Our Name
In 1591, the English poet Edmund Spenser published his lengthy poem, The Teares of the Muses (see the full text of the poem). Nine sections—one for each Greek Muse from Clio to Polyhymnia—describe their various sorrows. Here is the opening stanza of the Spenser poem:
The golden brood of great Apolloes wit,
Those piteous plaints and sorrowful sad tine,
Which late ye powred forth as ye did sit
Beside the siluer Springs of Helicone,
Making your musick of hart-breaking mone.
The composer Anthony Holborne's substantial collection, Pavans, Galliards, Almains of 1599, contains a lovely galliard titled "The Teares of the Muses."
Biographies of Current Members
 Margaret Panofsky, a performer and well-known viol teacher, has been a director and faculty member for numerous early music workshops. She has made guest appearances with many ensembles, including the New York Consort of Viols, Le Triomphe de l'Amour, Ensemble Soleil, Parthenia, and Ensemble Leonarda. She performs frequently as an instrumentalist with the Choir of Corpus Christi Church and St. Michael's Choir. She has revised her comprehensive book, Bass Viol Technique; it will be available late in 2011. She received a B.A. from Stanford and an M.M. from the New England Conservatory. |
 Christina Brandt-Young plays the bass, tenor, and treble viols and has master's degrees in musicology from Northwestern University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. During the day, she is an appellate attorney and represents domestic violence victims for the New York Legal Assistance Group. |
 Jeremy Brandt-Young plays both bass and tenor viols and holds a Bachelor's of Music in classical saxophone from the North Carolina School of the Arts where he studied under James Houlik. He currently funds his music addiction as Director of Information Security for a financial services firm. |
 David Fenton started playing bass, tenor and treble viols after receiving his B.M. in piano performance from Oberlin Conservatory. He earned his M.M. in musicology at N.Y.U and has written articles in the most recent Grove Dictionary of Music. He is a computer consultant and programmer. |
 Caroline Marris is a senior at N.Y.U. who began studying the viol with Margaret Panofsky in January 2010. She is currently pursuing B.A.s in English and history, with a minor in art history. In her spare time she writes, plays the violin, and works at an indie press. |
Guest Artists
 Kathleen Cantrell, soprano soloist at St. Michael's Episcopal Church, performs regularly with the Teares of the Muses. She has appeared with Apollo's Fire, the Choral Arts Society of Louisville, the Louisville Bach Society, and several groups in New York. She holds an M.A. in Early Music Performance Practices from Case Western Reserve University and a B.M. from the University of Louisville. |
 Campbell Rightmyer mezzo-soprano, performs with New York choral groups Ghostlight and St. Michael's Choir, and leads the rehearsals of the women's ensemble Amuse. She recently sung with the Choral Arts Society in Louisville, KY, as a soloist in the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610, at the Knickerbocker Club in a cabaret of Noël Coward songs and letters, and as Mrs. Noye in Britten's Noye's Fludde. |
 Morwaread Farbood, harpsichordist, received First Prize at the Prague Spring International Harpsichord Competition (2005), and the Pro Musicis International Award (2006). She received an A.B. in music history and theory from Harvard and a Ph.D. in music cognition from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has studied harpsichord with Mark Kroll and Olivier Baumont. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at New York University. |
