Manami Mizumoto – Baroque Violin
New York born Manami Mizumoto started her lifelong relationship with music at age 3 on the violin. Early exposure to chamber music sparked in her a devoted love of collaboration. This led to a dual fascination with working with living composers, and bringing back to life little-known works of the past. In recent years, this has manifested in being a founding member of the group Nuova Pratica, a collective of composer-performers working with centuries-old practices of improvisation in the modern day. Manami is also a founding member of Harmonia Stellarum Houston, which focuses on presenting newly discovered vocal-instrumental works of the 17th and 18th centuries in scholarly informed performances. In addition, Manami is passionate about exploring different approaches to music making in history and how that can transform the way modern audiences relate to music of the past. Her driving curiosity is in exploring the dialogue between ancient and contemporary thoughts, and she is equally at home on the baroque violin, modern violin, and electro-acoustic setups with Ableton Live. Manami is a graduate of the Juilliard School where she earned a Bachelor’s with Catherine Cho and Joel Smirnoff, a Masters in Historical Performance, and graduated with the Norman Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant. In 2022, she was selected a member of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and continues to be a Fellow of The English Concert in America, elected in 2021.
Elliott Figg – Harpsichord
Elliot Figg is a keyboardist, conductor, and composer from Dallas, Texas. He is a graduate of the Historical Performance Program at The Juilliard School where he studied harpsichord with Kenneth Weiss. He has also studied with Arthur Haas at the Yale School of Music. Elliot is an active member of several New York-based early music and contemporary ensembles, including Ruckus, ACRONYM, New York Baroque Incorporated, and New Vintage Baroque. He also works in frequent collaboration with BalletNext. Recent engagements include: Conductor and harpsichordist for the U.S. premiere of Chevalier de St-Georges’ L’Amant Anonyme with Little Opera Theatre of New York; assistant conductor and harpsichordist for Vivaldi’s Farnace, and for Cavalli’s Veremonda, both with Spoleto Festival USA; and assistant conductor and harpsichordist for Dido and Aeneas with L.A. Opera.
In 2018, he will return to conduct with Little Opera Theatre of New York for the New York premiere of J. A. Hasse’s Piramo e Tisbe. Elliot received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in music composition from the University of North Texas, where he studied composition with Cindy McTee and Joseph Klein, as well as harpsichord with Lenora McCroskey.
Doug Balliett – Viola da Gamba
Open G-Sharp Flute Advocacy 