David Miller, Viola da Gamba; Rita Lilly, Soprano; Caroline Jou Armitage, Soprano; Katherine Heater, Harpsichord

François Couperin: Leçons de ténèbres à une et à deux voix (Tenebrae Readings for One and Two Voices)

Incipit lamentatio Jeremiae prophetae

Vau. Et egressus est a Filia Sion

 Jod. Manum suam misit hostis

Leçons de tènébres Couperin translation (1)

Rita Lilly has been lauded by The New York Times for “possessing a voice of strength, clarity, and virtuosity” and by the S.F. Classical Voice for “having a pure, silvery voice with plenty of color.” As a specialist in baroque and early music, Rita has been a featured artist with the American Boychoir, American Classical Orchestra, Artek, Clarion Music Society, Concert Royal, Rebel, the Folger Consort, Sacabuche, and the New York Consort of Viols, among others. As the soprano of the Waverly Consort, she toured throughout the U.S. and abroad, including performances at Alice Tully Hall and Town Hall.  Rita has been featured on live broadcasts on WNYC, WNCN, National Public Radio, and Radio-Canada. Rita is a frequent soloist with some of the finest Bay Area groups, such as the Albany Consort, American Bach Soloists, California Bach Society, Chora Nova, Marin Oratorio, Sacramento Baroque, San Francisco Bach Choir and Soli Deo Gloria. She can be heard on the EMI, Naxos, Musical Heritage, and Newport Classic labels. Rita is the Choral Director at Mills College, Music Director at Lafayette Christian Church, and Director of the Sorella Girls Chorus. She is on the faculty of the Pacific Boychoir Academy and maintains an active vocal studio in her home.

Soprano Caroline Jou Armitage is known to Bay Area audiences for her “absolutely beautiful” performances sung with “pitch-perfect clarity and affecting intensity” (San Francisco Classical Voice). In May 2023, her dual roles in Rameau’s opera La Lyre Enchantée with Harmonia Felice were “brilliantly sung…with amazing clarity and commitment” (Berkeley Planet). A multi-instrumentalist, she has performed on the harpsichord at the Berkeley Early Music Festival, and on Baroque violin with the Albany Consort and the San Jose Symphonic Choir. This fall’s vocal performances included concerts with Boston Camerata on the East Coast, and solos with the Bay Choral Guild, the UC Alumni Chorus, and the California Bach Society. She studies voice with contralto Karen Clark, harpsichord with Tamara Loring, and viola da gamba with Julie Jeffrey.

David H. Miller is a musicologist, a performer, and an Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of California, Berkeley. On Baroque and modern double bass, viola da gamba, and violone, David has appeared with groups such as the Handel and Haydn Society, Arcadia Players, Trinity Wall Street, Music at Marsh Chapel, New York Baroque Incorporated, and Seven Times Salt. He holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Cornell University, and his research has been featured in the Journal of the American Musicological Society, the Journal of Musicology, the Indiana Theory Review, and Transposition, among other publications. David writes on issues surrounding the performance and reception of modernist music and early music in the twentieth century.

Katherine Heater is a frequent performer in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, New Century Chamber Orchestra, Voices of Music, Musica Angelica, and the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado among others. Katherine teaches harpsichord at the University of California Berkeley and music history and musicianship at The Crowden School.