Biographies of the Performers 

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Founded in 1980 to perform the instrumental music of Shakespeare’s time, the Baltimore Consort has explored early English,  Scottish, and French popular music, focusing on the relationship between folk and art song and dance. Their interest in early  music of English/Scottish heritage has also led them to delve into the rich trove of traditional music preserved in North America.  Recordings on the Dorian label have earned them recognition as Top Classical-Crossover Artist of the Year (Billboard), as well as  rave reviews elsewhere. Besides touring in the U.S. and abroad, they often perform on such syndicated radio broadcasts as St.  Paul Sunday, Performance Today, Harmonia and the CBC’s OnStage. 

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Mary Anne Ballard researches many of the Consort’s programs. She also plays with Galileo’s Daughters, Mr. Jefferson’s  Musicians, the Oberlin Consort of Viols, and Fleur de Lys. Formerly, she directed or coached early music at the Peabody  Conservatory, Princeton University, and the University of Pennsylvania, where she founded the Collegium Musicum and  produced medieval music drama. She is now on the faculty of Oberlin’s summer Baroque Performance Institute. A resident of  Indiana and New York City, she music-directed the Play of Daniel for 75th Anniversary of the opening of The Cloisters Museum  in New York and at Trinity Wall Street Church in New York. 

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Larry Lipkis is Composer-in-Residence and Director of Early Music at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pa. He has also served  as Director of Early Music Week at Pinewoods, and is a longtime music director for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. His  cello concerto, Scaramouche, appears on the Koch label, and his bass trombone concerto, Harlequin, was premiered by the Los  Angeles Philharmonic to rave reviews. The trilogy was completed when his bassoon concerto, Pierrot, was performed by the  Houston Symphony. Larry is on the Board of Managers of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, and often lectures on the topic of Bach  and Rhetoric. He has served as a faculty member at the NEH Bach Summer Scholar Institute in Leipzig in July 2012 and 2014.  

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Ronn McFarlane has released over 35 CDs on Dorian and Sono Luminus, including solo collections, lute songs, lute duets,  music for flute & lute, Elizabethan lute music and poetry, the complete lute music of Vivaldi, and Baltimore Consort albums. In  the tradition of the lutenist/composers of past centuries, Ronn has composed new music for the lute. These original compositions  are the focus of his solo CD, Indigo Road, which received a Grammy Award Nomination in 2009. Other recent CD releases, One  Morning, and Harvest Moon, feature “Ayreheart,” a new ensemble brought together to perform Ronn’s music. Nine Notes that  Shook the World highlights duets with Mindy Rosenfeld, flute, harp, bagpipe. Visit www.ronnmcfarlane.com. 

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Mindy Rosenfeld, a founding member of the Baltimore Consort whose playing graced our first decade, is also a long-time  member of San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Fluent in a wide range of musical styles, she plays both wooden  and modern flutes in addition to recorders, whistles, crumhorns, and early harp. Mindy actively freelances on the West Coast and  is Principal Flute at the Mendocino Music Festival in her hometown. The mother of five boys, she loves dancing and tending her  organic garden at home on “The Magic Farm”. 

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Danielle Svonavec, soprano, holds degrees in mathematics and voice from the University of Notre Dame. While still a student, she  stepped in on short notice as soloist for the Baltimore Consort’s nine-concert 1999 Christmas tour. Since then she has toured with  the Consort and appeared with the Smithsonian Chamber Players, Pomerium the South Bend Chamber Orchestra, and the South  Bend Symphony. She currently serves as the Cantor at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame, and teaches Middle  School music at the Trinity School Greenlawn in South Bend, where she is also Dean of Junior High Girls. Danielle lives with  her husband and three daughters on a farm near Goshen, Indiana.