BRIARIRD's personnel change based on the needs of each program. The following musicians are current or recent members of the ensemble.

MARGARET COHEN (viola da gamba) was introduced to the viol by Judith Davidoff at Sarah Lawrence College, and has since studied with John Dornenburg andGail Ann Schroeder, and with Anneke Pols at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Margaret also plays historical harps, including Italian and Welsh triple harps, and sings in the California Bach Society. Margaret is an attorney at Hanson Bridgett LLP in San Francisco.

MARY ELLIOTT (viola da gamba) has played the viol off and on since 1971 and is a member of a number of local groups. Besides Briarbird, they include Les Violes Douces, Berkeley Baroque Band, and the Bay Area Baroque Orchestra. Along the way, she earned a master’s degree in early music performance from Stanford. Along another way, she completed a Ph.D. in 1999 and taught literature and cultural studies courses at the University of Wisconsin and Sonoma State University. She recently retired from the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at U.C. Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law. In addition to preparing for concerts, she teaches English and participates in restorative justice programs at San Quentin State Prison.

PETER FISHER(flute) studied modern flute with John Krell of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Curtis Institute; later, as a graduate student at San Francisco State University, with Paul Renzi, principal in the S. F. Symphony; and baroque flute with Kathleen Kraft. Trained also in theatre, he helped found the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival (now the California Shakespeare Theatre), where he performed and directed in eleven seasons and remains on the Board of Directors. He is Director of Coro Ciconia, a vocal ensemble specializing in medieval and renaissance choral music, and is retired from the staff of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.

JAMIE WAI MAN JIM (viola da gamba), born and raised in Hong Kong, started playing the cello at the age of seven. She received a Bachelor of Art degree with a major in Music from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a Professional Diploma from The Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. She studied cello with Jennifer Culp at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and obtained Master of Music in Cello Performance at the Conservatory in 2009. She enjoys playing a wide variety of musical genres: she has been a freelance cellist with the professional orchestra Hong Kong Sinfonietta, a member of San Francisco’s Magik*Magik Orchestra, and is currently the principal cellist of Resonance Jazz Ensemble. She started her training on the viol with Elisabeth Reed at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and later studied with John Dornenburg.

KANEEZ MUNJEE (soprano) has been singing semi-professionally in the Bay Area for the past several years, specializing in Renaissance and Baroque repertoires. She is currently singing with American Bach Soloists, California Bach Society, and Marin Symphony Chorus. She has sung previously with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Pacific Collegium, Chalice Consort, and San Francisco Renaissance Voices, and for several years was the soprano soloist and assistant conductor at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Menlo Park. She has just completed a joint Ph.D. in music and humanities from Stanford University, with a dissertation on the figure of Orpheus in French Baroque cantatas. She is also active in the Bay Area musical community as a writer for San Francisco Classical Voice and as a program annotator.

MARA MCMILLAN (soprano) sang with Convivium Musicum, a small choir devoted to Renaissance polyphony, for five years while living in Boston. Always interested in early music, this experience convinced her to stop singing later repertoires, and focus solely on Renaissance and Baroque music. Since moving to the Bay Area, she has sung with the U.C. Berkeley Chamber Chorus, International Orange Choral of S.F., San Francisco Renaissance Voices, the Josquin Singers, California Bach Society, and Bay Area Classical Harmonies, as a chorus member as well as a soloist. She is currently a soloist at St. Edward’s Church in Newark, CA.

HALLIE PRIDHAM (viola da gamba) graduated from Idyllwild Arts Academy in 2005 where she was principal cellist and winner of their 2005 concerto competition. She continued her studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she studied modern cello with Jean-Miceal Fonteaneau and baroque cello and viola da gamba with Elisabeth Reed. In 2007, Hallie was chosen to perform with other members of the SFCM Baroque Ensemble at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. for a broadcasted concert. In 2010, she was the winner of the SFCM Baroque Ensemble Concerto Competition and was also the recipient of the outstanding achievement award. Hallie received a scholarship to attend the American Bach Soloists Academy for the second year in a row in the summer of 2011 and performed at the Boston Early Music Festival in June 2011 with Early Music America’s Young Performers Ensemble. Hallie currently performs with with Liason and The Vinacessi Ensemble, the San Francisco Bach Choir and is currently the house concert manager for San Francisco Early Music Society.

MARY PROUT (viola da gamba) started playing viola da gamba in the Collegium at UC Riverside where she majored in Music and Biology. After living in Seattle for several years, where she played with various early music groups, she moved to Boulder, Colorado to attend graduate school in genetics. In 1991 she moved to the Bay Area to pursue postdoctoral work at UC Berkeley. She studies viol with John Dornenburg when time allows, and enjoys playing with the many wonderful musicians in the Bay Area. She currently lives in Berkeley with her husband and daughter. Mary is also an avid step dancer, and performs regularly with the Dunsmuir Scottish Dancers.

JASON PYSZKOWSKI (viola da gamba) is originally a native of Naples, Florida. He pursued his undergraduate studies at Baldwin-Wallace College receiving his degree in Viola Performance with additional training in choral singing, Baroque and Renaissance chamber music, and cognitive neuroscience. He completed his graduate studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and now performs in and around the bay area. Jason now holds the title of Youth Orchestra Manager with the San Francisco Symphony. Additionally, he is a regular violist with the San Francisco-based American Bach Soloists, a group which specializes in illuminating the performances of 17th and 18th century works for voices and instruments through scholarship and performance on historically accurate instruments.

JEFF RIDENOUR was born in California, and grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. Jeff studied music and physics at UC Berkeley and holds a Masters in Contrabass Performance from UC San Diego. Subsequently Jeff received a Heartz traveling scholarship and studied for three years at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where he received a Second Phase degree at the Institute of Sonology, as well as studying the Violone with Maggie Urqhaart. Jeff also holds a Master's degree in Information and Computer Science from UC Irvine. Jeff enjoys board games, fencing, roller derby, meditation, cooking, tango & swing dancing, and restoring vintage pinball & video games. Jeff's next musical instrument will be a Tromba Marina.

LYNN ROBBIE (harpsichord & organ) received an MFA in Music from Lone Mountain College in San Francisco, where she studied organ. She returned to music after a long hiatus, and is now playing harpsichord with several Baroque ensembles.

TOBI SZUTS has recently moved to the Bay Area from the thriving early music scene in Boston. He co-founded the viol consorts Long & Away and quaver. Quaver specializes in non-traditional repertoire (for which he has arranged pieces by Piazzola and Ligeti) and has recently released its first recording. He studied with Jane Hershey at the Longy School of Music and has played with Les Bostonades, Seven Times Salt, and the Harvard Early Music Society: he has performed Clerambault’s French cantatas in Versailles, France, played lirone in Cavalli’s opera L’Ormindo, and participated in the Consort Cooperative program at the Viola da Gamba Society of America’s summer Conclave. He has also led the Mather Viols, an undergraduate consort, at Harvard University. When not playing music, he studies neuroscience.