Andrew Ivarson, tenor, performs as a soloist and ensemble singer in the New York City area. He also regularly sings with Polyhymnia, Stony Brook Baroque Players, New York Continuo Collective, and Sing We Enchanted. He is an on-demand substitute as a cantorial soloist and ensemble singer at churches all over the New York City area. He sings for the Jewish High Holy Days under Cantor Leon Berger at The Jewish Center of Kings Highway. His performed solo repertoire includes full soloist roles from John Stainers The Crucifixion and JS Bach’s Magnificat in D, as well as excerpts from Claudio Monteverdi’s Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, playing the role of Ulisse, and Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, singing the Testo role, at the Queens College Baroque Opera Workshop.
Andrew completed his undergraduate education at Union College, where he pursued a double major in Music and Computer Science, with a minor in Mandarin Chinese. During his undergraduate studies, his main instrument was piano, but he became interested in choral and small ensemble singing under Union’s Director of Performance, Dr. John Cox. Andrew was especially drawn to sacred music from the Middle Ages through the early Baroque period. After his undergraduate, he did a Masters in Historical Musicology from University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he sang with both of the school’s elite choirs, and he founded a one-on-a-part vocal ensemble, the Mendota Consort, who gave annual performances of vocal, a capella Medieval and Renaissance music.
In 2017, once he finished his masters’ thesis under Dr. David Crook on Orlando di Lasso’s Susanne un jour music, he moved to New York City to get married and be a software developer. Shortly after moving, however, he auditioned for several city choirs and church jobs, and abandoned the software job pursuit, and that’s still what he’s up to these days. Outside of performing, Andrew maintains a small private studio teaching in-home voice and piano, and he is a private voice student of Richard Slade. He is expecting his second child soon, and lately he spends all of his free time helping his toddler find piles of dirt to dig.
Daniel Keene, lutenist, performs on an array of historic and modern plucked string instruments including a variety of lutes, vihuela, bandora, baroque guitar, nineteenth century guitar, modern guitar, and extended electric guitars. He has concertized extensively as a soloist, consort player, continuo player, chamber musician, and pit orchestra musician at a multitude of venues in New York and throughout the United States.
Current projects include French violin and guitar duets with Lisa Casal-Galietta as the Moka Pot Duo, the lute songs of John Dowland with Drew Ivarson as the Poore Astronomers, newly composed works for piano and 8-string electric guitar with his wife Dr. Fang-Yi Chu, and lute duets with Matthew Weinman. Daniel is the guitarist for The Red Door Chamber Players and The Samadi-Keene Piano & Guitar Duo. He has performed with Long Island Baroque Ensemble, The Bacheler Consort, New Place Players, New York Continuo Collective, The Golden Williams Duo, lutenist Kenneth Bé, soprano Erin Heisel, and many others. No stranger to theater, Daniel was the lutenist, guitarist, and arranger for New Place Player’s 2023 Off-Broadway production of William Shakespeare’s Othello which received critical praise.
Daniel studied with Xavier Díaz-Latorre, Jerry Willard, William Zito, and Stephen Leonard. Through workshops, master classes, and coachings he has worked on musical interpretation with lutenists Crawford Young and Grant Herreid, harpsichordist Arthur Haas, violinist Dr. Linda Sinanian, guitarists Paul Cesarczyk, João Luiz, and others. He attended SUNY Stony Brook University, Adelphi University, and SUNY Nassau Community College. Daniel is on the faculty at SUNY Nassau Community College and Great Neck Conservatory.