Naomi Dumas, Caitlyn Koester, Amanda Keesmaat
Biography Naomi Dumas, Caitlyn Koester, Amanda Keesmaat
Naomi Dumas
Baroque violinist Naomi Dumas has appeared throughout North America and Europe as a soloist, chamber musician and as a member of ensembles including Il Pomo d’Oro, Le Concert de la Loge, Arion Baroque Orchestra, and the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra. She is a graduate of the Historical Performance program of The Juilliard School and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, where she had the privilege of studying with Cynthia Roberts, Rachel Podger, and Amandine Beyer. She was recently selected as a finalist at the International Music Competition of the Loire Valley and was appointed principal violin of Les Ornements, formerly the Orchestre de Chambre de Colmar, in 2022. Naomi particularly enjoys the rhetorical qualities and emotional integrity of early repertoires, and strives to let the music speak to the audience with transparency and openness. Originally from Quebec, Canada, Naomi currently lives in Basel, Switzerland.
Caitlyn Koester
is a harpsichordist and music director active in the early music communities of the Bay Area and New York City. Caitlyn holds degrees from the University of Michigan, San Francisco Conservatory and The Juilliard School, and is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at The State University of New York in Stony Brook. She has served on collegiate and pre-college faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory. Recent engagements include concerts for two harpsichords with Elliot Figg through Gotham Early Music Scene and The Berkshire Bach Society, and a recital for the Festival Bach Montréal. When not playing the harpsichord, Caitlyn enjoys going on adventures with her dog, a Great Pyrenees mixed breed named Polyphony.
Amanda Keesmaat
is the director of Space Time Continuo and principal cello with Arion Baroque Orchestra, a regular musician with Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal (SMAM), Clavecin en concert and an original member of Skye Consort. Amanda has also toured with Les Violons du Roy (Québec), Pacific Baroque Orchestra (Vancouver) and Tafelmusik (Toronto). Recently, she was a guest instructor and performer at the University of Western Ontario, her alma mater. Amanda has frequently been at the heart of productions of La Nef. As a specialist of the basse de violon, Amanda works with the ensemble Rendez-Vous Baroque Français, specializing in French baroque music. In 2017, she joined Opera Atelier for their production of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Médée in Toronto and Versailles, France.
