The Peralta Consort was formed in 2006, and is based at Foothill Presbyterian Church in San Jose (www.fcpcsanjose.org) where they rehearse, and perform in the wonderful acoustic space of the Foothill sanctuary, representing the early music prograhttps://www.fcpcsanjose.org/m at Foothill. The group also performs at other venues around the San Francisco Bay Area.
Rehearsals: Saturdays, 2:00-4:00 PM (visitors welcome)
2024 the Peralta Consort Musicians:
Kraig Williams (Director, Recorders)
Breene Yuen (Baroque Flute, Media Editor)
Eric Finley, Anna Sombor, Rowan O'Neil (Violins)
Romola Georgia (Cello)
Jeff Ridenour (Violone)
Mengyue Jia (Harpsichord)
Kraig Williams (Director, recorders) was a brass
musician in school, dabbling in the recorder. After
college (BS Stanford; MBA Santa Clara), and “some
years” of work, he started getting serious about
recorders, studying under Letitia Berlin, Hanneke van
Proosdij, and now Judy Linsenberg. While honing his
individual skills as a musician, Mr. Williams formed a
series of recorder and mixed instrument
ensembles exploring Renaissance and Baroque music,
and in 2006 founded the Peralta Consort. Kraig also
has performed as a soloist with choral groups, operas,
and played with the Berkeley and Barbary Coast
Recorder Orchestras. Beyond the roles of recorder
student and performer, he is also a concert impresario. In this latter role Kraig created
in 2007 the early music concert series at Foothill Presbyterian Church, filling the niche for early music concerts in the South Bay Area. Mr. Williams works as a
program manager in the tech industry. Kraig.Williams@alumni.Stanford.edu
Breene Yuen (baroque flute) is a retired engineer
who started taking flute lessons as an adult.
Humorous and fumbling attempts at playing the
trumpet resulted in a switch to flute. After
being guided to listen to different music styles
and different flute players, Breene fell in love
and latched onto early music of the baroque
period. He now plays on a modern day replica
of a baroque wooden flute, circa 1790.
Eric Finley (violin) started his musical
training when he was eight. Since then,
he has played with, and served as
concertmaster with many orchestras and
ensembles in the Bay Area, including
the Redwood Symphony, Nova Vista
Symphony, the San Jose State
University Symphony and Chamber
Ensemble. He has also appeared as
guest violinist in early music ensembles
throughout the Bay Area and the United
States. Currently, Eric studies baroque
violin with Carla Moore. He has also
studied with Michael Sand, David Douglass, and Mary Lou Galen. Eric
holds a BA in Environmental Studies from San Jose State University and a
MA in Education from the University of San Francisco.
Anna Sombor (violin) was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary, and fell in love with classical music as a child. Anna started to play the piano at age 10, and earned her MA in Music Education and Choir Conducting from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. After moving to California in 1989, Anna earned her MBA from Santa Clara University and began working in Silicon Valley. Ms. Sombor’s first high-tech job was at a small startup, where she created music curricula for piano-teaching software. After 19 years of working for Adobe managing creative teams in the Global Marketing Organization, Anna retired from the high-tech world in 2021 to focus on her true passion of playing the violin. She studies under Randy Cono (modern violin) and Carla Moore (baroque violin), and has participated in the Baroque and Classical Workshops of the San Francisco Early Music Society. Anna particularly enjoys playing music from the Baroque era, and is a violinist in two Baroque ensembles: the Peralta Consort and the Quail Court Consort. She is Co-Founder, General Manager and violinist of Nova Solisti Chamber Orchestra that comprises some of the best professional musicians of the Bay-Area.
Rowan O'Neil (violin)
Ramola Georgia (cello) holds degrees in
Anthropology and Music from the University of
California, Berkeley where she played in both the
Collegium Musicum and the Contemporary Chamber
Ensemble. Her enthusiasm for chamber music
continues to span all eras – from early music to
contemporary and everything between. Romola is a
Master Gardener specializing in edible and sustainable
landscaping. She teaches fruit tree pruning and care
and lives on a mini-farm with 28 fruit trees.
Jeff Ridenour (violone) studied music and physics as
an undergrad at Cal, earned masters degrees in music
from UC San Diego, and in computer science from
UC Irvine. Jeff also studied for three years at the
Royal Conservatory in the Hague and received a
Second Phase degree at the Institute of Sonology, He
has an interest in studying and performing with large
historical string instruments, such as the Tromba
Marina, Lirone, and Violone.
Mengyue Jia (harpsichord) earned her DMA
at Claremont Graduate University, majoring in
piano and harpsichord performance. As a
performer, Dr. Jia is actively commissioning
and performing music in the US and China.
She also had been invited to give
masterclasses and lectures in public. Recent
highlight include the release of “The Bach
Album”. Her YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXsbztuxvylsEK8f61ULNmw
The Peralta Consort Alumni:
Michèle Kelly (recorders) earned a B.A. in Foreign Languages from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and has a background in violin as well as recorders. Michèle also plays with the White House Trio.
Yu-Ting Wang (violin and cello) is a cellist and
music educator living in San José, CA.
She received her Bachelor of Music in
Cello Performance and Music
Education from San José State
University in 2011. She finished the
teaching credential program at San
José State in 2012 and is currently
teaching elementary string classes in
the Berryessa Union School District.
Dylan Librande (harpsichord, organ) is a
pianist, educator, and composer born and
raised in the Bay Area. After completion of a
BM degree in Music Composition at
Willamette University, he returned to
California to share his passion with the next
generation of musicians. Dylan works with
the nonprofit Music for Minors as an
elementary school music teacher, teaches
private jazz and classical piano lessons at
South Bay School of Music in Milpitas and
Ale’s Music Studio in Fremont, and is the
accompanist for Sunnyhills United Methodist
Church
Margaret Maher (mezzo soprano)
Silvio Rocha (viola) has been playing viola for over a decade and only recently has taken up the violin. He received his Bachelor of Music from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he was the violist for the Resident String Quartet. As well as playing in various orchestras across the bay, Silvio is currently the head music librarian for San Jose Youth Symphony and South Valley Symphony.
Emma Dohner (violin)
Scott Pollack (oboe, recorders) studied modern oboe and english horn throughout college. While in graduate school he began playing baroque oboe and performed an Albinoni oboe concerto with the Boulder Chamber Orchestra. His other orchestral highlights include performing on modern oboe and english horn with the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, the Oakland East Bay Symphony, the San Francisco Concerto Orchestra, the San Francisco Opera, and on baroque oboe with Seattle Baroque. For the past decade Scott resided in Houston, Texas where he taught early winds at the Shepherd School of Rice University. Scott holds a Ph.D. in Gravitational Astrophysics and is the software architect for an augmented reality platform startup in Palo Alto.
Alan Ni (violin) started his musical journey with the violin at age 10 and has always loved playing in orchestras, including the San Diego Civic Youth Orchestra, the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, and currently the South Bay Philharmonic. In recent years, he has found a passion for smaller groups and chamber music, performing in intimate settings or simply reading through music in a living room with friends -- the wine involved is always good too, of course. Alan has a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley and currently works at an aerospace company, focused on flying satellites and, more importantly, making sure that nothing interrupts the classical music on your satellite radio.
Mike Megas (recorders, flute) played in an Air
Force band for several years and then continued to
make music while completing degrees in
mathematics and engineering and pursuing a career
in software development. He also plays in Ye Olde
Towne Band, a fifty-piece concert band that gives
outdoor Sunday afternoon concerts at Shoup Park in
Los Altos.
