Medieval & Renaissance Workshop
Faculty 2025
Adam Knight Gilbert
Adam Gilbert, musicology, recorder and historical double reeds, is one of the premier international players of the Renaissance shawm. He grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. The first graduate of the Early Music program at the Mannes College of Music in New York City, he has performed as a member of New York’s Ensemble for Early Music, the Waverly Consort and Piffaro, the Renaissance Band. He has appeared with ensembles such as Calliope, ARTEK, New York Cornet and Sackbut Ensemble, The Court Dance Company of New York, the Folger Consort, Concert Royal, The Bach Ensemble, Chatham Baroque, Newberry Consort, Canto (Colombia) and La Caccia Alta (Belgium) among others. He is also a founding member of ensemble Ciaramella, which performs concerts of fifteenth-century music in the U.S., Israel, and Belgium, and has recorded on the Naxos label.
director
brass and winds
Adam Bregman
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Adam Bregman plays historical trombones from every era and has appeared with such American and European ensembles as Ciaramella (Los Angeles), Oltremontano (Belgium), Piffaro, the Renaissance Band (Philadelphia), the Huelgas Ensemble (Belgium), and Capella Cracoviensis (Poland). As a teacher of early brass and historical performance practice, he has co-directed the Indiana Early Double Reed and Sackbut Workshop since 2013 and has taught live and online classes for the San Francisco Early Music Society since 2017. Adam is a PhD candidate in historical musicology at the University of Southern California and has presented his scholarship, which strives to bridge the gap between theoretical and practical aspects of late Medieval, Renaissance, and early Baroque music, at conferences in North America and Europe. His most recent work includes a collaboration on a facsimile edition and study of Margaret of Austria’s basse danse manuscript (Alamire 2023) and “The Hermaphroditic Nature of the Mi-Fa Complex,” a chapter in the forthcoming collection Explorations in Music and Esotericism (University of Rochester Press).
Shira happily collaborated with singer/storyteller John Fleagle for fifteen years, and performs now with several groups: a medieval ensemble, Fortune's Wheel: a new music group, Ephemeros; an eclectic ethnic band, Panacea, the early music ensembles Sitka Trio, Calextone, Cançonier and In Bocca al Lupo; as well as frequent collaborations with performers such as storyteller/harpist Patrick Ball, medieval music expert Margriet Tindemans, and in many theatrical and dance productions, including the California Revels and The American Repertory Ballet Company. She has worked with students in many different settings, among them teaching summer music workshops in the woods, coaching students of early music in such schools as Yale University, Case Western, the University of Oregon at Eugene, and working at specialized seminars at the Fondazione Cini in Venice, Italy and the Scuola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland.
Multi-instrumentalist and occasional vocalist Shira Kammen has spent well over half her life exploring the worlds of early and traditional music. A member for many years of the early music Ensembles Alcatraz and Project Ars Nova, and Medieval Strings, she has also worked with Sequentia, Hesperion XX, the Boston Camerata, the Balkan group Kitka, the King’s Noyse, the Newberry and Folger Consorts, the Oregon, California and San Francisco Shakespeare Festivals, and is the founder of Class V Music, an ensemble dedicated to providing music on river rafting trips. She has performed and taught in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Israel, Morocco, Latvia, Russia and Japan, and on the Colorado, Rogue, Green, Grande Ronde, East Carson and Klamath Rivers.
Shira happily collaborated with singer/storyteller John Fleagle for fifteen years, and performs now with several groups: a medieval ensemble, Fortune’s Wheel: a new music group, Ephemeros; an eclectic ethnic band, Panacea; an English Country Dance band, Roguery,the early music ensembles Cançoniér and In Bocca al Lupo, as well as frequent collaborations with performers such as storyteller/harpist Patrick Ball, medieval music experts Margriet Tindemans and Anne Azema, and in many theatrical and dance productions. She has worked with students in many different settings, among them teaching summer music workshops in the woods, coaching students of early music at Yale University, Case Western, the University of Oregon at Eugene, and working at specialized seminars at the Fondazione Cini in Venice, Italy and the Scuola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland.
