Mission
Lyracle is a historical music ensemble whose mission is to explore the role that music has played in people’s lives and communities. We develop and perform concert programs that engage with history through music, tell the stories of people who partook in music for voice and viol, and illuminate our shared humanity.
About
Mezzo-soprano Ashley Mulcahy and viol player James Perretta founded Lyracle in 2018. Rather than seeking answers to the question “who composed for voices and viols?” Lyracle concert programs address the question “who throughout history made music with voices and viols, and in what way?” Within this paradigm, Lyracle programs use music as a vehicle to share histories of diverse groups and individuals from around the globe.
Lyracle launched its self-produced concert series in the 2022-2023 season and presents two new concert programs in Massachusetts annually. In the 2025-2026 season, in addition to self-produced performances in Quincy and Northampton, MA, Lyracle performs/presents on the Early Music Hawaii series, Historic Deerfield, and the Concerts at the Crane series.
Past presenters include the Howard M. Brown International Early Music Series, the Academy of Early Music Series, Early Music America, the Viola da Gamba Society of America, and Early Music Missouri.
Lyracle enjoys introducing young people to the viol and to historically informed performance and has presented and/or worked with students at the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, Brandeis University, UMass Amherst, and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Lyracle also enjoys collaborating with other organizations with shared interests and missions and has toured their program “Musick’s Recreation” (about recreational music-making in colonial America) in partnership with historic house museums, libraries, and institutes throughout New England. Lyracle is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit and has received grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Iguana Music Fund.
Please visit lyraclemusic.com for more information about Lyracle. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok @lyraclemusic. We are proud to participate in Mass Cultural Council’s Card to Culture program, in collaboration with the Department of Transitional Assistance, (WIC), and the Massachusetts Health Connector, by broadening accessibility to cultural programming.
Artistic Directors
Co-Artistic Director Ashley Mulcahy is a mezzo-soprano active as a solo and ensemble singer. Ashley has performed with a wide range of early music ensembles, including Bach Collegium Japan, Boston Early Music Festival, Handel and Haydn Society, Newberry Consort, Parthenia Viol Consort, Blue Hill Bach Festival, New York State Baroque, Pegasus Early Music, and Upper Valley Baroque. Ashley is a graduate of the Voxtet Program at the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music, which provides four students each year a full scholarship to study early music, oratorio, and chamber music. At Yale, Ashley studied with James Taylor and had the opportunity to work with many internationally renowned conductors, including Nicholas McGegan, Masaaki Suzuki, David Hill, and Simon Carrington. Ashley is particularly interested in opportunities that combine her interests in the arts and humanities, and she enjoys writing for Early Music America on a freelance basis. Ashley holds a BA in Italian Language & Literature and a BM in Vocal Performance from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Carmen Pelton.
Co-Artistic Director James Perretta is a Boston-based viola da gambist who is active as a performer, arranger, and teacher. In addition to having performed with groups such as The Boston Camerata and Nota Bene, James is passionate about cross-genre collaborations and has twice participated in and performed at the Silkroad ensemble’s Global Musicians Workshop. As a teacher, James maintains a private studio at Powers Music School and has taught classes on improvisation and on arranging madrigals to accompany a solo voice at the Viola da Gamba Society of America Conclave. As an arranger, James particularly enjoys adapting music from video games to be played on the viol and exploring extended techniques on the instrument. He maintains a presence on TikTok (@gambajames) and YouTube (jamesperrettamusic).
25-26 Guest Artists, MA Concert Series
Escape to the Stage
Nathaniel Cox enjoys a varied musical career both as one of North America’s leading cornetto players, and as an accomplished continuo player on guitar, lute and theorbo. In addition to co-directing the New England-based ensemble for 17th-century music In Stile Moderno, he performs with ensembles such as The Folger Consort, Piffaro, Dark Horse Consort, Bach Collegium San Diego, The Toronto Consort, TENET Vocal Artists, and Blue Heron. Nathaniel holds bachelor’s degrees from Oberlin College and Conservatory in both Russian literature and trumpet performance, as well as Master’s degrees from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in cornetto and historical performance practice. Besides his performance career, Nathaniel works as a software engineer for the data-privacy company Cloaked, and loves spending time with his two kids.
