Artist & Academy Faculty Biographies theater for Oxford Handbooks Online. He joined the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory in 2001 where he is director of the school’s historical performance program and professor of harpsichord. Mr. Jamason has enjoyed working with a variety of ensembles, appearing frequently with American Bach Soloists, with whom he is principal keyboardist, as well as a variety of other groups such as the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Opera, Philharmonia Baroque, Musica Angelica, Camerata Pacifica, Yale Spectrum, and El Mundo. ERIC JURENAS (countertenor) grew up outside Washington, D.C. where his youthful ambition was to be a jazz drummer and perform with big bands. His musical focus shifted after he began playing piano and joined his high school chorus as a bass. Not really thinking things through, he applied to music school and, after some trials and tribulations as a baritone at the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) at the University of Cincinnati, he made the switch to countertenor. He has since appeared as a featured soloist with numerous groups, including The Santa Fe Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Opera Philadelphia, Wolf Trap Opera, The Dayton Philharmonic, American Bach Soloists, Colorado Bach Ensemble, Calvin College Choirs, Kentucky Bach Choir, and the Bel Canto Chorus of Milwaukee, among others. A proponent of new music for countertenors, he covered David Daniels in the title role of a newly commissioned opera, Oscar, with Santa Fe Opera in 2013 and will repeat the assignment in 2015 for Opera Philadelphia. An alumnus of the American Bach Soloists Academy (class of 2011), he has been featured in many ABS performances including Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Magnificat during the 2013-14 season. Other recent performances include St. Matthew Passion with Simon Carrington at the University of Northern Colorado and with Juilliard415 at Alice Tulley Hall, John Adam’s El Niño at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and Tolomeo in Handel’s Giulio Cesare for Wolf Trap Opera. He resides in New York City, and is pursuing a Masters degree at The Juilliard School. STEVEN LEHNING (violone & contrabass) was attending Pacific Lutheran University as an undergraduate when he stumbled upon a used book store that had a nearly complete collection of the Bach-Gesellschaft edition of Bach Cantatas in mini-score; each for only a nickel! Finding these while taking a class in Lutheran theology set him on a trajectory that prepared him to eventually become one of the founding members of the American Bach Soloists. A remarkable and versatile musician who is equally at home with violas da gamba, violones, contrabass, and historical keyboards, he has worked with many of the luminaries of the early music world including Jeffrey Thomas, John Butt, Andrew Parrott, and Ton Koopman. He has performed at the acclaimed Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, as well as the Early Music Festivals in Boston and Berkeley. After finishing his undergraduate degree and while waiting to see what performances might come his way, he worked as an apprentice learning the art of French bread and pastry. Always curious about the entirety of the world in which the music he plays came from, he dove into many aspects of early music. In addition to performing with ABS, he is their librarian, and tunes harpsichords and organs for rehearsals and performances. On the scholarship side, he has pursued graduate studies 16
in musicology at the University of California (Davis). Mr. Lehning has recorded on the American Bach Soloists, Delos, EMI, Harmonia Mundi, and Koch Labels. JUDITH MALAFRONTE (mezzo-soprano) was born in Stratford, Connecticut and attended American Shakespeare Theater rehearsals and performances as a toddler and believed everyone was in a play or, in some way, involved backstage in theater. Since pursuing her path as a performer, she has appeared with Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the San Francisco Symphony, the St. Louis and Baltimore Symphonies, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, and the Handel and Haydn Society. She has sung at the Tanglewood Festival, the Boston Early Music Festival, and the Utrecht Early Music Festival, and is a frequent guest artist with the American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, The Harp Consort, and the medieval vocal ensemble Bicinium, which she cofounded with Drew Minter in 2004. Her operatic performances have included the title role in Handel’s Serse at the Göttingen Festival, Scarlatti’s L’Aldimiro at the Berkeley Festival, Dido and Aeneas with Mark Morris Dance Group (singing both Dido and the Sorceress), the title role of Handel’s Ariodante at the Spoleto USA Festival, and Nero in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea for the Aston Magna Festival. She holds degrees with honors from Vassar College and Stanford University, and pursued post-graduate studies at the Eastman School of Music, with Mlle. Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and with Giulietta Simionato in Milan as a Fulbright scholar. She has recorded a wide range of repertoire, from the 12th-century chant of Hildegard von Bingen to the Deutsche Motette of Richard Strauss, including Handel operas, Bach cantatas, the St. Matthew Passion, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with American Bach Soloists, medieval music, and Spanish 17th-century music. Ms Malafronte’s writings on music have appeared in Opera News, Early Music America, Stagebill, Schwann Inside, and Opus. She is a faculty member at Yale University where she teaches, among other courses, a freshman seminar she created on Shakespeare and Music. ROBERT MEALY (violin & viola) first began exploring early music as a teenager in Berkeley. He joined the UC Collegium Musicum in high school, working with Alan Curtis and Philip Brett; at 16 he spent a formative year studying in London, where he performed with the baroque orchestra of the Royal College of Music. While still an undergraduate at Harvard he was asked to join Tafelmusik, with whom he toured and recorded for eight years. He then moved to Europe to work with Les Arts Florissants; he also played frequently with Sequentia, with whom he toured the world performing Hildegard. He directed the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra for over a decade, and then led the Yale Collegium for many years; he remains Professor of Early Music at the Yale School of Music. In 2009, he joined the faculty of the new Historical Performance program at the Juilliard School, and became Director of the program in 2012. A devoted chamber musician, he loves to play with his friends in Quicksilver, which has received much critical acclaim in many festival appearances. He cofounded the medieval ensemble Fortune’s Wheel, which performed throughout the United States and in Mexico, and played for years with the King’s Noyse. Mr. Mealy regularly appears as a soloist and concertmaster in New York City, where he leads