Violinist Ingrid Matthews, recognized as one of the country’s leading period instrument performers, will return to Anacortes with John Lenti, lute, theorbo and guitar performer extraordinaire. Their performance will include French masterpieces (Leclair, Rebel) and the Bach B minor Partita.
Ingrid Matthews is well established as one of the premier baroque violinists of her generation. She won first prize in the Erwin Bodky International Competition for Early Music in 1989, and was a member of Toronto’s Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra before founding the Seattle Baroque Orchestra with Byron Schenkman; she served as its Music Director from 1994 to 2013. Matthews has performed extensively around the world with many of today’s leading early music ensembles, appearing as a soloist and/or guest director with many groups including the New York Collegium, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, the Bach Sinfonia (Washington DC), Ars Lyrica (Houston), Musica Angelica (Los Angeles), New Trinity Baroque (Atlanta), and numerous others. Matthews has won high critical acclaim for a discography ranging from the earliest Italian violin music through the Sonatas and Partitas of J.S. Bach (“the finest complete set of these works,” according to Third Ear’s Classical Music Listening Companion). Sought-after as a chamber musician, Matthews has collaborated with most of the leading early musicians of her generation and served as first violinist of the notable ensemble La Luna. She has taught at Indiana University, the University of Toronto, Oberlin College, the University of Washington, the University of Southern California/Los Angeles, and the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. She is also active as a visual artist. ingridmatthews.com.
John Lenti has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician on lute and theorbo across the United States and abroad, and his performances have been broadcast on “Performance Today” and “Harmonia.” His playing has been hailed as “a joy to behold” (Seattle Times) and praised for its “nuanced beauty and character” (Gramophone). His recording credits include And I remain…, an album of lute songs and lute solos with soprano Linda Tsatsanis, Division with Ostraka, and The Amorous Lyre with La Monica. John plays continuo for the Seattle Baroque Orchestra and is a founding member of the ensembles Plaine & Easie and the I-90 Collective, besides maintaining a busy freelance career performing frequently on both coasts. He studied lute with Nigel North, Jacob Heringman, and Elizabeth Kenny, and holds degrees from the North Carolina School of the Arts and Indiana University.
