Artistic Co-Directors

    Miles Morgan, New York and Venice, Italy

Miles Morgan is well-known in international early music circles, and has been active in every aspect of early music for more than four decades.  A graduate of Harvard University, he trained as a conductor in both the United States and Italy.  For many years, he was the music director of the Associazione Musicale Romana (Italy), followed by stints with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra (Maine) and many years directing the Bamboo Organ Festival (Manila).  He currently lives in New York and Venice and collaborates with the Boston Early Music Festival and the Venice Music Festival.  Before accepting the position as Co-Music Director of the International Baroque Music Festival, he served as its Artistic Advisor during its planning and initial five seasons.

     Jay Bernfeld, Paris, France
 

Jay Bernfeld is increasingly admired as a performer of great expressivity on the viola da gamba; the lyrical beauty of his playing the result of his deep love of the singing voice. Hundreds of live performances of the great singers of the twentieth century, in particular those of Renata Tebaldi,. have helped him to forge a new perspective on the performance of earlier repertoires as witness the performances of Fuoco e Cenere the ensemble which he directs.

Fuoco e Cenere has recently embarked on a series of recordings that reflect the diversity of it’s repertoire; for the ATMA label ”Fantasy in Blue” featuring Rinat Shaham in works of Purcell and Gershwin and a second recording of the Psalms of David by the important Venetian composer Benedetto Marcello (a co-production with the Miami Bach Society) as well as a recording of Boismortier's works for Viola da Gamba. In 2004 the ensemble marked the 700th anniversary of
Petrarch with a recording celebrating the great Poet's inspiration for generations of composers. In 2005 the ensemble will perform John Dowland's "Lachrymae", a landmark of the early baroque music.

Passionately interested in the rediscovery and development of 17th century theater and opera he has directed the 1589 Florentine Intermedii “La Pellegrina”, Monteverdi’s “Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria” at the Athens Concert Hall, and Marco da Gagliano’s “La Dafne” at the Palladian Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza., as well as Lorenzani's long forgotten pastoral opera "Nicandro e Fileno" on the stage of Versaille's Royal Opera. Jay Bernfeld has founded Opera Fuoco with Maestro David Stern. The tandem Bernfeld/Stern have presented Handel’s Hercules at prestigious sites in Greece and have signed an imposing version of the composer’s Semele with Danielle De Niese, Paul Agnew and Guillemette Laurens in the leading roles.

As director, soloist and chamber musician, Jay Bernfeld has delighted audiences on such prestigious stages as the "Concertgebouw-Amsterdam", the "Kennedy Center – Washington DC", Rome's "Villa Medici" and the "Aldeborough Festival". He has taught extensively in Italy, France, Norway, Switzerland and the United States - the viola da gamba as well as instrumental and vocal repertoire spanning five centuries. He has held master classes on baroque style and technique at the Festival d'Art Lyrique Aix –en-Provence 's vocal academy, and at the Leipziger Bachtage on the theme of "Bach and French Music".

Executive Director

    Kathryn B. Gaubatz

As Executive Director of The Miami Bach Society, Ms. Gaubatz is the originator of the MBS International Tropical Baroque Music Festival.  Guided by the example of the opera festival in Coral Gables' sister city of Aix-en-Provence, she conceived of the Festival as a place for international musicians to perform for the benefit of national and international visitors.  Her dream, hatched with the help of Miles Morgan and other, has in its sixth year already gained a worldwide reputation as one of the premier early music festivals in the United States.  In recognition of her work, the French Government during Tropical Baroque Music Festival V presented Mrs. Gaubatz with its esteemed Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.  This Spring, her work is further being recognized by the Miami Chapter of the American Red Cross, which has selected her to receive its Sara Hopkins Woodruff Spectrum Award for Culture..

Technical Director

   Jancy Ball, New York

Ms. Ball is the principal of SHW Productions, a video and event production company located in New York, NY.  She began her career in the entertainment industry over thirty years ago as a roadie at the Fillmore East.  She also worked as production coordinator on the original tour of Jesus Christ Superstar, and as assistant to the producer of The Living Center, the organizers of the original Renaissance Faire in California.  After returning to New York and the corporate world, she worked for Viacom and CBS International.  Jancy established SHW Productions in 1983 and has produced many projects including AIDS, Me and My Baby (Electronic Media Associates, 1988), SkiTime (Sunset and Vine, ITV, 1994) and The OLAP Summit (Cognos, 1996).  She also produced and directed Wait Til You See What I Can Do (Las Cumbres Learning Center, 1986), The Oldest Kid On The Block (Brooklyn Children's Museum, 1989), The Street of Ships (The South Street Seaport Museum, 1992), and Hormone Replacement Therapy And Your Heart (PeerMed, 1997).  In 1999, Jancy directed a PSA for Chandler Chicco featuring Jennifer Holliday and executive produced Quartzite Falls, a documentary about the Salt River in Arizona.  Ms. Ball has been a judge for The International Emmy Awards (1986-1999) and The National Academy of Arts and Sciences (1989-1998).  She just completed a three-year term as NYWIF Vice-President of Membership where she continues to be the head of the Intern/Mentor Program and was recently in London for The Women in Film and Television International Summit as a featured panelist on mentoring programs.  She has been involved with the Miami Bach Society's Tropical Baroque Music Festival as technical Director since 2003.