Directors of Ensemble Soleil
Peter Tourin has been involved in the early music community since the 1960's as a viola da gamba researcher, builder and performer. He published A Comprehensive Catalogue of Historical Viole da Gamba in Public and Private Collections in 1979 and founded The Tourin Musica, a family business incorporating musical instrument building, public performance, music education and workshops. Peter is the technical director for the ensemble's project Glimpses in Time. An active early music musician for many years, Peter has performed and recorded with The Oberlin Consort of Viols and The Boston Viol Consort. He is a versatile musician and performs comfortably in styles as diverse as bluegrass and jazz. Since the mid 1980's he has divided his work time between music and computer software design.
Jean Sawyer Twombly is a Master's graduate in Early Music Performance from Cambridge, Massachusetts Longy School of Music in Baroque violin and viola da gamba. She has attended Oberlin's Baroque Performance Institute, the Ringve Museum and the Amherst Early Music workshops and led Ensemble Soleil in their appearances on WGBH radio's Classical Performances and Morning Pro Musica. In addition to her work with Ensemble Soleil, she performs and records with a number of New England chamber organizations and may be heard on the recent popular music compact disk, Reality Check. She is well-known as a string teacher, and is adjunct assistant professor in the Fine and Performing Arts Department of Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire.