Jane Hershey

Jane Hershey began her musical training in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the Longy School of Music, and continued at the Royal Conservatory at The Hague, studying with Frans Brueggen and Wieland Kuijken. Early in her career, she joined the Boston Camerata, and toured in the US and Europe, recording with Harmonia Mundi, Erato and others. Throughout her career as both viol and violone player, she performed at Bostonʼs Museum of Fine Arts for many years with Laura Jeppesen and Catherine Liddell as Trio Charivary, in the Aston Magna Festival and Monadnock Music Festivals, and with many groups such as Emmanuel Music, Hesperus of Washington, DC, the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, and Arcadia Players of Western Massachusetts. As a member the Carthage Consort, Ms. Hershey performed in the American Repertory Theaterʼs production of “Dido, Queen of Carthage,” and was featured at the Viola da Gamba Societyʼs National Conclave; in their performances in the Cambridge Society for Early Musicʼs 2010 concert series, the ʻBoston Musical Intelligencerʼ described the Consortʼs playing as “deft and subtle, spreading smiles and shared delight among the audience.” As a member of Arcadia Viols, she has performed at the Folger Shakespeare Library, in the Boston Early Music Festivalʼs Fringe, at Tufts University, and in intimate chamber music venues around New England. As a soloist and continuo player, she can be heard on a 2005 Centaur disc of the music of Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre with Frances Fitch and friends, and on a new ʻCornettoʼ release of the chamber music of Samuel Capricornus with the viol consort “Long & Away.” An active teacher and organizer, Ms. Hershey has recently completed two terms on the Board of Directors of the Viola da Gamba Society of America. She works with people of all ages in both private lessons and viol consorts at the Powers Music School. She is also an active faculty member in the Longy School of Music of Bard College Master of Music program, and has been the director of the Tufts University Early Music Ensemble since 1995.