About Williamsburg Baroque
On December 13, 1731, the Pelham family of Boston held what is considered to be the first known public concerts in Colonial America. By 1769, composer and musician Peter Pelham had begun a musical tradition of public concerts in Williamsburg, Virginia, at Bruton Parish. Concerts were attended by various Virginians, including future president Thomas Jefferson. In a period marked by classism in the arts, these public concerts were a glimpse of a new era that would be realized in the coming Revolution.
Established in 2024, Williamsburg Baroque continues that tradition of public concerts started by Pelham in the Williamsburg community and beyond. Each concert is committed not only to performing music of the highest caliber, but also to education. The ensemble is devoted to performing rare music of underperformed composers in addition to a Bach cantata each season. It has been our joy to introduce many audience members to not only new composers, but new instruments and for many, their first historical performance concert.
The Principal Players
Sophie Genevieve Lowe is a Baroque violinist who is originally from the prairies of South Dakota. Praised for her “unique style and confident voice” (Margaret Faultless OAE), Sophie studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London in historical performance with Matthew Truscott. Her solo performances include a concert at the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles (Brussels, Belgium), a four-violin concerto solo with Laurence Cummings at the Duke’s Hall (London), and a concerto on a Landolfi violin on loan from the National Music Museum (USA). Sophie has appeared on a variety concert stages, including the Royal Festival Hall Wigmore Hall, St. Martin-in-the-Fields (London), Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles (Brussels, Belgium), Holland Performing Arts Center (Omaha), le Salle Françoys-Bernier (Québec), Kennedy Center, National Cathedral (Washington, D.C.) and Bruton Parish (Colonial Williamsburg). In London, she was part of the celebrated Kohn Foundation Bach Cantata Series, which was highly reviewed by the London Times. She has appeared live on the radio internationally, including on the BBC (UK). She performs with Kollective366 (NYC), Washington Bach Consort (Washington, D.C.), American Baroque Orchestra
(New Haven, CT), and is a member of the award-winning pianoforte trio, Assai Ad Libitum. The trio was selected as a Bloomington Early Music Festival Emerging Ensemble in 2024. In March 2025 the trio made their NYC debut at Gotham Early Music’s Midtown Concerts. In addition to performing, Sophie is an ardent music researcher and is a writer for Early Music America.
Welsh cellist Ryan Lowe relocated to the USA from London after graduating with honors from the Trinity Conservatoire of Music. Ryan studied under Naomi Butterworth and as a result he is part of a direct pedagogical line to the father of modern cello playing, Pablo Casals. Ryan has performed extensively in the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia, and the United States. Ryan was recently selected from among his international peers to perform for Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II in a performance that would later feature on ITV television in the UK. Ryan has performed at a variety of international venues such as The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall (USA), the Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall and the Royal Festival Hall (UK). He has also been a member of numerous cello sections including, but not exhaustively, American Baroque Orchestra, Kollective 366, Orion Orchestra, the London Arte Chamber Orchestra and the Washington Sinfonietta. As a coach Ryan has been involved with the Royal Academy of Music Historical Performance Orchestra, the Trinity Laban Symphony Orchestra (UK), and the Guangxi Symphony Orchestra in China. Besides classical music, Ryan has also been featured in numerous musical collaborations with
art galleries, dancers, pop artists with MTV and EMI Asia. Ryan has premiered and recorded new works by contemporary composers including a solo concerto with the Trinity Symphony Orchestra in London. Some recent highlights include live performances in early music festivals and radio for historical Trio Assai Ad Libitum and creating historically informed recordings for Yale University's department of historical recordings.
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Rebecca Davy is Music Director and Organist at historic Bruton Parish in Colonial Williamsburg. In the heart of America’s founding, Rebecca has had the opportunity to pursue her parallel passion for early and newly composed music. The church choirs under her direction sing music of all eras, but they especially enjoy singing music from the Baroque period but have also had many opportunities to grow to love music of our time, premiering multiple choral works, some commissioned by the Parish. Under her leadership the church acquired its own harpsichord, purchased in 2005, and a new pipe organ, built by Dobson Organ Company and installed in 2019. The demands of the church’s extensive Candlelight Concert series provide a rare opportunity to perform frequently, both solo organ and harpsichord recitals and many collaborative
performances with other musicians. Rebecca is also in charge of the historic organ recitals at the Wren Chapel on the campus of William & Mary and enjoys offerings of both colonial and modern music on the 18th-century English chamber organ in that space. The Williamsburg Women’s Chorus has been under her direction since 2017, and Rebecca enjoys
Musicians
Kristen Dubenion-Smith (mezzo soprano) is recognized for her “velvety legato and embracing warmth of sound” (Washington Classical Review) and “lyric-mezzo of uncommon beauty” (The Washington Post). Ms. Dubenion-Smith enjoys an active performing career in oratorio and sacred vocal chamber music, specializing in music of the medieval, renaissance and baroque eras. As a concert soloist, Kristen has earned recognition for her performances of the works of the high baroque, especially Bach and Handel. Highlights from recent seasons include Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Washington National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with The Washington Bach Consort. She also sings on the 2021 Grammy-winning recording of The Prison by Ethel Smyth with the Experiential Orchestra and welcomes a new album release with Ensemble Altera, Feminine Voices at Christmas, on the Alpha Classics record label. Starting in the fall of 2016, Ms. Dubenion-Smith joined the Choir of Men and Boys/Girls at the Washington National Cathedral as the first woman to be offered a position in this choir. She had previously served as cantor since 2011.
