Concert: Sospiri di Tempeste

Janna Kysilko

Janna Kysilko, soprano, is the co-founder and director of Sospiri Early Music. She has appeared in several early opera roles, including Flerida in Cavalli’s Erismena at the Amherst Early Music Festival, Amore in Gagliano’s La Dafne with Bold North Baroque Opera, Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice at Eastman Opera Workshop, and was contracted to perform in Lyra Baroque Orchestra’s covid-canceled Jomelli Requiem. With interests that expand beyond early music, Janna has given several song recitals for organizations such as the Schubert Club, Thursday Musical, and the Women in Music Festival in Rochester, NY. She has appeared as a soloist with the Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra and the Macalester Festival Chorale, and performed in more modern operatic roles such as Mabel in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance and Jenny in Sondheim’s Company. Awarded a McKnight grant in 2022, she was able to participate in the International Music Encounters program at Casa de Mateus in Portugal.

Having completed a bachelors in music and Germanic studies at Macalester College, Janna went on to complete a master’s at the Eastman School of Music, where she had the opportunity to work with early music specialists Paul O’Dette and Kristian Bezuidenhout, and studied voice with Dr. Robert McIver. After continuing bel canto vocal studies with the ledendary Emma Small, Janna expanded her early music technique under the tutelage of Spanish mezzo Nerea Berraondo, co-founder of Sospiri. 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.

Bruce Jacobs

Bruce Jacobs, (continuo organ, harpsichord), is heard frequently in the Twin Cities. Since his musical debut at First Avenue, he has performed with the Eglantine Consort, Waltham Abbey Singers, Ensemble Polaris, Bach Society of Minnesota, Lyra Baroque Orchestra, Elm Ensemble, Hymnus, The Rose Ensemble, Consortium Carissimi and the National Lutheran Choir.

He was a founding member of Banchetto Musicale, a leading baroque ensemble in Fargo-Moorhead. Jacobs studied pipe organ performance with Ruth Berge at Concordia College in Moorhead and continuo through the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute. He retired as Chief Technologist at Twin Cities Public Television in 2022.

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!

Dick Hensold

Dick Hensold (B.M., Oberlin Conservatory) is a freelance musician specializing in early music, traditional music of Scotland, Northumberland, and Cape Breton Island, and Cambodian traditional music. He performs on Northumbrian small-pipes (a quiet bagpipe), Montgomery smallpipes (an historical smallpipe), recorder, medieval greatpipes, Swedish bagpipes, traditional Cambodian reed instruments, seljefløyte, and low whistle. He is currently the foremost Northumbrian smallpiper in North America, has performed in both Scotland and England, and has taught Northumbrian smallpipes at workshops in the United States, Canada, and Northumberland.

Hensold has regularly appeared as recorder soloist with the Twin Cities-based baroque orchestra Lyra Concert since 1986, also appearing with the Chicago Early Music Consort, Ex Machina, Circle of Sound, and the Minnesota Orchestra. His research interest in early Scottish music resulted in a lecture and concert appearance at the 1997 Lowland and Border Piper’s Society collogue in Peebles, Scotland. The proceedings of this conference, along with Hensold’s two other related papers, were published as “Out of the Flames” in 2004.

He is principal composer and arranger for the Celtic-oriented quartet Piper’s Crow, and also performs with several other folk groups and as part of a 4-piece traditional Cambodian ensemble. He released his solo CD, Big Music for Northumbrian Smallpipes, in August 2007. He is a 2006 Bush Artist Fellow.

Lacey Piotter-Jenkins

Lacey comes to us from California, by way of Oregon, and has been a happy and active transplant in MN since 2003. Since then, she has performed, produced, written and directed throughout the Twin Cities including; Cromulent Shakespeare Company,The Flowershop Project, 20% Theatre, Evil Temptress Productions, Theatre Arlo, Theatre Unbound, Freshwater Theater, Mainly Me Productions, National Theatre for Children, Fool’s Fortune, Courtney McClaine and the Dirty Curls. More recently, Lacey runs clerkships for the U of M Medical school, while spending as much time with her incredible 11 year old kiddo and their menagerie of cats. Honored and excited to share this project!

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.