The Newberry Consort Announces Artistic Director for 2022-23 Season!

Charles Weaver is on the faculty of the Juilliard School, where he teaches historical plucked instruments and Baroque music theory. He was music director for Cavalli’s La Calisto with New York's Dell'Arte Opera in summer 2017, when The Observer remarked on "the superb baroque band led by Charles Weaver...it was amazing to hear what warm and varied sounds he coaxed from the ensemble."

Daniel Elyar is an active performer and recording artist and has specialized in baroque performance practice in Europe and North America for more than twenty years. 

A versatile multi instrumentalist, Dan Meyers has developed a reputation as a flexible and engaging performer of both classical and folk music; his credits range from premieres of avant-garde chamber music, to headlining a concert series in honor of Pete Seeger at the Newport Folk Festival, to playing Renaissance instruments on Broadway as part of the “band” for the Shakespeare’s Globe productions of Twelfth Night and Richard III.

Although the bowed string instruments most overwhelmingly associated with the Renaissance period are the various viols (particularly the viola da gamba), David Douglass became interested in the use of his instrument during that period.

Soprano Ellen Hargis is one of America’s premier early music singers, specializing in repertoire ranging from ballads to opera and oratorio.

Hannah De Priest’s “irresistible” voice (L’Opera) is gaining her recognition as an emerging soprano to watch. She is currently based in Chicago but travels frequently, performing a range of repertoire as a soloist and chamber musician.

As a player of bass instruments, Jeremy David Ward specializes in playing well with others. Jeremy delights in crafting foundations on which an ensemble can thrive.

With recent engagements at Virginia Opera, Opera Southwest, Aldeburgh Festival, and Aspen Music Festival, Joseph Hubbard, bass has performed over two dozen operatic roles, ranging from early 17th century to new premieres.

A tenor “setting the tone” (Pittsburgh Music Alliance) with “affecting line” (Boston Classical Review), Matthew Dean is a sought-after soloist, collaborator, and storyteller in ensembles and oratorios around the country. As artist in residence at Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel since 2005, the Tribune’s John von Rhein has praised his “firm vocalism and beautiful timbre.”

Miriam Scholz-Carlson lives in Minneapolis, MN where she plays regularly with Lyra Baroque Orchestra, The Bach Society of Minnesota, Flying Forms, Oratory Bach, Consortium Carissimi, and other local groups.

Tenor Nathan Dougherty is currently pursuing a DMA in Historical Performance Practice at Case Western Reserve University, where he studies with Ellen Hargis with Aaron Sheehan. In Cleveland, he frequently performs with ensembles including Apollo’s Fire, Quire Cleveland, and Les Délices.

Paul O’Dette has been described as “the clearest case of genius ever to touch his instrument.” One of the most influential figures in his field, O’Dette has helped define the technical and stylistic standards to which twenty-first-century performers of early music aspire. In doing so, he helped infuse the performance practice movement with a perfect combination of historical awareness, idiomatic accuracy, and ambitious self-expression.

Shawn Keener has been winning over multimedia skeptics with stylish, intelligent presentation design since 2012. As a musicologist, editor, and graphic designer with an upbringing in the theater, she brings a unique skill set to creating concert backdrops that are visual extensions of historically informed performance.