EMI FERGUSON can be heard live in concerts and festivals around the world as a soloist and member of the Handel and Haydn Society, AMOC*, the New York New Music Ensemble, and the Manhattan Chamber Players. Her debut album, Amour Cruel, an indie-pop song cycle inspired by the music of the 17th century French court, was released by Arezzo Music in September 2017, spending 4 weeks on the Classical, Classical Crossover, and World Music Billboard Charts. Emi has spoken and performed at several TEDX events and has been featured on media outlets including the Discovery Channel, Vox, and TouchPress apps talking about how music relates to our world today. She has been featured in performances by the Marlboro, Lucerne, Lake Champlain, and Twickenhamfest music festivals and has been a guest artist with early music ensembles Tafelmusik, Les Arts Florissants, the American Classical Orchestra, Voices of Music, and Trinity Baroque Orchestra. Emi is currently on the faculty of the Juilliard School. Born in Japan and raised in London and Boston, she now resides in New York City. For more information please visit www.emiferguson.com

RUCKUS is an emerging early music band with a fresh, visceral approach to old music.  The ensemble aims to fuse the early-music movement’s questing, creative spirit, with the grit, groove, and jangle of American roots music, creating a unique sound of “rough-edged intensity” (The New Yorker). Ruckus performed its debut in Christopher Alden’s staging of Handel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo featuring Anthony Roth Costanzo, Davone Tines, and Ambur Briad to wide-spread acclaim: “achingly delicate one moment, punchy and incisive the next” The New York Times; “Superb” Opera News.  Material from its forthcoming debut album with flutist Emi Ferguson, Fly the Coop: Bach Sonatas and Preludes, was described as a “ fizzing, daring display of personality and imagination” by The New York Times. Future performances will be held at The Da Camera Society (Los Angeles) and Music Before 1800 (New York City).

At its core, Ruckus is what is known as a continuo section in baroque music: a collection of guitars, keyboard, and bass instruments akin to a rhythm section in jazz.  This five person core is comprised of players who are among the most creative and virtuosic performers of their instruments in the United States.  Individually, they perform with the leading period-instrument ensembles.  

Clay Zeller-Townson (baroque bassoon): Founder of Ruckus.  Plays with the leading period instrument ensembles in North America including Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Boston Baroque, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists and Musica Angelica.  Masterclasses at Eastman School of Music, UCLA, and University of Missouri.

Doug Balliett (viola da gamba and bass): is a composer, instrumentalist and poet based in New York City. The New York Times has described his poetry as “brilliant and witty” (Clytie and the Sun), his bass playing as “elegant” (Shawn Jaeger’s In Old Virginny), and his compositions as “vivid, emotive, with contemporary twists” (Actaeon). Doug is professor of baroque bass and violone at the Juilliard School.

Adam Cockerham (theorbo/baroque guitar) Performances with Trinity Baroque Orchestra, NOVUS NY, Philharmonia Chamber Players, New York Baroque Incorporated, El Mundo, and J415, Prototype Festival (Pulitzer Prize-winning Angel’s Bone) and Opera Saratoga (A Long Walk).  Cockerham is currently a doctoral candidate at The Juilliard School after completing his Master of Music degree in Historical Plucked Strings, studying with Charles Weaver and Daniel Swenberg. Partnering with acclaimed mezzo-soprano Danielle Sampson, he founded voice and guitar/lute duo Jarring Sounds, which released its first album in 2014.

Elliot Figg (keyboards): member of Ruckus, ACRONYM, New York Baroque Incorporated, and New Vintage Baroque. Recent engagements include: Conductor and harpsichordist for L’Amant Anonyme with Little Opera Theatre of New York; assistant conductor and harpsichordist for Vivaldi’s Farnace, and Cavalli’s Veremonda, both with Spoleto Festival USA; and assistant conductor and harpsichordist for Dido and Aeneas with L.A. Opera.

Shirley Hunt (cello and viola da gamba): member of Ruckus, performances and recordings with Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Musica Angelica, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and Bach Collegium San Diego. Performs regularly at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with the renaissance ensemble Sonnambula, and is an artist-in-residence at the Museum of Jurassic Technology.

Paul Holmes Morton (theorbo/guitar/banjo): member of Ruckus, The Chivalrous Crickets, and the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado. Recent Recordings: “Orphea” by Majel Connery, Emi Ferguson’s “Amour Cruel”, and “Arcangelo’s Circle”, by the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado. Paul is an active performer and recording artist of music ranging from historical resurrections to his own creations. He lives in New York City.

Evan Premo (bass): founding member of DeCoda. Founder, with his wife Mary Bonhag, and artistic director of Scrag Mountain Music.  Artistic director and founder: “Beethoven and Banjos": brings together folk and classical musicians for cross-genre concerts in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. As Composer, commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Orchestra, River Town Duo, Aizuri Quartet, International Society of Bassists.