Concert: Sospiri del Tempo

Janna Kysilko

Janna Kysilko, soprano, co-founded Sospiri Early Music along with Spanish mezzo-soprano Nerea Berraondo, and now serves as its director. A graduate of Macalester College and the Eastman School of Music, she has undertaken a diverse array of musical projects over the years, from portraying operetta ingénues like Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, to early opera roles such as Flerida in Cavalli’s Erismena, Amore in Gagliano’s La Dafne, and Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. Janna has given several song recitals for organizations such as the Schubert Club, Thursday Musical, and the Women in Music Festival in New York, as well as appeared as a soloist with ensembles like the Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra and the Macalester Festival Chorale.

Awarded a McKnight grant in 2022, she was able to participate as a soloist in the Amherst Early Music Festival, as well as take part in the International Music Encounters baroque workshop with Roberta Invernizzi at Casa de Mateus in Portugal, and the Curso de Canto Histórico with Carlos Mena at the Universidad de Salamanca. Janna now resides in St. Paul, MN, where she is also a prominent trainer of dressage horses.

Joe Dolson

Joe Dolson is associate concertmaster of the Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra. He has freelanced as a violinist within the Twin Cities since graduating from Macalester College in 2000, performing everything from high-concept performance art music with composer Franz Kamin, to classical and romantic string quartet music with the Elderberry String Quartet, to traditional English and Scottish Country Dance music. His forays into historical dance forms, in turn, led him to an interest in studying baroque performance practice with violinist Marc Levine.

Since developing an interest in baroque performance, Joe has studied baroque dance with Paige Whitley-Bauguess, and worked with Marc Destrubé, Ingrid Matthews, and Aisslinn Nosky studying baroque violin performance.

Joe also plays in a violin duo with MPO stand partner Catherine Himmerich. Together, they have worked extensively on sets of violin duos by diverse artists such as Violet Archer, Bela Bartok, Victoria Bond, Paul Hindemith, LeClair, and the Cure.

Phillip Rukavina

Phillip Rukavina performs as a lute and vihuela soloist and as a continuo lutenist. He’s appeared at many music festivals specializing in early music, including the Utrecht Early Music Festival (2013) and the Boston Early Music Festival (2015). In 2017, Phillip was invited to perform as a soloist at the European Lute Festival in Füssen, Germany (2017) and at the Lute Society of America’s 2017 WestFest held in Victoria, BC Canada.

Phillip is a founding member of the Venere Lute Quartet and has performed with many prominent ensembles, including the Newberry Consort, the Texas Early Music Project, the Rose Ensemble, the Bach Society MN and with renowned sopranos Emma Kirkby and Ellen Hargis. He has served on the faculty of the Lute Society of America’s LuteFest in Cleveland, OH and the Amherst and Vancouver Early Music Festivals. He has recorded on the Lyrichord, LSA, and Naxos labels. His fifth Studio395 solo release, Dutch Light: the Lute Music of Nicolas Vallet, was issued in winter of 2017.

Charles Asch

Charles Asch is a multifaceted performer with a background in baroque and classical cello, as well as a broad experience in folk and pop music. Dr. Asch received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Minnesota, and his Master of Music degree from Juilliard. His undergraduate studies at Northwestern University were both in German and Music.  He performs with Lyra Baroque Orchestra and the Bach Society of MN. When not playing the cello, he can be found walking his ferrets, playing tennis or even on the disc golf course!

Marco Real-d’Arbelles

Equally comfortable in modern and baroque performance, Marco recently led a production of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea in collaboration with BSM, Bold North Baroque Opera, and University of Minnesota Opera Theatre, and a newly commissioned opera titled In Media Res with An Opera Theatre (AOT).  Marco was also Music Director for Opera on the Lake’s premiere production of Die Fledermaus and Bold North Baroque Opera’s La Dafne. Previous conducting postings and appearances include Winter Opera St. Louis, Chicago Summer Opera, Miami Classical Music Festival, CCM’s Opera Bootcamp, and Oberlin in Italy Opera Festival.

Born in Nicaragua, Marco was raised in Miami, Florida where he formally began studying violin at the age of 11. He was admitted to the Conservatory of Music at Lynn University in Boca Raton, FL earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees under the tutelage of Sergiu Schwartz and Carol Cole. While there, he also began studying conducting with Maestros Albert George Schram and Jon Robertson. He later trained with conducting masters Mark Gibson, Riccardo Frizza, Jorma Panula, and Ennio Nicotra.

After graduate studies, he went on to become Assistant Conductor of The Miami Symphony Orchestra where he led outreach, educational, and family concerts. He spent the summer of 2011 in Venezuela working in the world famous EL SISTEMA as assistant conductor. In 2014, the Chamber Philharmonic of Catalonia (Spain) awarded Marco the Conducting Prize. In 2016, he was given Special Recognition by the City of Doral (Florida) for his contributions to the arts and his work with youth.

Steven Zubich

Steven Zubich enjoys a dynamic musical career. He is an alumnus of the Perpich Center for Arts Education in Golden Valley, Minnesota. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in music with a minor in art history from the University of Minnesota-Duluth where he studied with Tracy Lipke-Perry and Alexander Chernyshev. At UMD, he received extensive musical training with supplemental coursework in collaborative piano, pedagogy, musicology, theory, and composition.

He was the winner of the Concerto and Aria competition and was awarded a Matinee Musicale scholarship. His studies continued at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he earned his Master’s of Music in Piano Performance. He studied under the tutelage of Venezuelan concert pianists Elena Abend and Judith Jaimes. 

Zubich’s vocations include performing, composing, teaching, and administration. His incidental compositions have been performed with theatrical companies such as Phantom Chorus, Lakeshore abd Wayward Theater. He is a faculty member at MacPhail Center for Music and the Saint Paul Conservatory. From 2017 through 2024, Zubich managed the Northern Lights Music Festival in his Minnesota homeland. He has organized over 150 classical music performances throughout the Iron Range since his tenure with NLMF.