Meet the Musicians

Keith Barnhart

has a love of music that spans cultures and time. His musical exposure at an early age
was a mixture of mid-20th-century rock, classical symphonic hits, and whatever his brothers
bought through the Columbia House CD club. He began teaching himself rock guitar at age 13
but soon fell in love with classical guitar.

Keith received his Bachelors in Classical Guitar Performance in 2006 from the Lamont School of
Music, where he studied with Ricardo Iznaola and Jonathan Leathwood. He received his
Masters of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory in 2015 with an emphasis in Historical
Performance, studying under Richard Savino and Marc Teicholz. Keith graduated in 2018 from
the University of Colorado with a Doctorate of Musical Arts focused on the modern 10-string
guitar, studying under Nicolò Spera. His dissertation work included researching and recording
the music of Albert Harris.

Utilizing the lute, Baroque guitar, theorbo, and modern instruments, Keith has played with the
Boulder Bach Festival, Pro Musica Colorado, CCU School of Music, Seicento Baroque
Ensemble, CU Early Music Ensemble, Smithsonian Chamber Music Society, Happy Hour
Chamber Concerts, UNC’s Ursa Consort, and Parish House Baroque. Additionally, he has had
the pleasure of playing basso continuo for opera productions with the University of Colorado
Boulder, the San Francisco Conservatory, The American Bach Soloists Academy, the Amherst
Early Music Academy, and the University of Northern Colorado.

Parallel to his performances, Keith works part time as a Certified Music Practitioner. Trained
through the Music for Healing and Transition Program, he provides customized, live therapeutic
music at the bedside to create a healing environment for hospitals, hospice and nursing care
patients.

As an educator, Keith teaches classical guitar in public schools as a Teaching Artist with the
Non-profit organization Lead Guitar. He is the Educational Coordinator for Boulder Bach Festival
and presents educational concerts and discussions in K-12 schools across the front range of
Colorado. During the Summer you can find him teaching guitar, mandolin and ukulele at Rocky
Mountain Fiddle Camp!

Updated 2024

Sarah Biber

has played viola da gamba and cello across the United States, Australia and China. She performed with Several 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 with period instruments for the company’s first performance. Ms. Biber earned her doctorate from Stony Brook University after double-degree studies at Oberlin Conservatory and College and at 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. 

Updated 2025

Sybil Bradley

is a cellist and an eighth-grade student at Creighton Middle School in Golden.  Sybil was recently selected to perform in a master class for world-renowned cellist Stephen Isserlis at the Wyoming Cello Festival in Laramie.  She has performed as a soloist with the Stratus Chamber Orchestra, and is the principal cellist of the Front Range Youth Symphony Chamber Orchestra. Sybil is a member of the Golden Quartet and Spectrum Ensemble. She owes a huge debt of gratitude to all her teachers, but wants to give a special shout-out to her orchestra teacher at Creighton, Jonathan West, with whom she performed Deer in the Headlights on the Elevate Education podcast.

Updated 2025

Jennifer Carpenter

performs recorder and teaches regularly throughout the Southwest including the local ensemble Parish House Baroque. Her pursuit of early music studies brought her to study at the University of North Texas where she received a Master of Music degree in musicology with an emphasis in early music performance and has completed the course work for a PhD in the same field. In addition to her private teaching, she has been on the faculty of a number of early music workshops, including the Texas Toot, Next Level Workshops at Hidden Valley Institute, SFEMS Recorder Week, and Amherst Early Music Online; she is a frequent guest teacher with recorder societies and their workshops throughout the US and Canada. Her enthusiasm for working with amateur recorder players led her to serve on the Board of Directors of the American Recorder Society where she now works as their marketing director. Currently, she is the music director for the Denver Recorder Society. A resident of Colorado Springs, Jennifer enjoys spending time outdoors with her husband, son, and corgis. 

Updated 2025

Mary Cowell

has held her position as Fixed Third Chair in the Colorado Symphony viola section since 2007. She has a Professional Studies Diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Jeffrey Irvine and Lynne Ramsey. In 2002, Mary earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wyoming, where she studied with James Przygocki. Mary has performed with the Front Range Chamber Players, National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge CO, and the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole WY. A favorite part of her job with the Colorado Symphony is getting to play in beautiful venues around Colorado such as Red Rocks Amphitheater, Beaver Creek, Salida, and Telluride. Mary has two children and resides in Boulder.

