Meet the Musicians

Sarah Biber

has played viola da gamba and cello across the United States, Australia and China. She performed with Severall Friends, a New Mexico period instrument group, at summer 2025 concerts in Santa Fe. In recent collaborations with dance, she has been featured with the Paul Taylor Dance Company performing solo Bach for the company’s first performance with period instruments.

Ms. Biber earned her doctorate from Stony Brook University after double-degree studies at Oberlin Conservatory and College and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She relocated to Golden, Colorado in 2010, where she teaches and plays with the Baroque Orchestra of Colorado, Colorado Bach Ensemble and Byrd on a Wire, her viol consort. Sarah plays an 1815 Lockey Hill cello and a 2015 gamba by François Danger. Sarah performs frequently with baroque guitarist Jeffrey Noonan and with St. Pete Baroque. She enjoys playing both Baroque and Modern styles. A Colorado native, she has been delighted to be a part of the growth of Early Music in this beautiful state.  Sarah has performed with the Colorado Chamber Players since 2019. 

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David Crowe

is an active performer in the Denver area. He is Principal Bass with  the Colorado ballet Orchestra, Opera Colorado, and the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also a member of the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, the Colorado Music Festival, and the Colorado Bach Ensemble. His background covers a wide range of musical styles and repertoire from jazz to rock and beyond. In addition to performing, he is interested in teaching and is Instructor of Double Bass at Metro State University of Denver. David received his Masters in Double Bass Performance from the University of Colorado. When not performing he can be found running the trails and back roads around Boulder.

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Kathryn Cruz

can be found singing with the nation’s top vocal ensembles, including Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winning Roomful of Teeth, Grammy-nominated Lorelei Ensemble, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, The Thirteen, and more. Noted as a “very expressive soprano” (Opus Colorado), she has enjoyed solo engagements and appearances with numerous artists: Chris Thile and Asheville Symphony Orchestra and Colorado Symphony on his “Attention!” program; Choral Arts Philadelphia in the premiere of previously unpublished Carissimi oratorios and Bach’s Easter Oratorio; Germantown Oratorio Society’s Messiah; Musikanten Montana (Bach’s “St. John Passion”); as Musica and Ninfa in Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Baroque Chamber Orchestra (Stephen Stubbs); Colorado Chamber Players under the direction of Matthieu Lussier in Messiah; the Colorado Springs Philharmonic in “Bernstein: On Stage and Screen”; with Maria Schneider at the Front Range Jazz Festival; the Victoria Bach Festival in Bach’s “Magnificat”;  the Ars Nova Singers in “Mass in Blue”; a two-time Nina Simone residency at Nocturne Jazz & Supper Club; and much more.

Her discography includes being a featured vocalist on the 2023 chamber jazz album “Flowers of Evil” by jazz pianist and composer Annie Booth; soprano on the 2025 Grammy-nominated “Beaufort Scales” by Christopher Cerrone and Lorelei Ensemble; and as featured vocalist on the upcoming album “Use Your Illusion” by NYC-based composer Eric Shanfield and the Pierrot Ensemble.

She is currently Adjunct Faculty at the Lamont School of Music.

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Jennifer Diaz Spera

enjoys a varied career as Suzuki violin teacher and early music specialist. A Northern California native, Diaz Spera’s educational background includes degrees in violin performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the University of Colorado Boulder. Shortly after moving to Colorado, Diaz Spera discovered the colorful world of historical performance as co-director and performer in the early music group Ensemble Pearl. A concert review describes Diaz Spera’s baroque violin and viola playing as exemplifying “incredible grace” and a “full, colorful and expressive tone.

An equally passionate performer and educator, Diaz Spera teaches violin with Boulder Suzuki Strings and feels honored to be connected to the nurturing and growth of the next generation of musicians and humans. She can be heard performing with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Boulder Bach Festival, Seicento Baroque Ensemble, Fern Ensemble, and Quartet Aspaldiko. This is her first performance with Colorado Chamber Players.

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Barbara Hamilton

is Artistic Director and Violinist/Violist d’Amore with the Colorado Chamber Players, a position she has held for 33 years. She served as principal violist with the Eastern Music Festival 1990-2005. Barbara has played as principal violist/soloist with Colorado Symphony, Orquesta Ciudad de Barcelona & Orquesta de Valencia (Spain). She played with the New York Philharmonic for one season.