Amy Hunter (harpsichord, organ, flute) received her
Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in
Piano Performance from Temple University’s Esther
Boyer School of Music and Dance in Philadelphia,
PA. After that Amy taught and performed
professionally a number of years in the Philadelphia
and Washington DC areas, and managed community
outreach programs at the Washington Performing Arts
Society. In 2012 Ms. Hunter moved to San Jose,
established the Amy Hunter Piano School, and then
the Hunter School of Music. In addition to making
music Amy loves cooking, discovering new
restaurants, spending time in her herb and vegetable garden, participating in outdoor activities, attending concerts, travelling, and creating memories with friends and family. (https://hunterschoolofmusic.com)
Marie Park (violin) grew up locally in San
Jose, and played in the San Jose Youth
Symphony. She majored in Communications
and minored in music and education at the
University of California Davis. She
performed with the UCD Symphony
Orchestra, Davis Baroque Ensemble, Santa
Rosa Symphony, North Bay Opera,
Sacramento Opera, San Francisco Opera,
Awesome Orchestra, various corporate
events etc. Marie earned a Master's Degree at
Loyola Marymount University as a
credentialed teacher, and she volunteered and
taught music at over ten schools. She
currently teaches violin, viola, and piano
privately and can be reached at amazingmisspark@gmail.com
Jennifer Randolph (soprano) began piano lessons at age 9. She caught the early music bug performing with the San Jose State University Collegium Musicum and ended up with degrees in piano instead of engineering. Jennifer has attended San Francisco Early Music Society workshops, ran an early music series for several years, performed with groups in Santa Cruz and San Jose, and is director of the early music ensemble, Camerata California. By day she is a web project manager.
Kathy Warne (soprano) has sung classical, folk, and especially early music for 15 years with many ensembles, especially enjoying a long-time collaboration with lutenist Sarge Gerbode. She is a frequent solo performer at the Unitarian Fellowship of Redwood City. Kathy has studied voice for many years with soprano Jennifer Paulino in Oakland. In her professional life she writes software for robotic applications.
Libby Kardontchik (harpsichord) earned her BM at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, and her MA at the Moscow Musical Pedagogical Institute. She is a very popular collaborative musician in the Bay Area, staff accompanist at Stanford University, and the pianist at NACUSA-SF. Libby is a member of the 2-Piano club of Palo Alto, and has performed 3 times at the Milton and Peggy Salkind International Piano Duo Festival at the SF Conservatory. Ms. Kardontchik accompanies in concerto competitions and recitals, and be heard most Sunday mornings at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Sunnyvale where she is church pianist.
Sara Folchi (soprano) currently sings with the Santa Clara Chorale (SCC) and Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale (SSVC) and serves on the boards of both organizations. In 2014, she sang the soprano solo in Rutter’s Magnificat with SSVC and is a frequent soloist with SCC. A lifelong resident of the Bay Area, she graduated from Santa Clara University (SCU) with a B.S. in Political Science, B.A. in French and Francophone Studies, and a minor in Music. At SCU, she studied voice with Kathleen Ludowise and sang in the Concert Choir, opera workshops, musical theatre workshop, and many recitals and competitions. She appeared as the Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel with Bay Shore Lyric Opera Company and also appeared in La Traviata and Madama Butterfly with them. In her professional life, Sara is an attorney and graduated from Berkeley Law.
Gennifer Schroeder (soprano) has always loved to sing. Her singing included church and school choirs through college (San Francisco State U.). Ms. Schroeder won Command Performance in the CMEA Solo and Ensemble competition, and was awarded a scholarship to a summer jazz program. Gennifer is singing her sixth season with the Santa Clara Chorale. under Scot Hanna-Weir. During her time with the chorale, she has also worked under Dr. Ryan Brandau and Dr. Charlene Archibeque.
Petra Clark (cello) earned her BM in Cello Performance from Indiana University, Bloomington, where she studied with Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and the late Fritz Magg. She has taught at the Community School of Music and Arts (Mountain View) and currently has a private cello studio. She has taught music and general education in private and public schools. Petra also has worked in concert management and administration.
