About

Gwyn Roberts

Co-Director & Co-Founder

Called “a world-class virtuoso” by American Record Guide, Gwyn Roberts is one of America’s foremost performers on recorder and baroque flute, praised by Gramophone for her “sparkling technique, compelling musicianship, and all-around excellence.”

Roberts’ soloist engagements include the Portland Baroque Orchestra, The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Washington Bach Consort and the Kennedy Center.

In addition to Chandos, she has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Dorian, Sony Classics, Vox, PolyGram, PGM, and Radio France. Her latest solo recordings include the Fasch Recorder Concerto in F, Bach’s Concerto in G after BWV 530, and Sonatas by Francesco Mancini. She enjoys collaborating with living composers, recently recording James Primosch’s Sacred Songs and Meditations with the 21st Century Consort for Albany Records.

Roberts studied recorder and baroque flute at Utrecht Conservatory in the Netherlands with Marion Verbruggen, Leo Meilink and Marten Root. She loves teaching, with recent master classes at the Curtis Institute of Music, Hartt School of Music, and Oregon Bach Festival. She is Professor of Recorder and Baroque Flute at the Peabody Conservatory, Director of Early Music Ensembles at the University of Pennsylvania, and also directs the Virtuoso Recorder Program at the Amherst Early Music Festival.

Richard Stone

CO-Director & Co-Founder

The New York Times called lutenist and Tempesta co-director Richard Stone’s playing “beautiful” and “lustrously melancholy,” while the Washington Post described it as having “the energy of a rock solo and the craft of a classical cadenza.”

He has performed as soloist and collaborator across the U.S., Great Britain, Germany, the Czech Republic, Taiwan, Japan and Canada. Highlights have included a national tour of the J.S. Bach lute suites, concerto soloist appearances with Apollo’s Fire and Handel and Haydn Society, and guest performances with the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Mark Morris Dance Group.

Solo recordings include Johann Friedrich Fasch’s lute concerto and the modern premiere of Silvius Leopold Weiss’s lute concerti on Chandos, lute suites by Weiss on Titanic, and new theorbo music by David Loeb on Vienna Modern Masters. Other credits include Deutsche Grammophon, Bis, ATMA, NPR, BBC, CBC and Czech Radio.

He studied lute with Patrick O’Brien at SUNY Purchase, and with Nigel North as a Fulbright Scholar at London’s Guildhall School. Richard Stone is professor of baroque lutes at the Peabody Institute.

Emlyn Ngai

Concertmaster

Both a modern and historical violinist, Emlyn Ngai also performs extensively across North America and broadcasts recordings for CBC Radio, Radio-Canada, and National Public Radio with the Adaskin String Trio and performs as an active recitalist and soloist at the Carmel Bach Festival, for which he serves as an Associate Concertmaster. Earlier associations with groups like Apollo’s Fire, Boston Baroque and Joshua Rifkin’s Bach Ensemble have taken him all over the world for performances.

His recordings for the label Musica Omnia have received acclaim in American Record Guide, BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone, and The Strad. Other recording credits include Centaur, MSR Classics, New World Records, and Telarc.

An enthusiastic educator, Mr. Ngai has taught at Boston University, Mount Holyoke College, and McGill University and has been a faculty member of Amherst Early Music, Madison Early Music Festival and the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute. He enjoys ties with West Chester University where he is a frequent guest lecturer. Currently he teaches modern and baroque violin, chamber music and performance practice at the Hartt School of the University of Hartford, where he also co-directs the Collegium Musicum.

Mr. Ngai holds degrees from McGill University, Oberlin College Conservatory, and the Hartt School.