She has played on several television and movie soundtracks, including ‘O’, a modern high school-setting of Othello and ‘’The Nativity Story’, and has accompanied many diverse artists in recording projects, among them singers Azam Ali and Joanna Newsom. Some of her original music can be heard in an independent film about fans of the work of JRR Tolkien. The strangest place Shira has played is in the elephant pit of the Jerusalem Zoo. She has recently taken courses in Taiko drumming and voiceover acting.
recorder and historical winds
Rotem Gilbert
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Recorder player Rotem Gilbert is a native of Haifa, Israel and a founding member of Ciaramella, an ensemble specializing in music of the 15th and 16th centuries. Ciaramella has performed throughout the United States, in Belgium, Germany, and Israel, and released a CD on the Naxos Label, and two recordings with Yarlung Records. Their CD Dances on Movable Ground earned five stars by the British magazine Early Music Today and was picked the Editor's Choice, lauded for its "expressive fluidity and rhythmic vitality". Rotem was a member of Piffaro (1996-2007), and has appeared with many early music ensembles in the United States and in Europe, most recently with Voices of Music in the Bay Area and Utopia Early Music in Salt Lake City. Rotem recently performed and gave master classes at the Federal University in Juiz de Fora, Brazil for their 30th International Festival for Colonial Brazilian Music and Early Music. Rotem has been featured as a soloist for the Pittsburgh Opera, the LA Opera, Musica Angelica and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. After studies on recorder with Nina Stern at Mannes College of Music in New York, she earned her solo diploma from the Scuola Civica di Musica of Milan where she studied with Pedro Memelsdorff. She earned her doctorate in Early Music performance practice at Case Western Reserve University studying with Ross W. Duffin. Rotem is an Associate Professor of Practice at USC Thornton School of Music, teaching musicology courses in Early Music, Renaissance notation seminars, Renaissance and Baroque Performance Practice courses and directing Early Music ensembles. She recently led USC students for a summer course in Paris on music, culture and art. Rotem received the 2012 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching at USC and is the joint recipient with Adam Gilbert of Early Music America’s 2014 Thomas Binkley Award for “outstanding achievement in performance and scholarship by the director of a university or college early music ensemble.” She has been a regular faculty member of early music workshops and is the co-director of SFEMS Recorder Workshop in the Bay Area. Rotem can be heard on the Deutsche Grammophon's Archiv, Passacaille, Musica Americana, Dorian, Naxos and Yarlung labels.
Shira happily collaborated with singer/storyteller John Fleagle for fifteen years, and performs now with several groups: a medieval ensemble, Fortune's Wheel: a new music group, Ephemeros; an eclectic ethnic band, Panacea, the early music ensembles Sitka Trio, Calextone, Cançonier and In Bocca al Lupo; as well as frequent collaborations with performers such as storyteller/harpist Patrick Ball, medieval music expert Margriet Tindemans, and in many theatrical and dance productions, including the California Revels and The American Repertory Ballet Company. She has worked with students in many different settings, among them teaching summer music workshops in the woods, coaching students of early music in such schools as Yale University, Case Western, the University of Oregon at Eugene, and working at specialized seminars at the Fondazione Cini in Venice, Italy and the Scuola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland.
She has played on several television and movie soundtracks, including 'O', a modern high school-setting of Othello and ‘’The Nativity Story’, and has accompanied many diverse artists in recording projects, among them singers Azam Ali and Joanna Newsom. Some of her original music can be heard in an independent film about fans of the work of JRR Tolkien. The strangest place Shira has played is in the elephant pit of the Jerusalem Zoo. She has recently taken courses in Taiko drumming and voiceover acting.
cornetto and recorder
Katharina Haun
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Katharina Haun is a cornettist, recorder player, music pedagogue with a great interest in historical research. In concert, she contextualizes early music by presenting it in versatile, approachable, and innovative ways.
Yoshida has performed and recorded with Ciaramella, directed by Adam and Rotem Gilbert. Recent performances with the ensemble include concerts for the Berkeley Early Music Festival, Getty Museum, Da Camera Society and early music societies of Hawaii, Arizona and San Diego. Yoshida performed on theorbo, Baroque guitar and Renaissance guitar for their internationally acclaimed CD Dances on Movable Grounds, which features sixteenth- and seventeenth-century music and improvisations. Yoshida can also be heard on recordings released by Radio Bremen, Yale University and Yarlung Records.
In demand as a continuo player, Yoshida performed in L.A. Opera’s presentation of Handel’s Tamerlano featuring Placido Domingo. He has also been invited to play continuo in productions of the UCSB and USC Thornton Opera departments, Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, Bach Collegium San Diego and the Hawaii Early Music Society. He was selected by Early Music America to perform in the EMA Festival Ensemble at the 2011 Boston Early Music Festival.
