Rebecca Cypess
Rebecca Cypess, founder and director of the Raritan Players, is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. A historical keyboardist and scholar, she frequently presents recitals and lecture-recitals based on her current research, with recent performances at venues such as the American Philosophical Society, the Bloomington Early Music Festival, the Center for Jewish History, Duke University's collection of historical instruments, the "Chamber Music Live" series at Queens College, and many others. In addition to her work as a performer, Cypess is the author of Curious and Modern Inventions: Instrumental Music as Discovery in Galileo’s Italy (University of Chicago Press, 2016); Women and Musical Salons in the Enlightenment (University of Chicago Press, 2022); and over 40 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. She is co-editor of the volumes Sara Levy's World: Gender, Judaism, and the Bach Tradition in Enlightenment Berlin (University of Rochester Press, 2018) and Music and Jewish Culture in Early Modern Italy: New Perspectives (Indiana University Press, 2022).
About the Musicians
Core Members
Dongmyung Ahn
Early string specialist Dongmyung Ahn is a performer, educator, and scholar whose interests span from the twelfth to eighteenth centuries. She is co-founder of Guido’s Ear and has performed with the Sebastians, TENET Vocal Artists, Raritan Players, and Pegasus. She has played rebec in the The Play of Daniel at the Cloisters. A dedicated educator, Dongmyung is the director of the Queens College Baroque Ensemble and has taught music history at Vassar College and Queens College. She received her PhD in musicology at the Graduate Center, CUNY and has published an article on medieval liturgy in the Rodopi series Faux Titre.
Sonya Headlam
Soprano Sonya Headlam has performed across the United States and around the world, in South America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia. She is active in the New Jersey area as a music educator and singer of a diverse range of repertoire from the Baroque to the 21st century. Sonya began 2019 in the recording studio as the soprano soloist on the Trinity Wall Street Choir’s soon-to-be-released recording of Dreams of the New World, by Los Angeles-based composer Ellen Reid. Upcoming performances include a recital of art songs, folk songs and spirituals by African American and Caribbean composers, and, in April, the role of Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte with Light Opera of New Jersey. Sonya holds performance degrees from Miami University of Ohio, and she received additional training at Mannes College of Music in New York City. She is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Vocal Performance at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.
Eve Miller
Eve Miller is a freelance musician, recording artist, composer, and music educator. She received her bachelor’s degree in cello performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and a master’s degree in Music History from Temple University, studying cello with David Teie, Stephen Kates and Jeffrey Solow, and baroque cello and viola da gamba with Ann Marie Morgan. Eve is currently principal cellist of Philadelphia’s Bach Collegium and is a member of the city’s leading baroque orchestra, Tempesta di Mare, having formerly served as its principal cellist. As a member of La Rocinante baroque ensemble, she helped to found Festival Internacional de Música Barroca de Barichara in Colombia. Eve has also performed, recorded, and toured as a rock cellist in bands such as Rachel’s, Matt Pond PA, and Lewis & Clarke. She has recorded and performed as a guest artist with The Swivel Chairs, Trolleyvox, Mazarin, Mission of Burma, Low, Arcwelder, Rosu Lup, and Swearing at Motorists, and frequently performs as a session cellist for rock and alternative artists. Eve composes music for film and theater, notably for the American Friends Service Committee’s 90th anniversary documentary Spirited Engagement, and has collaborated with the SITI Company of New York on several theater pieces.
Yi-heng Yang
In recent seasons, pianist Yi-heng Yang has appeared at The Boston Early Music Festival, The Finger Lakes Chamber Music Festival, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), Friends of Mozart (NYC), MusicIC (Iowa City), The Midtown Series at St Bart’s (NYC), Music Matters (Connecticut), Serenata of Santa Fe, Sunday Chatter (Albuquerque), Apple Hill Chamber Music Festival (NH), The Cobbe Collection (UK), The Finchcocks Collection (UK), and The Frederick Collection (MA). A dynamic collaborator, she works with such groups as The Sebastians, Gretchen’s Muse, and Trio Pasqualati, and will be directing a festival of chamber music this Fall at the Frederick Collection of Historical Pianos. Her recording of the complete Mendelssohn Violin Sonatas on period instruments, with violinist Abigail Karr, has recently been issued on the Old Focus label. She holds a doctorate in piano performance from The Juilliard School, where her teachers were Veda Kaplinsky, Julian Martin, and Robert McDonald. She studied fortepiano there with Audrey Axinn and also earned a Masters of fortepiano from the Amsterdam Conservatory, where she worked with Stanley Hoogland. Yang lives with her husband and son in New York City, and is on the piano faculty of The Juilliard School’s Evening Division.
