Performers

Jefferson DeMarco

Jeff is a native of Carmel, graduating Carmel High in 1973. He studied music at MPC, Princeton University, UC Riverside and the University of Louisville. He earned his Masters in Theory and Composition from UC Riverside in 1979. It was there he was first introduced to the world of early music, performing on recorders, krummhorns, sackbut and viola da gamba as well as singing. After returning to the peninsula, he acted as classical music director and programmer on KAZU, as well as programming and announcing at KBOQ in the 1980's. The next 20 years were spent as an attorney in southern California, where he worked and focused on raising a family. Jeff moved to Pacific Grove, where he sang with the choir at St. Mary's Episcopal, the Camerata Singers, and the Carmel Bach Festival with his wife Elaine. He was a founding member of Madregalia!! in 2003, and has been curating and leading the group in public concerts since 2007. 

Jackie Pierce, Violin

Jackie Pierce, Carmel Valley, has been playing classical violin since grade school. Today she is pleased to be playing her beloved violin which belonged to her grandfather, which dates from about 1850, and has always been in her family. She has been a member of The Pastyme Players since its earliest days. However, in addition to baroque music, her passion is Irish and Scottish traditional tunes.  She is best known as the Host of St. Mary’s By-The-Sea’s Celtic Music Program in Pacific Grove, and she is the fiddler in the local Celtic band, Banish Misfortune.

Penny Hanna, viola da gamba

Penny performs throughout the San Francisco Bay & Monterey Bay areas as a singer, bassist, and/or reed player. Ms Hanna began performing on the Viola da Gamba as music student with the University of Michigan Consort of Viols, later studying with Judith Davidoff in New York. Locally, she has performed in concerts at Colton Hall, UC Davis, UCSC, Cal Berkeley, 1750 Arch St., and with the Santa Cruz Chamber Players & Baroque Festival, Cantiamo! Cabrillo, WAVE, Musica Mundana and the Brandenburg Liberation Front. She has produced numerous  recordings of her own music and her arranging credits include works for California Gamba Consort, & Sex Chordae Consort of Viols. She is currently the Cabrillo College Stroke Center’s choir instructor, and serves on the board of The Santa Cruz Chamber Players. Penny has participated in Madregalia!! concerts for several years.

Suzanne Mudge, Sackbut 

Suzanne Mudge is the Director of Community Engagement for the Carmel Bach Festival. She is a trombonist, educator, and arts administrator who has performed with the Festival for over 30 years. Sue held Principal Trombone positions with the Women’s Philharmonic, Central Oregon Symphony, and Modesto Symphony and performed with the Marin, Berkeley, Fremont, and San Jose symphonies in the SF Bay Area for 22 years.

Currently the Director of the Youth Music Monterey Bravo Brass Ensemble, Sue has taught at the middle, high school, and college levels. She has a private teaching studio for trombone and trumpet and her students have won top solo and ensemble honors at state levels. Inspiring and motivating young people to play orchestral and chamber music, developing a life-long love for music, is one of her many passions. She holds a BM from the UOP Conservatory of Music, MM from University of Arizona, and California Teaching Credential in Music and Math.

Scott Wilkinson, Sackbut

Scott has been a student of music and physics throughout his life, earning a degree in physics from UC Santa Cruz and in music from Cal State University Northridge. A professional musician for over 50 years, Scott plays many different wind instruments, such as tuba, euphonium, trombone, sackbut, electronic wind instrument (EWI), recorder, and various ethnic flutes. As a resident of Santa Cruz in the 1970s, he was a member of the Santa Cruz Symphony, Antiquarian Funk Consort early-music ensemble, Hastings Municipal Band, Full Faith & Credit Big Band, and the Flying Karamazov Brothers. After moving to Los Angeles, Scott joined the Southern California Early Music Consort and the Queen's Band at the Southern and Northern California Renaissance Pleasure Faires. In the 1980s, he was a regular member of The Whole Noyse renaissance-brass ensemble in Palo Alto. Scott can be heard on the soundtracks of the movies Gladiator, The Meg, White Squall, and Mystic India as well as the video games Myst 4, Uncharted, World of Warcraft 6, and Trek to Yomi. He has also recorded two albums with his avant-garde trio Many Axes, one with the Southern California Early Music Consort, and one with his wife, singer-songwriter Joanna Cazden.

