Brian Kay

Award-winning musician Brian Kay is a modern-day troubadour. He began his musical life at the age of 10 when he got his first drum set and formed his first band. Although this “drum set” was merely a snare drum with no stand and a bass drum with no pedal, Brian wasted no time honing his chops and developing his musical imagination while practicing for hours with his mother’s wooden spoons. He has since had a productive and diverse musical career. As a singer and multi-instrumentalist, he enjoys performing a broad range of musical styles as well as teaching about the history of the instruments he plays and the songs he sings.  

Brian has performed throughout the United States and beyond. He specializes in historical plucked instruments and ancient songs of the world, is a songwriter, plays a variety of percussion and wind instruments, writes poetry, and paints. During the 2013 - 2014 season, Brian appeared in major US cities such as Boston, Cleveland, Miami, Houston, and New York.

Brian has been featured at distinguished venues such as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Shriver Hall, and The Boston Early Music Festival. His radio appearances include Baltimore's WYPR and Boston's WGBH. His debut album Ocean was released in November, 2013. As an avid ensemble player, he has performed with Appolo's Fire, Ayreheart, Hesperus, The Boston Early Music Festival Ensemble, The Broken Consort, The Catacoustic Consort, Baltimore Baroque Band, The Peabody Consort, The Peabody Renaissance Ensemble, and is a founding member of the early music improvisation group Divisio. He is the only two time winner of The Lute Society of America's national Emerging Artist lute competition and the 2013 recipient of Peabody Conservatory's "Excellence in Early Music Award". Cleveland Classical Review called Brian "far-ranging", "brilliant", and "exciting". The Boston Musical Intelligencer stated that Brian "bemused and beguiled" and Early Music America called Brian "phenomenal".   

Enthusiastic about teaching, Mr. Kay has lectured at Yale University, The Peabody Conservatory, Shriver Hall, and The Walters Art Museum. In September, 2012 he was Artist in Residence at The Cushman School in Miami, Florida, where he taught 7th & 8th graders musical appreciation through the experience of composing and producing their own music.
 

Niccolo Seligmann

You can hear Niccolo Seligmann playing a lot of different music, from Bulgarian dances set to beatbox, to virtuoso Baroque viola da gamba music, to French love songs from the Middle Ages. “Hey, what tunes can you teach me?” might be the first thing you hear him say.

Niccolo is a core member of The Broken Consort, a group dedicated to “Early music turned early magic” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). He also performs medieval music with the ensembles Hesperus, Divisio and Alkemie, as well as The Peabody Consort, Peabody Renaissance Ensemble, Baltimore Baroque Band, and Peabody Consort of Viols.

An avid improviser, arranger, and composer, Niccolo’s compositions have been aired on WGBH’s Drive Time Live and will be released on the upcoming Peabody Consort CD. Niccolo is currently recording an album of his own works for one and two viols, viol with percussion, and electronics.

In 2012, Niccolo won a Johns Hopkins University Provost Research Award to study and research medieval vielle technique and literature. Also in 2012, Niccolo won a Viola da Gamba Society of America grant to study viol in Orte, Italy. He won an Early Music America scholarship while still in high school. He has participated in numerous by-invitation professional workshops, institutes, and master classes with some of the world’s finest players such as Vittorio Ghielmi, Paolo Pandolfo, and Sarah Cunningham. Currently pursuing a viola da gamba performance degree at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, he studies viol with John Moran, and has studied vielle with Tina Chancey.

Dan Raney

Having grown up in Austin, Texas, a culture built around music and art, Daniel Raney has built his life around performing as a percussionist. He has performed with many orchestras, including the Austin Symphony, the Peabody Concert Orchestra, and the Occasional Symphony. He has driven jazz groups and funk/rock ensembles, given countless solo performances, and has become a reliable and sought after musician due to the versatility of his playing.

Daniel studied as an orchestral percussionist in his first three years of playing, beginning in 2005 at the age of 11. Since then, he has studied with percussion teachers from the Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute, Cleveland State University, Michigan State University, University of Texas, Baylor University, and other schools all around the United States. Currently, he is earning a degree in percussion performance, as well as a degree in audio engineering, at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. Now, Daniel Raney is frequently hired as a percussionist to drive a vast array of music genres, including early music, jazz, classical, and contemporary styles.