expanding community of artist coaches, to teach in most of the programs. Her work with SHAK was nationally honored in 2015 with Early Music America's Laurette Goldberg Award for educational outreach. A former preschool teacher, Shula maintains a private violin teaching studio in North Seattle. As a performer, Shula plays the medieval vielle and renaissance and baroque violin, specializing in the early "off-shoulder" playing position. She was a founding member of the Elizabethan quartet Plaine & Easie, which won the 2009 North American EMA competition in medieval and renaissance music.

Hayley Murks-Abdikadirova

Performer, composer

As a performer-composer and certified teaching artist, I am thrilled to serve on the EPLC this year! I’m a violist originally from Mississippi, with a wide range of interests in the field of performance as well as arts entrepreneurship and leadership. After completing my graduate studies in viola performance at the Longy School of Music, I’m excited to embark on a new journey working on an advanced degree at Harvard studying arts leadership.

Guy Fishman

Chair, Early Music, New England Conservatory

Guy Fishman is co-founder and Artistic Director of L’Armonia Boston, and is principal cellist of the Handel & Haydn Society. He has performed as principal cellist and with Tafelmusik, Seraphic Fire, Arcadia Players, and many others. He has recorded for the Olde Focus, CORO, Telarc, Centaur, Titanic, and Newport Classics labels. His recording with H+H of CPE Bach’s Cello Concerti was called “a feast for the ears” by Early Music America, which remarked on the “exuberance…adroit sense of phrasing and extraordinary technique…grace and agility." He studied with David Soyer, Peter Wiley, Julia Lichten, and Laurence Lesser, with whom he completed Doctoral studies at the New England Conservatory of Music. He now serves on the faculty there, administers the Pratt Early Music Program, and directs the Early Music Institute. He is a Fulbright Fellow, having worked with Anner Bylsma in Amsterdam. He plays a rare cello made in Rome in 1704 by David Tecchler.

Karin Cuéllar Rendón

EMA Board President, Violinist, Scholar

I am a Bolivian historical violinist and scholar interested in researching and presenting non-euro centered early music while recognizing the syncretism and connections with traditional music. I studied Historical Performance at Case Western Reserve University, Royal Academy of Music and currently pursue a PhD in Musicology at McGill University with a research focus on 19th c. performance practices in South America using as a case study the music of Peruvian composer Pedro Ximenez Abrill Tirado.

Suzie LeBlanc

Artistic & Executive Director, Early Music Vancouver

Suzie LeBlanc took on the position of Artistic and Executive director of Early Music Vancouver in January 2021. Born in Acadia, the charismatic soprano is well-known for her passionate performances of Early Music, art song, contemporary music and Acadian traditional repertoire. She began her international singing career in the Consort of Musicke (London) and continued to specialize in early repertoires, researching and recording a substantial amount of unpublished material. She appears on over 75 recordings including the Grammy award-winning album Lully’s Thésée with the Boston Early Music Festival. She won an ECMA for Best Classical Album for “I am in need of music”, an album she produced on poems by Elizabeth Bishop. She has also recorded for ATMA, Hyperion, Chandos, Harmonia Mundi, Teldec, Analekta, Pasacaille and Das Alte Werk. Prior to coming to EMV, Suzie founded and directed Montreal’s Le Nouvel Opéra, a company that produces early and contemporary chamber opera performances. Appointed to the Order of Canada in 2015, she was recently awarded the rank of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters from the French Republic.

Delma Tomlin

Director, National Centre for Early Music, UK

Dr Delma Tomlin is the Founding Director of the National Centre for Early Music (NCEM) in York and the Artistic Director of the York Early Music Festival currently celebrating its 50th anniversary year. Trained as a singer at Trinity College of Music, London, Delma moved to York to both focus on historically informed music performance and York Mystery Plays. She has been both Secretary to, and Vice President of, REMA and instigator of the Creative Europe Emerging Ensembles programme - working with colleagues across the European Union - a bond disrupted by Brexit but not broken. Delma remains passionate about sharing her love of music with as wide an audience as possible - programming 3 festivals of early music within Yorkshire and a year round series of world/folk/jazz concerts.

Simon Woods

President and CEO, League of American Orchestras

Simon Woods brings four decades of experience in the classical music world to his role as President and CEO of the League of American Orchestras. With a deep musical background and a commitment to the vital role of the arts in community life, he is recognized as a trusted mentor and advisor to orchestras. For more than twenty years, he has contributed to the League’s professional development programs, including serving as Director of its flagship leadership program, Essentials of Orchestra Management. A respected thought leader, he writes regularly on orchestra leadership and speaks frequently in the U.S. and abroad. Before joining the League in 2020, Woods led the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, following senior artistic roles at The Philadelphia Orchestra. Earlier, he spent a decade as a record producer with EMI Classics in London. Born in London, he holds degrees from Cambridge University and the Guildhall School and is an adjunct faculty member at NYU/Steinhardt. He and his wife became U.S. citizens in 2018.

Garrett Murphy

Arts Executive & Fundraising Leader | Director of Development, Utah Symphony/Opera; Exec. Dir., Bach Charlotte

Garrett Murphy is Director of Development for Utah Symphony | Utah Opera and Executive Director of Bach Charlotte, with more than 15 years of experience in fundraising, arts administration, and organizational leadership. At USUO, he helps lead a development program generating more than $18 million annually in contributed support and manages a portfolio of major donors. At Bach Charlotte, he has led significant organizational growth, including eliminating debt, substantially increasing contributed revenue, and expanding both donor and audience bases. Previously, Garrett held advancement leadership roles at Walnut Hill School for the Arts and served as Executive Director of Boston’s Back Bay Chorale, following earlier positions with the Savannah Music Festival and Heifetz International Music Festival. A longtime advocate for the performing arts, he serves on the Board of Directors of Early Music America and began his career as a musician, studying voice and composition.

