Holly Piccoli, violin

Australian violinist Holly Piccoli is a member of the Omaha Symphony and the Melbourne Piano Trio. Her career spans an extensive range of styles performing with ensembles such as the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Piccoli has also worked in the pop scene, having performed with Olivia Newton-John, Hugh Jackman, as well as frequently performing on live-to-air Dancing with the Stars Australia.

Career highlights include performing in Manhattan with the Trinity Baroque Orchestra as Concertmaster and soloist for Bach's St. Matthew Passion; at the Sanguine Estate Music Festival (Australia), performing masterworks with champion violinists Anthony Marwood and Andrew Haveron; at the Valley of the Moon Festival (Sonoma), performing Schubert's Death and the Maiden string quartet on period instruments; touring China as concertmaster of the Australian International Opera Company Orchestra; and most recently recording Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Apollo’s Fire.

Ms. Piccoli received her training in modern violin at the Australian National Academy of Music and Yale University, and began her baroque violin career during her fellowship in the Yale Baroque Ensemble.

Kyle Stegall, tenor

Kyle Stegall’s performances around the world have been met with accolades for his “blemish-free production” (Sydney Morning Herald) and “lovely tone and ardent expression” (New York Times).

Mr. Stegall’s successful solo debuts in Japan, Australia, Vienna, Italy, Singapore, and Canada as well as on major stages across America have been in collaboration with many of the world’s most celebrated artistic directors including Manfred Honeck, Joseph Flummerfelt, William Christie, Nicholas McGegan, Masaaki Suzuki and Stephen Stubbs. He is the tenor soloist on American Bach Soloists’ historic video recording of Handel’s Messiah and he recorded a solo album “Myrtle and Rose,” with Lieder by Clara and Robert Schumann.

This year, Mr. Stegall travels to Bremen to record Desmarest’s Circé; sings Evangelist in Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium with Bach Society Houston, and returns to Valley of the Moon Music Festival with fortepianist Eric Zivian for Beethoven, Wolf, Brahms and Lang Lieder. Further details for upcoming engagements and updates on forthcoming audio and video releases can be found at kylestegall.com.

Marc Pantus, bass-baritone

Dutch bass-baritone Marc Pantus is at home in opera as well as oratorio repertoire. He has been a soloist with Vox Luminis, the Dutch National Opera, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and ASKO/Schönberg Ensemble. As a stage director, he has created productions for Wishful Singing, Luthers Bach Ensemble, and the Netherlands Bach Society (Bach’s Coffee Cantata and an upcoming program about Alzheimer's disease with music by J.S. Bach, C.Ph.E. Bach, Pandolfi, and Ligeti).

In October 2016 we were fortunate to welcome Mr. Pantus as a guest with California Bach Society. He sang the bass arias, as well as the roles of Peter and Pilate, in our award-winning performances of the St. Matthew Passion. San Francisco Classical Voice wrote: “Among the soloists bass baritone Marc Pantus stood out. Singing the roles of Peter and Pilate, he brought a deeply felt texture to the dual tasks.” In addition to participating in numerous traditional performances of Bach’s Passions in the Netherlands, he has also been featured in various modern interpretations of the works, such as Willem van Merwijk’s arrangement of the St. Matthew Passion for brass ensemble, percussion ensemble, and four singers for the Residentie Orkest.

His solo-CD Harry: Heine in Holland (Harmonia Mundi NL), featuring Lieder written by Dutch composers on German texts by the renowned poet Heinrich Heine, received four stars in the highly regarded Dutch/Belgian CD review magazine Luister and five stars in Dutch national newspaper Trouw, as well as glowing reviews in many other newspapers.

Mr. Pantus studied with Udo Reinemann and Meinard Kraak at the Utrecht Conservatory of Music and the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, the Netherlands. He received a fellowship from the Steans Institute for Young Artists in Chicago, where he studied with Thomas Allen, Christa Ludwig, Barbara Bonney, Elisabeth Söderström and Roger Vignoles.

Paul Flight, artistic director and countertenor

Artistic director Dr. Paul Flight — a noted choral conductor, teacher, and singer — is in his fifteenth season (2020-2021) with the California Bach Society. A former member of such distinguished ensembles as the Waverly Consort, Theatre of Voices, Pomerium Musices, and the New York Collegium, he brings a wealth of expertise to CBS.

For nine years Dr. Flight was principal conductor of the Madison Early Music Festival, where he directed masterworks by Bach, Handel, Telemann, Vivaldi, Purcell, Dufay, and Guerrero. He has twice been a visiting professor of music at the University of California at Berkeley, directing the music department's top choral ensembles. As a visiting professor at Mills College, he has lectured on opera, and music history and form. He conducted an operatic double-bill production of Gustav Holst's Savitri and Darius Milhaud's Les malheurs d'Orphée for Mills College.

A renowned countertenor, Dr. Flight has performed works by John Adams, Leonard Bernstein, and Unsuk Chin with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony, the Berkeley Symphony, the Cincinnati May Festival and the Norwegian State Opera. In 2003 he sang the title role in Philip Glass's Akhnaten for Oakland Opera Theater. He made his debut at the Kennedy Center in 2008, singing the first countertenor role in Adams's El Niño, and in August, 2010 he made his debut at the Edinburgh International Festival singing the third countertenor role.

Dr. Flight received his doctorate from Indiana University, where he studied conducting with Robert Porco. His research focused on the Venetian composer Giovanni Croce (1557-1609). He has recorded a program featuring the music of Croce for Harmonia, a nationally syndicated radio show, and has appeared several times as a guest on KALW radio's performing arts programs My Favorite Things and Open Air.

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