Inspired by the Spanish word "concertar," meaning "to come together in harmony," CLE Concierto is Northeast Ohio’s newest early music ensemble.  Our group is on a mission to identify composers whose stories are not often told by the mainstream, and to connect modern audiences to their lost worlds and perspectives through dynamic performances, dialogues, and visuals.

​CLE Concierto is the baroque ensemble-in-residence at The Resonance Project, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and have also performed at First Church Arts in Columbus Ohio, the Hudson Historical Library and Society, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and recently opened the inaugural Cultural Concert Series at the Metroparks Zoo.  Upcoming engagements this season include concerts and outreach events at The Resonance Project, concerts at Performing Arts Series at the Church of the Western Reserve and The Federated Church.

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If you are interested in supporting our initiatives, please email us at contact@cleconcierto.com.

More information can be found at CLEconcierto.com

Mexican-American soprano Andréa Walker is a passionate interpreter of Baroque music and vocal chamber music. She can be heard performing across the country with groups like GRAMMY® Award-winning orchestra Apollo’s Fire, Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Seraphic Fire, and Les Délices. Other recent solo performance highlights include her Lincoln Center debut in Telemann's Der Tag des Gerichts with Masaaki Suzuki and Juilliard415, Haydn's Schöpfungsmesse with Yale Schola Cantorum (German tour), the role of Venus in Daniel Purcell's The Judgment of Paris at Amherst Early Music Festival, and being a guest artist at the Norfolk Chamber Choir Festival under the direction of Simon Carrington. Ms. Walker is pursuing a Doctorate in historical performance practice at Case Western Reserve University. Prior to her time in Cleveland, she graduated with a Master’s in vocal performance from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music where she specialized in early music, oratorio, and art song. She is thrilled to be making her debut with Pegasus Early Music and NYS Baroque in the 2024-2025 season.

Brian Kay is a modern-day troubadour. He is the Artistic Director of the early music meets early theater group THEATRO, and is currently overseeing their international recording of music from the plays of William Shakespeare. He won a GRAMMY® Award for his work on Apollo's Fire's Songs of Orpheus recording with tenor Karim Sulayman. He works as a musician and recording artist for the Netflix music lab and is a featured soloist on the soundtrack of their original series The Witcher. He has performed throughout the world at venues such as the National Concert Hall of Dublin, Belfast Castle (Ireland), Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Folger Theater. His live radio appearances include NPR, Baltimore's WYPR, Baltimore's 98ROCK, Boston's WGBH, and Cleveland's WCLV. He has recorded with labels Avie and Sono Luminus and has appeared on releases which include original, early music, folk, traditional sephardic, chamber and orchestral. He is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, arranger, and a traditional and historical music specialist.

Brian is a founding member of THEATRO and Twa Corbies, and regularly performs with Hesperus, The Folger Consort, Early Music Access Project, and Trio Sefardi.

Brian is on the faculty as teacher of historical plucked instruments at Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University. He has lectured on music and history at Yale University, The Peabody Conservatory, Johns Hopkins University, The Folger Theater, The Kennedy Center, and Baldwin-Wallace College. He was Artist in Residence at the Cushman School in Miami and has done outreach for elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges, and prisons across the country.

Costa Rican Baroque violinist and scholar Guillermo Salas-Suárez performs with several period ensembles in North America, including the Lyra, Atlanta and North Carolina Baroque Orchestras, Apollo’s Fire, The Newberry Consort, Sound Salon, Lumedia Mu  sicWorks, Bach Collegium Fort Wayne, etc. He has also served as guest concertmaster with the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Bourbon Baroque, and the American Baroque Opera Co. Guillermo holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Historical Performance from Case Western Reserve University, where he studied with Dr. Julie Andrijeski. Guillermo’s chamber music appetite spans from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, which he explores with The Early Interval, up to the Classical and early Romantic repertoire for string quartet and clarinet with Wit’s Folly, which he co-founded. He has collaborated and trained with Malcolm Bilson, Paolo Pandolfo, Jaap ten Linden, Barthold Kuijken, Bruce Dickey, and the late Jeanne Lamon at the early music festivals in Boston, Bloomington, Amherst, Bach Oregon, Urbino (Italy), Daroca (Spain), Saintes (France), and the Stuttgart Bachwoche (Germany).

