Explore the Baroque
Café Bach
February 27, 28 and March 1
March 1 is SOLD OUT
Special guests Elana Cooper, Baroque violin, Michal Palzewicz, cello, and David Rogers, theorbo, join us for this concert which recreates a typical Leipzig Bach Collegium Musicum performance. Featured works include Bach’s fifth Brandenburg Concerto, and his “Coffee Cantata!”
Friday, February 27: St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Medford, 7 pm
Saturday, February 28: Newman United Methodist Church, Grants Pass, 3 pm
Sunday, March 1: First United Methodist Church, Ashland, 3 pm (SOLD OUT)
Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni: Sinfonie a Cinque in C Minor, Op. 2, No. 4
J. S. Bach: Prelude from Suite in G Minor, BWV 995 – David Rogers, archlute
Antonio Vivaldi: Cello Concerto in C Minor, RV 402 – Michal Palzewicz, cello
J. S. Bach: Cantata: “Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht,” BWV 211 (“Coffee Cantata”) – Jennifer Matsuura, soprano; Adam Kukuk, tenor; Philip Engdahl, bass
J. S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major, BWV 1050 – Elana Cooper, violin; Sherril Wood, flute; Abigail Mace, harpsichord
Tickets: $25 | Seniors $20 | Students or Oregon Trail card holders $5
Free tickets for those under 18 years old
Elana Cooper, baroque violin
Born and raised in Ashland, Oregon and currently based in The Netherlands, Elana Cooper performs on baroque violin, baroque viola, and modern violin. She performs with ensembles in Europe (Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Florilegium Musicum, Barok Orkest La Sorpresa, Dutch Baroque Orchestra, Utrecht Company of Music) Canada (Pacific Baroque Orchestra), and the US (Oregon Bach Festival Period Orchestra).
Elana’s first violin teacher was Faina Podolnaya in Ashland, and it was with Jefferson Baroque Orchestra that she was first introduced to the baroque violin. Elana holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance from the University of British Columbia where she studied with David Gillham. While in Vancouver BC, she also studied baroque violin with Chloe Meyers and Marc Destrubé. Elana studied baroque violin as a Master’s student at the Historical Performance Institute at Indiana University with Stanley Ritchie. Elana holds a Masters degree in baroque violin from the Royal Conservatorium in The Hague where she studied with Kati Debretzeni.
Thanks to the Dutch Musical Instruments Foundation (NMF), Elana plays on a loaned eighteenth century (ca. 1780) Italian violin by Giuseppe Odoardi and a 2022 baroque bow by Luis
Emilio Rodriguez Carrington.
Michal Palzewicz, cello
Michal Palzewicz has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe, both as a soloist and ensemble player. He attended Warsaw Conservatory of Music in Poland and The Manhattan School of Music, where members of his quartet received full scholarships as well as artist-in-residence status. He has lived in Ashland, Oregon for over 20 years.
Michal has performed as a soloist with several orchestras and has played in numerous productions at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival including Mary Zimmerman’s production of The White Snake, which originated at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and went on to tour the U.S. as well as China.
Currently, Michal performs both as a solo artist (cello, violin, viola, and viola da gamba) and with two ensemble projects: in the Michal Palzewicz Trio with Daniel Sherrill (guitar) and Reed Bentley (percussion) and in Duo Jetté with Pat O’Scannell (viola da gamba).
He also enoys teaching cello to students of all ages. CelloLessons.net
Find out more about Michal at:
palzewicz.com
mptmusic.com
music.palzewicz.com
Contact him at 541-531-1832.
David Rogers, theorbo
Termed, “a prominent guitarist,” by the New York Times, David Rogers maintains an active solo and ensemble career as a classical guitarist and performer on early plucked strings. The Washington Post has praised his “astonishingly florid” solo improvisational passage work. He has been called a ‘modern master’ of the classical guitar’ by 20th Century Guitar. Lute Society of America Quarterly has called his technique “formidable.” He is an endorsing artist for GHS Strings and his compositions has been featured in major guitar magazines such as Fingerstyle Guitar in the United States and Akustic Gitarre in Germany.
David has recorded for Dorian, Callisto and Focus Recordings. He has taught master classes throughout North America, including the San Francisco Conservatory, The University of Southern California and The Interlochen National Arts Camp.
David was a musician with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for 18 years and directed classical/jazz guitar studies at Southern Oregon University for 13 years.
David has studied historical plucked strings with Hopkinson Smith and Eugen Dombois at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland; with Thomas Binkley at Indiana University; and with Lyle Nordstrom at Oakland University. He studied classical guitar with Joseph Fava at Wayne State University.
Sherril Wood, baroque flute
An Ashland native, Sherril Wood earned degrees in music performance from Southern Oregon State College (now SOU) and the New England Conservatory in Boston. Upon returning to Oregon, she co-founded the Northwest Bach Ensemble and served as the group’s Associate Director for 13 years. Additionally, she served as Principal Flutist with the Rogue Valley Symphony and the Rogue Opera Orchestra. She also performed with the Jefferson Baroque Orchestra, Ashland City Band, and at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She later moved to southern California, where she performed with the Santa Monica Symphony, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, the Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the San Diego Bach Collegium, and the Los Angeles Flute Orchestra. Sherril is delighted to be back in southern Oregon, where she teaches privately and continues to perform on flute, baroque flute, and recorder.
Abigail Mace, harpsichord
Dr. Abigail Mace had performed with JBO since 2023 and she was appointed music director in 2024. She now lives in the Rogue Valley but has an extensive background in Early Music and particularly Baroque Music. She earned her Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance at Vanderbilt University and Master of Music in Piano Performance at University of Texas at Austin, studied as a Fulbright Fellow in Harpsichord and Early Music at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and has a Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from University of Texas at Austin. She has performed in and leading Baroque ensembles in several locales, and has studied with numerous early music instructors in harpsichord and fortepiano.
Jennifer Matsuura, soprano
Jennifer Matsuura completed degrees at SOU and ASU. She is a cantor at Trinity Episcopal Church in Ashland and is a soloist with the Southern Oregon Repertory Singers, the Rogue Valley Chorale, and has performed on numerous occasions with the Rogue Valley Symphony, including their staged performance of Arvo Pärt’s Passio. She has also appeared in five operas here in the Rogue Valley. Ms. Matsuura was a featured vocalist in Britt Festival Orchestra’s world premiere installation of Brush, by Pulitzer Prize winning composer, Caroline Shaw. She loves singing early music and performing with the Jefferson Baroque Orchestra.
Adam Kukuk, tenor
Adam Kukuk is a singer, conductor and multi-instrumentalist. He is the Music Director and Organist at Ashland First United Methodist Church. Locally, he has performed with Camelot Theater (piano), has sung with the Southern Oregon Repertory Singers (tenor), and joined Jefferson Baroque Orchestra as Tenor soloist in addition to other work with local congregations and choirs. Currently, he is the General Music Specialist at Hoover Elementary in Medford, molding musical minds from Kinders to 5th grade.
Philip Engdahl, bass
Philip Engdahl studied voice at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Oregon in Eugene. He travels from his home in Orange County, California, to perform with several groups in Oregon including the Eugene Opera, the Jefferson Baroque Orchestra and the Oregon Bach Collegium.
He has performed title roles in Gianni Schicchi and Don Giovanni, Danilo in The Merry Widow, Marcello in La Bohème, Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte among others. Engdahl also directs the Siskiyou Summer Choir in Mount Shasta and is an organist and accompanist for local churches and schools.
