Meet the Musicians

Amanda Balestrieri

is widely recognized as “a musician’s singer.” She took her rigorous instrumental training in orchestral and chamber music. Combining this with her love of language and the stage, she crafted an unusually versatile soprano voice in the classical music community. Born in England, she won two scholarships to Oxford University where she received her BA/MA in German and French, and studied voice in London with Marjorie Thomas of the Royal Academy of Music and Milan with Maria Luisa Cioni. She sang with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner for the soundtrack of the movie Amadeus and was a regular soloist in contemporary music with James Wood’s New London Chamber Choir. 

After moving to the United States, Balestrieri made several notable appearances with the National Symphony under Leonard Slatkin and Christopher Hogwood, and with the Smithsonian Chamber Players under Kenneth Slowik. Renowned for her “radiant intelligence” and her “unusually versatile” voice with its “luminous warmth” (Washington Post, Santa Fe New Mexican), she is in high demand for her musicianship and skills in baroque repertoire. Her teachers included Martha Ellison and Mary Ann Stabile. She has appeared with the major period instrument ensembles throughout the U.S., including New York Collegium, Concert Royal and New York Baroque Dance Company, Opera Lafayette, Washington Bach Consort, and American Bach Soloists.

In the Denver area, Balestrieri has been a guest soloist with area symphony orchestras and ensembles, including the Colorado Symphony and the Colorado Chamber Players, and with period instrument ensembles including Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Seicento Baroque Ensemble, Boulder Bach Festival, and Parish House Baroque. Formerly on the Voice Faculty at the University of Virginia, she taught Voice Performance at Regis University in Denver for several years. Balestrieri was appointed Artistic Director and Conductor of the Seicento Baroque Ensemble in 2018, is Artistic Director of the chamber ensemble Cadmus, and has recorded with the Dorian, Koch, and Virginia Arts labels.

Updated 2023

Sarah Biber

has played viola da gamba and cello across the United States, Australia and China. 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 recently relocated to Golden, Colorado where she teaches and plays with ensembles like, the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Colorado Bach Ensemble and the Colorado Chamber Players. Sarah plays on an 1815 Lockey Hill cello and a 2015 gamba by François Danger. A Colorado native, she has been delighted to be a part of the growth of Early Music in this beautiful state. 

Updated 2023

Sarah Graf

is an avid chamber musician, soloist, and teacher, performing on modern and baroque cello and viola da gamba. Since moving to Colorado in 2007, Sarah has performed extensively on concert series and with ensembles across the region including the Colorado Bach Ensemble, Seicento Baroque Ensemble, Ensemble Basso, as a soloist with the High Country Sinfonia, and as principal cellist with the Aspen Choral Society, Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra, and Messiah Choral Society. Sarah has also organized chamber music series focusing on baroque repertoire throughout western Colorado. Sarah earned her undergraduate degree, Performer’s Certificate and a certificate in German language and culture from the Eastman School of Music, studying with Alan Harris and Steven Doane and taking part in the Collegium Musicum under the direction of Christel Thielmann. Sarah has attended music festivals including the Aspen Music Festival, National Orchestral Institute, Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute and Freiburg Baroque Academie. As a teacher Sarah has a private studio, has completed Suzuki teacher training, and coaches students of the Roaring Fork Youth Orchestra, of which she is Executive Director and Co-Music Director. Now based in western Colorado, Sarah grew up in Frederick, Maryland.

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Barbara Hamilton

is currently Artistic Director and Violist with the Colorado Chamber Players, a position she has held for 30 years. She served as principal violist with the Eastern Music Festival from 1990-2005. Barbara has played as principal violist and soloist with the Colorado Symphony, the Orquesta Ciudad de Barcelona, and the Orquesta de Valencia (Spain). She was a member of the New York Philharmonic for one season. Dr. Hamilton received the DMA from Yale School of Music in 1992, where she completed a dissertation on the Alexander Technique and studied with Jesse Levine. She was a prize winner in the Fischoff, Aspen Festival and Woolsey Hall Competitions, as well as the Young Artists of YM-YWHA (New Jersey).

While living in Spain, she played with the acclaimed “Cuarteto Martin y Soler”, including tours of Mexico, Scandinavia, and Europe. The quartet played on numerous occasions for the Royal Family of Spain. Dr. Hamilton has performed frequently as a soloist, including the Valencia premiere of Penderecki’s Viola Concerto, with Maestro Penderecki conducting.

