Every January, this group of musical friends would do a concert at St Alban's, choosing music for winter. The same people would come together on the project because they enjoyed playing music together. This album grew out of wanting to record the best of what they had done over several seasons, to offer it to their audience and so to help raise funds for the work of Healing Muses.

Hausmusik was created to allow Bay Area music lovers to experience chamber music in small, intimate settings, recreating the ambiance in which much 14th-18th Century music was performed at court, in small chapels, or in the drawing rooms of private homes, for family, friends and patrons. Beginning as a series of intimate, informal concerts in Bay Area homes, Hausmusik moved into the parish hall at St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Albany, making it a real community concert series the first such series in the city of Albany, for which director Eileen Hadidian received the city's 1992 Citizen of the Year in the Arts award.

Over the years, Hausmusik has helped support local musicians, particularly those interested in trying out new programs and exploring the crossover between early and ethnic music. The concerts, which were held in the St. Alban's parish hall an intimate yet acoustically live room reminiscent of an English manor house presented a varied cast of performers drawn from the wide pool of early music talent in the Bay Area. Each concert featured a different theme, spanning the late Middle Ages through the 18th Century.

Susan Rode Morris is a singer of unusual versatility whose accomplishments encompass a wide range of repertoire cmd musical stylcs. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, she has received much critical acclaim for her expressiveness and naturlaness in singing, as well as her communicative presence.

She is a founding member of Ensemble Alcatraz and has sung with many ensembles including Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Sequentia Köln, Sex Chordæ Consort of Viols, Magnificat, Women's Philharmonic, and FOOLIA! Susan has premiered numerous works by Bay Area composers, including opera and theater pieces.

She founded a recording compuny, Donsuemor, which has released three compact discs, including songs of Henry Purcell and the 18th century Scottish poet Robert Burns. A special love of Susan's is teaching children the joy of singing in small private schools. She owns a baking company (Donsuemor) which supplies the U.S. with fresh madeleines.

Shira Kammen received her degree in music from UC Berkeley and studied vielle with Margriet Tindemans. A member for many years of Ensembles Alcatraz, Project Ars Nova and Medieval Strings, she has also worked with Sequentia, Hesperion XX, the Boston Camerato, Anne Azema, Kitka, and the King's Noyse, and is the founder of Class V Music, an ensemble performing on river rafting trips.

Shira happily collaborated with singer/storyteller John Fleagle for fifteen years, and performs now with several new ensembles: Fortune's Wheel, a medieval ensemble; Ephemeros, a new music group; Panacea, an eclectic ethnic bond; and Trous Bras, a dance bond devoted to the music of Celtic Brittany. She has started hcr own recording label, Bright Angel Records.

Eileen Hadidian received her DMA in Early Music from Stanford University. She has appeared in concert throughout the western United States, and was the founder and artistic director of Hausmusik, an early music concert series in Albony, CA showcasing local musicians in new and innovative progrums.

She is the recipient of the annual Citizen in the Arts Award, given by the City of Albany to honor a significant contribution to the arts. Eileen's encounter with cancer has led her to explore ways in which music can help critically and chronically ill people by promoting relaxation, diffusing pain, and reducing anxiety.

Her non-profit organization, Healing Muses, brings healing music to Bay Area hospitals, hospices and convalescent homes, and is the recipient of grants from the east Bay Community Foundation and The Institute of Noetic Sciences.

Maureen Brennan is an accomplished performer, playing both early classical and Celtic music on the Irish harp. She has toured throughout the U.S. and Canada in a variety of ensembles, and has performed for sixteen years on cruise ships in Alaska and Tahiti.

She continues as a soloist for Irish and Scottish events throughout the Bay Area, and as the harper with Wake the Dead, a Celtic/Grateful Dead crossover band. Maureen's appearances include Son Francisco Performances at Six, Noontime Concerts at St. Patrick's Church, the Oakland and De Young Museums, the Lick Observatory Summer Music Series, the Festival of Harps, and the Freight and Salvage.

She teaches at conferences throughout the U.S. and has recorded five CDs, included the world acclaimed Harpestry collection.

Julie Jeffrey began her professional career in Chicago, where she served as assistant director of the University of Chicago Collegium Musicum under Howard Mayer Brown and Mary Springfels.

Since her move to the San Francisco Bay Area, she has appeared in concert with Magnificot, The Newberry Consort, A Sett of Vyalls, Class V Music, Flouti Diversi, the Carmel Bach Festival, and the California Shakespeare Festival, and she is a member of Sex Chordæ Consort of Viols. With ensemble Sons Souci she has explored innovative reincarnations of old and new music, and with the Celtic ensemble Distant Oaks she continues to exercise her interest in expanding the viol's repertoire beyond conventional boundaries.

Bringing Light to the Darkness