ClassicalWorkshop

Faculty 2025

director and violin

Kati Kyme

  • Kati Kyme enjoys a rich musical life as chamber musician, orchestral player, teacher, and conductor. She has been a member and frequent leader of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and American Bach Soloists since their inaugural seasons. She has enjoyed 15 years as violinist and violist of the Artaria Quartet, the Sierra String Quartet and, most recently, the New Esterhazy Quartet which is finishing its second cycle of performances of the complete Haydn String Quartets.

    An enthusiastic teacher, she has led ensembles at the SF Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Youth Orchestra, and her main commitment to young players is her decades-long relationship with the California Youth Symphony where she conducts rehearsals of three different String Orchestras every Sunday. She has performed with the Oregon Bach Festival for many years, and this will be her first year as instructor at the Berwick Academy.

    For the past 5 years, Ms. Kyme has joyfully lead the ensemble Berkeley Baroque Strings in weekly rehearsals. They have performed in three Berkeley Early Music Festivals and anticipate a stunning appearance at the Boston Early Music Festival this June.

director and cello

William Skeen

  • William Skeen serves as Principal Cellist with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the American Bach Soloists, and Voices of Music. He is a founding member of the New Esterházy Quartet, the Cantata Collective, and La Monica. William taught baroque cello and viola da gamba at the University of Southern California for two decades. Mr. Skeen has appeared as continuo cellist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and San Diego Opera; viola da gamba soloist multiple times with the Dallas Symphony, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Carmel Bach Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, the American Bach Soloists, and the Orquesta Nacional de México. He has also performed the role of Principal Cellist with Pacific Music Works, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica, the Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra, and Bach Collegium San Diego. In 2012, William was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance for “The Kingdoms of Castille” with El Mundo. Mr. Skeen has toured and recorded with many early music ensembles including Smithsonian Chamber Players, Musica Pacifica, El Mundo, Galanterie, Con Gioia, the New Esterházy Quartet, La Monica, and Philharmonia Chamber Players. William has served on the faculty of the American Bach Soloists Academy, the San Francisco Early Music Society’s Baroque Workshop, and co-founded the SFEMS Classical Workshop.

    An enthusiastic teacher, she has led ensembles at the SF Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Youth Orchestra, and her main commitment to young players is her decades-long relationship with the California Youth Symphony where she conducts rehearsals of three different String Orchestras every Sunday. She has performed with the Oregon Bach Festival for many years, and this will be her first year as instructor at the Berwick Academy.

    For the past 5 years, Ms. Kyme has joyfully lead the ensemble Berkeley Baroque Strings in weekly rehearsals. They have performed in three Berkeley Early Music Festivals and anticipate a stunning appearance at the Boston Early Music Festival this June.

Anthony Martin

viola

  • Adam LaMotte is well-known to audiences throughout the country as a leader of both period and modern ensembles, on violin as well as viola. He has appeared as soloist, concertmaster, and conductor of numerous orchestras throughout the country, including the Northwest Sinfonietta in Seattle, String Orchestra of the Rockies, Astoria Festival Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra, the Maggini String Orchestra, Ars Lyrica, Mercury in Houston.

    As part of the baroque ensemble El Mundo Adam was nominated for a 2012 Grammy Award. Mr. LaMotte has been hailed by critics as an “especially compelling” musician with “exceptional talent,” whose performances are “energetic and exquisite.” As Artistic Director of the Montana Baroque Festival, he brings world-class period instrument performances to the rural Montana community. He has co-founded two critically-acclaimed ensembles, in Portland and in Houston, and continues to produce many chamber music and chamber orchestra performances.

Adam LaMotte

violin

  • Violinist/violist Anthony Martin grew up in Santa Rosa, where he joined the Santa Rosa Symphony in 1961. He attended Stanford University where he played Renaissance instruments as well as violin. After a couple of years as an untrained and unlicensed music therapist at the Children’s Treatment Center School of Camarillo State Hospital, he entered the Peabody Conservatory, where he earned his highest degree, a Master of Music. Embarrassed by a lack of mastery, he then went for several years to Boston University, completing most requirements for a Doctorate, while studying violin with Joseph Silverstein, chamber music with Eugene Lehner, and various musicological subjects. Increasing gigging prevented completion of that third degree. About this time he got involved with period instruments and became a founding member of many prominent early music ensembles including Frans Brueggen’s Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century (Amsterdam), Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (San Francisco), the Smithsonian Chamber Players (Washington, D.C.), and Aston Magna (New York). Since returning to the west coast he has taught violin and/or coached chamber music at Stanford, UC Berkeley, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He continues to play with O18 & PBO. His current chamber groups are String Circle (Santa Rosa), the Novello Quartet (Seattle) and the New Esterházy Quartet (Berkeley.) An enthusiastic teacher, she has led ensembles at the SF Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Youth Orchestra, and her main commitment to young players is her decades-long relationship with the California Youth Symphony where she conducts rehearsals of three different String Orchestras every Sunday.