Updated 2025

Jennifer Diaz Spera

is a Northern California native whose 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 her baroque violin and viola playing as exemplifying “incredible grace” and a “full, colorful and expressive tone.  She 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.  Diaz Spera can be heard performing with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Boulder Bach Festival, Seicento Baroque Ensemble, Fern Ensemble, and Quartet Aspaldiko. 

Updated 2026

Jeremy Druckman

is an early music enthusiast who has played the recorder for over 25 years. He studied with Gwyn Roberts at the University of Pennsylvania and has been featured in ensembles in Denver, Philadelphia, San Diego, and Vancouver B.C., performing a variety of renaissance and baroque works. Jeremy has a particular passion for baroque music – he has always been drawn to the depth, space for ornamentation and interpretation, and beauty of the instrumental music written during that time. He resides in Denver, CO with his wife and corgi and currently plays in three ensembles across the metro area. 

Updated 2026

Barbara Hamilton

is Artistic Director and Violinist/Violist d’Amore with the Colorado Chamber Players, a position she has held for 32 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 and Orquesta de Valencia (Spain). She played in 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 where she 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. For the past ten 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 Blaurock baroque viola and a Hopf violin. Barbara is a Wolf Trap Teaching Artist, and gives workshops at the Denver Art Museum, Denver Public Libraries, and Denver Public Schools on Music and Arts Integration into the classroom.

Updated 2025

Masakazu Ito

is recognized as one of today’s premiere guitarists, acclaimed by musicians, composers, conductors, and critics for his mastery of the instrument and its repertoire. Following his professional solo debut in Tokyo 1987, Ito won top prizes in seven major international guitar competitions, including the Andrés Segovia International Guitar Competition, the Tokyo International Guitar Competition, and the Guitar Foundation of America International Guitar Competition. A performance of Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo with the National Repertory Orchestra marked his concerto debut in 1990. Over the years, Ito has performed under the batons of renowned conductors such as Marin Alsop, Jefferey Kahane, Douglas Bostock, and others.

He has a number of recordings to his credit.  In particular, London’s Classical Guitar magazine called his 1998 recording ¡España! Music from Spain “a recording of depth… most musically satisfying.”  The Los Angeles Times also wrote “Ito displayed conspicuous skill and tonal range… [he] proved himself to be a clean and technically adroit player, whizzing through thorny passages with aplomb.” upon listening to his solo concert in Los Angeles in 1996.

The Japanese government has invited Ito to perform solo concerts in honor of two historic milestones – 150 years of U.S.-Japan diplomatic relations in 2003, and the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in 2015. The latter was attended by the Japanese Ambassador to the United States, representatives of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, among others. Ito makes regular trips to Spain to be featured as a solo artist during the Andrés Segovia International Guitar Festival in Segovia’s birthplace, Linares.  Most recently he performed in a series of concerts in France during the summer of 2025. He currently serves as a music professor at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado, where he is the musical director and conductor of the Colorado School of Mines Philharmonic Orchestra. 

You can see more about Ito at his website: https://masakazuito.bandzoogle.com/bio

Updated 2025

Wesley Leffingwell

is a keyboardist based in Denver, Colorado. He is currently pursuing his DMA in Harpsichord at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He leads the choir as Music Director at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church. Recent performances include Opera Neo’s production of Handel’s Rodelinda, Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado’s production of Hasse’s Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra, a lecture recital at the Historical Keyboard Society of North America’s conference in Colonial Williamsburg Virginia, and a solo harpsichord recital in Portland Oregon for the Western Early Keyboard Association

Updated 2026

Sandra Miller

is an active performer of the rich tapestry of musical languages from the 17^th and 18^th centuries. Since 2007, she has served as a core member of the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, hailed by Early Music America as having “a national reputation as a first-rate period-instrument ensemble.”  As a member of the Baroque Chamber Orchestra, she has collaborated with nationally and internationally acclaimed Early Music artists on both baroque cello and viola da gamba.

Over the past twenty years, Sandy has had the pleasure of performing with many ensembles in the greater Denver area, including St. Martin’s Chamber Choir, Vittoria Ensemble, Seicento Baroque Ensemble, Kantorei, and Ars Nova Singers. She has a passion for chamber music and enjoys working with the Fern Ensemble, viol consorts, and the recently formed Aspaldiko, a string quartet dedicated to the performance of quartet repertoire using period instruments.

As a cello instructor, Sandy maintains a private studio of students aged 3-72 and serves on the faculty of the West Denver Suzuki Strings program. She holds a BA from Wesleyan University and an MM from the University of Colorado in Boulder where she studied with Judith Glyde and members of the Takács String Quartet.

