Students and faculty of the School of Music performance studios present music from across the ages in this digital-only concert series, special for Spring 2020.
Concerto No. 5 in F minor, BWV 1056 by J.S. Bach, arranged by Sam Franko
Tekla Cunningham, violin
Henry Lebedinsky, organ
Artists Bios
Tekla Cunningham, baroque violin, viola and viola d'amore, enjoys a varied and active musical life. At home in Seattle, she is concertmaster of Stephen Stubbs' Pacific MusicWorks, principal second violin with Seattle Baroque Orchestra & Soloists, and plays regularly as concertmaster and principal player with the American Bach Soloists in California. She directs the Whidbey Island Music Festival, a summer concert series presenting vibrant period-instrument performances of repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Beethoven.
She has appeared as concertmaster/leader or soloist with the American Bach Soloists, Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, and Musica Angelica (Los Angeles). She has also played with Apollo’s Fire, Los Angeles Opera, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and at the Carmel Bach Festival, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Indianapolis Early Music Festival, Savannah Music Festival and the Bloomington Early Music Festival. She has worked with many leading directors including Rinaldo Alessandrini, Giovanni Antonini, Harry Bicket, Paul Goodwin, Martin Haselböck, Monica Huggett, Nic McGegan, Rachel Podger, Jordi Savall, Stephen Stubbs, Jeffrey Thomas, Elizabeth Wallfisch and Bruno Weil.
An avid chamber musician, Tekla enjoys exploring the string quartet repertoire of the 18th and early 19th century with the period-instrument Novello Quartet, whose abiding interest is the music of Haydn. She is also a member of La Monica, an ensemble dedicated to music of the 17th century, whose concerts have been reviewed as “sizzling”, and praised for their “irrepressible energy and pitch-perfect timing”. With Jillon Dupree, harpsichord, and Vicki Boeckman, recorders, she plays in Ensemble Electra, known for its inventive programs and energetic performances.
She can be heard on recordings with the American Bach Soloists, Apollo’s Fire, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, San Francisco Bach Choir, various movie soundtracks including Disney’s Casanova, La Monica’s recent release The Amorous Lyre, a recording of repertoire of Merula and his contemporaries and the Novello Quartet’s recording of Haydn’s Op. 50 string quartets. This summer she recorded Mozart’s Flute Quartets with Janet See, Laurie Wells and Tanya Tomkins.
Tekla received her musical training at Johns Hopkins University and Peabody Conservatory (where she studied History and German Literature in addition to violin), Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, in Vienna, Austria, and at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she completed a Master’s degree with Ian Swenson. She teaches Suzuki violin in both German and English and is on the early music faculty of Cornish College for the Arts.
Hailed by The Miami Herald for his “superb continuo… brilliantly improvised and ornamented,” Henry Lebedinsky performs on historical keyboards across the United States and the United Kingdom, both as a soloist and with Pacific MusicWorks, The Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and the Live Oak Baroque Orchestra. He has also played with Seattle Opera, The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, The Charlotte Symphony, Seraphic Fire, and Boston Revels. He is the co-director of San Francisco-based Agave Baroque, with which he has released two albums featuring countertenor Reginald L. Mobley on the VGo Recordings label. With Mr. Mobley, he has brought a unique program of 200 years of music by Black composers to audiences across the USA, in Europe, and in Morocco. As an organist, has been featured on American Public Media’s Performance Today, and has performed live on APM’s Pipedreams. Mr. Lebedinsky is the co-Artistic Director of Seattle's Pacific MusicWorks and the founder and director of PMW's Underground concert series, dedicated to bringing Baroque and Classical music to places where people gather - from brewpubs to wineries and other fun, informal venues - creating experiences that appeal to both seasoned concertgoers and first-timers alike. Now in its fifth season, Underground offers over 40 boozy, high-spirited, multimedia-driven shows a season across the greater Seattle metro area. If you like stiff, stuffy performances, don’t come. You'll just annoy everyone else.
An avid composer of music for choir and organ, his sacred music is published by Paraclete Press, Carus-Verlag Stuttgart, and CanticaNOVA. Mr. Lebedinsky is a former music critic for FANFARE Magazine and is in demand as an editor of historical music editions. He also blogs about single malt whisky at www.Scotchology.com. When not at a keyboard instrument, he plays guitar and bouzouki with the Celtic traditional music bands Earl’s Chair and The Beggar Boys, who were featured in National Public Radio’s syndicated holiday special A Celtic Christmas from Biltmore Estate with Kathy Mattea.
Mr. Lebedinsky holds degrees from Bowdoin College and the Longy School of Music, where he earned a Master of Music in historical organ performance as a student of Peter Sykes. A church musician for the past 25 years, he currently serves as Organist and Choirmaster at Seattle’s historic Christ Episcopal Church.