Anat Kardontchik (violin) began her violin studies at age 7, and at age 10 she made her solo début at the Sounds of Music Festival in Palo Alto, California. At the age of 11 she joined the 1st violin section of the El Camino Youth Symphony and was the youngest member of the Symphony tour of Italy and Austria. She performed as a soloist with the El Camino Youth Symphony under the baton of Camilla Kolchinsky, and at age 15 won 1st prize at the Young Musicians Competition with the Penninsula Symphony. Ms Kardontchik also served twice as concertmaster of the National Festival Orchestra in Carnegie Hall conducted by the legendary Lucas Foss. In 2007 she was the winner of the MTNA Young Artist Award in the string category. Ms Kardontchik has participated in various festivals including Keshet Eilon, Music Academy of the West, and Spoleto Festival U.S.A. She has a bachelor of music degree from Eastman School of Music where she was awarded the prestigious Performer's Certificate. She is currently studying at Carnegie Mellon with Cyrus Forough.
Kathleen Thompson (baroque violin) ) is a physicist who loves to play things with strings and who oscillates primarily between Baroque violin and Brazilian guitar. In her Baroque violin phase, she spends many happy hours with Bach, Biber, and other wonderful Baroque composers. In addition to playing with the Peralta Consort, she is a member of Berkeley Baroque Strings and the Bay Area Baroque Orchestra.
Mark Lurie (cello) grew up in South Africa, where he played the piano and clarinet. After immigrating to the U.S., he became a researcher in the neuro-physiology of vision. Mark currently is a semi-retired Ophthalmologist. Mr. Lurie took up the cello as an adult, studying with Peter Gelfand and Stephen Harrison. He currently studies with Mary Artmann. In addition to playing music, Mark now spends time doing pottery.
Julia Airapetyan (mezzo-soprano) studied composition in Bologna (under a UC Davis scholarship), and earned her BA in music from the University of Washington. Julia returned to Italy, teaching English at the British Council in Milan. Returning to the U.S. A., she earned an MA in music from University of Nevada Reno, and a teaching credential at Sonoma State. With a background in voice as well as a wide range of instruments, Julia taught choral music in Visalia and band in St. Helena before the family moved to San José. Julia now teaches Spanish in San Carlos.
Marylin Winkle (baroque cello) is a performer, instructor, and advocate for music and youth empowerment. Her studies on modern cello include a Bachelor’s Degree from Stetson University and a Master’s Degree from San Jose State University. In August, Marylin will begin her doctoral studies in Early Music from the University of Southern California, where she will continue her studies on baroque cello with William Skeen. Her most notable period performances include productions of Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Handel's Messiah, Scarlatti's Il primo omicidio, Cavalli's L'Ormindo, and Haydn's Creation. Ms. Winkle's love for performance comes second only to her passion for social justice; she is also the founder of the SJSU Young Musicians’ Project, which provides free and affordable music lessons to all youth in exchange for students’ service to the community.
Jack Perng (harpsichord, organ) took piano lessons growing up in Taiwan and developed his passion for classical music early on. Naturally, early music had a special place in his heart, and during graduate school his dreams would be realized when he started taking harpsichord lessons with Elaine Thornburgh at Stanford. He is an early music CD junkie (amassing well over 1500 CDs in the genre) as well as an avid blogger and concertgoer of early music. He received his PhD in Physics from Stanford and currently works as an audio systems engineer.