Jane Lenz is a classical and Baroque violist with a master of music degree in viola performance from The Juilliard School and a bachelor of music from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. She has performed around the country, including multiple summers with the Adirondacks Performing Arts Fellowship’s orchestra and string quartet, and Chicagoland’s 6:26 Series. Jane is a member of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, serves as principal viola of the Northern Neck Orchestra, and teaches applied viola at Christopher Newport University. As a Baroque violist, she has appeared with Juilliard415 and the Oberlin Baroque Ensemble, and now performs with the Williamsburg Baroque concert series.
Susannah Livingston is a graduate of Brown University and studied with Dora Short and Joseph Fuchs for three seasons with Juilliard’s Maine Summer Chamber Music School. A lifetime chamber musician, she has performed with the Governor’s Musick (resident ensemble of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation) and other early music groups in the region since 1993.
Margot Rood (soprano) is hailed for her “sterling, gleaming tone and magnificent control” by The Washington Post, and performs a wide range of repertoire. Notable recording releases include Blue Heron’s Ockeghem Songs, Vol. 1 & 2, La Paix in Charpentier's Les Arts Florissants and La Renommée in Lalande's Les Fontaines de Versailles with Boston Early Music Festival (CPO), and Emily Webb on Monadnock Music's recording of Ned Rorem’s Our Town (New World Records). She has recorded repertoire from the medieval to the 21st century with Coro, Albany Records, Blue Heron, BMOP Sound, Toccata Classics, and Sono Luminus. Her solo recording of art song by composer Heather Gilligan, Living in Light, is available from Albany Records. She can be heard on Blue Heron's Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks Vol. 5, which won the Gramophone Award for Early Music in 2018, as well as numerous Grammy-winning and -nominated albums.
Kelsey Andrew Schilling (bassoon) has a busy performance schedule including regular appearances with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Bach Collegium–Fort Wayne, Dallas Bach Society, Mallarmé Chamber Players (Durham), North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, Raleigh Camerata, Three Notch'd Road, Washington Bach Consort, and the Washington National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra. Additionally, this year marks his debut performances with Piffaro, the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, and Music of the Regiment. On shawms, dulcians, crumhorns, and recorders, Kelsey is a founding member of the Renaissance wind ensemble Forgotten Clefs, which has made appearances at the Smithsonian Institution and Boston Early Music Festival Fringe Series, and has been featured on Public Radio International. An avid traveler, Mr. Schilling has performed in thirty-three states and seven different countries on three continents. Additionally, Kelsey has recorded for Dorian Sono Luminus, IU Press, and Naxos. He holds degrees in early music and Germanic studies from Indiana University.
Rodrigo Tarraza (flute) studied baroque flute with Barthold Kuijken at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Netherlands. He has toured widely as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe and both North and South America. He has also recorded and toured with La Petite Bande, Les Inegales and other prominent period-instrument ensembles. His recording with Les Inegales of selected suites by Jaques M. Hottetere (Carpe Diem, Germany 1998) won the Diapason d’or prize. Currently he is a member of the Ensemble Les Inegales, The Folger Consort (Washington, D.C.), the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra and performs frequently with the Crescendo Orchestra, CT, and the Washington Bach Consort.
Cameron Welke (lute/theorbo) spends most of his time explaining to well-meaning strangers that the lute is, in fact, quite a different instrument from the flute. He brings a passionate curiosity and a deep creative drive to all manner of historical plucked instruments, which he plays with “expert technical dexterity, consummate phrasing and endearing expressivity” (Chestnut Hill Local). Past and current engagements include performances with the Washington Bach Consort, Tempesta di Mare, the Folger Consort, Relic, the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Three Notch’d Road, and Hesperus. He has taught lute at Grinnell College and given master classes at Peabody Conservatory and the Conservatory Nacional de Música in the Dominican Republic. He explores repertoire for two baroque lutes in Duo Silvio with duo partner Richard Stone, and is a co-founder of the early music collective Magdalena. Cameron began his musical life as a classical violinist and a rock and jazz guitarist. He holds a bachelor's degree in classical guitar performance from Belmont University, where he studied with Francis Perry, and a master's degree in historical performance on lute and theorbo from the Peabody Conservatory, where he studied with Richard Stone. He currently lives in Richmond.