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Melissa Reardon

Grammy-nominated violist Melissa Reardon is the Artistic Director of the Portland Chamber Music Festival in Portland, ME, Artist in Residence at Bard College and Conservatory and a founding member and the Executive Director of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO).  As a member of the Ensō String Quartet from 2006 until its final season in 2018, Melissa toured both nationally and internationally, with highlight performances in Sydney, Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, New York’s Carnegie Hall, and Washington, DC’s Kennedy Center to name a few.  Melissa won first prize at the Washington International Competition, and is the only violist to win top prizes in consecutive HAMS International viola competitions. She has appeared in numerous festivals across the United States and around the world, including tours with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, and with Musicians from Marlboro. She held the post of Associate Professor of Viola at East Carolina University from 2007 -2013,  and earned degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and the New England Conservatory. Melissa is married to the cellist Raman Ramakrishnan and they live in NYC with their seven-year-old son Linus.

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Renée Anne Louprette

Renée Anne Louprette maintains an international career as organ recitalist, conductor, and teacher. She was appointed Bard College Organist, Assistant Professor of Music, and director of the Bard Baroque Ensemble in 2019. The ensemble takes a leading role in an annual series of Bach cantata presentations in the Chapel of the Holy Innocents on the Bard campus and in the local region and collaborates with other Bard ensembles and personnel (Chamber Singers, the Graduate Vocal Arts Program, the Preparatory Division Chorus, members of The Orchestra Now, and faculty from other branches of the College) in an effort to bring outstanding presentations of Baroque music to the wider community.

Renée Anne Louprette has been University Organist and Organ Area Coordinator at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University since 2013 and is a former member of the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music, The Hartt School of the University of Hartford, and the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University. She is associated with a number of distinguished music programs in the New York City area, having served as Associate Director of Music at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, Associate Director of Music and the Arts at Trinity Wall Street, Organist and Associate Director at the Unitarian Church of All Souls, and Director of Music at the Church of Notre Dame.

She was selected as a conducting fellow of the Mostly Modern Festival in 2019, premiering several new works with the New York-based American Modern Ensemble. In her over 20-year career as choral director, she has led performances by various professional choirs in the greater New York City area accompanied by members of Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, and the American Brass Quintet, among other ensembles.

As collaborative keyboardist, she has performed with the Los Angeles Dance Project, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Voices of Ascension, American Brass Quintet, Clarion Music Society, American Symphony Orchestra, The Dessoff Choirs, Oratorio Society of New York, and Piffaro. She made her recital debut in 2018 at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles with Irish uilleann piper Ivan Goff, featuring the world premiere of “Were You at the Rock?” by Eve Beglarian, commissioned for the Louprette-Goff duo by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Renée Anne Louprette made her solo debuts at the Royal Festival Hall in London and the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris in 2018. Additional European festival appearances include Magadino, Switzerland; In Tempore Organi, Italy; Ghent and Hasselt, Belgium; Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Bordeaux Cathedral and Toulouse Les Orgues, France; and Dún Laoghaire, Ireland. She appeared as organ soloist with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Brisbane, Australia, in Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony broadcast live on ABC radio.

Ms. Louprette’s recording of the "Great Eighteen Chorales&" of J. S. Bach was named a Critics' Choice 2014 by The New York Times. Her recent recordings of 20th-century French organ masterworks, and a duo recording of original compositions and arrangements of traditional Irish music with uilleann piper Ivan Goff, were also released to critical acclaim.

Renée Anne Louprette holds a Master’s degree in conducting from Bard College Conservatory and degrees in piano and organ from The Hartt School, University of Hartford. She was awarded a Premier Prix from the Conservatoire National de Région de Toulouse, France and a Diplôme Supérieur in organ from the Centre d’Études Supérieures de Musique et de Danse de Toulouse.