L’AURA was founded in 2002 by harpsichordist Bernard Gordillo while he was studying in London at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama . The ensemble, originally a trio that focused on Italian Baroque improvisation, gained initial recognition the following year as a Deutsche Bank Pyramid Award finalist.
Bernard has since expanded the ensemble and its scope of interpretation to include a number of neglected composers of the Baroque era.
Performances have taken the ensemble from the intimate rooms of London’s Handel House Museum to a number of chamber music series around the West Coast, Midwest, and southern United States.
More recently, L’AURA was awarded first prize and a special prize in the 2006 Indiana University Jacobs School of Music’s Latin American Music Center competition for its performance of 16th- and 17th-century repertoire from Spain, Italy, and Latin America.
The name L’AURA (early Italian for “The Wind”) was inspired by the title of Juan Hidalgo’s opera Celos aun del aire matan (“Jealousy, even from the air, kills”). It is an ancient belief that the wind was a powerful carrier of emotion.
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Current programs:
Conversation of the Muses : Flute Music heard in late-Baroque Paris
A program of music by French composers who were inspired by Corelli and Vivaldi: Blavet, Chédeville, Couperin, and Leclair (traverso and harpsichord).
With:
Since 1999 Teddie Hwang has dedicated herself to historical performance, being fascinated by the timbre and vocal qualities of the traverso.
Born in Hong Kong, she studied with Wilbert Hazelzet and received her Master’s degree in Historical Flute Performance from the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague, Netherlands. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music and Germanic Studies from Indiana University , where she studied modern flute with Kathryn Lukas and graduated with high distinction.
First-prize winner of the 2004 Baroque Flute Artist Competition held by the National Flute Association of America , she was an adjudicator in its 2006 Baroque Flute Masterclass Competition. Currently living in Boston, she performs regularly with the ensemble Le Mercure in Europe.
Teddie takes inspiration from the songs of turtledoves and blackbirds.
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“Por selebrar” (To celebrate): Baroque music of Spain and the New World
A program of music from the Iberian peninsula and the Spanish colonies of the Americas, including Mexico, Bolivia, and Peru (soprano, violin, cello, and organ/harpsichord).
With:
Soprano Meghan Dewald most recently “sang in riveting fashion” as Margarita in the collegiate premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar at the IU Jacobs School of Music, where she just completed her first year as a Master’s student in the studio of Costanza Cuccaro. Other performances at the Jacobs School include the role of Diana in the collegiate premiere of William Bolcom’s A Wedding with IU Opera Theater and a Liederabend under the guidance of Liz Upchurch of the Canadian Opera Company.
A former Young Artist with Kentucky Opera, she performed the roles of Juliette in Romeo et Juliette, and Berta in the mainstage production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
Meghan earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University, graduating magna cum laude. There she performed the roles of First Lady in Die Zauberflöte and Suor Dolcina in Suor Angelica.
Her past oratorio performances include Handel’s Ode to St. Cecilia with the Bach and Handel Chorale of Jim Thorpe, PA, as well as Mozart’s Requiem and Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus.
Future performances include the role of Camelia in the world premiere of Gabriela Ortiz’s Unicamente la Verdad in the summer of 2008.
Allison Edberg is a member of Olde Friends, Ensemble Galilei, ViVaCe, Ensemble Voltaire, the Mirabel Classical Quartet, and is concertmaster of the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra. She was a recipient of the Willi Apel Scholarship in baroque violin at Indiana University where she studied with Stanley Ritchie.
The Chicago Sun-Times called her performance of a Telemann work “impeccable, with unerring intonation and an austere beauty” (Nov. 11, 2002).
She has collaborated in recent years with Apollo’s Fire, the Washington Bach Consort, La Monica, and Early Music Southwest, as well as being a regular feature at the Bloomington Early Music Festival. Ms. Edberg has toured nationally and has recorded for the Electra and Centaur labels.
Christine Kyprianides received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and her Master of Music from the New England Conservatory .
In 1976, Kyprianides left the US for Belgium. After a year as Assistant Principal Cellist of the Royal Flanders Philharmonic Orchestra in Antwerp, she received a grant from the Belgium Government to study viol at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels under Wieland Kuijken. She was subsequently awarded the Special First Prize and the Diplôme Supérieure.
After completing her studies, Kyprianides moved to Cologne, Germany where she soon established herself as a leading Baroque cellist, performing in Musica Antiqua Köln, Das Kleine Konzert , Collegium Cartusianum, Accademia Filarmonica Köln, Les Arts Florissants , La Stagione, and other chamber orchestras.
As cellist and viol player, she was also a member of Ganassi-Consort, Les Adieux, and the La Roche Quartett. Kyprianides has also been a long-time collaborator with fortepianist Richard Burnett in England.
In 2003, Kyprianides returned to the US, where she is in the process of completing her doctorate degree, concentrating in early music and musicology. She continues to perform as a member of the Huelgas Ensemble (Belgium) and Diapente Consort (Netherlands), and is also active as a scholar.
