P R I M A L A M U S I C A

William Kempster completed his Doctorate at the University of Alberta, Canada, in 1999 with a thesis entitled: "Chromatic alteration in the Missa "L'Homme armé" of Pierre de la Rue: A case study in performance practice". He is the founding conductor of the Edmonton-based Chamber Choir Ensemble de la Rue (click here to visit their website), and is currently the Director of Choirs at the University of New Hampshire, USA. William has conducted choral and orchestral performances in Australia, Canada, the USA, France, Belgium, Germany and Bulgaria

Graeme Stevenson is the third successive generation of his family to have become an organist He took up his first organist post when he was 12 at St John's, Dundee, Graeme studied Music at Aberdeen University where he was organ scholar at Kings College. After graduating, he went on to do a Masters degree on Music for the Mass by Johann Ludwig Krebs.
Graeme is currently Director of Music at the University of Dundee. Under his direction, the University Chamber Choir and Bach Consort have recorded CDs.

Michael Schneider is active as performer on historical flutes and as conductor. With his groups La Stagione Frankfurt and Camerata Köln he has made numerous recordings during the last 30 years. As professor he teaches at the Frankfurt "Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst". Musical editions are a fruit of the research that he regularly does for the composition his programs.
For more information:
Michael's own website
La Stagione
Camerata Köln
The Frankfurt Hochschule

Johanna Schatz trained as a high school teacher and works in Kirchehrenbach (Germany). Singing, listening to music and, of course, going to concerts is a MUST to her. When she became involved with different choirs some years ago, she was startled to discover that lots of people appear to have problems reading music. So she began typing out the music and producing practice and rehearsal CDs for her students and the less talented choir members. What started off as a hobby soon became an obsession and has now turned into a passionate desire to help unearth more apparently-forgotten music. She feels that editing the Graupner cantatas is just as satisfactory as working on an archaeological dig: It's a bit like digging in the dirt, expecting to discover some rusty coins, and then – suddenly! – you strike gold. Johanna claims that she gets 50% of her creative energy from music-related activities, the other 50% from roaming the forests and searching for (preferably collecting) wild edible mushrooms.

Marco Schneider was born and grew up in Frankfurt / Main where he received his first musical education at a very early age. He studied at Dr. Hoch’s conservatory, his main subject at first being the oboe (Nora-Gudrun Spitz). Later, however, he focussed on counterpoint and composition (Gerhard Schedl). Furthermore he took private conducting lessons with Judith Somogi and studied conducting techniques by attending rehearsals with Michael Gielen and Eliahu Inbal. He also went to Sergiu Celibidache’s master courses. Even while he was still at Frankfurt, he began taking an interest in the theory and practice of historical music, attending courses by Michael Levitt and Michael Schneider. In 1989, he founded the chamber choir CoroCantiamo, and, in 2004, the orchestra Capella Regnensis (an ensemble using historical instruments only). His main focus is on music from the 16th to the 18th century. For many years now, Marco Schneider has taken a deep interest in the musical culture of the free Reichsstadt Nürnberg, especially in its tradition of performing music composed for more than one choirs. As for composers, Praetorius, Bach, and – above all – the Darmstadt baroque composer Christoph Graupner (1683 – 1760) form the centre of his attention. More than 30 of Graupner’s compositions have been edited and performed by his vocal and instrumental ensembles. Many of these cantatas will eventually be published by Prima La Musica!, starting with the first cantatas in 2010.

Niels Danielsen studied organ at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, and is now organist in Ballerup near Copenhagen, Denmark. He has a keen interest in unjustfully neglected composers from all periods, especially those of the German baroque like Stölzel, Graupner, and Zelenka. One of his other interests is typography/typesetting, and loves using the latter to promote the former. He will be working his way through some of Christoph Graupner’s many delightful cantatas.

Cosimo Stawiarski was born in 1974 in southern Italy. He studied baroque violin and musicology in Basel, Amsterdam, Leipzig and Kiel. Since then his primary interest has been researching and publishing 17th- and early 18th-century sacred music from central and northern Germany. He founded “Edition Musica Poetica” in 2003, with the express aim of making readily available unknown and hitherto unpublished early modern music available in musicological, Urtext performing editions. Cosimo and his publishing company were instrumental in the re-discovery of the English composer, William Hayes (1708-1777). Since 2010, “Edition Musica Poetica” publications have been produced and distributed by Prima la musica!
In parallel with his publishing activities, Cosimo is still very much a performing baroque violinist. He is a core member of the group “Les Cornets Noirs”, and regularly works with renowned conductors and other early music ensembles – as illustrated by his extensive discography. As a performer, he has visited most of Europe, and also North and South America.
Cosimo Stawiarski lives with his wife near Medellin (in Colombia) and regularly returns to Europe to as his diary demands.

Maik Richter studied Musicology, Italian and Medieval Latin from 2003 to 2008 in Halle (Saale), Germany; in his Master thesis (Magister Artium) he concentrated on the music at the Principate court of Anhalt-Köthen. Since 2009 he has been preparing editions of 18th century music in Germany, especially such from the Church archive St Mary in Weißenfels. In July 2010 he began his PhD thesis about the Central German Latin Mass tradition between 1650 and 1750.

Warren “Chip” Prince hails originally from Lancaster, New Hampshire; currently he works in New York and on tour as a Broadway pianist and conductor, also moonlighting as a paid chorister whenever the occasion arises. He developed his passion for early music and editing while attending Brigham Young University. His more ‘serious’ New York playing and conducting credits include Coram Boy, Fermat’s Last Tango, Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, and the Baz Luhrmann La Bohème. Chip can be heard playing both piano and trumpet on the 2006 cast recording of the Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht Happy End.

Jonathan Jager is a composer, arranger, and conductor based in New York City. He has music directed for the stage and is a former drum major of the Columbia University Marching Band. He holds a degree in Jewish Music from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Yotam Haran is a cellist. He was born in 1992 in Israel, where he is now studying for a B. Mus. degree with Zvi Plesser at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Yotam had his first encounter with historically informed performance a few years ago at the early music workshop in Jerusalem, and has since been studying the Baroque Cello with Orit Messer at the Israeli Conservatory of Music in Tel Aviv. He has participated in master classes with various teachers, including Roberto Gini, Alfredo Bernardini, Walter Reiter and Noam Krieger. In the years 2010-2011 he also participated in the Urbino Musica Antica summer course in Italy, where he received instruction from Gaetano Nasillo. Yotam is a recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarships for the years 2009-2012.