As a scholar of Spanish and colonial music, he has presented his research in conferences at Boston, Indiana, Oregon Universities, and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. His upcoming book The Tender Echo, a commented English translation of the Spanish violin treatises from the 18th century, is currently under publishing contract with Indiana University Press. As an educator, Guillermo is committed to the advancement of historical performance practice in Latin America. He served on the faculty of the Festival de Musica de Santa Catarina (Brazil), and has conducted masterclasses and workshops at the Academia de Música Antigua de Medellín (Colombia), Escuela Nacional de Música (Honduras), Universidad Nacional, Instituto Nacional de Música (Costa Rica), etc. He also serves in Early Music America’s IDEA Task Force, dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion in early music throughout the Americas.

Guillermo started music lessons at age nine in his native Costa Rica, where he studied with Lidia Blanco, Mercedes Moreno, and José Aurelio Castillo. He furthered his studies in the US and Bulgaria with Dr. Borislava Iltcheva, Aleksandr Iltchev, Espen Lilleslåtten, and Dr. Lin He. He shared the stage with conductors and soloists Manfred Honeck, Robert Spano, Yefim Bronfman, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Midori, Lang Lang, and Renée Fleming at the Aspen Music Festival, Severance Hall, Benaroya Hall, Sala São Paulo (Brazil), and the National Theatres of Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, and Honduras. He performed with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, CityMusic Cleveland, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional and Orquesta Sinfónica de Heredia (Costa Rica).

He plays on an instrument by Jason Viseltear and bows by Michelle Speller, H.F. Grabenstein, Pieter Affourtit, and James Dodd II. Outside of music, Guillermo is a voracious reader, a language learner, and a yogi. He lives with his husband in Columbus, Ohio.

Lauded by Cleveland Classical as "an excellent soloist, a compelling performer who is equally comfortable handling long strings of notes... and singing through emotive melodies with her instrument,” Dr. Qin Ying Tan currently serves as harpsichord faculty at Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music. As co-artistic director of The Resonance Project Cleveland and CLE Concierto, Dr. Tan has helped lead a highly successful inaugural season, marked by sold-out premium seating and critical acclaim for its bold programming, intimate performances, and unwavering commitment to musical excellence. Together with pianist Irwin Shung, they have brought fresh energy to Cleveland’s classical music scene by fostering cross-cultural collaborations and reimagining the concert experience for 21st-century audiences.

Dr. Tan has appeared in concerts in Singapore, Shanghai, Germany, France, and has performed extensively across the United States of America.  This season sees engagements with Hudson Historical Society and Library, City Music, the Historically-Informed Performance Practice Department at Case Western Reserve University, and the Baldwin-Wallace Bach Festival.  In addition to her commitment to early repertoire, Tan regularly presents new music to her audiences and has premiered several pieces, most notably Cenk Ergun's sound installation piece, "Fomare" at the Cleveland Museum of Art and “Are You You” by Michi Wiancko with City Music.   As a pedagogue, Dr. Tan’s students have successfully gained admission into graduate programs in Michigan and Boston.  Dr. Tan continues to cultivate an interest in historically-informed performance at the pre-college and college level in her role as a board member of the Northeast Ohio MTNA and harpsichord faculty at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory.  Her passion for sharing historical music has also led her to lead dynamic workshops on baroque dance and historical keyboards in Southeast Asia where accessibility to period music is rare.  When not at work, Ying loves exploring and hiking around beautiful Cleveland with her family. She welcomes conversations about culture, history or how music can be a vehicle for social change and a tool to bring communities together.

Brennen Taggart is a multi-instrumentalist, arranger, and composer hailing from Lexington, Kentucky. After spending the first two years of his undergraduate degree with Sidney King at the University of Louisville. He is transferring to the Cleveland Institute of Music to study double bass performance and composition. Taggart imbues every note with a fusion of passion, spirit, and divine inspiration.

Brennen Taggart has been making music since age 5 and started pursuing the double bass at age 10. Growing up in Kentucky, Brennen was exposed to many diverse musical influences like Bluegrass, Gospel Blues, Hindustani, Synthwave, and Folk music. He has recently premiered several original solo pieces for the double bass, including his piece for wind band; “Time” and his piece for full orchestra “Glass”.

Taggart has toured Europe with America’s National Youth Orchestra, playing Mahler's 5th Symphony, and is an award-winning soloist.