Yoshida has performed with many Southern California-based ensembles including Les Surprises Baroques, Angeles Consort, Con Gioia, Corona Del Mar Baroque Festival Orchestra and the Los Angeles Chamber Singers.
Jason Yoshida holds a doctorate of musical arts in early music performance from the USC Thornton School of Music, where he also completed a master’s of music in classical guitar. He received a bachelor of music from UC Santa Barbara. Yoshida studied with renowned musicians such as Adam Gilbert, Rotem Gilbert, James Smith, Alejandro Planchart, Paul O’Dette, Xavier Diaz-Latorre, Jose Luis Rodrigo, William Prizer and William Skeen.
vielle and harp
Shira Kammen
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Multi-instrumentalist and occasional vocalist Shira Kammen has spent well over half her life exploring the worlds of early and traditional music. A member for many years of the early music Ensembles Alcatraz and Project Ars Nova, and Medieval Strings, she has also worked with Sequentia, Hesperion XX, the Boston Camerata, the Balkan group Kitka, Anonymous IV, the King's Noyse, the Newberry and Folger Consorts, the Oregon, California and San Francisco Shakespeare Festivals, and is the founder of Class V Music, an ensemble dedicated to providing music on river rafting trips. She has performed and taught in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Israel, Morocco, Latvia, Russia and Japan, and on the Colorado, Rogue, Green, Grande Ronde, East Carson and Klamath Rivers.
Shira happily collaborated with singer/storyteller John Fleagle for fifteen years, and performs now with several groups: a medieval ensemble, Fortune's Wheel: a new music group, Ephemeros; an eclectic ethnic band, Panacea, the early music ensembles Sitka Trio, Calextone, Cançonier and In Bocca al Lupo; as well as frequent collaborations with performers such as storyteller/harpist Patrick Ball, medieval music expert Margriet Tindemans, and in many theatrical and dance productions, including the California Revels and The American Repertory Ballet Company. She has worked with students in many different settings, among them teaching summer music workshops in the woods, coaching students of early music in such schools as Yale University, Case Western, the University of Oregon at Eugene, and working at specialized seminars at the Fondazione Cini in Venice, Italy and the Scuola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland.
Multi-instrumentalist and occasional vocalist Shira Kammen has spent well over half her life exploring the worlds of early and traditional music. A member for many years of the early music Ensembles Alcatraz and Project Ars Nova, and Medieval Strings, she has also worked with Sequentia, Hesperion XX, the Boston Camerata, the Balkan group Kitka, the King’s Noyse, the Newberry and Folger Consorts, the Oregon, California and San Francisco Shakespeare Festivals, and is the founder of Class V Music, an ensemble dedicated to providing music on river rafting trips. She has performed and taught in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Israel, Morocco, Latvia, Russia and Japan, and on the Colorado, Rogue, Green, Grande Ronde, East Carson and Klamath Rivers.
Shira happily collaborated with singer/storyteller John Fleagle for fifteen years, and performs now with several groups: a medieval ensemble, Fortune’s Wheel: a new music group, Ephemeros; an eclectic ethnic band, Panacea; an English Country Dance band, Roguery,the early music ensembles Cançoniér and In Bocca al Lupo, as well as frequent collaborations with performers such as storyteller/harpist Patrick Ball, medieval music experts Margriet Tindemans and Anne Azema, and in many theatrical and dance productions. She has worked with students in many different settings, among them teaching summer music workshops in the woods, coaching students of early music at Yale University, Case Western, the University of Oregon at Eugene, and working at specialized seminars at the Fondazione Cini in Venice, Italy and the Scuola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland.