Greta-Haug-Hryciw (recorders) is a third generation Fog Town (San Francisco, CA) native. Her mother’s family were visual artists – grandmother a student of Beniamino Bufano, grandfather one of the WPA muralists of Coit Tower; her father’s family were symphony musicians – grandfather and grandmother violinists; father a high trumpet specialist. Early exposure to great music shaped her understanding and appreciation of it (even though she didn’t like to practice the piano). In order not to waste the artistic DNA, Greta took up the recorder in high school. For several years she played with the San Francisco branch of the New York Recorder Workshop. Then, as her musical interests diversified, she sang with The Loose Canons, a women’s world song ensemble, from 2000-2007. She has studied music with several Bay Area professionals, including recorderist Hanneke van Proosdij, percussionist Peter Maund and didjeridoo virtuoso Stephen Kent. She has produced a number of small concerts and handles and helps to organize as well as teach at music workshops. Greta is frequently a guest conductor for several chapters of the American Recorder Society (ARS) and was co-director of the American Recorder Orchestra of the West (AROW) from 2005-2010. She has been music director for Half Moon Bay’s Coastal Repertory Theatre (CA), is the founder of the recorder quartet, SDQ, and teaches private and group recorder lessons to students of all ages. She and her husband, Lloyd, work together every day at their photography studio in San Francisco, accompanied by their two schipperkes.
Deb Fenzel-Alexander (cello) has played cello almost always, 85% of her life, most of it with the cello from her great-aunt's attic. She loves to play chamber music and plays regularly in quartets, trios, and piano quintets. Her Blackberry Quartet has played for many live events in the South Bay, before Blackberry had a hi-tech rep. Deb is an active community musician, playing currently with Mission Chamber Orchestra and in various opera and musical show orchestras. Deb has worked in photoresist research and as a semiconductor process engineer.
Ted Lorraine (tenor) has been a chorister for 65 years
–from age 10 in men/boys choir in Schenectady, NY; in
Ithaca, NY while Soc.& Anthro. major at Cornell, in
Eugene, OR during Masters in Urban Planning, and in
Albany, NY while planner/analyst for NY State 1970-
1985. Since moving to San Jose in 1985, Ted was lead
Bass for Saint Luke's Church-Los Gatos, then lead
Tenor for Christ Church-Los Altos, and is now lead
Tenor for St. Bede's Church-Menlo Park. Retired from
City of San Jose as a city planner in 1997, Mr.
Lorraine became artistic director for San Jose Chamber
Music Society, and in 2003 also for Sunset Concerts at Saint Luke's Church. Ted is Boardmember in charge of grant applications for the American Beethoven Society, which supports the Beethoven Center at San Jose State Univ./Dr.M.L.King, Jr. Library.
Doris Williams received her Bachelor of Music degree in
Vocal Early Music at Oakland University of Rochester,
MI, studying under Lyle Nordstrom. At Stanford
University she won a graduate fellowship in vocal music
of the Renaissance and Baroque periods and received her
Masters. She has performed with numerous chamber choirs, including the California Bach Society, Philharmonia Baroque Chorus, Baroque Arts Ensemble, and the San Francisco Choral Artists. She has directed numerous chamber vocal groups, mostly in early music. Also, she has presented numerous recitals, including jazz, French, Italian, sacred, parlour songs, Cole Porter, Renaissance and Celtic repertoire. In recent years she has been accompanying herself on her 8-course Renaissance lute, presenting concerts of lute songs and Celtic songs by herself and with others. For the last three years she has co-directed with Howard Kadis her Renaissance Ensemble Musici della Doria, performing 16th and 17th century repertoire. She also performs with Claudia Liliana Gantivar on Renaissance recorders. Ms. Williams also has had an extensive career as a church musician as soprano soloist, director, and substitute pianist. She won 2nd prize for her original rendition of Psalm 23 in the prestigious International Sacred Music Competition. She has had feature articles in the Palo Alto Weekly and The Daily News. Ms. Williams also directs her Celtic Band Celtic Rose. In addition to performing Lady Doris teaches children's choirs and piano, and performs for the elderly in nursing homes.
David Chu (baritone) has sung in many church choirs: Holy Trinity and St. Bede's Episcopal churches in Menlo Park. For the last two years he sings with the Stanford Early Music Singers. He is a retired engineer from Hewlett-Packard/Agilent. He is in the process of applying for a patent on his music analysis algorithm which he pioneered. He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University.