Dr. Hamilton received a DMA from Yale School of Music in 1992, where she studied with Jesse Levine and taught in 1998. She was a top prize winner in the Fischoff, Aspen Festival and Woolsey Hall Competitions, as well as the Young Artists of YM-YWHA (New Jersey).

In the 1990’s, she toured Europe with the Orquesta Ciudad de Barcelona, the NY Virtuosi and the American Sinfonietta, performing concerts in the Grosse Saal/Vienna, the Concertgebauw and in the Leipzig Gewandhaus. She performed the complete Brandenberg Concerti with BCOC on baroque viola in 2018. Barbara has performed at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute and at the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute.

She plays on a Blaurock baroque viola and a Hopf violin. Barbara will be retiring from the CCP in in the summer of 2027. Happy Hour Chamber Concerts is honored to have her join our series for this final season of collaboration with CCP!

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Ann Marie Morgan

earned degrees in violoncello performance and Spanish. Playing open strings on a bass viola da gamba was love at first sound. 

Her journey as a violist da gamba has taken her to foreign lands including Canada, the Czech Republic, Turkey, and Germany. Live performances with major symphony orchestras (Cleveland, Minnesota, Philadelphia) and tours with Olde Friends, Apollo’s Fire, and Les Violons du Roy have been a significant part of her career. Some of her favorite recordings, among twenty, include Among Rosebuds (with William Simms), The Soulful Bach and Telemann (Olde Friends), JS Bach Flute Sonatas and the Sonata from Musical Offering (Joshua Smith, Jory Vinikour and Allison Nyquist), and A Painted Tale (Nicholas Phan). 

Ms. Morgan received an Artist Diploma in viola da gamba and baroque cello from Oberlin College under the tutelage of Catharina Meints Caldwell. She served on the Early Music Faculties of the Peabody Conservatory and the Interlochen Center for the Arts as well as interim director of the CU Early Music Ensemble and the Collegium Musicum at Regis University. The Baltimore Sun wrote of her “beguiling musicality” in live performance, and H&B Recordings Direct cited, “Before hearing Ann Marie Morgan, I would not have believed that so pure a tone could be drawn from a viola da gamba; it is straight from heaven.”

In the Front Range, Ms. Morgan has performed on viola da gamba and baroque cello with the Colorado Bach Ensemble, the Boulder Bach Festival, Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, the Colorado Symphony, Seicento Baroque Ensemble, Sounds of Lyons, and on faculty recitals at CU Boulder College of Music. She will serve as a judge in the preliminary round of the 2026 Blakeman Gerber Indianapolis International Baroque Competition. As the founder of The Morgan Studio in Broomfield, she welcomes both amateurs and highly skilled professional artists to study there with her. 

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Paul Primus

grew up in the Chicago and Cleveland areas, before attending Indiana University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in music from UWM. Paul joined the Denver (Colorado) Symphony in 1984, and was Principal Second Violinist from 1985 until 2024. He retired from the CSO in June 2026. He coordinated the chamber music program at Denver School of the Arts from 2013-2018. Paul is a founding member of the Colorado Chamber Players, which he and his wife Barbara Hamilton began in 1993. He performs 20 concerts a year with the CCP, and can be heard frequently on Colorado Public Radio.

Mr. Primus has performed numerous unaccompanied violin recitals over the years, most memorably one of the complete Paganini Caprices in 1986. Paul is an active teacher in the Denver area and has also taught and performed at Eastern Music Festival, Rocky Ridge, and the Lamont Pre-College Academy at DU. He is a frequent coach for the DYAO.  As a harpsichordist, he has attended the Tafelmusik and Oberlin summer baroque institutes.

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Willow Stracuzzi

is a cellist and gambist based in Bloomington, Indiana. She performs regularly on the various sizes of viola da gamba with Concentus, an ensemble within the Jacobs School of music specializing in choral and chamber music in the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras. In addition to performance, Willow also enjoys teaching viola da gamba in group classes to young students at the Project School in Bloomington. 

Her previous performance experience includes two years with Case Western Reserve University’s Baroque Orchestra and Baroque Chamber ensembles, with an appearance by the Baroque Chamber Ensembles at Boston Early Music Festival in 2024. 

