Margot Rood, hailed for her “sterling, gleaming tone and magnificent control” by The Washington Post, performs a wide range of repertoire. 2023/2024 concert performances include return appearances with Washington Bach Consort, Blue Heron, Handel & Haydn Society, and Seraphic Fire. Recent solo appearances include those with Toronto’s Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (Messiah), Edinburgh’s Dunedin Consort (St. Matthew Passion), Cleveland Orchestra (Stravinsky Threni), Boston Symphony (Benjamin Dream of the Song), Rhode Island Philharmonic (Messiah), Philharmonia Baroque (BWV 61 & 140), New Jersey Symphony (Messiah), Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (Mozart Requiem).

Margot’s upcoming operatic performances include the title roles in Handel’s Esther and in Mouret’s Les Fêtes de Thalie with Opera Lafayette, with which she stepped in to sing the title roles in the world premiere of Rameau’s Io and the modern premiere of Pierre de La Garde’s Léandre et Héro at the close of the 2022/2023 season.

Notable recordings include Blue Heron’s Ockeghem Songs, Vol. 1 as well as Blue Heron’s world premiere recording of Cipriano de Rore’s 5-voice madrigals. Margot recorded the role of La Paix in Charpentier’s Les Arts Florissants with Boston Early Music Festival (CPO), and the role of 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 songs by composer Heather Gilligan, Living in Light, is available from Albany Records.

Praised for her “natural expressiveness,” Dr. Jessica Powell Eig has crafted a dynamic and varied career performing on double bass, violone, and viola da gamba, working with Washington Bach Consort, American Bach Soloists, ARTEK, The Thirteen, Inscape/Urban Arias, Opera Lafayette, Washington National Cathedral Orchestra, Washington Concert Opera, New Orchestra of Washington, National Philharmonic, and many others. In 2022, she was appointed Adjunct Faculty in Classical Double Bass at George Mason University. She serves on the faculty of the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East, and she is a regular guest lecturer in double bass pedagogy at the University of Maryland. In 2010, Jessica completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in double bass performance at SUNY-Stony Brook as a student of Joseph Carver and Kurt Muroki. She received her earlier training at Cincinnati College-Conservatory, the Eastman School of Music, and The Juilliard School. After completing her DMA, Jessica pursued further private study in historical bass with Rob Nairn. She studied viola da gamba with Christel Thielmann, James Lambert, and Martha McGaughey.

In demand throughout North America as a performer and teacher on historical oboes, Margaret Owens is a founding member of the chamber music group Kleine Kammermusik, whose 2017 album Fanfare and Filigree (Acis) has received critical acclaim. She is a featured soloist with Ensemble Sprezzatura, whose debut recording Altissima (Chandos) was released this year. She is on faculty in the historical performance institutes of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. At both institutions, her work centers around broadening the study of historical oboes, from playing the instruments to exploring the performance practices specific to the 18th century. Ms. Owens earned degrees in oboe performance at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the Manhattan School of Music, and the City University of New York, where her doctoral work focused on the oboe bands and their role in the entertainments at Louis XIV’s court, and led to further exploration and expertise in the French Baroque masquerade.

An eastern North Carolina native, living with her music historian husband and computer enthusiast son in Northern Virginia, Ms. Owens is an active participant in the musical life of the Washington, DC area, playing oboe with the area’s period instrument orchestras. She has seen much of the United States and Canada in her travels to play with groups spanning the coasts. Summers see her onstage at the Charlotte Bach Festival, the Staunton Music Festival, and teaching at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute and Amherst Early Music Festival.

William Simms is an active performer of early music.  Equally adept on lute, theorbo and baroque guitar, he appears regularly with The Bach Sinfonia, Apollo’s Fire, The Washington Bach Consort, and The Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado. He has performed numerous operas, cantatas, and oratorios with such ensembles as The Washington National Opera, The Cleveland Opera, Opera Lafayette, and American Opera Theatre. Venues include The National Cathedral, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The Library of Congress, The Corcoran Gallery, The Kennedy Center and The Barns at Wolftrap. He has toured and recorded with The Baltimore Consort as well as with Apollo’s Fire. His recording with Ronn McFarlane, Two Lutes, was the CD pick of the week on WETA in Washington DC in 2012. Mr. Simms received a Bachelor of Music from The College of Wooster and a Master of Music from Peabody Conservatory. He serves on the faculties of Mount St. Mary’s University and Hood College, and is the founder and director of the Hood Early Music Ensemble. He has recorded for the Dorian, Centaur, Naxos and Eclectra labels.