Emi Saeki, Organ and Harpsichord

Emi SAEKI, born in Tokyo, began piano lessons at the age of four. 

After working for Yamaha Music School as a piano teacher, she studied pipe organ at both Tilburg and Enschede Conservatory in the Netherlands. She received a soloist diploma and nominated the Tubantia newspaper prize, won the second prize award in Yamaha International Competition with her composition.   Afterward, she studied harpsichord and clavichord in England.  Since then, she has given concerts in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Russia, The Netherlands, USA, as well as Japan. 

She was appointed Music Director at Church of the Wayfarer, Carmel-by-the-Sea from 2022 to 2024. This year she starts new job at the First Presbyterian Church, Monterey as a resident pianist and an organist.

As a member of AGO(American Guild of Organists), she is supporting pipe organ educational program <Orgelkids>.

Jody Lee, Soprano

Jody is the music director at First Presbyterian Church of Monterey, and assistant director of the Bay area band, Voices of Silicon Valley. She sings with Carmel Bach Festival,  Choral Artists of Carmel, Madregalia and Voices of Silicon Valley. She also leads small ensemble music, most recently with Musikiwest in Sand City. She holds a B. Mus. from Brock University (Canada) and was active a soloist, adjudicator, vocal coach and chorister throughout Southern Ontario, Canada through 2011. Jody was Assistant Choirmaster/Soprano soloist at St. George's Anglican (St. Catharines), and appeared regularly with Niagara Vocal Ensemble and Opera Ontario, and with Carmina Inc. after emigrating to the US in 2009. Jody has sung as a soloist in the Monterey Peninsula area, and also works in allied health services as a Certified Massage Therapist.

Laura Arnow, Soprano and Recorders

Laura Arnow started playing recorders at age 5 and kept on playing in ensembles through high school and into college. She started singing Bach in her elementary school chorus and since then has sung in university choirs, the Oakland Symphony Chorus, Cantiamo!, the Cabrillo Symphonic Chorus, I Cantori, and the Carmel Bach Festival Chorus—as well as singing sea shanties on a number of tall ships. 

Elaine DeMarco, Soprano, Viola da Gamba and Renaissance Guitar

I began singing on the Monterey Peninsula in 2001 beginning with Camerata Singers, Carmel Bach Festival, Madregalia, and various churches.  I also began playing the Viola da Gamba in 2009, and the Renaissance Guitar in 2020. I definitely am a fan of Early Music!

Marilyn Maxner, Soprano

I have sung with Madregalia for most of the last seven years. I also sing with Camerata Singers and the Carmel Bach Festival Chorus. When I’m not singing, I’m active in my church and several organizations on the Monterey Peninsula.

Judi Moncrief, Soprano, Recorder and Percussion

Laura Frank, Alto, Recorders and Viola da Gamba

MaryClare Martin, Alto

Nona Childress, Alto, Viola, Tenor Viol

Nona has been with Madregalia and the Pastyme Consort for a while (2021ish?); other groups around Salinas, Santa Maria, and Yuma since 2009; and assorted semi-organized perpetrators of music for over 45 years (yikes). Originally from the Boston area, it started with singing by 2, violin at 3, and just went downhill from there - picking up and even making instruments with all the self-control of a deranged magpie. Naturally that resulted in a degree in music, which of course led to a day job as a microbiologist. Other groups include LivingRoom, Flight Crew,  Strings Attached, Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Oriana Consort, Boston Scottish Fiddle Club, theater, TubaChristmas, and area symphonies. Tolerant and supportive parents be warned: this could happen to your offspring...

