New York Baroque Incorporated brings together a program of two double concertos, one by Bach and one by Vivaldi, for pairs of harpsichords, violins, violas (da braccio and da gamba), and cellos. Two by two, NYBI superstars showcase their virtuosity in some of the baroque’s most beloved concertos. This concert features Aya Hamada and Avi Stein on harpsichord, Shelby Yamin and Isabelle Seula Lee on violin, Stephen Goist and Nicole Divall on viola, and Ezra Seltzer and Matt Zucker on cello.

New York Baroque Incorporated (NYBI) is a conductorless orchestra of period instruments in New York City, bringing vital, informed, and fresh performances of a wide range of 17th and 18th-century repertoire, as well as creating a vibrant landscape for collaborations between historical performance and living composers. NYBI has collaborated with renowned soloists including Richard Egarr, Vivica Genaux, Monica Huggett, and has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Spoleto Festival USA. Striving to make period instruments a living art form, NYBI has premiered works by Nico Muhly, Hollis Taylor, and Huang Ruo. The orchestra also dedicates itself to bringing to life unknown works of the Baroque, and has revived and presented modern-day premieres of Cavalli’s Veremonda (1652), Aliotti’s Santa Rosalia (1687) and Seckendorff’s Proserpina (1777).

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Program for 4/7/22:

Bach - Concerto for Two Harpsichords in C minor, BWV 1060

• Aya Hamada and Avi Stein, harpsichord

Bach - Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV 1043

• Shelby Yamin and Isabelle Seula Lee, violin

Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-flat major, BWV 1051

• Stephen Goist and Nicole Divall, viola

Vivaldi - Concerto for Two Cellos in G minor, RV 531

• Ezra Seltzer and Matt Zucker, cello

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Performer Bios:

Praised for her “graceful” (The New York Times) performance, harpsichordist Aya Hamada is an active recitalist, concerto soloist and continuo player. She has given recitals in major venues throughout Japan as well as in the US, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland, including recitals for the Peñíscola International Festival of Medieval and Baroque Music (Spain), Music Before 1800 (New York), Da Camera Society (Los Angeles), Harpsichord Heaven at Flint Collection (Wilmington) and at the Quebec Government Office (Canada). She has made over four dozen appearances as concerto soloist on four continents, and has performed under conductors William Christie, Jordi Savall, Harry Bicket, Nicholas McGegan and Masaaki Suzuki. Her debut album Jacques Duphly: Pièces de clavecin was chosen as "Best of 2015" in The American Record Guide (January/February 2016), as well as “Recording of the Month” in The Music Web International (July 2015), The Record Geijutsu Magazine (June 2015) and the Tokyo FM Music Bird (June 2016).

Avi Stein is the associate organist and chorusmaster at Trinity Church Wall Street. He is on faculty at the Juilliard School where he teaches continuo accompaniment, vocal repertoire and chamber music. At Juilliard, Avi conducted Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at Juilliard in a production that toured in London’s Holland Park and at the Royal Opera House at the Palace of Versailles and most recently directed a production of Luigi Rossi's Orfeo which was named one of the best performances of 2021 by The New York Times. Avi is the Artistic Director of The Helicon Foundation and has directed the International Baroque Academy of Musiktheater Bavaria, the young artists’ program at the Carmel Bach Festival, and has conducted a variety of ensembles including the Portland Baroque Orchestra, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Opera Français de New York, OperaOmnia, the Amherst Festival opera, and a critically acclaimed annual series called the 4x4 Festival.

A native New Yorker, violinist Shelby Yamin has earned distinction for her sparkling, vivacious performances. The winner of the Juilliard415 concerto competition, she has been featured as a soloist with the San Francisco Academy Orchestra, the Tafelmusik Winter Institute, and the Oregon Bach Festival Berwick Academy, where she returned as guest concertmaster in 2019. Equally adept as a modern and period violinist, she holds positions with the Monterey Symphony and the Santa Barbara Symphony, and has been a part of the Boston Early Music Festival, the Berkeley Early Music Festival, and New York’s WQXR Midday Masterpieces series. Her versatility has brought her from the historic rooms of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, where she explored rarely heard 18th-century American repertoire as part of the 2019 Harpsichord Symposium, to avant-garde art spaces in San Francisco, where she performs with the modern conductorless chamber orchestra One Found Sound. Shelby was the first prize winner of the Berkeley Piano Club’s Barbara Fritz Chamber Music Competition and the first prize winner of the 2016 Virtuoso e Belcanto competition in Lucca, Italy, where she was a recipient of the Luigi Boccherini Award.

