João Luís Paixão is a baritone and researcher specialized in Early Music singing and acting. During his student years at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, he cofounded two ensembles, A Dialogue on a Kiss, dedicated to Elizabethan lute song, and Heptachordum, dedicated to eighteenth-century chamber Cantata, with whom he won the 26th edition of the Young Musicians Prize of the Portuguese Radio and Television. More recently, he has been working in close collaboration with ensemble Seconda Pratica, researching and performing the repertoire of the Iberian Peninsula during the 15th through 17th centuries.

Active in the fields of opera and musical theatre, João Luís Paixão has, since 2011, intensified his activity in practice based research, giving special attention to eighteenth-century gesture, declamation and esthetics, and its connection to singing. Together with Dr. Jed Wentz, he has worked on the reconstruction of monologues from the 17th through 19th centuries, collaborating with Oxford Brookes University, The Royal Theatre Society, Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance, Anton Bruckner University Linz, Stockholm University, among others. In 2014, he acted in and coached a semi-staged reconstruction of Georg Benda’s Medea, within the Laboratory of the Utrecht Early Music Festival. The following year, he staged and acted in the reconstruction of Jean-Jacques Rousseau/Horace Coignet’s Pygmalion in the historical theatre of Český Krumlov, a project developed in collaboration with “Performing pre-modernity” in the University of Stockholm. Currently living in The Hague, João Luís is actively engaged with local artists and promoters such as the Royal Theatre and ensemble Musica Poetica in order to raise awareness to the dramatic and declamatory dimensions of pre-modern repertoire.

Michal Bitan’s musical flexibility has established her as a fine interpreter of styles stretching from the Baroque era to the 21st century. Since making her debut with the Israeli Broadcasting Authority (IBA) Symphony Orchestra in 2007 in works of Mozart, she has come to specialize in the works of the late French, Italian and German 18th century masters.

Born in Jerusalem, Israel, Michal was launched on to the stage at the early age of 6 when she was invited to sing in the Junior Ankor Choir to which she toured extensively through Europe and the Middle East. During that time she had the privilege to work under great masters such as Zubin Mehta, the late Giuseppe Sinopoli, Kurt Masur and Luciano Berio. Michal was recognized as an outstanding artist by the Israeli army and has been the recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.

Her first operatic appearance was in Tel-Aviv, Israel in Die Zauberflöte, as 1st Child with the New Israeli Opera, and in December last year she was working as understudy for The Hague based company OPERA2DAY, The Netherlands, in Medee, as 2nd Lady, under Hernan Schwartman.

Specialising in 18th century opera and historical acting, she had the opportunity to work with Andreas Scholl, Della Jones, Nancy Argenta, Peter Harvey, Peter van Heyghen, and Barthorld Kuijken. In 2012 she had performed withValiante Musicus, in the role of Dorinda in Orlando/Handel and made her German debut as Königin der Nacht in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with the International Belcanto Academy in Velbert.

Further training has based her in Europe, where she completed Bachelor and Masters Studies in opera and early music with teacher Rita Dams, baritone Andrew Schroeder, bass Peter Kooij, counter-tenor Michael Chance and soprano Jill Feldman at the Royal Conservatoire Den Haag, The Netherlands. She recently finished preparing the title role of Iphigenie/Gluck under the direction of David Prins.

Recent performances included the role of Cephise/Le Europe galante (Campra) under Sebastien Marq and touring with the Dutch avant-grade dance company T.r.a.s.h with the original dance performances Sofia, Disorderly Conduct, and Enchanted Room. It also saw Michal’s early music ensemble A Dialogue on a Kiss in its’ first International tour featuring Elizabethan lute song repertoire as well as various performances of J.S. Bach’s Cantatas.

Michal’s current projects include a CD recording of sacred and profane 17th Century lute songs with the American luthenist Earl Christy.

John Ma is a musician specialising in Early Music living in The Netherlands. He has performed and recorded on Violin, Viola and Viola d’amore with various groups including Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (NL), Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (UK, Jerwood Scholar 2010), Pinchgut Opera (AUS), Academia Montis Regalis (IT), Bach Collegium Japan (JP), Australian Brandenburg Orchestra (AUS), Helsinki Baroque Orchestra (FIN), B’Rock (BG), Trondheim Baroque Orchestra (NOR), Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (AUS), Orchestra Victoria (AUS), Sinfonia Australis (AUS), Aark New Music Ensemble (AUS) and Young Australian Concert Artists (AUS). He has also appeared as a soloist in Brahms’s Violin Concerto with the National Capital Orchestra (AUS).

In the Netherlands, John has also appeared and recorded with groups such as Musica Poetica (Concertmaster), Farinelli’s Ground, de Utrechtse Spelers, Concerto d’Amsterdam, Apollo Ensemble, Fantasticus, Collegium Musicum Den Haag, Florilegium Musicum, BarokOpera Amsterdam, Opera Studio Nederland and Barokorkest de Swaen. He retains an avid interest in scientific developments and tries to stay up to date with the latest news and advances from his previous studies. John currently plays on a Kloz violin on loan from the collection of the Dutch Musical Instrument Foundation.

