L. Mark Slawson (harpsichord) received a BA degree in composition
from Union College and a masters degree in harpsichord from New England
Conservatory. He has performed with Cantorum Baroque Ensemble, Boston
Renaissance Ensemble, La Sonnerie de St. Botolphe, among other baroque
groups. He is currently organist and music director at Second Parish, Hingham.
Mark is on the board of the Cambridge Society for Early Music and the Society
for Historically Informed Performance (SoHIP).

Laurie Israel (violoncello) specializes in baroque cello performance practice.
She received a B.A. degree in music from Barnard College, and a masters degree
in musicology/theory from University of California and studied baroque performance practice
at the Longy School of Music. Laurie has performed in the SoHIP concert series with Complesso Soave and The Splendid Century, and also has performed a solo unaccompanied
cello series entitled “Bach, Bach & Beyond” in King’s Chapel and other venues.  She founded Ensemble Suave in 2003. Ensemble Suave has appeared in a number of music series and reguarly performs at the Loring-Greenough House and at Cambridge Friends Meetinghouse. Laurie is also a visual artist, appearing in a number of solo and group shows in Massachusetts and New England.

Gerrod Pagenkopf has been touted by the Houston Chronicle as having “an elegant bearing and a sweet, even sound.” Mr. Pagenkopf made his Amarillo Opera debut in October 2008 as Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus. Other opera credits include Rinaldo (Rinaldo), Oberon (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), the Refugee (Flight), Tolomeo (Giulio Cesare), Satirino (La Calisto), Arsamenes (Serse), Public Opinion (Orpheus in the Underworld), the Sorceress, 2nd Witch, and Messenger (Dido and Aeneas), and Actéon (Actéon).

As a concert soloist, Mr. Pagenkopf is a core artist with Ars Lyrica Houston, and has performed with ensembles including the Mercury Baroque Ensemble, the Bach Society of Houston, the Houston Chamber Choir, the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater, Several Core Performance Dance Company, Ballet Florida, Orchestra X (Houston), and the Green Bay Symphony. Mr. Pagenkopf has performed as soloist in such masterworks as Handel’s Messiah and Israel in Egypt; Bach’s Passions, Magnificat and Mass in B Minor; Vivaldi’s Gloria and Dixit Dominus; as well as numerouscantatas, oratorios, and other liturgical works of Scarlatti, Caldara, and Telemann.

Mr. Pagenkopf has performed with the Festival de Musica Barroca
de San Miguel de Allende in Mexico and in Vermont as Orlando with the Green Mountain Opera Festival.

A native of rural Wisconsin, Mr. Pagenkopf received his Bachelors degree in
Music Education from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and his Masters of
Music in Voice Performance from the University of Houston, where he was a
graduate fellow with Professor Katherine Ciesinski. Mr. Pagenkopf currently resides in Boston.

To learn more about Gerrod Pagenkopf, visit his website.

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