Les Délices' (pronounced Lay DEH-lease) polished, expressive, and dynamic performances of masterpieces and little-known works from the French Baroque have been garnering critical acclaim. Founded in Cleveland in 2006, Les Délices brings together artists with national reputations who share a passion for this exquisite yet seldom heard repertoire. Their performances on period instruments allows them to explore a rich tapestry of tone colors, and the group's name conveys their approach to the music of this era: a delight, a fine delicacy, sumptuous, and exciting. Les Délices' debut CD "The Tastes Reunited"was named one of the "Top Ten Early Music Discoveries of 2009" (NPR's Harmonia), and their performances have been called "a beguiling experience" (Cleveland Plain Dealer), "astonishing" (ClevelandClassical.com), and "first class" (Early Music America Magazine). Les Délices has been featured on WCLV’s Around Noon and WKSU’s In Performance, NPR's syndicated Harmonia and Sunday Baroque, and their debut CD was featured as part of the Audio-guide for a recent special exhibit at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art (Watteau, Music, and Theater). In addition to touring engagements, Les Délices presents their own annual concert series in modern art galleries, where audiences enjoy intimate, informal performances in venues that celebrate Cleveland’s flourishing arts community.

Les Délices is a non-profit corporation in the process of obtaining its 501(c)(3) status.

Left to right: Michael Sponseller, Debra Nagy, Scott Metcalfe, Emily Walhout (photo: Liz Linder)

Debra Nagy, baroque oboe and director, performs frequently with baroque ensembles and orchestras in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Cleveland, Denver, Boston, Philadelphia, and New York. In addition, Debra performs on shawms and recorders with Ciaramella, a group devoted to fifteenth-century music, and has been a guest with Piffaro, the Newberry Consort, and Blue Heron. She received her doctorate in Early Music at Case Western Reserve University in 2007, where she currently directs the Collegium Musicum. A graduate of Oberlin, Debra was the first-prize winner in the 2002 American Bach Soloists Young Artist Competition, and spent 2002-2003 researching Renaissance double reed instruments in Brussels and Amsterdam as the recipient of a Belgian American Educational Foundation Grant. Debra can be heard on the Capstone, Bright Angel, Naxos, Hänssler Classics, and ATMA labels and has had live performances featured on CBC Radio Canada, Klara (Belgium), WQXR (New York City), WCLV (Cleveland), WKSU (Kent), and WGBH Boston. She loves cooking, gardening, and commuting by bike from her home in the heart of Cleveland's historic Ohio City neighborhood. Debra was awarded a Creative Workforce Fellowship in 2010. The Creative Workforce Fellowship is a program of the Community Partnership for Arts & Culture, generously funded by Cuyahoga Arts and Culture. to top>

Kathie Stewart, called "stellar" by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, is a founding member of Apollo's Fire: The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra. She is a faculty member of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she serves as Teacher of Baroque Flute and Curator of Harpsichords in the Historical Performance Department. In addition to performing around the country on traverso and recorder with Apollo's Fire, she has also appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Opera, ARTEK, the Oberlin Baroque Ensemble and Turn the Corner Irish Band. Stewart appears on thirteen recordings with Apollo's Fire. to top>

Scott Metcalfe is the musical and artistic director of Blue Heron, a vocal ensemble devoted to music of the 15th and 16th centuries which has been acclaimed by The Boston Globe as "one of the Boston music community's indispensables," and music director of New York City's Green Mountain Project (Jolle Greenleaf, artistic director), whose performances of the music of Claudio Monteverdi have been hailed by The New York Times as "quite simply terrific" and by The Boston Globe as "stupendous." Metcalfe has been a guest director of TENET (New York), Emmanuel Music (Boston), the Tudor Choir and Seattle Baroque, Pacific Baroque Orchestra (Vancouver, BC), Quire Cleveland, and the Dryden Ensemble (Princeton, NJ), and he conducted Early Music America's Young Performers Festival Ensemble in its inaugural performance at the 2011 Boston Early Music Festival.

Metcalfe also enjoys a career as a baroque violinist, playing with Les Délices (dir. Debra Nagy), Les Boréades (dir. Francis Colpron), L'Harmonie des Saisons (dir. Eric Milnes), and other ensembles in Boston, Montreal, and elsewhere. He teaches vocal ensemble repertoire and performance practice at Boston University and is co-director (with Victor Coelho) of BU's new Center for Early Music Studies. In his spare time he is at work on a new edition of the songs of Gilles Binchois (c. 1400-1460) in collaboration with Sean Gallagher and Irit Kleiman (both at Boston University). Metcalfe received a bachelor's degree in 1985 from Brown University, where he majored in biology (perhaps uniquely in the early music world, he was lead author of an article published in the Annals of Botany), and in 2005 he completed a master's degree in historical performance practice at Harvard. to top>