Willow’s principal mentors in historical performance include Mary Springfels, Jaap ter Linden, Julie Andrijeski, and Joanna Blendulf. She is currently in her fourth year at the Jacobs School of Music, pursuing a Bachelor of Music in cello performance with a minor in historical performance practice.

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Jon Wasserman

is a Polish New Yorker based in Madrid—a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and specialist in historical plucked-string instruments. His work brings together performance, research, and the exploration of musical traditions across cultures, with a particular focus on Renaissance and Baroque music, diaspora, and the relationship between voice and plucked strings.

Jon holds degrees in Classical Guitar and Ethnomusicology, and a Master’s in Historical Plucked String Instruments from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. He continued his studies with an Artist Diploma at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya and completed a Master’s in Spanish Music at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid. His principal mentors have included renowned lutenists such as Nigel North and Xavier Díaz Latorre.

As a soloist, Jon has toured across the United States, Canada, and Europe, performing his program Amores Rojos, centered around the tradition of the self-accompanied singer and featuring his voice alongside a variety of historical plucked-string instruments. He is also the founder and artistic director of The Spanish Consort, an ensemble dedicated to exploring the music of the Hispanic diaspora.

Jon is active as both a performer and collaborator, working with musicians and ensembles throughout Europe and the Americas. His other projects include the Sarvarian & Wasserman Duo, Crocus Ensemble, and Al Tayr, as well as work with ensembles including Cantoria, Eduardo Paniagua, Capella Ministrers, Meridionales, Ensemble Lipzodes, Colorado Baroque Orchestra, Las Aves, Opera Omnia, Delirivm Música, and Sound Salon Seattle.

His discography spans early music, traditional music, and contemporary projects, including Tonos Humanos (2022) with Isanta & Wasserman, the EP Más Allá de Hispania (2023) with The Spanish Consort, Corelli After Schickhart (2024) with Serendipia Ensemble, and El Viaje de Abendino (2026) with Al Tayr Ensemble. His recent single releases also include In Darkness Let Me Dwell (2026) as a soloist and The Caravan of Exile (2026) with Duo Sarvarian & Wasserman.

Outside of early music, Jon also occasionally wanders into the world of math rock, where the guitars are electric, the time signatures are questionable, and nobody is quite sure where the beat went. He recorded with Giraffe House on the 2018 album Folding Chair Fathers, released three singles with Barekhu in 2024, and has also made solo recordings including Flat Rock (2019), Take a Walk with Me (2021), and Paolo (2026). 

A versatile multi-instrumentalist, Jon moves between historical and contemporary musical worlds, collaborating with artists across early, traditional, contemporary, and world music. Whether performing as a soloist, working within an ensemble, or exploring new sounds through math rock and other contemporary projects, his work is united by a fascination with plucked strings, voice, and the connections between musical cultures.

His performances, collaborations, and musical projects can be followed on Instagram at @jonplucksthings.

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Elisa Wicks

is the founder and artistic director of Parish House Baroque, and director of the Collegium Musicum at Colorado College. She also holds the position of Principal Second Violin in the Chamber Orchestra of the Springs and is a founding member of The Plein Aire Chamber Ensemble. In demand as a soloist and a chamber musician, she performs on both baroque and modern violin, and has appeared with the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Amherst Early Music Festival Orchestra (concertmaster), Chatham Baroque, the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Seicento Baroque Ensemble, and Musikantan Montana. She can also be heard performing regularly with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic.

Teaching is also a passion for Elisa; she teaches baroque and modern violin at Colorado College and maintains a private Suzuki studio. Elisa enjoys spending time with her husband and three sons, running, riding and cooking. She plays violins made by Hiroshi Iizuka, 1990,  and Johan Gottlob Ficker, 1793.

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MinTze Wu

is a violinist of many passions, and a visionary with illuminating artistry. A native of Taiwan and deeply rooted in the richness of chamber music, MinTze expands from the tradition and explores new possibilities of experiencing music as a new narrative form of performing art. Infused with spirit, precision, and soulfulness, MinTze founded Sounds of Lyons in 2009 and BenFeng Music Productions in 2013, and played the role as producer and artistic director to this day. Her signature work such as Death of the Pugilist, The Poet Show, Turn of the Screw, and Kreutzer has been produced on national stages of Taiwan and brought to US as well. She steps in as the Executive & Artistic Director of VOICES in 2022, and continues discovering the layers of humanities within us and our community through her work as an artist. 

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