Steven Zohn
Steven Zohn performs on historical flutes with many ensembles in the eastern United States, including (in his home base of Philadelphia) the Bach Collegium and Night Music. From 1995 to 2004 he served as founding Artistic Director of the period-instrument orchestra Publick Musick in New York State. In addition to concertizing, he has taught for The Juilliard School’s graduate program in historical performance and Amherst Early Music. His contributions to the study and performance of early music was recognized by the American Musicological Society with its Noah Greenberg Award. Among his recordings are world premieres of recently discovered Telemann flute duets and the composer’s moral cantatas, with soprano Julianne Baird. Also active as a musicologist, he has published widely on eighteenth-century topics, especially on Telemann and the Bach family, and is Laura H. Carnell Professor of Music History at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance.
Jessica Beebe
Lauded by Opera News as “evocative and ethereal”, “a honey-colored tone”, and "the most radiant solo singing," – soprano Jessica Beebe is steadily gaining international attention as an affecting interpreter of repertoire spanning over four centuries, ranging from Renaissance music to contemporary American opera.
In recent seasons, she has appeared as a guest soloist in concert with The New York City Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, The Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Hall, The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Raymond Leppard; The Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra; the Princeton Festival Orchestra; The English Concert under Harry Bicket, Bourbon Baroque, Piffaro The Renaissance Wind Band; The Folger Consort; the Delaware Symphony Orchestra; the Utah Symphony under the baton of Craig Jessop, and several other orchestras and ensembles.
Ms. Beebe's vast solo concert and oratorio repertoire includes such major works like Monteverdi's Vespro della beata vergine; Vivaldi's In furore iustissimae iræ and Gloria; Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater; J. S. Bach's Mass in B minor, St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, Christmas Oratorio, and a wide range of cantatas; Handel's Messiah, Dixit Dominus, Samson, Semele, Jepthe, and Judas Maccabaeus; Mozart's Mass in C minor, Coronation Mass, Vespers, and Requiem; Haydn's Die Schöpfung, The Seasons, Te Deum, Lord Nelson Mass, and Harmoniemesse; Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem; Fauré's Requiem; Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem; Delius' Requiem; and Orff's Carmina Burana. She has also performed late 20th & 21st-century works such as John Adam's El Niño; Andrea Clearfield's Alleluia; Donald McCullough's Song of the Shulamite; John Rutter's Requiem and Mass for the Children; and Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light.
In the realm of opera, Ms. Beebe has performed a variety of roles including Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro (the role of her 2015 debut with the Princeton Festival), Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and Despina in Così fan tutte; Gluck's Euridice and Humperdinck's Gretel; 20th-century roles such as the First Niece in Peter Grimes with Princeton Opera Festival, and the First Daughter in Akhnaten with Indianapolis Opera, and in 17th-century repertoire, the commanding roles of La Gloire in Lully's Alceste and Purcell's Dido. Highlights of her operatic activity including covering the role of Lila in the 2016 East Coast premiere of Jennifer Higdon's Cold Mountain, and joining Norway's Bergen National Opera to cover the role of the Angel in Netia Jones' hi-tech staged production of Messiah. In 2017, she helped to create the role of Luna in the world premiere of David Hertzberg's The Wake World with Opera Philadelphia and in 2018 she covered Winnie in Lembit Beecher's Sky on Swings. In 2019, Ms. Beebe debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the west coast debut of Meredith Monk's opera, Atlas. Beebe is a frequent performer of contemporary opera and is currently workshopping new operas with Opera Philadelphia by Jennifer Higdon and Missy Mazzoli.
Ms. Beebe is a member of GRAMMY winning ensemble The Crossing, GRAMMY nominated Clarion Society, GRAMMY nominated Seraphic Fire, founding member of Variant 6, Lorelei Ensemble, Trio Eos and Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia.
A native of the Philadelphia suburbs, Jessica Beebe earned her Bachelor of Music from the University of Delaware, her Master of Music in Early Music from Indiana University, and a Performance Certificate from London's Royal College of Music. Ms. Beebe is on faculty at both Franklin and Marshall and Muhlenberg Colleges.
