Candace Smith

Member

Biography

Candace Smith, mezzo-soprano, was born in Los Angeles but has lived in Europe since 1975 (in Italy since 1978). She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in music in California (CSUN) before specializing in medieval music at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis under Andrea von Ramm. In Italy she studied, assisted and performed with the late singer Cathy Berberian. In 1994 she earned a diploma in vocal pedagogy from the Rabine-Institut für funktionale Stimmpädagogik. She has collaborated with numerous early music ensembles including Sequentia, P.A.N., and her own Concerto delle Dame (1978-89), and in 1991 she founded the (mostly) female ensemble Cappella Artemisia, dedicated to early music from Italian convents. Together with the cornettist Bruce Dickey, she created Artemisia Editions, which publishes critical performing editions of Italian 17th-century convent repertoire. Candace is an active teacher and has worked with singers, actors, teachers and psychiatric patients. She is on the faculty of the Bernstein School of Musical Theater in Bologna.

Bruce Dickey is a performer and researcher who has devoted himself since 1975 to the revival of the cornetto. He has taught cornetto and 17th century performance practice at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel (Switzerland) since 1976 and is founder and co-director of the ensemble Concerto Palatino. As a performer he has made many groundbreaking recordings both as a soloist and with his ensemble, and has collaborated with most of the leading figures in the field of early music. His many students, over more than 30 years of teaching at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, have helped to consolidate and elevate the status of this once forgotten instrument. For his acheivements the Historic Brass Society awarded him in 2000 the Christopher Monk Award for "his monumental work in cornetto performance, historical performance practice and musicological scholarship." In 2007 he was honored by British conductor and musicologist Andrew Parrott with a “Taverner Award” as one of 14 musicians whose “significant contributions to musical understanding have been motivated by neither commerce nor ego.” He has published numerous articles on the cornetto and performance practice. Together with Michael Collver, he has published a catalog of the surviving cornetto repertoire, and, together with trumpeter Edward Tarr, a book on historical wind articulation.