Kellie Morgantini, Alto

Christine Shiber, Alto

Chris moved back to the Peninsula in June of 2023, having been gone for 15 years.  She retired after 40 years as a United Methodist pastor, and is glad to be back with Madregalia.  She also sings with Camerata Singers.   

Ed Moncrief, Tenor

Brian Jacobsen, Tenor

Robin Jensen, Tenor

Mark Stevens, Tenor

Mark has been singing his whole life, starting before he could walk when he would hum lullabies back to his Mom. After a 23 year career in the Army he settled in the Monterey area where he continues to pursue singing as a lifelong avocation. He has sung with the West Point Glee Club, Alan Petker’s Consort Chorale, the Marin Symphony Chorus, as well as a variety of church and community choruses around the country and overseas. On the peninsula he has sung with I Cantori di Carmel, Camerata Singers, and Madregalia, and has been a member of the Bach Festival Chorus since 2004.

Arthur Wu, Tenor

Russell Frank, Baritone

John Heyl, Baritone

John, an avid amateur singer from Carmel Valley, sings locally with Camerata Singers, Bach Festival Chorus, and Madrigal. He sang with James Fankhauser at Hamilton College, and with Edith Copley in the Master Chorale of Flagstaff, AZ. Connecting with other musicians through rehearsal and performance allows a glimpse into the fathomless fields of the truths of the soul.

Frank Raab, Bass

Frank is a retired software developer and former Navy and airline pilot.

He received his BA from Stanford University, where he sang in the choir. Frank has performed with the Cypressaires, I Cantori di Carmel, Camerata Singers and the Carmel Bach Festival Chorus.

Michael Russell, Bass

Mike Russell DC, in his second season as a member of Madregalia, is also a concurrent member of the Carmel Bach Festival Chorus and the Camerata Singers. He has appeared with Cantus Monterey and Opera Project Carmel, and performed onstage in a number of productions with Pacific Repertory Theater, Carmel Forest Theater and The Western Stage. Mike holds a B.A. in Education from the University of Redlands and a Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Cleveland Chiropractic College (Los Angeles). Mike has served in private practice as a Chiropractor since 1987. 

Francis Toldi, Baritone, Dulcians, Recorders and Shawms

Francis Toldi is a native of Carmel, having recently returned after many years in the San Francisco Bay Area.  His current musical focus is on the dulcian (Renaissance bassoon) and voice.  He received his Bachelor of Arts in Music from San Francisco State University, with further private study on clarinet with Alan Balter in San Francisco, and on Balinese gender wayang with John Badanes and Lisa Gold.  He continued with study and performance on various woodwinds, including clarinet, Hungarian tárogáto, quena, recorders, and dulcian.  His primary performing emphasis over many decades was singing and playing woodwinds in the Coro Hispano de San Francisco and Conjunto Nuevo Mundo.  

Instrumentalists

Mike Novo, Percussion

Mike is a self-taught percussionist and performed a lot of music in the 70’s and 80’s in the Bay Area where he played with the Concord Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps, was a member of the All-West Coast Honor Orchestra (Community College), played with the San Mateo County Symphony, Peninsula Ballet Theater, and did some recording at the Concord Pavilion. He has recently resumed playing percussion, after a 30-year break, for Madregalia and Camerata Singers of Monterey County.   

Ursi Frei, Recorder

Carleton Macy, Recorder

Igor Poklad, Recorder

A native of Odesa, Ukraine, Igor Poklad began his musical studies at the Odesa State Conservatory before moving to the U.S., where he earned his BM and MM (Clarinet Performance and Music History) from San Francisco State University. An award-winning soloist, he performed with various Bay Area orchestras and chamber ensembles before joining the US Air Force Band program. As a member of the US Air Forces in Europe Band (Germany), he led the USAFE Clarinet Quartet on extensive concert tours throughout Europe and the Middle East. Alongside the clarinet and bass clarinet, Igor also enjoys playing Renaissance and Baroque music on various recorders.