Adam Cockerham
Early music artist Adam Cockerham specializes in theorbo, lute and baroque guitar. Beginning his performance career as a classical guitarist, he then gravitated toward historical plucked strings, preferring the collaborative opportunities of chamber music from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. As an accompanist and continuo player, Cockerham has performed with numerous ensembles – Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, the Mostly Mozart Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, TENET Vocal Artists, Four Nations Ensemble, ARTEK, New York Baroque Incorporated, the Sebastians, the Academy of Sacred Drama and J415. He founded voice and plucked string duo Jarring Sounds with mezzo-soprano Danielle Reutter-Harrah.
Beyond chamber music, Cockerham concentrates on 17th-century Italian vocal music. He is the Associate Music Director of the Academy of Sacred Drama, a group that is dedicated to the revival of Baroque-era oratorios. In the past, Cockerham has served as assistant conductor for dell’Arte Opera Ensemble’s production of Cavalli’s La Calisto and was involved in numerous modern world premiere performances with opera companies such as Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik (Le nozze in sogno) and Ars Minerva (Astianatte, Ermelinda, La Circe, La Cleopatra, Le Amazzoni nelle isole fortunate).
His early training as a performer of modern music on guitar has led to a sub-specialty of new music for old instruments. In addition to commissioning works for solo and chamber music with lute and theorbo, Cockerham performed for the premiere of operas and major works with the Prototype Festival (Pulitzer Prize-winning Angel’s Bone), Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (The Judas Passion), and Opera Parallèle (Gesualdo).
Cockerham earned his doctorate from the Juilliard School after completing a Master of Music degree in Historical Plucked Strings. His doctoral dissertation “The sepolcri of 1671” won the Richard F. French Prize for best dissertation. He also holds Master and Bachelor of Music degrees in Classical Guitar Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory. His discography includes recordings with Jarring Sounds, El Mundo, ARTEK, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, NOVUS NY, Augusta McKay Lodge, and Emi Ferguson + Ruckus.
Karen Dekker
Guest Artists, 2023-24
Benjamin Shute
Violinist Benjamin Shute studied at the New England Conservatory and the conservatories of Freiburg and Frankfurt, where his principal teachers included Masuko Ushioda, Rainer Kussmaul, Lucy Chapman, and Bernhard Forck. He has enjoyed diverse performing engagements on modern and period instruments internationally, including appearances as chamber musician, recitalist, concerto soloist, and concertmaster of the Boston Chamber Orchestra and other ensembles. He performs frequently as a member of the Highlands Duo with harpsichordist Anastasia Abu Bakar. Supplementing his performance activities, he has produced critical reconstructions of J. S. Bach’s incompletely surviving D-major sinfonia (BWV 1045) and lost D-minor violin concerto (BWV 1052R) for PRB Productions and is the author of the book Sei Solo: Symbolum? The Theology of J. S. Bach’s Solo Violin Works (Pickwick, 2016). In fall 2016 he joined the faculty of Oklahoma Baptist University as Assistant Professor of Music. Shute plays on a violin by Joseph Ruddiman, Aberdeen, 1775.
Dutch violinist Karen Dekker grew up surrounded by music. Dedicated to all performance practices that music might call for, Karen performs regularly as a soloist, orchestral player and chamber musician with various ensembles on both baroque and modern violin throughout the United States and Europe.
In recent performances, Karen has appeared as a soloist with Orchestra of Saint Luke’s at MassMoCa, Juilliard’s baroque ensemble J415 in a tour of New Zealand, and the American Classical Orchestra at New York’s Lincoln Center. Karen gave chamber music performances in William Christie’s gardens in Thiré, France and toured Europe with Les Arts Florissants and The Knights Chamber Orchestra. Karen can be heard on recordings with the Smithsonian Chamber Players of Mahler, Debussy and Busoni, Tchaikovsky with Orchestra of Saint Luke’s and Pablo Heras-Casado, and several releases of Haydn and Mozart with the Händel and Haydn Society, as well as in Alexandre Desplat’s film score for “Little Women”. Upcoming engagements include performances with Tempesta di Mare in Philadelphia and Zerbst (Germany), the Carmel Bach Festival in Carmel-by-the-Sea (CA) and many other appearances in the US and beyond.
Karen regularly performs with ensembles such as New York Baroque Incorporated, Orchestra of Saint Luke’s, American Classical Orchestra, The Knights, Händel and Haydn Society, Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra and several other ensembles and is a member of Philadelphia’s Night Music Ensemble. She holds degrees from Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, Manhattan School of Music and The Juilliard School. Karen is based in the Philadelphia area where she lives with her husband and three young children.