Marc Schachman, oboe

Kati Kyme, violin

Lisa Weiss, violin

Anthony Martin, violin and viola

William Skeen, cello

Kristin Zoernig, bass

A native of Berkeley, CA, Marc Schachman moved back to the Bay Area six years ago after nearly 50 years in New York City, where he founded two of America's seminal original instrument chamber groups, The Aulos Ensemble and The Amadeus Winds, and performed as soloist and principal with nearly all this country's major early music orchestras including Philharmonia Baroque, American Classical Orchestra, Boston Baroque, and the Handel and Haydn Society. As an oboist, the music of Bach has been central to his life and is well represented on his extensive discography. He was delighted upon his recent move to find a synergy amongst his colleagues and old friends to create the Cantata Collective and to begin to delve specifically into this astonishing repertoire.

While an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, Kati Kyme was introduced to the amazing world of the Bach Cantatas, as led by California Bach Society director Ted Flath. As a graduate student at Yale University, she performed a dozen Cantatas with the New England Chamber Orchestra. For five years, she played a different Bach Cantata every day with Helmut Rilling at the Oregon Bach Festival and in 1989 began her affiliation with the American Bach Soloists. She has participated in Boston’s Emmanuel Church Sunday Cantata performances and has recorded more Cantata movements with the Pacific Boys Choir. As a member of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra for 35 years, she has continued her love affair with Bach. It is with the greatest pleasure that she joins her colleagues in Cantata Collective in its presentation of these works to Bay Area audiences.

As a longtime concertmaster and soloist with Philharmonia, Lisa Weiss is well known to Bay Area Bach listeners. Among her favorite PBO cantata memories are performances of the Christmas Oratorio, recording with Will Parker, and a recent tour with Sherezade Panthaki. She also performed locally for many years with ABS, and enjoyed in particular the early seasons of cantatas. Lisa toured in Europe as leader with Joshua Rifkin and the Bach Ensemble. Concerts in Bach churches in Weimar represent some of the high points of her musical experience, unforgettable for the sense of historical connection they provided in tandem with deeply committed music-making. Lisa views the Bach Cantatas as the musical equivalent of a World Heritage Site, a collection of masterworks belonging to all people. She is thrilled to join with her colleagues in offering these matchless compositions to diverse audiences, giving listeners an opportunity to experience the cantatas in their "natural habitat": the live dimensions of sound and time.

Anthony Martin played a hundred or so Bach cantatas on Sundays over the dozen years from 1973 until 1985 as part of Sunday services in Boston's Emmanuel Church under the direction of Craig Smith. While on the East Coast he also performed and recorded many cantatas with Joshua Rifkin’s Bach Ensemble. Later he played and recorded cantatas with the American Bach Soloists. Most recently he has coached the Stanford Baroque Soloists in their performance this past spring of Bach’s Christ lag in Todesbanden with Eric Tuan’s chamber choir Convivium. In addition, he has played orchestral repertoire with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century since they were founded in the early '80s, and the string quartets since 1985 with the Artaria, Novello, and New Esterházy Quartets. He is very excited to continue his relationship with the glorious repertoire of Bach's vocal chamber music in the company of his good friends and colleagues in the Cantata Collective.

William Skeen has been privileged to be surrounded by J.S. Bach’s music since childhood. His uncle sent his family ‘period instrument’ recordings in the 1970’s and 80’s and before he knew there was a difference between period and modern performance practice, he was hooked---those clanging natural horns, buzzing gut strings, and hooting hautboys still resound in his memory. Honored at the age of 21 to play at the Carmel Bach Festival, he joined in weekly performances of several Cantatas along with a Passion or Oratorio, along with works by his extended family: Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Since those Carmel days he’s continued to pursue every opportunity to perform Bach’s music around the world: 72 St. Matthew Passions in 9 countries, 80 St. John Passions, and over 100 cantatas with groups including Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Musica Angelica, and the Oregon Bach Festival. He is delighted to join the Cantata Collective, bringing experience, musicianship, and beauty to this incredible body of literature.

Kristin Zoernig plays bass with many of America’s foremost early instrument groups and is a familiar face to all Bay Area audiences. Bach plays a major part in her musical life; in addition her performances with Cantata Collective she relishes playing his bass lines at the Oregon Bach Festival and with the American Bach Soloists. She plays on a magnificent old bass made by Joseph Wrent in Rotterdam in 1648.