She has played on several television and movie soundtracks, including ‘O’, a modern high school-setting of Othello and ‘’The Nativity Story’, and has accompanied many diverse artists in recording projects, among them singers Azam Ali and Joanna Newsom. Some of her original music can be heard in an independent film about fans of the work of JRR Tolkien. The strangest place Shira has played is in the elephant pit of the Jerusalem Zoo. She has recently taken courses in Taiko drumming and voiceover acting.
voice
Jennifer Kampani
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Grammy nominated soprano Jennifer Kampani, who “offers a freshness of voice, fineness of timbre, and ease of production that place her in the front rank of early-music sopranos,” (andante.com) is one of the leading interpreters of the Baroque repertoire. She has performed with the Richmond Symphony, Washington Bach Consort, Bach Choir of Bethlehem, and New York Collegium. Her international career has included appearances with the period instrument groups American Bach Soloists, Baroque Band, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Opera Lafayette, Apollo’s Fire, Musica Angelica, Boston Camerata, Bach Sinfonia, Magnificat, and the Washington Cathedral Choral Society. Kampani has been heard in many concert series and festivals including Le Flaneries Musicales de Reims in France, Aston Magna, Da Camera Society, Houston Early Music, Staunton Music Festival, Music Before 1800, Carmel Bach, and the Berkeley and Boston Early Music Festivals. Ms Kampani has recorded What Artemesia Heard, Kingdoms of Castille (Grammy nomination 2012), Salir el Amor del Mundo, and Passion and Lament for Dorian, Villancicos y Cantatas and The Essential Giuliani for Koch, the complete works of Chiara Cozzolani (Gramophone editors pick, August 2002) for Musica Omnia, and Carissimi Motets for Hungaroton. Born in San Francisco, Jennifer Kampani is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the Guildhall School of Music in London. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons.
Shira happily collaborated with singer/storyteller John Fleagle for fifteen years, and performs now with several groups: a medieval ensemble, Fortune's Wheel: a new music group, Ephemeros; an eclectic ethnic band, Panacea, the early music ensembles Sitka Trio, Calextone, Cançonier and In Bocca al Lupo; as well as frequent collaborations with performers such as storyteller/harpist Patrick Ball, medieval music expert Margriet Tindemans, and in many theatrical and dance productions, including the California Revels and The American Repertory Ballet Company. She has worked with students in many different settings, among them teaching summer music workshops in the woods, coaching students of early music in such schools as Yale University, Case Western, the University of Oregon at Eugene, and working at specialized seminars at the Fondazione Cini in Venice, Italy and the Scuola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland.
She has played on several television and movie soundtracks, including 'O', a modern high school-setting of Othello and ‘’The Nativity Story’, and has accompanied many diverse artists in recording projects, among them singers Azam Ali and Joanna Newsom. Some of her original music can be heard in an independent film about fans of the work of JRR Tolkien. The strangest place Shira has played is in the elephant pit of the Jerusalem Zoo. She has recently taken courses in Taiko drumming and voiceover acting.
plucked strings
Jason Yoshida
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Jason Yoshida specializes in solo and continuo performance on lutes and historical guitars. In a Los Angeles Times review, Mark Swed described a solo lute performance of Yoshida’s as “eloquent and serious.” He received international recognition for his CD Mozart Encomium, featuring the world premiere recording of Scheidler’s virtuosic Variations on a theme by Mozart for baroque lute.
Yoshida has performed and recorded with Ciaramella, directed by Adam and Rotem Gilbert. Recent performances with the ensemble include concerts for the Berkeley Early Music Festival, Getty Museum, Da Camera Society and early music societies of Hawaii, Arizona and San Diego. Yoshida performed on theorbo, Baroque guitar and Renaissance guitar for their internationally acclaimed CD Dances on Movable Grounds, which features sixteenth- and seventeenth-century music and improvisations. Yoshida can also be heard on recordings released by Radio Bremen, Yale University and Yarlung Records.
In demand as a continuo player, Yoshida performed in L.A. Opera’s presentation of Handel’s Tamerlano featuring Placido Domingo. He has also been invited to play continuo in productions of the UCSB and USC Thornton Opera departments, Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, Bach Collegium San Diego and the Hawaii Early Music Society. He was selected by Early Music America to perform in the EMA Festival Ensemble at the 2011 Boston Early Music Festival.
Yoshida has performed with many Southern California-based ensembles including Les Surprises Baroques, Angeles Consort, Con Gioia, Corona Del Mar Baroque Festival Orchestra and the Los Angeles Chamber Singers.
Jason Yoshida holds a doctorate of musical arts in early music performance from the USC Thornton School of Music, where he also completed a master’s of music in classical guitar. He received a bachelor of music from UC Santa Barbara. Yoshida studied with renowned musicians such as Adam Gilbert, Rotem Gilbert, James Smith, Alejandro Planchart, Paul O’Dette, Xavier Diaz-Latorre, Jose Luis Rodrigo, William Prizer and William Skeen.