Angela Marroy Boerger

Managing Director, The Thirteen

I am an arts administrator with nearly 20 years of experience advocating for the vital role of music in society. I am currently Managing Director of The Thirteen in Washington, D.C., and am honored to contribute to the rich cultural offerings in our nation’s capital. My education background is in musicology, violin performance, and medieval studies, and I hold degrees from Rice University and Yale University. My research interests have focused on Viennese opera of the late eighteenth century, and I’m always up for impromptu chamber music sightreading sessions with friends.

David Mozuer

EMA Development Director

I’ve been fortunate to have a career working administratively across a range of music genres and styles in the Washington, DC area: orchestra, opera, jazz, chamber music, and early music. In addition to positions with the Kennedy Center and Folger Shakespeare Library, I most recently served as Executive Director of PostClassical Ensemble.

Yunyi Ji

Pianist and harpsichordist

Yunyi Ji is a Chinese-American pianist and harpsichordist. His work connects the development of keyboard instruments to their historical catalysts as means of exemplifying ongoing socio-musical evolutions. Drawing from his transgender and immigrant background, Yunyi advocates for a modern-day humanitarian shift by challenging cultural paradigms through artistic excellence. In 2023, Yunyi co-founded Parallax Concerts with Palestinian cellist Hasan Abualhaj, missioned around the dual-presentation of early & new music to explore the breadth of the traditional record and creative unity across time. Yunyi holds degrees in piano performance from the Eastman School of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and is an alumnus of The Juilliard School's Historical Performance program.

Joyce Chen

Performer, Musicologist, Educator

A native of Taiwan, Dr. Joyce Wei-Jo Chen 陳瑋若 is a harpsichordist, organist, musicologist, and educator. Recipient of Early Music America’s 2026 Thomas Binkley Award, she serves as Assistant Director of Liturgical Music at the University of Portland and Assistant Professor of Historical Keyboards and Musicology at the University of Oregon. An internationally active performer, she has appeared throughout the United States, Europe, and Taiwan. Her research explores historical keyboard culture, performance practice, and intersections of music and science. She holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University, a D.M.A. from Stony Brook University, and a B.S. from UC Berkeley.

Wei En Chan

Performer, Educator

Translating my experiences performing early music, I am Assistant Professor of Theatre at Allegheny College, where I lead mainstage musical productions as Music Director. Outside of the classroom, I am a countertenor whose professional and personal life traverses Asia and North America. I am humbled to be on the board of Early Music America, serving as a committee member in Awards & Scholarships and co-chair of the IDEA Taskforce.

Jeannette Lee

Performer and Arts Leader

Hong Kong-born mezzo-soprano Jeannette Lee is a performer and arts leader whose work spans opera, oratorio, and early music. Her ensemble engagements include performances with Apollo's Fire, Music of the Baroque, and TENET Vocal Artists. A runner-up in the 2025 Colorado Bach Ensemble Young Artist Competition, Lee holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance from Boston University. Beyond the stage, she serves as Executive Director of Bach in Baltimore and President of Asian Opera Alliance, while contributing to the broader early music community as a member of Early Music America's IDEA Task Force.

Kate Causbie

Arts and culture educator and independent researcher of music and dance

Kate is an arts and culture educator and independent researcher of music and dance traditions from the south of the peninsula called Italy. She works to build respectful, precise, and culturally informed bridges to these living roots. Originally from Seattle, in 2022 she began immersing herself in the world of balli popolari in Puglia, the lands her grandmother's family emigrated from as settlers on Turtle Island. Diving deep into the alluring world of the pizzica, she came to realize subtle dynamics of these local oral traditions -- and the complexities of their continuity in the modern era -- eventually coming to understand them as being deeply held at the pace of lifetimes, and on the scale of lived-in place. She now spends half the year in Southern Italy where she organizes place-based learning opportunities for enthusiasts from abroad to learn directly and deeply from local artists and tradition holders.

Sarah Pizzichemi

Violinist, chamber musician, researcher, and educator

Dr. Sarah Pizzichemi is a violinist, chamber musician, researcher, and educator whose artistic interests span historical performance, musical storytelling, and the intersections of music, movement, and cultural tradition. Performing on both modern and period instruments, she brings a historically informed perspective to repertoire ranging from Baroque masterworks to contemporary compositions. Her experience in historical performance includes Baroque violin performances with Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Twelfth Night Ensemble, and Seattle Bach Festival, as well as Classical-period repertoire on historical violin with Gallery Concerts. Her interest in traditional music and dance, particularly Southern Italian balli popolari such as tarantelle, pizziche, and tammurriate, has led her to explore the relationships between historical musical practices, regional traditions, and place-based expression, and their continued growth in contemporary culture. Sarah is the first violinist and a founding member of Skyros Quartet, established in 2010, which recently served as ensemble-in-residence at Cornish College of the Arts. She is also a co-founder of Constellation Creatives, an organization dedicated to innovative chamber music experiences that connect audiences with the stories behind the music. She serves as co-Artistic Director of Chamber Music Guild, co-hosts The Counterpoint Club podcast, and co-founded Evergreen Music Press. An advocate for historically overlooked musicians, Sarah has conducted original research on violinists Maud Powell and Maddalena Lombardini, exploring their contributions to musical history and performance. She holds degrees from the University of Texas at Austin (B.M., M.M.) and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (D.M.A.), where she served as graduate quartet-in-residence with Skyros Quartet. She also maintains the award-winning Pizzichemi Violin Studio, mentoring the next generation of musicians through an approach that emphasizes technical excellence, historical understanding, and expressive communication.