Artistic Director
Dana Marsh
Dana Marsh was appointed artistic director of the Washington Bach Consort in 2018. He programs and oversees three series, which together offer over 20 concerts annually. In late 2019, The Washington Post opined that Marsh “has honed a company that could go head-to-head with period-performance ensembles anywhere.”
Marsh’s musical education began as a boy chorister at St. Thomas Choir School (New York) and at Salisbury Cathedral (UK). He received his undergraduate degree in organ performance from the Eastman School of Music, with later master’s and doctoral degrees in historical musicology from the University of Oxford.
Acclaimed by The Washington Post as “a superb choral conductor, energetic and precise,” and by Choir & Organ (UK) as “a flexible and vivacious director of voices,” Marsh has enjoyed guest-conducting collaborations with the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Trinity Baroque Orchestra and New York Baroque Incorporated, the Choir of St. Thomas Fifth Avenue, Bach Collegium San Diego, Cappella Romana, Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival, Bach Vespers of Holy Trinity New York, Magnificat (U.K.), Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, and the Portland Baroque Orchestra, among others.
Working as a vocal soloist and consort singer for 16 years in the U.S. and the U.K., he received critical praise: “Marsh gave object lessons in vocal ornamentation as a graceful countertenor” (LA Times), with further plaudits as “a powerful and expressive countertenor” (NY Times). He undertook Bach aria study with the Dutch bass-baritone Max Van Egmond in Amsterdam. He performed as a soloist with the American Bach Soloists, Concert Royal, New York Collegium (under Gustav Leonhardt), Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, Brabant Ensemble, and the Academy of Ancient Music.
While completing his doctoral research at Oxford, Marsh performed regularly as a principal singer with the Choir of New College, participating in international tours and recordings with the Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the European Union Baroque Orchestra. He recorded 15 discs with New College Choir, one of which won the Gramophone award for Early Music in 2008.
Also an academic, Marsh is professor of music and director of the Historical Performance Institute at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He is general editor of the book series Historical Performance (Indiana University Press). Previously, he served as assistant director of music and director of chapel music at Girton College Cambridge. Marsh taught early-music history at both Oxford and Cambridge universities and has published research and review articles through the scholarly presses of each: Early Music (OUP), Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Early Music History (CUP).
Marsh has also served as canon organist and director of music at Christ Church Cathedral Indianapolis. He has prepared ensembles of young singers for concert and recording engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen and Antonio Pappano. He has recorded in various capacities for Acis Productions, Sony, Universal, Avie, Decca, Erato, Koch International Classics, Signum, and Public Radio International.