Coffee and Doughnuts concert bios:
Coffee, the Polite Addiction
Fortunately coffee is legal. And it is socially acceptable. If it were otherwise our Phebe might have to be a recluse. Her day does not begin until her internal caffeine meter registers “safe for consciousness”. She then might contemplate the ethical questions involved in choosing soy milk or cow’s milk for her lattes, but however it is resolved, once sufficiently wired she can roll up and down Interstate 80 to teach at UC Davis and perform in Berkeley, San Francisco, and even Sebastopol, sleeping occasionally at points in between.
Gwyneth also has a serious dependency on the morning jolt and has been researching for years in search of the perfect medium bodied Vienna Roast. It must be full flavored without any of the burned quality of a French Roast. She uses this fuel to propel her to Napa where she plays with the Eloquence Quartet and down 101 to SF to perform with the Lamplighters. While at home in Sebastopol she can, only after breakfast, also enjoy a nice cuppa tea.
And tea is the power behind Maria’s productive days. It takes her to Berkeley and points beyond as a member of PBO. When closer to her home in Sebastopol she plays with LOBO, teaches the next generation of violinists, and does crafty arrangements for Alphabet Baroque Club.
Yaba also chooses tea as a way to ease into consciousness in the morning, and then again to prepare for private teaching, and then again after teaching. Sometimes she fits in playing with the SF Opera Orchestra….if there is enough tea.
Time Warp concert bios:
Judiyaba, pardessus de viole, loves the world of melody and ornamentation; a contrast to the dark world of playing cello in the SF Opera pit. In a parallel universe she explores visual arts, from quilting to printmaking.
Maria Caswell, violin, pays her bills as a viola player in Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, but prefers to exercise her ego on the violin. In a parallel universe she teaches violin lessons and takes walks with goats.
Gwyneth Davis, viola da gamba, moved sideways from cello to gamba and now gets to have it all, bass lines and melody. In a parallel universe she plays with The Lamplighters and the Eloquence String Quartet.
The inimitable Phebe Craig, harpsichord, holds us all together. In a parallel universe she teaches at UC Davis, is a sought after continuo player, and runs off to Utah whenever she has a chance.
All Over the Map Bios:
PARKING LOT BIOS
I am a square black Scion. Very cute. My job is to take Phebe Craig, and her harpsichords everywhere. Everywhere! We go to UC Davis to teach, perform and inspire youth. We run around to every Baroque group you can name….and some you can’t! I hear about them as we eat together. She gives me gas and oil while she munches Chinese take-out. Up and down the 101. She told me about her CD company Katastrophe. They produced DiscContinuo; the add-a-player recordings she concocted with Katherine Westine. And about their duo recording called Beside Themselves; everything from Bach and Couperin to Gershwin and Joplin! Of course she would be in a group called La Foolia. We chuckle a lot as we tear up the road together. *This car bio is now out of date. Please substitute Rave 4 for Scion!*
I’m an old Honda. Maria Caswell needs me and feeds me (Like her goats, I guess!). We have long drives from her country house in Sebastopol. She talks to me and sings to me. She seems to like really, really old music, and lately has been tossing a vielle in the car along with her violin and viola. Though I don’t think she plays that at Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (a founding member, she is!), or ABS, or Live Oak Baroque. She may play it with the Alphabet Baroque Club though. They must be a fun group.
I am a 1999 Camry and I am proud of how reliably I get Gwyneth Davis to all her jobs. One day it will be to SF for Lamplighters or Donald Pippin operas, the next to jobs and concerts with the Eloquence Quartet. And between all that we get up at dawn so she can make ice cream for the Glen Ellen Star! She had a vacation once, but it was long ago…I missed her. She is usually packing her cello and/or viola da gamba in the trunk and away we go. I think the Alphabet Baroque Club meetings are her favorites.
I’m a dusty old pick-up truck. No glamour at all. But I can hold up to 4 cellos or gambe (She plays treble viol too), and other music paraphernalia. Or hay for the sheep. I’ve taken Yaba down to the SF Opera Orchestra, SF Symphony, over to Sonoma State to teach and conduct the String Orchestra (you should see her conducting and singing and driving all at once. Ha!) She also (with much help from partner Gwyneth Davis, she’s in the Camry) organized 2 years worth of Alphabet Concerts: 23 concerts playing music by composers whose last names start with every letter. Oy! That morphed into Alphabet Players Through the Centuries, and now is happily the Alphabet Baroque Club.
From the Ground Up! Concert bios:
Judiyaba, treble gamba, in her Clark Kent persona, has spent most of her career to date playing cello with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony. She has been a character in the SF Bay Area music scene since concerts were “happenings.” She took up the treble gamba so she could play melody lines and boss the basso continuo around, like those diva violin players! She is also an avid quilter, water colorist, and concert impresaria. She and partner Gwyneth Davis keep a few sheep in order to fill the freezer with lamb to feed the ABC!
Gwyneth Davis, bass viola da gamba, plays cello for The Lamplighters, SF’s Gilbert and Sullivan theater company, and with the Eloquence String Quartet and various small opera companies. She fills those awkward morning hours working as a professional dessert chef. She is the chief reason why we usually rehearse at her and Judiyaba’s house. The food is best there, you see! She took up gamba to play all the interesting French music, but ends up playing viola lines all too often.
Phebe Craig teaches harpsichord, music theory, and whatever else they rope her into at the University of California at Davis, the premier agriculture school in the UC system! As a continuo harpsichordist she has played with nearly every early music ensemble ever in the SF Bay Area. She now lives in about four or so places, including Utah. Luckily she is able to move her harpsichords in and out of her car by herself. She is further fortunate to have found this ABClub: she eats well, laughs a lot, plays a lot, and has finally learned her ABCs.
Maria Caswell, violin, is a founding member of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the “premier baroque orchestra” (New York Times!) of the United States. She also plays violin and viola with other early music groups in the SF Bay Area including Live Oak Baroque Orchestra and Voices of Music. You can see her playing viola on Voices of Music’s beautiful Brandenburg 3 video on Youtube! It has been suggested she take up tenor viol, but she is too much of a prima donna to do that! When at home she takes walks with her useless but entertaining goats.
Alphabet Baroque Club 