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ARTEK History
 ARTEK has gained a reputation for exciting, dramatic performances of baroque music. Audiences love ARTEK concerts for their compelling musical settings of beautiful poetry and infectious dance rhythms that infuse the performances with vitality and spirit. Founded by director Gwendolyn Toth in 1986, ARTEK currently consists of 12 core performers: Jessica Tranzillo, soprano; Barbara Hollinshead, mezzo-soprano; Drew Minter, countertenor; Philip Anderson, tenor; Michael Brown, tenor; Paul Shipper, bass and guitar; Robert Mealy, violin; Lisa Terry, viola da gamba & cello; Daniel Swenberg, theorbo; Grant Herreid, lute; Christa Patton, harp; and Gwendolyn Toth, harpsichord and organ. Regular guests include Richard Lalli, baritone; Vita Wallace, violin; Theresa Salomon, violin; Loretta O'Sullivan, cello; Rosamund Morley, violone; and Dongsok Shin, harpsichord.
Highlights of ARTEK's past seasons include acclaimed performances of ARTEK's theater show, I'll Never See the Stars Again, at the off-off-Broadway Mazer Theater in New York City in 2003 and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005; performances in the authentic Italian Renaissance library at the historic New York City mansion, The House of the Redeemer; standing ovation performances to sell-out crowds at the Regensburg Tage Alter Musik Festival, Germany, in 1998 and 2003; and ARTEK's debut performance in 2003 at the prestigious Boston Early Music Festival. ARTEK's recordings of Monteverdi's Orfeo and other early Italian repertoire have been widely praised.
ARTEK toured from 1997 to 2002 with the Mark Morris Dance Group, visiting major venues in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Canada, as well as more than 50 of America's premier theaters: BAM, Cal Performances in Berkeley, The Schubert Theater in Boston, McCarter Theater in Princeton, and many more from California to the Northeast. ARTEK has appeared in Europe previously at the Regensburg Tage Alter Musik festival; at the Utrecht Fringe Festival; and in Feldkirchen, Austria; Dolni Lukavice, Czech Republic; Beaulieu, France; Konstanz, Germany; and Kreuzlingen, Switzerland.
In New York City area ARTEK has appeared on the Music Before 1800 series and on the Princeton Friends of Music series; on First Night New York at St. Bartholomew's Church; as featured performers with the Bach-Schutz Society Conference; and on the Kaye Playhouse Chamber Music Series. ARTEK presents its own series of evening concerts each season at halls and churches in New York City and Prninceton, NJ. ARTEK also performs regularly throughout the concert season on the free midday concert series, Midtown Concerts, at St. Bartholomew's Church in midtown Manhattan. In spring 2001, director Gwendolyn Toth was awarded the Newell Jenkins Prize for excellence in early music performance in recognition of her work with ARTEK.
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