Our Directors
Phoebe Carrai
Co-DirectorPhoebe Carrai, a native Bostonian, completed her post-graduate studies in Austria with Nikolaus Harnencourt, after studying with Lawrence Lesser and receiving her B.M. and M.M. at New England Conservatory of Music. She became a member of Musica Antiqua Köln in 1982, making over 40 recordings for Deutsche Gramophone and touring the world. Ms. Carrai’s teaching career in historical performance started at the Hillversum Conservatory in the Netherlands and spending 16 years on the faculty of The University of the Arts in Berlin, Germany. She is presently on the faculties of The Juilliard School and The Longy School of Music. She started “New Years Resolution Baroque Cello Bootcamp” 15 years ago and it is still one of her greatest joys each year! In the summers, when not at her favorite spot on Cape Cod, she can be found teaching at Amherst Early Music, Aria Camp, The Bach Cello Suites Workshop and at Juilliard sponsored courses in Montisi, Italy and Brugge, Belgium. Along with her solo and chamber music concerts, she performs regularly with Philharmonia Baroque, The Arcadian Academy, Juilliard Baroque, The Boston Early Music Festival and the Göttingen Festival Orchestra. Ms. Carrai has released recordings of the Bach Solo Cello Suites, a duo recording of Frederich August Kummer, and has now also released “Out of Italy” for Avie Records. She has also recorded for Decca, Deutsche Gramophone, Aetme, Telarc and BMG. She plays on an Italian cello from ca. 1690.
Co-DirectorDescribed as “supremely communicative,” “a tireless force of musical curiosity, skill, and enthusiasm,” and “the one to up the ante” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), Sarah Darling enjoys a varied musical career as a performer, educator, and musical co-conspirator on viola and baroque violin. She is a member and co-artistic director of the self-conducted orchestra A Far Cry, as well as Boston Baroque, Musicians of the Old Post Road, Emmanuel Music, the Boston Ballet Orchestra, Les Bostonades, Newton Baroque, the Boston Camerata, the Boston Early Music Festival, and the Carmel Bach Festival. Sarah studied at Harvard, Juilliard, Amsterdam, and Freiburg, and received her DMA from New England Conservatory, working with James Dunham, Karen Tuttle, Nobuko Imai, Wolfram Christ, and Kim Kashkashian. She has recorded old and new music for Linn, Paladino, Azica, MSR, Centaur, Naxos, and Crier Records and appears on several GRAMMY-nominated albums. A passionate teacher, Sarah relishes the opportunity to “translate” between musical worlds while serving on the modern and historical performance faculty of the Longy School of Music and teaching baroque viola at NEC.