Sandy performs on a five-stringed (C-G-D-A-E) baroque cello made by German luthier Walter Mahr. She can be heard on recordings with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado including Corelli’s Circle (2018), Resounding (2020), and Bach’s Goldberg Variations, newly released in January 2026 on the Navona Records Label.

Updated 2026

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. 

Updated 2025

Abigail Nims

is regarded as a musician of integrity and versatility for her performances of repertoire spanning from Monteverdi, Bach, and Mozart to Crumb, Ligeti, and premieres of new works. In-demand as a talented mezzo-soprano soloist, she has performed with the San Francisco Symphony, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, São Paulo Symphony, Boston Baroque, Carmel Bach Festival, Detroit Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Teatro Municipal (Chile), Portland Baroque Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico, the Louisiana Philharmonic, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Indianapolis Symphony, Colorado Music Festival, Colorado Springs Philharmonic, Virginia Symphony, the Phoenix Symphony, the Colorado Bach Ensemble, and the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, among others.

On the operatic stage, she has performed leading roles with opera companies including Wexford Festival Opera, New York City Opera, Atlanta Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Opera Omaha, Florentine Opera, Virginia Opera, Opera Grand Rapids, and Opera New Jersey. Ms. Nims has collaborated with renowned conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Leonard Slatkin, Roberto Abbado, John Butt, Gary Wedow, Martin Pearlman, Grete Pederssen, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Thomas Zehetmair, Jun Märkl, Giuseppe Grazioli, and JoAnn Falletta. Her recordings include Boston Baroque’s Grammy nominated recording of Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (Linn Records), Mazzoli and Vavrek’s Proving Up with the International Contemporary Ensemble (Pentatone), Peter Ash’s The Golden Ticket with Atlanta Opera (Albany Records), and Martin Bresnick’s song cycle “Falling” with pianist Wei-Yi Yang on the album Every Thing Must Go (Albany Records). She holds degrees from Yale School of Music, Westminster Choir College, and Ohio Wesleyan University. Ms. Nims resides in Colorado with her family and is a member of the voice faculty at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

Updated 2025

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 Symphony in 1984, and was Principal Second Violinist from 1985 till 2024. He is now playing section violin, rotating between first and second violin. 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.

Updated 2025

Louis Saxton

is an emerging young cellist from Northern Minnesota. Louis pursued his bachelor of cello performance under David Requiro at Colorado University-Boulder, where he was named a Pressor Scholar, as well as the undergraduate winner of the 2024 Concerto Competition. Louis has also studied baroque cello and early music under Ann Marie Morgan. Previous teachers include: Betsy Husby (University of Minnesota-Duluth), Anthony Ross, and Frances Vandorn. Louis is incredibly fortunate to be performing on a 1992 cello made by Christopher Dungey, on loan to him by the Fink Family, and a French Husson Bow, on loan from the Morgan Studio. With a deep passion for chamber music, Louis has been a fellowship member of the Madeline Island String Quartet and plays actively with several chamber ensembles in the Boulder area. Most recently, Louis is a co-founder of DVC (Dad Village Collective), which is a chamber collective based out of Boulder/Longmont focusing on performing and recording both new music by living composers, and also mixing in the more traditional canon of music. Louis is hoping to pursue a Masters degree starting fall of 2026 either back in Minnesota, or here in Colorado. Outside of music, Louis works as a yoga teacher, a beekeeper, and enjoys gardening. 

Updated 2025

William Simms

is an active performer of early music. Equally adept on lute, theorbo, and baroque guitar, he appears frequently with Apollo’s Fire, The North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, Heartland Baroque, The Thirteen, and many others. He has performed numerous opera and oratorios with such ensembles as The Washington National Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Opera Lafayette, and The Cleveland Opera. Venues include The Kennedy Center, The National Cathedral, St Martin-in-the-fields, The Barns at Wolftrap, and Tanglewood. He tours regularly with Apollo’s Fire and with Heartland Baroque. He performed on the Grammy winning Songs of Orpheus with Apollo’s Fire and Karim Sulayman. His recording with Ronn Macfarlane, Two Lutes, was the CD pick of the week on WETA in Washington DC. Mr. Simms received a Bachelor of Music from The College of Wooster and a Master of Music from The Peabody Conservatory. He has recorded for the Dorian, Centaur, Naxos and Eclectra labels.

Updated 2025