Celebrating Trailblazers in Historical Performance

Conversations with Tom Kelly

Celebrating Trailblazers in Historical Performance is a project of Early Music America in collaboration with Thomas Forrest Kelly and the Juilliard School.

Thomas Forrest Kelly is Morton B. Knafel Research Professor of Music at Harvard University, and a member of the Historical Performance faculty at The Juilliard School. He has served as the director of the Wellesley College Collegium Musicum, the Five College Early Music Program, the Oberlin Historical Performance Program, as Music Director of the Cambridge Society for Early Music, and was President and long-time board member of Early Music America. He writes a regular column for Early Music America magazine.

Click the highlighted names to view individual episodes

  • Jeanne Lamon, violinist and former artistic director of Taflemusik
  • Benjamin Bagby, singer, composer, harpist, and performer of medieval music, founding member of Sequentia,
  • Catherine Turocy, dancer, choreographer, dance historian, founding director of the New York Baroque Dance Company
  • Kenneth Slowik, Cellist, viol played, keyboardist; Curator of musical instruments at the Smithsonian, and Artistic Director of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society
  • Lisa Crawford, harpsichordist, professor at Oberlin Conservatory, Eastman School of Music
  • Marilyn McDonald, violinist, member of Smithsonian Chamber Players, The Castle Trio, The Axelrod Quartet, and others
  • Max van Egmond, baritone well-known for his recordings of the works of J. S. Bach.
  • Sarah Cunningham, viola da gamba; member of Trio Sonnerie, others; international recording artist and teacher.
  • Stanley Ritchie, violinist; former professor at Indiana University; performances and recordings with Aston Magna, Mozartean Players, guest with most major ensembles
  • Catharina Meints, viola da gamba; instrument collector; cellist in the Cleveland Orchestra; co-founder of Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute
  • Stephen Hammer, Oboe, oboe-maker. Performances and recordings with The Bach Ensemble, The New York Collegium, Handel and Haydn Society, many others
  • Susan Hellauer, founding member of the early vocal quartet Anonymous 4
  • Joel Cohen, early-music specialist and former director of Boston Camerata
  • Cheryl Ann Fulton, historical harpist

YouTube Playlist

Click the highlighted names to view individual episodes

  • William Christie, harpsichordist, conductor, musicologist, and teacher, is the inspiration behind one of the most exciting musical adventures of the last thirty years
  • Laura Jeppesen, player of historical stringed instruments
  • Nicholas McGegan, harpsichordist, flutist, conductor, music director laureate of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale
  • Hopkinson Smith, Swiss-American lutenist and founding member of Hespérion XX
  • Frederick Renz, conductor, harpsichordist, and founder of New York’s Early Music Foundation
  • Martin Pearlman, conductor, harpsichordist, composer, and founder of Boston Baroque

YouTube Playlist

Click the highlighted names to view individual episodes

  • Angela Mariani, professor of musicology and founding director of the Texas Tech Collegium Musicum, host of Harmonia Early Music
  • Ross Duffin, professor emeritus and former director of Historical Performance program at Case Western Reserve University
  • Adam Gilbert, professor of musicology and director the early music program at University of Southern California’s Thornton of School of Music
  • Mark Cudek, professor and former director of Early Music at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University
  • Dana Marsh, professor of music in early music/voice and director of the Historical Performance Institute at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music

YouTube Playlist

Scroll to Top