For the past nine years, Barbara has explored the study and performance of the Baroque, including performances at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute and at the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute. She is fascinated by period instruments. Barbara has studied Baroque Violin/Viola, Viola d’Amore and performance practice with Thomas Georgi, Brandon Chui, Stefano Marcocchi, Marilyn McDonald, Peter Harvey, Jeanne Lamon, Ivars Taurins, Robert Mealy and Cynthia Roberts. She plays on a Martin Biller Viola d’amore and a Blaurock baroque viola.

Updated 2023

Wesley Leffingwell

is a keyboardist based in Denver, Colorado. Recent performances have included appearances with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Greeley Philharmonic, Boulder Philharmonic, Breckenridge Music Festival, Bravo Vail, Ainomae Ensemble, Playground Ensemble, The Spirituals Project, Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Boulder Bach Festival, Pro Musica Colorado, Colorado Bach Ensemble, Seicento Baroque Ensemble, Cadmus, Rocky Mountain Consort, Evan’s Choir and concertos with the Aurora Symphony Orchestra. As a Jazz musician, he has performed at Dazzle Jazz, Porgy and Bess Vienna, Summit Jazz Festival, Sacramento Jazz Festival, and Evergreen Jazz Festival. Wesley has held staff positions at the University of Denver and Regis University. He leads the choir at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church as Music Director. He was a Fellowship Artist in Continuo with the Boulder Bach Festival in 2019-2020. He attended The Emmanuel Bach Institute in Boston and the American Bach Soloists Summer Academy in 2023. Wesley is pursuing his DMA in Harpsichord at CU Boulder.

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Brune Macary

is a native of Paris, France, and has been an active performer in the Boulder area for the past ten years. Specializing in Baroque music, she is a member of the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado as well as the Boulder Bach Festival. She regularly performs with the Seicento Baroque Ensemble, the Colorado Chamber Players, and Parish House Baroque. Besides her playing on period instrument, she is the Principal Second with the Boulder Chamber Orchestra, and a member of Sphere Ensemble and the Steamboat Symphony orchestra. She maintains an active studio of violin and viola students in Nederland where she lives with her husband and four year old daughter.

Updated 2023

Ann Marie Morgan

is praised by the Baltimore Sun for her “beguiling musicality.” She is a frequent guest artist with major orchestras and ensembles. Viola da gamba soloist in the Bach St. John Passion with The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst (2017), she has also performed the St. John Passion with The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Bach St. Matthew Passion with the Minnesota Orchestra under Bach specialist Helmuth Rilling’s direction (solo arias with Ingeborg Danz and Thomas Quastoff). Other performances of the Bach Passions include those in the U.S. with the Colorado, Helena, Richmond and Quad Cities Symphony Orchestras; in Canada with Les Violons du Roy and the Kitchener/Waterloo Symphony; and at numerous Bach Festivals including Oregon, Bethlehem, Boulder and Winter Park (FL). She has appeared on viola da gamba in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto Number Six with The Cleveland Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and at the Boulder Bach Festival.

Ms. Morgan recently served as interim Director of the CU-College of Music’s Early Music Ensemble, coaching strings, voices, harpsichord, and offering lessons on baroque style to students on modern instruments. She has also served as one of four on the Preliminary Judging Panel for the 2020 Indianapolis International Baroque Competition.

Reviews of her playing on Chris Norman: The Man with the Wooden Flute include:

• “Before nearing 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.” – H&B Recordings Direct, 1992
• ” …my hands-down favorite is Ann Marie Morgan’s viola da gamba solo, in Skinner’s ‘Cradle Song….’ lf there was a dry eye in the studio when this was recorded I say someone needs sensitivity training.” – Classic Disc Digest.

Ms. Morgan has her own solo viola da gamba album, Among Rosebuds, of French and English repertoire with William Simms and Daniel Rippe, continuo. The J.S. Bach Flute Sonatas: Sonatas from the “Musical Offering” (Joshua Smith) and The Soulful Bach and
Telemann (Olde Friends) feature her on baroque cello. As a result of her fifteen year appointment with Apollo’s Fire: the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, she can be heard as baroque cellist and violist da gamba on nearly a dozen of that ensemble’s recordings.
Labels upon which one can hear Ms. Morgan perform include AVIE. Centaur, Chandos, Dorian and Naxos.

Updated 2022

Sarah Moyer

is a soprano known for her “purity and flawless range” (South Florida Classical Review). Her most recent and upcoming work as a concert artist includes Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passions with Colorado Bach Ensemble, Handel’s Messiah with Bourbon Baroque, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, as well as countless Bach cantatas with Emmanuel Music, and Monteverdi’s Lamento della Nympha with Skylark Vocal Ensemble. She has also performed as a soloist with the Cape Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Chamber Symphony, Lost Dog New Music Ensemble, and Boston Modern Orchestra Project, among others. She has performed world premieres by Harbison, Kallembach, Theofanidis, Runestad, Cohen, and Grant, and American premieres by Melani, and Nørgård.