Julie Nelson is an actor and teaching artist based in Amherst, MA. Favorite roles include Giles Corey in The Crucible, Hanover Repertory Theater, Worcester; Marie Antoinette in The Revolutionists, Silverthorne Theater; Dark Room, Bridge Rep, Boston; Grace in Vigil for Portland Stage Company, Maine; Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Mrs. Gardiner in Pride and Prejudice, Playmakers Repertory Company, Chapel Hill, NC. She is a founding member of Shakespeare & Company, where she acted in leading roles in Shakespeare and in contemporary plays. Her work there with Merry Conway in theatrical clown was a vital part of her training, and changed her point of view on theater and life. Further study included classes with Jacques Lecoq. Philippe Gaulier, and Christopher Bayes, among others. She was a full-time faculty member in the Department of Theater at UMass, Amherst, where she taught Acting, Voice, and Movement. Early in her tenure there, she introduced clown to the curriculum, and has been teaching and investigating it ever since. She is a member of Actors Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA, and the National Association of Acting Teachers.
The Family Band
Karen Burciaga is an early strings specialist who bridges the worlds of classical and folk music. She is a founding member of Boston’s folk/early music ensemble Seven Times Salt and the viol consort Long & Away. Karen has performed on violin and viola da gamba across New England and Texas with groups including The King’s Noyse, Arcadia Players, the Folger Consort, Zenith Ensemble, Austin Baroque Orchestra, and many others, and she appeared in Boston’s Midwinter Revels on vielle and rebec. A lifelong love of Celtic music led her into the world of fiddling and folk traditions, and she enjoys playing (and dancing!) Scottish, Irish, English, and contra styles. She has fiddled for the Celtic band Ulster Landing, southern Italian folk band Newpoli, and English Country Dance bands in Greater Boston. Karen earned an MM in Early Music Performance from the Longy School of Music where she studied early strings with Dana Maiben and Jane Hershey and historical dance with Ken Pierce. She has taught both privately and at the Texas Toot, workshops for the Viola da Gamba Society – New England, and Pinewoods Early Music Week, for which she is currently Program Director. Karen is also an arts administrator and serves on the board of the VdGS-NE. When not making music, she can be found reading, petting cats, or climbing very small mountains. www.karenburciaga.com
Guinevere Fridley is a baroque bassist, modern bassist, and viola da gambist in the Boston area. She engages in the intricacy, passion, and knowledge that thrives in the world of Historical Performance. With this historically informed performance practice viewpoint, she strives to bring the music of the past to life. Fridley has performed with various ensembles including the Handel and Haydn Society, Arpeggione Ensemble, Boston Early Music Festival, Crescendo Period Orchestra, Arcadia Players, Connecticut Early Music Festival, Worcester Chamber Music Society, Masterworks Chorale, and Music Worcester. She performs at Emmanuel Music, Church of the Advent, First Lutheran Church in Boston. Fridley is ecstatic to have been a part of Arpeggione’s debut album, Songs of the Seafarer, which was recorded this past summer. Fridley holds a Master of Music in Baroque Bass/Violone and a Master of Music in Viola da Gamba from Longy School of Music of Bard College. Her prior education includes a Bachelor of Music in Double Bass Performance from Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University. In her downtime, Fridley loves to visit Acadia National Park and hike numerous trails with her husband, bake sweet treats, and drink coffee with a book in her lap.
Musicians of the Tenshō Embassy
Early Music Hawaii Series 2026
Danielle Boivin is an actor, writer, and musician in New York City. She can be seen performing at Stonewall once a month with The Debbie Donnas. Recently, she appeared in the SheNYC festival with the play Finding Olive.
Judah Coffman, viol
Jacob Jahiel is a writer, editor, and violist da gamba currently living in Baltimore, MD. He holds an M.A. in Musicology with an outside field in Historical Performance from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, also receiving a B.A. from IU’s Individualized Major Program, where he designed an undergraduate degree in music history. Jahiel studied modern violin with Jorja Fleezanis, baroque violin with Stanley Ritchie, and viola da gamba with Joanna Blendulf. He additionally held graduate assistantships in the Borns Jewish Studies Program and was an Undergraduate Research Fellow with the IU Platform in Global Popular Music. Currently, Jahiel works in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Marketing and Communications Department, performs, and writes on a freelance basis. He has written program notes for the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, Boston Artists Ensemble, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, additionally contributing album reviews and features to Early Music America’s EMag. When not scraping away at various historical bow instruments, he can be found hiking, fly-fishing, and skiing near his childhood home in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming, where cows outnumber people 3:1.
Board of Directors
Ashley Mulcahy, President
James Perretta, Treasurer and Clerk
Michaela Byrne
Jonathan Juett
Kelsey Lee