Mentorship Program

All the mem­bers of Sin­fo­nia Spir­i­tu­osa are ded­i­cat­ed teach­ers, and a cen­tral tenet of our vision is cel­e­brat­ing the music of the past while inspir­ing young musi­cians of the future. Through immer­sion in a cre­ative rehearsal and per­for­mance envi­ron­ment, we aim to stim­u­late and sup­port promis­ing high school, under­grad­u­ate, and grad­u­ate lev­el instru­men­tal­ists and singers who are curi­ous, open-mind­ed, and com­mit­ted to explor­ing orig­i­nal instru­ments and study­ing the musi­cal lan­guage of the Baroque peri­od.

Thus far, five tal­ent­ed young musi­cians have per­formed along­side Sin­fo­nia Spir­i­tu­osa as mentees:

• Ben­jamin Gard­ner, vio­lin
• Chiara Gior­dani, vio­lin
• Francesca Gior­dani, vio­lin
• Owen Rooney, vio­lin
• Jorge Tor­res, coun­tertenor

Get to know a few of them:

Jorge Tor­res, coun­tertenor

Jorge A. Tor­rez is a coun­tertenor study­ing vocal per­for­mance at Uni­ver­si­ty of the Pacif­ic Con­ser­va­to­ry of Music in Stock­ton, CA. He is a cur­rent vocal stu­dent of Burr C. Phillips and was most recent­ly seen on stage in Pacif­ic Opera The­atre’s Spring 2019 pro­duc­tion of Brigadoon as Har­ry Beat­on. After Pacif­ic, he plans to con­tin­ue his vocal stud­ies in baroque music and vocal ped­a­gogy to teach voice to the up and com­ing gen­er­a­tion of singers.

From Jorge:

“Sol da te mio dolce amore” is the aria from Orlan­do Furioso by Anto­nio Vival­di that I was incred­i­bly lucky to per­form with Sin­fo­nia Spir­i­tu­osa this past year.

Get­ting the oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence Sin­fo­nia Spir­i­tu­osa in rehearsals and work­ing along side these amaz­ing musi­cians was an absolute hon­or. I did­n’t have much expe­ri­ence work­ing with a baroque ensem­ble pri­or to singing with Sin­fo­nia Spir­i­tu­osa, but they took me under their wing and taught me how to be an ensem­ble mem­ber. Lis­ten­ing to how vio­lin­ist Nao­mi Rogers-Hefley and cel­list Tim­o­thy Stan­ley played their instru­ments gave me a more in-depth under­stand­ing for how I, as a vocal­ist, should phrase my lines and match artic­u­la­tions. Baroque flutist Cathie Apple and harp­si­chordist Lor­na Peters instilled in me that eye con­tact was very impor­tant dur­ing rehearsals/performances — and indeed it was! It was very affirm­ing to know that we were all on the same page with each oth­er.

“Sol da te mio dolce amore” by Vival­di is essen­tial­ly a vir­tu­osic duet for voice and baroque flute. The musi­cal­i­ty that Cathie Apple brought to the piece inspired me to sing at her lev­el of artistry and in return, we were able to cre­ate some tru­ly mag­i­cal, beau­ti­ful musi­cal moments togeth­er. It is very obvi­ous that these musi­cians care about bring­ing this spe­cial music to life and shar­ing it with aspir­ing stu­dent musi­cians. This was an invalu­able expe­ri­ence and if I could have the chance to work with them again, I most def­i­nite­ly would!

Chiara and Francesca Gior­dani, vio­lins

Chiara Gior­dani is dou­ble major­ing in Busi­ness Eco­nom­ics and Ital­ian at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Los Ange­les. In addi­tion to her stud­ies, she is involved in the Ital­ian Club and Pre-Law Soci­ety. She also recent­ly audi­tioned for the UCLA Sym­pho­ny and is cur­rent­ly their prin­ci­pal sec­ond vio­lin. Chiara is very grate­ful for the men­tor­ship and teach­ing meth­ods that Sin­fo­nia Spir­i­tu­osa pro­fes­sion­als offer. By includ­ing her in dis­cus­sions and deci­sions as well as giv­ing her the chance to learn through a vari­ety of per­for­mance sit­u­a­tions, she feels includ­ed and chal­lenged as she grows in her music edu­ca­tion. Even though she espe­cial­ly enjoys the spe­cif­ic reper­toire select­ed for the group, she most of all loves work­ing with the amaz­ing musi­cians who inspire and sup­port her.

Francesca Gior­dani is a chem­istry major at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Berke­ley, Col­lege of Chem­istry. Aside from her sci­ence cours­es, she enjoys study­ing music and per­form­ing baroque vio­lin. She has per­formed with the UC Berke­ley Baroque Ensem­ble (Baroque Bears) since her fresh­man year. Sin­fo­nia Spir­i­tu­osa has giv­en her the chance to con­tin­ue her baroque stud­ies and per­for­mance oppor­tu­ni­ties. When asked about her most mem­o­rable moment with the ensem­ble, she fond­ly remem­bers the many hours of rehearsals and dis­cus­sions and of course, the amaz­ing musi­cal moments that take audience’s breaths away. For her, there is no greater feel­ing than per­form­ing with oth­er musi­cians who enjoy shar­ing their gift as much as she does.

From Chiara and Francesca:

Chiara wants to par­tic­u­lar­ly thank Sin­fo­nia Spir­i­tu­osa mem­bers Mr. Moreno, her teacher since the sev­enth grade, Nao­mi Rogers-Hefley, an espe­cial­ly impact­ful role mod­el, Dr. Jubal Fulks, an inspi­ra­tional coach and, most of all, Dr. Lor­na Peters, one of the best direc­tors she has ever had!

Francesca wish­es to thank Sin­fo­nia Spir­i­tu­osa mem­bers Mr. Moreno, her teacher since the 8th grade, Nao­mi Hefley-Rogers, her men­tor and role mod­el, and Dr. Lor­na Peters for giv­ing her this won­der­ful oppor­tu­ni­ty.

Ben Gard­ner, vio­lin

Ben Gard­ner ini­tial­ly want­ed to play the cel­lo, but instead chose the vio­lin to make the walk to school eas­i­er. He quick­ly fell in love with the instru­ment, and 16 years lat­er he holds two degrees in Vio­lin Per­for­mance: a bachelor’s degree from the Uni­ver­si­ty of North­ern Col­orado in Gree­ley, and a Master’s degree from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ore­gon. He has appeared as a soloist and ensem­ble mem­ber across the West­ern Unit­ed States in clas­si­cal ensem­bles and Baroque orches­tras, play­ing on peri­od instru­ments.

From Ben:

Play­ing with Sin­fo­nia Spir­i­tu­osa was one of the most incred­i­ble expe­ri­ences of my life. All of the mem­bers are sen­si­tive, com­mu­nica­tive musi­cians who gave me won­der­ful feed­back and tru­ly made me feel like I was a part of the orches­tra. My first rehearsal with the ensem­ble was on my birth­day, and after read­ing some Bach chorales togeth­er, they sur­prised me by play­ing Hap­py Birth­day!

I espe­cial­ly want to thank director/harpsichordist Lor­na Peters and con­cert­mas­ter Jubal Fulks for coach­ing me on both the Baroque style and on all the nuances involved in play­ing in a cham­ber orches­tra. Rehears­ing and per­form­ing with Sin­fo­nia Spir­i­tu­osa pro­vid­ed me with invalu­able skills, and inspired me to begin my own Baroque ensem­ble in Ore­gon.