LaRiche & Co, Gonzalo Xavier Ruiz, director and oboe

   Robert Mealy, violin

   Phoebe Carrai, violoncello

   Katherine Shao, harpsichord

Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 3:00 p.m.

November 9 the ensemble La Riche & Co will make its New Haven debut under the direction of baroque oboist Gonzalo Xavier Ruiz. The group also includes Robert Mealy, violin; Phoebe Carrai, violoncello; and Katherine Shao, harpsichord. Their program entitled “Indoor Fireworks: An Intimate Pyrotechnic Display of Music by Handel and his Contemporaries” will include Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks along with chamber works by Thomas Vincent and Giuseppe Sammartini.

Gonzalo Ruiz is one of the world’s most sought-after historical woodwind soloists. In recent seasons he has appeared both as principal oboist and concerto soloist with most of the leading period instrument groups in America, performing in the US and Europe under conductors such as Christopher Hogwood, Nicholas McGegan, Jordi Savall, and Gustav Leonhardt. Mr. Ruiz was a prizewinner at the Brugges Early Music Competition in Belgium and for twelve years has been professor of oboe at the Oberlin Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute. Mr. Ruiz is also active in the field of contemporary music and was awarded the 2000 ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.

Violinist Robert Mealy needs little introduction to New Haven audiences. He was recently appointed Professor (Adjunct) at Yale University, where he directs the Yale Collegium. The New Yorker magazine hailed him as “New York’s world-class early music violinist.” He has recorded over 50 CDs on most major labels, ranging from Hildegard of Bingen with Sequentia, to Renaissance consorts with the Boston Camerata, to Rameau operas with Les Arts Florissants.

After earning both bachelor and master of music degrees at the New England Conservatory, ’cellist Phoebe Carrai pursued post graduate studies under Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 1983, she joined the ensemble Musica Antiqua Köln and played with them for ten years. She currently performs with the Arcadian Academy,the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Arion, Les Musiciens de Louvre, and Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society. Phoebe Carrai is a member of the faculties of the University

Harpsichordist Katherine Shao has performed with many of the nation’s finest ensembles, including the New Century Chamber Orchestra, The Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the San Francisco Symphony. She is the managing director of the award-winning ensemble American Baroque, and she appears on numerous recordings.

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