Farallon Recorder Quartet is a California based early music group that brings the music of the medieval, Renaissance, baroque and modern eras to today’s audiences with polish, verve, and precision. They employ a fascinating array of recorder sizes ranging from 6 inches to 6 feet tall, modeled after medieval, Renaissance and baroque originals. Their most recent CD recording, From Albion’s Shores, has been described by Early Music America as “the sound one would get if one could turn honey into wood or stand underneath a caramel fountain.” The Farallon Recorder Quartet has performed on concert series throughout the United States, including the American Recorder Society Festival in St. Louis, Missouri in 2009, the Echo Early Music Festival North Carolina, and Early Music at Las Positas College. In 2012 they performed at the Neskowin, Oregon Chamber Music Series, the Amherst Early Music Festival, and Early Music in Columbus, Ohio. In 2011 Farallon was awarded a professional development grant from the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music to develop and present a program with Jennifer Paulino and John Lenti and in 2013 was awarded a grant to develop and present a program of Spanish and South American music. Farallon is an Affiliate of the San Francisco Early Music Society.
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Annette Bauer, a native of Germany, studied medieval and Renaissance music at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland (2001). She holds an M.A. in music from UC Santa Cruz (2004), and has been studying North Indian classical music on sarode, a stringed instrument, at the Ali Akbar College of Music in California since 1998. In addition to her work with medieval ensemble Cançonièr, baroque group Les grâces, Farallon recorder ensemble, and the modal crossover project The Lost Mode, Annette has appeared as guest artist with leading early music ensembles throughout the US. Since the spring of 2012 she has been touring as a musician with Cirque du Soleil’s show “TOTEM.” Her performances have been lauded for their “fluid tone” and “surprising nuance”(San Francisco Classical Voice) and praised for “rich musicianship” and “vigorous playfulness” (American Recorder Magazine).
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Letitia Berlin is a founding member of Farallon and performs with other groups including Bertamo, Calextone, and the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra. She has appeared as a guest artist with the San Francisco Symphony, the Carmel Bach Festival and the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra. Ms. Berlin received a M.A. in early music performance practices from Case Western Reserve University and a B.M. in piano performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is a sought-after teacher at early music workshops across the US and directs the Hidden Valley Early Music Road Scholar programs and the SFEMS Music Discovery workshop for children. She is a three-time recipient of the Recorder Residency at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology in Otis, Oregon. She served on the board of the American Recorder Society, including two years as President of the board.
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Frances Blaker received Performance and Music Pedagogical degrees from the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen. She also studied with Marion Verbruggen in the Netherlands. Ms. Blaker has performed as a soloist and with various ensembles in the United States and Europe. Besides the Farallon Recorder Quartet, she is a member of Ensemble Vermillian and the Tibia Recorder Duo, and is the conductor of the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra. She teaches privately and at workshops throughout the United States and is the author of The Recorder Player’s Companion. She can be heard on recordings with Ensemble Vermillian and Farallon Recorder Quartet.
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Louise Carslake is well known to Bay Area audiences as a performer on the baroque flute and the recorder. She is a member of the baroque ensemble Music’s Re-creation, the Farallon Recorder Quartet, Magnificat, and the Jubilate Baroque Orchestra. She has performed widely in her native Britain, as well as in New Zealand, Poland, Ireland, China and the Netherlands. She has recorded for radio and television internationally, and has made over a dozen compact disc recordings. Louise teaches early music performance on the faculty at Mills College, and coaches baroque flute at UC Berkeley.
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Equally renowned for her stunning voice and captivating musical expression, San Francisco Bay Area soprano Jennifer Paulino performs regularly in the US and abroad, and recently made her Australian debut with organist Pavel Kohout and her Danish debut with the San Francisco Lyric Opera. Jennifer was a nationalfinalist at the 2012 Artist Awards Competition of the National Association for the Teachers of Singing (NATS) for her interpretations of works by Purcell, Handel, Schubert, Poulenc, and Stravinsky. Jennifer frequently performs with Magnificat Baroque Ensemble, California Bach Society, Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra, The Bach Ensemble of Naples, FL, and her critically acclaimed baroque ensemble, Les grâces. Highlights for the current season include Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Gounod’s St. Cecilia Mass, and the premier of a new work by Davide Verotta for voice, piano, percussion, and strings. Jennifer studied early music styles with Rita Dams, Jill Feldman, and Michael Chance at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Netherlands.
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John Lenti’s playing on theorbo, lute, archlute, and baroque guitar has been described as “a joy to behold” (Seattle Times) and praised for its “nuanced beauty and character” (Gramophone), and he regularly deploys his “uncommonly big sound” (Third Coast Digest) in concert, over the air, and on record to considerable acclaim as a soloist and chamber musician with groups like the Farallon Recorder Quartet, Seattle Baroque, Portland Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Magnificat, Mercury Baroque, the Newberry Consort, the New World Symphony, and Seraphic Fire, among many others. His recording credits include albums with Portland Baroque Orchestra and Seattle Baroque, Division with Ostraka, and forthcoming releases with Musica Pacifica and his baroque quartet, Wayward Sisters, winners of the Early Music America/Naxos recording competition. He studied lute with Nigel North, Jacob Heringman, and Elizabeth Kenny, and he is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts and Indiana University. Additional musical help and inspiration have come from Ricardo Cobo, Ronn McFarlane, and Walter Gray. ■