Born in Toledo (Spain), she finished her High Degree cello and chamber music studies in the “Conservatorio Superior de Música Jesús Guridi” in Vitoria with the teacher Itziar Atutxa.

In 1999 María moved to the Netherlands to study Baroque Cello and Classical Cello with Jaap ter Linden and Lucia Swarts at the Koninklijk Conservatorium The Hague where she finished her diplomas in 2003 and 2005.

María is a member of the ensemble “Musica Poetica”. She also collaborates with other groups and orchestras with which she has performed in Festivals and venues all along Europe. She worked with conductors such as Jos van Veldhoven, Macus Creed, Jacques Ogg, Adrian Rodriguez van der Spoel or Federico María Sardelli.

María has played in various recordings for the labels Verso, K617 and Challenge Records as well as for different European classical radio channels as Radio 4 (Netherlands), Radio Catalunya (Spain) or Orff radio (Austria).

In the last years, she has been invited to give baroque cello courses and master classes in the Netherlands and in different conservatories in Spain. She has also been cello teacher in the “Curso de Música Barroca de Denia” (Alicante).

Half Greek half Venezuelan, Giorgos was born in Athens in 1986. He received his first violin lessons at the age of seven from Mirela Papa. In 1997 he moved to Thessaloniki where he continued his violin lessons at the state conservatory of Thessaloniki and at the Synchrono Conservatorium of Thessaloniki with Dimitris Chandrakis and Mikis Michaelides receiving his violin diploma in January 2006 with a special award for outstanding performance.

In 2007 he continued his studies in Vienna with Regina Brandstaetter and Sylvia Viertel. After getting interested in historically informed performance practice Giorgos moved to the Netherlands in 2010 where he studied baroque violin at the conservatory of Utrecht with Antoinette Lohmann obtaining his bachelors in 2014 and his masters in 2016.

He has worked with many baroque orchestras like Holland Baroque, Furus musicus, La Sfera Armoniosa, Il Pomo d’ Oro, Musica Poetica, Concerto Amsterdam, Armonia Atenea, Latinitas Nostra. As a soloist and member of ensembles he has given concerts in Greece, Austria, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Italy, Portugal. 

Iris Ida Bouman (1993) is a mezzo-soprano and musicologist from the Netherlands. She started singing at a young age but was also very interested in music theory and the history of music, so she decided to pursue a career in both the practical and the theoretical side of music. Iris obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Musicology from Utrecht University and Humboldt University Berlin, specialising in early music, especially the so-called “musical riddles” from the 15th and 16th century.

She completed her Research Master in Musicology at Utrecht University and the University of Salzburg, focussing on the connection between music and politics in the 20th and 21st century. During her Bachelor Voice she studied with Karin van der Poel (Classical Singing, Utrecht Conservatory) and Gundula Anders (Early Music Voice, Hochschule für Musik Leipzig). In addition, she followed an honours programme in early music at Utrecht Conservatory. Currently Iris is studying in the Master Early Music Voice at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with mezzo-soprano Xenia Meijer. She followed masterclasses with Peter Kooij, Alexander Oliver, Boudewijn Jansen and Marc Pantus. 

As an oratory soloist, Iris sang, among other things, the Johannes-Passion, the Matthäus-Passion and the Weihnachtsoratorium by Bach, Händel’s Dixit Dominus, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Haydn’s Sieben Letzte Worte, Faure’s Requiem and Mendelsohn’s Elias. In addition to her solo career, Iris is a part of The Hague baroque ensemble Musica Poetica and Utrecht-based Ensemble Cantorex, a vocal quartet specialising in Renaissance repertoire.

Rachel Farr's collaboration with Musica Poëtica began in 2016 with the programme "Le Roy Danse - mais qui sera la favourite?", which she developed and performed with Doris van der Aue, Frank Perenboom and the members of Musica Poëtica. Since then, Rachel has been preparing and dancing the dances in the programmes by searching the sources or choreographing the dances herself in the aesthetics of the time.

Rachel trained in classical dance by following the graded curriculum of the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD). Her interest in historical dance started in her childhood. She has made the style her own with various dance specialists: Maria Angad Gaur, Christine Bayle, Françoise Denieau, Gloria Gordano, Barbara Sparti, Bruna Gondoni, Cecília Grácio Moura, Phillipa Waite. By reading sources and following colloqia, Rachel continues to deepen her knowledge of historical dance. 

Her stage experience with the Dutch Historical Dance Ensemble, deepening in historical dance and her training as a singer at the Tilburg Conservatory come together in her performances and lessons.

Rachel Farr teaches historical dance at the Amsterdam Conservatoire. She also gives guest lessons at other conservatoires and the Reinwardt Academy in the Netherlands.  She also gives workshops at home and abroad for professionals and amateurs, such as at the Early Music Festival. Rachel has created and rehearsed the choreographies for baroque opera productions for conservatories and amateurs.