SARABANDE was born in 2002 when three Baroque oboists—Sarah Davol, Sarah Weiner, and Sara Funkhouser—realized that they had an ensemble naming opportunity that they just couldn't pass up! Even better, this opportunity presented them with an excuse to explore the wonderful music composed for oboe band during the 17th and 18th centuries. These groups, made up of oboes, tailles (tenor oboes), and bassoons, provided music for the theatre, dancing, and ceremonial events, as well as accompanying military regiments as they marched to battle. The oboe band was popular at the French court of Versailles, in the theaters of Restoration England, and in the pageants of Prussia and Germany. The members of Sarabande play on replicas of historic instruments, whose unique sound evokes the ceremony and pageantry of the eighteenth-century court along with the beauty, embellishment, and order of the Baroque era. Sarah Davol enjoys a career performing on historical and modern oboes throughout North America and Europe. She performs with American Classical Orchestra, Concert Royal, New York State Baroque, Publick Musick, Sarabande, Vox Ama Deus, the Bach Sinfonia in Washington, D.C., REBEL, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco. On the modern oboe/English horn, Ms. Davol's recording of Sun Bin Kim's Aphorisms won a national ASCAP award, and her jazz oboe playing may be heard on TV's Blues Clues. Her historical oboe playing may be heard on BMG, Centaur, Dorian, Harmonia Mundi, Helicon, Music Masters, Newport Classics, Smithsonian, Teldec, Titanic and Vox, and her recording of Vivaldi's Oboe Concerto in D Minor was recently released on Lyrichord. Sarah Weiner is an active player of both modern and historical oboes, and has performed with a wide range of period-instrument ensembles both in the Washington area (Bach Sinfonia, Folger Consort, Washington Bach Consort) and around the country (New Trinity Baroque, Texas Camerata, Orchestra of New Spain, Vox Amadeus, American Classical Orchestra). In addition to being a founding member of Sarabande, she was formerly a member of the crossover group Ensemble Galilei, combining early performance practice with Celtic folk music traditions. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, she arrived in the Washington area by way of graduate studies at Oberlin Conservatory and the Early Music Institute at Indiana University. Stephanie Corwin performs extensively on both historical and modern bassoons with a wide array of ensembles, including the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the American Classical Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society, Cambridge Concentus, Opera Lafayette, REBEL, Arcadia Players, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, and Musica Angelica. As a soloist, she was named the inaugural winner of the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Bassoon Competition and was a semifinalist in the 2008 Ima Hogg Young Artists Competition. Born and raised in Marietta, Georgia, she holds degrees from Davidson College, Yale University (M.M.), and Stony Brook University (D.M.A.), Dr. Corwin also earned a Performer’s Diploma from Indiana University’s Early Music Institute, where she studied with Michael McCraw. Guest artist Meg Owens performs on baroque oboe with many of North America's major period-instrument orchestras, including Tafelmusik, American Bach Soloists, Tempesta di Mare, and (here in the Washington area) Opera Lafayette and the National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra. In addition to teaching historical oboes at Indiana University, Dr. Owens currently teaches modern oboe and directs the Baroque Ensemble at George Mason University. Her scholarly pursuits center around the oboe band tradition at the courts and chateaux of Louis XIV, leading to recreations of, and lectures about, the music of the Philidor family of wind players. Biographies of the members of ARCOVOCE may be found at www.arcovoce.com/bios.htm and of their guest artist at www.amydomingues.com/bio