Recently llauded for her "invigorating verve and imagination" by the Washington Post, Julie Andrijeski is among the leading baroque violinists in the U.S.  Her unique musical performance style is greatly influenced by her knowledge and skilled performance of baroque dance, and she often combines these two mediums in the classroom, on stage, and at workshops. Ms. Andrijeski is a full-time Lecturer in the Music Department at Case Western Reserve University where she teaches early music performance practice, baroque dance, and directs the Case/CIM Baroque Orchestra and chamber ensembles. This year she is also Visiting Assistant Professor at Oberlin College. Before joining the Case faculty, Ms. Andrijeski was a full-time member of the early-music trio Chatham Baroque. Now, in addition to her teaching, Ms. Andrijeski regularly appears with many baroque groups including, among others, Quicksilver, Cleveland's Apollo's Fire, the New York State Baroque Orchestra, the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Cecilia's Circle, Spiritus Collective, and the King's Noyse. She has been on the faculties of the Baroque Performance Institute at the Oberlin Conservatory and the Madison Early Music Festival for over a decade, and joined the faculty of the Vancouver Early Music summer festival this year. Ms. Andrijeski received her Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in Early Music from Case Western Reserve University in May 2006. Previous degrees include a B.M. in Violin Performance from the University of Denver (1985) and an M.M. in Violin Performance from Northwestern University (1986).  Her recordings can be found on Dorian Recordings (with Chatham Baroque), Centaur, and Musica Omnia. to top>

Emily Walhout grew up playing the cello, but discovered her love for baroque bass lines at Oberlin Conservatory, where she took up the baroque cello and the viola da gamba, thus launching an active career in early music. Ms Walhout was a founding member of La Luna, and was a member of The King's Noyse from 1987 through 2004. Ms Walhout has played viola da gamba or principal cello for the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Seattle Baroque, Portland Baroque, Les Boreades, Les Violons Du Roy, New York Collegium, and Trinity Consort (Portland, OR). She has toured as a chamber musician throughout North America and Europe, and she has recorded extensively with the Boston Camerata, La Luna and The King's Noyse. A resident of Waterown, MA, Ms Walhout maintains a small studio of private students and coaches several devoted viol consorts. to top>

Cited for his "stylish and soulful playing" Josh Lee leads a mixed up musical life performing on viols and double bass with some of the world's leaders in early music. An alum of the Peabody Conservatory and the Longy School of Music, he studied double bass with Harold Hall Robinson and viols with Ann Marie Morgan and Jane Hershey. Josh is the founder of the ensemble Ostraka, and has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Carmel Bach Festival, Musica Pacifica, Boston Early Music Festival,, Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica, Atlanta Baroque Orchestra and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Josh's performances have been heard on Performance Today and Harmonia, and he has recorded for Dorian Sono Luminus, Reference Recordings and Koch International. A resident of San Francisco, Josh is director of the Viola da Gamba Society of America Young Players’ Weekend. to top>

Douglas Kelley has performed on viola da gamba throughout Europe from Amsterdam to Zagreb, and has made numerous tours in Asia including award-winning performances at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition (Japan). He has taught at summer courses in Italy and for the German, Austrian and Swiss viola da gamba societies (Viola da gamba-Gesellschaft), and was teaching assistant at the Vienna Musikhochschule. In 2000, he was awarded a career grant by Early Music America. He is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and returns to his alma mater as a member of the Oberlin Consort of Viols. Since 2009, he has made his home in rural Connecticut, which allows him to be closely involved with projects in both Boston and New York City, as well as further afield.to top>

Michael Sponseller has appeared throughout Europe and North America with critical acclaim as a soloist, conductor, and chamber musician. Winner of the American Bach Soloists Competition (1998) and the Jurow International Harpsichord Competition (2002), he holds the distinction of being a two-time prizewinner at the Festival of Flanders International Harpsichord Competition (Bruges), as well as taking prizes in Montréal and Kalamazoo. Mr. Sponseller has performed and recorded frequently with the Handel and Haydn Society, Smithsonian Chamber Players, American Bach Soloists, New York Collegium, Apollo’s Fire and recently, the Carmel Bach Festival. In addition to holding degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague, Mr. Sponseller was a teacher of harpsichord at the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music. To continue to explore his interest in vocal and chamber music on period instruments, he founded Ensemble Florilege in 2007. Mr. Sponseller can also be heard on several recordings from Electra, Vanguard Classics, Naxos, Delos and Centaur. to top>

The Canadian hurdy gurdy player, recorderist and singer, Tobie Miller, grew up in a family of classical musicians. After studies in Early Music Performance (B.Mus) at McGill University (Montreal, Canada), she moved to Basel (Switzerland) to pursue postgraduate studies at the prestigious Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Her work in Basel was supported by two grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, and by the J.B.C. Watkins Award. She was the recipient of a further grant from the Canada Council in 2011-2012 for her work on the baroque hurdy gurdy and transcriptions of J.S. Bach's solo cello and violin repertoire for the same instrument.

