LUTES AND CO-DIRECTOR

Ailen Monti is a specialist in medieval and renaissance music, playing historical instruments such as: lutes, gitterns, guitars and percussion. As an international musician, Ailen has taken part in early music festivals and multidisciplinary projects in different european countries, including solo and ensemble performances. She also collaborates in new music projects, working with contemporary composers.

Ailen holds a master’s degree in performance in medieval-renaissance music from Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Switzerland (studying plectrum lute with Prof. Dr. Marc Lewon), where she further pursues her studies in renaissance music with Julian Behr. Coming from Buenos Aires, she graduated in guitar and music education at Carlos Morel School of Fine Arts - Quilmes and began her postgraduate studies in Lute at the conservatory Manuel de Falla - Buenos Aires, all the while teaching music history and giving music lessons to both adults and children.

Ailen co-directs the Ensemble Parlamento for medieval music since 2020. In the same year she and Carolin Margraf founded In Cytharis with which she researches the use, spread, and function of the harp-lute duo of the 15th century.

FLUTES AND CO-DIRECTOR

Holly is a performer of early flutes and percussion, internationally active as a musician, ensemble director, and scholar. Her research focuses on the transitional transverse flute at the beginning of the 16th century and music during the reign of Kaiser Maximilian I. A passion for connecting the public with the wonders of early music led her to become the managing director of ReRenaissance – Forum Frühe Musik in 2023, an arts organization in Basel, Switzerland, which plans and presents new monthly concerts and a biannual festival, all dedicated exclusively to music before 1600. Holly studied medieval and Renaissance music performance at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland, completing a master's degree in 2022 with Johanna Bartz and Dr. Marc Lewon. Her research under the supervision of Dr. Martin Kirnbauer focused on the evolving transverse flute at the turn of the sixteenth century, its ensembles, and its political symbolism for Maximilian I. Liane Ehlich, Mara Winter and Norbert Rodenkirchen, as well as Catherine Motuz on improvisation and Gabriele Miracle and Enea Sorini in percussion have also shaped her approach to performance. A native Californian, Holly majored in music performance and philosophy at Wheaton Conservatory of Music in Illinois. With over fifteen years of experience in teaching music lessons, Holly is a passionate promoter of communal music-making, leading her to co-found and direct the independent, non-audition Oakhurst Community Choir in Decatur, Georgia, USA, before moving to Switzerland, where she enjoys hosting Sacred Harp singings, jam sessions, and house concerts and preparing concerts with ensembles Parlamento and Zweigulden.

VOICE

Karin received her music education at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and Case Western Reserve University in the USA. Her teachers include Katarina Livljanić and Ellen Hargis. In the field of medieval music, the soprano is co-founder of the medieval ensemble Trobár and also sings with Concordian Dawn, Moirai, and Dialogos. With Concordian Dawn, Karin recently recorded a CD that Early Music America called the ensemble's "promising debut," and she will be featured on the companion CD to Sarah Kay's forthcoming book Medieval Song from Aristotle to Opera. Karin was the 2019 recipient of the Barbara Thornton Fellowship from Early Music America. Currently, Karin is studying at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in the master's program for music education.

VIELLE

Elizabeth began playing classical violin at the age of eight and discovered her love of early music while singing in the choir at Christ Church in Rochester. She spent an academic year at the Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, during which she performed regularly with the Bloomington Bach Cantata Project and with Tonos del Sur, an ensemble dedicated to performing the earliest music published in Latin America. She has performed in master classes given by Ingrid Matthews, Enrico Gatti, Odile Eduoard, and Walter Reiter. Her musical interests are wide-ranging; she is an avid player of traditional music, performs frequently at contra and English country dances, and enjoys writing her own tunes in various folk styles. Elizabeth completed her undergraduate studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel in 2023, studying medieval vielle with Baptiste Romain and baroque violin with Leila Schayegh.