Isabelle Seula Lee, a New York City-based violinist, performs regularly throughout the United States and abroad and has established a reputation for her versatility and fluency in many musical styles. She began learning the violin at age four in her home country of South Korea before moving with her family to Russia, where she studied for ten years at the Special Music School of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. At age eleven, Lee made her debut as a concerto soloist with the Tele-Radio Symphony Orchestra in Saint Petersburg. Upon moving to the States, Lee was awarded full scholarships to study at Lynn University (BA), The Juilliard School (MM), and the Yale School of Music (Artist Diploma). A specialist in Baroque violin performance, she served as a Visiting Fellow with Yale University’s Yale Baroque Ensemble and completed her second master’s in Historical Performance at The Juilliard School. Her major teachers include Elmar Oliveira, Hyo Kang, Naoko Tanaka, Monica Huggett, Cynthia Roberts, and Elizabeth Blumenstock. She has also completed significant studies in historical performance practice with Rachel Podger.

Based in New York City, violist Stephen Goist enjoys a multifaceted career as an orchestral player, chamber musician, and historical performance specialist. A graduate of The Juilliard School and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Stephen has performed throughout the United States, Europe, India, and New Zealand. Stephen is currently a member of the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, Ohio and is an active performer in New York’s early music community. He regularly shares the stage with many of the world’s leading period instrument ensembles including Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, The Handel and Haydn Society, The English Concert, Les Arts Florissants, and Bach Collegium Japan.

Nicole Divall was a core member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra from 2005 to 2020. A graduate of the Canberra School of Music, she left Australia in 1992 to begin graduate studies at the University of North Texas before entering the Emerson Quartet Graduate String Quartet program at the Hartt School of Music as a member of the Canberra String Quartet. Following completion of that program, she received her Masters from the University of Michigan. A prizewinner in the 1997 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, Divall has performed at numerous festivals in the US. She has appeared as guest violist with the St Petersburg String Quartet, the Los Angeles Piano Quartet, and the American String Quartet. She has held the position of Principal Viola with the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Cleveland-San Jose Ballet, the Cleveland Opera, and Sydney Philharmonia. She has appeared as Guest Principal with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Divall is currently Principal Viola of Cleveland’s baroque ensemble, Apollo’s Fire.

Hailed for his “scampering virtuosity” (American Record Guide) and “superb” playing (The New York Times), cellist Ezra Seltzer is the principal cellist of the Trinity Baroque Orchestra, New York Baroque Incorporated, the Sebastians, and Early Music New York. He has frequently appeared as guest principal cellist of Musica Angelica, Orchester Wiener Akademie, the Washington National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra, Yale Schola Cantorum, the Quodlibet Ensemble, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, where he earned praise for his “delicate elegance and rambunctious spirit” (Twin Cities Pioneer Press) in performances of all six Brandenburg Concertos. Other performances with the SPCO include Handel’s Messiah with Jonathan Cohen and J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Paul McCreesh. With Musica Angelica, he appeared as continuo cellist in performances of J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion in Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and also performed in an international tour with soprano Emma Kirkby and countertenor Daniel Taylor.

Matt Zucker appears internationally as a collaborator and soloist specializing in historical cellos and viola da gamba. Recent engagements include performances with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Les Arts Florissants, House of Time, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Washington National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra, The Sebastians, Variant 6, and Opera Lafayette. Matt has spent his summers performing at the Boston Early Music Festival, Dans les Jardins de William Christie in Thiré, France, and Teatro Nuovo, a festival dedicated to historically-informed performances of 19th-century opera. Matt graduated from the Historical Performance program at the Juilliard School and was awarded a Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant. He holds additional degrees in cello performance and music theory from the Eastman School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Matt can be heard on Brillance Indéniable, a Swineshead Productions recording of Louis-Gabriel Guillemain violin works with Alana Youssefian and Le Bien-Aimé.

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