Currently dividing her time between Basel and Montreal, Tobie performs and records with many ensembles on both continents including Ensemble Baroque de Limoges, Les Musiciens de Saint Julien, Per Sonat, and her own ensembles, La Rota and Ysis. She is recognized as a virtuoso of the baroque hurdy gurdy, she has performed with well-known conductors such as Jordi Savall, Christophe Coin, and Wieland Kuijken. She also teaches regularly at workshops and festivals including CAMMAC (since 2003), the Over the Water Hurdy Gurdy Festival (since 2005), Les Journées de La Flûte à Bec (2006), and at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (2008, 2012). to top>

Born in London, England, Nigel North has been Professor of Lute at the Early Music Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington since 1999. Initially inspired into music, at age 7, by the early 60's instrumental pop group "The Shadows", Nigel studied classical music through the violin and guitar, eventually discovering his real path in life, the lute, when he was 15. Basically self taught on the lute, he has since 1976 developed a unique musical life which embraces activities as as teacher, accompanist, soloist, director and writer. His principal music passions apart from teaching are accompanying singers, the solo lute repertoires of Elizabethan England and late German Baroque music of Bach and Weiss. Recordings include a 4 CD box set “Bach on the Lute” (Linn Records) and 4 CDs of the Lute Music of John Dowland (Naxos). to top >

Soprano Carrie Henneman Shaw is known across the US for her vivid, unique performances of Baroque and contemporary classical music. Praised as a “major musical force” (St. Paul Pioneer Press), “consistently stylish” (Boston Globe), a “cool, precise soprano” (Chicago Tribune), and “startlingly moving” (Hub Review), Shaw appears with Boston Early Music Festival, the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNow series, The Newberry Consort, Haymarket Opera Company, Ensemble 61, Zeitgeist and Lyra Baroque Orchestra. She has given numerous world and U.S. premieres, most recently the premiere of Abbie Betinis’s ‘Moonlight’ for soprano and cello, a live-music-for-dance piece by Jocelyn Hagen, and the U.S. premiere of Hans Thomalla’s multi-media work ‘The Brightest Form of Absence’ for large chamber ensemble and soprano. In summer 2013, Carrie can be heard singing the role of ‘Euridice’ in Boston Early Music Festival’s production of Charpentier’s ‘La descente d’Orfée aux Enfers’. Carrie holds degrees from Lawrence University and the University of Minnesota and serves as an instructor at the national Lute Society of America conference in Cleveland. She is co-artistic director of St. Paul-based Glorious Revolution Baroque.
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A native of Seattle, the soprano Clara Rottsolk has been lauded by The New York Times for her “clear, appealing voice and expressive conviction” and by The Philadelphia Inquirer for the “opulent tone [with which] every phrase has such a communicative emotional presence.” In a repertoire extending from the Renaissance to the contemporary, she has appeared as soloist with ensembles such as Tempesta di Mare, St Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, Philadelphia Bach Collegium, Trinity Wall Street Choir, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Bach Sinfonia, Handel Choir of Baltimore, and Ensemble Florilège under conductors including Joshua Rifkin, Bruno Weill, John Scott, David Effron, and Andrew Megill. As a recitalist, she has performed throughout the US, in venues including the Goethe-Institut Boston, St. Mark’s Church Philadelphia and Swarthmore College, and at the Carmel Bach Festival, Whidbey Island Music Festival, and the Brevard Music Center. Among her stage roles are Micaëla (Carmen), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Arminda (La finta giardiniera) and Laetitia (The Old Maid and the Thief).

Her upcoming season includes performances with Handel Choir of Baltimore, Piffaro—The Renaissance Wind Band, Les Délices, and appearances at the Carmel Bach Festival and Indianapolis Early Music Festival. She can also be heard on recording with Tempesta di Mare Chamber Players on the Chandos label. to top>

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J. Tracy Mortimore is a professional musician and owner of Artisan Renovation, a Cleveland-based boutique remodeling and renovation firm. Mr, Mortimore received his Bachelor of Music in Performance from the University of Toronto and subsequently furthered his musical studies in London, UK. He has enjoyed a diverse musical career that involves performing everything from contemporary classical and popular music to Early Music on original instruments. As an Early Music performer, he has performed extensively on historical double basses and violone. Early Music ensembles he has appeared with include Santa Fe Pro Musica, Washington Bach Consort, Musica Pro Rara, Rebel, Tafelmusik, Opera Atelier, Toronto Consort, Wolftrap Opera, Chatham Baroque, Folger Consort, and Aradia Ensemble with whom he has made over 18 recordings on Naxos, the world’s largest classical music label.

In addition to his work in Early Music, Mr. Mortimore is actively involved with contemporary classical and jazz movements as an improviser and composer. As a contemporary performer, he has worked extensively with L’Ensemble Denis Schingh and was a founding member of Diaphony, a flute and double bass duo specializing in free improvisation and electroacoustic music. He has appeared with the Esprit Orchestra, New Music Concerts, and 5th Species and has had numerous compositions written specifically for him by Canadian composers. Mr. Mortimore has performed in New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, England, Japan, Italy, and across the United States and Canada.