As a choral artist, she appears with GRAMMY® nominated groups Skylark, Seraphic Fire, Conspirare, Clarion Music Society, True Concord, as well as Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Variant 6, Spire, and Artefact. She is featured as a soloist on Skylark’s newest albums La Vie en Rose and A Christmas Carol, and GRAMMY® nominated albums Seven Words from the Cross and Once Upon a Time.

In her spare time, Sarah enjoys hiking and being outdoors with her husband, son, and catahoula leopard. She is also an amateur ukulele player and has devoted the last few years to reviving music from the Tin Pan Alley genre. You can check out her early-twentieth century covers with ukulele on her YouTube channel by clicking here.

Updated 2023

Paul Primus

is a vioilist and harpsichordist who 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 won an audition with the Denver Symphony in 1984, and was promoted to Principal Second Violinist in 1985, the position he still holds. 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 approximately 30 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, Paul has attended the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, Oberlin Baroque Institute, and has studied with Charlotte Neidiger, Frank Nowell, Joe Gascho, and currently studies with Robert Hill at CU/Boulder School of Music. He performs on a double manual French model.

Updated 2023

Karl Reque

isis very active in the local Denver classical musician scene.  Playing in baroque and classical orchestral settings alike, he brings a breadth of knowledge and experience to the Colorado Chamber Players. Karl received his BA in Music Education and Viola Performance from Arizona State University and studied Early Music Performance at Windham College. He maintains a large studio of violin and viola students.  Karl performs with Byrd on a Wire viol consort, Seicento Baroque Ensemble, and previously performed with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado.

Updated 2023

Hannah Robbins

cellist and viola da gambist, lives in Evergreen Colorado.  As a freelance musician, she has performed with many local ensembles throughout the Denver area including the Colorado Sympohny, Colorado Chamber Players, and Colorado Bach Ensemble.  Hannah is a also a cello and strings ensemble instructor at the Evergreen Conservatory of Music.

Hannah received her Masters of Music from Indiana University where she was an Associate Instructor and student of Wendy Gillespie. Taking part in the IU Early Music Institute, Hannah is a full time member of the Concentus ensemble, under the direction of Nigel North, as well as performs in various ensembles throughout the Bloomington area.

In the spring of 2011, Hannah graduated from the University of Michigan where she received a Bachelor of Music in cello performance. There she was a student of Richard Aaron and member of the University Symphony Orchestra and the University Baroque Orchestra. She also studied viola da gamba with Enid Sutherland and discovered her passion for early music.

Hannah has been active throughout the country participating in numerous summer festivals and orchestras. During the summer of 2010, she attended the Oberlin Early music where she studied with Catharina Meints. In 2009, Hannah won a position to play in the National Repertory Orchestra performing nearly 30 concerts throughout Colorado in just a short eight weeks. She spent the previous three summers in Washington, D.C. as part of the National Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Institute where she was the recipient of the Levine award and placed 1st in the 2008 concerto competition, receiving the honor to perform on the concert hall stage at the Kennedy Center.

Updated 2023

Zoe Weiss

is an Assistant Professor at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music. Both a musicologist and performer, she believes passionately in music’s ability to forge human connections which she explores in both her scholarly and performance work. She completed her Ph.D. at Cornell University where she wrote a dissertation on musical and material networks in the Elizabethan In Nomine tradition. Her scholarly interests range from the history of music theory and 16th-century polyphony, to performance practice and music cognition, and she has published work on Haydn string quartets and the consort music of John Jenkins.

An active performer on the viola da gamba and Baroque cello, Zoe is a founding member of LeStrange Viols, Science Ficta, and the Folk Baroque Trio. She has also performed with the Oberlin Consort of Viols, the Smithsonian Consort of Viols, the Folger Consort, and ACRONYM. Zoe has taught viol at workshops for the Amherst Early Music Festival and the Viola da Gamba Society of America and served on the Board of Directors for the VdGSA as well as serving as an editor for the Journal of the VdGSA. Her recordings with LeStrange Viols and ACRONYM can be heard on the New Focus label, including the album Æternum which emerged from her research into the Elizabethan table-book GB-Lbl Add. MS 31390. Science Ficta’s recording of new works by composer Molly Herron, Through Lines, was released by New Amsterdam Records in 2021. Zoe has previously taught at Harvard University, Ithaca College, the Cornell Prison Education Program, and Cornell University, where she received a Don M. Randel teaching fellowship.

Updated 2023