Lyracle’s mission is to engage with history through music and to illuminate our shared humanity.
We use musical performance as a vehicle to tell the stories of people throughout history who partook in music for voice and viol. Founded in 2018, Lyracle launched its self-produced concert series in Greater Boston in the 2022-2023 season.
Lyracle’s narrative, non-composer-centric approach to concert programming has earned it recognition as an emerging ensemble in the field. In the 23-24 season, in addition to producing two new concert programs in Greater Boston, Lyracle performs/presents on the Howard M. Brown Early International Early Music Series at the University of Chicago, at the Early Music America Summit, and at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Lyracle enjoys introducing young people to the viol and to historically informed performance and has additionally presented for and worked with students at Brandeis University and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Lyracle also enjoys collaborating with other organizations with shared interests and missions. Favorite collaborations include a performance-presentation on at-home music-making in 17th century Massachusetts with historian Barbara Lambert at the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.
Lyracle has given presentations at the 2021 Indiana University Historical Performance Conference and at the 2021 Low Strings in the Americas Symposium. Lyracle was a 2020 Early Music America Emerging Artist and a 2018 Pegasus Rising Young Ensemble. Additional presenters include the Viola da Gamba Society of America, GEMS Midtown Concerts, Early Music Missouri and the Society for Historically Informed Performance.
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, the Women, Infants & Children (WIC) Nutrition Program, and the Massachusetts Health Connector, by broadening accessibility to cultural programming. EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare cardholders can receive up to two free tickets to our events. See the complete list of participating organizations offering EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare discounts.
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 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 particuarly 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).
2024-2025 Guest Artists
Greater Boston Concert Series
Swedish-born dance artist Julia Bengtsson has choreographed over 20 ballets, operas and films for venues including Carnegie Hall, UN Headquarters, Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center, and Alvin Ailey Dance Center. Her stage direction of Opera Lafayette’s production of Venus and Adonis was praised by The Washington Post as “a fine evening’s entertainment”.
She has held presentations and workshops at Temple University, NYU Steinhardt, University of Pittsburgh, Cornell University and Stanford University. In 2023 she served as co-chair of Early Music America’s Emerging Professional Leadership Council.
Her career as a dancer includes six years with Connecticut Ballet, multiple tours with New York Baroque Dance Company and soloist roles performed at Carnegie Hall. She is a mentee of Bessie-awarded director/choreographer Catherine Turocy, a graduate of Royal Swedish Ballet School and was a scholarship student at Joffrey Ballet School.
Lindsey Clark is a Connecticut-based violist, nyckelharpa player, and music educator. She graduated with her Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Ithaca College in 2015, with an independent study and some graduate coursework in Suzuki string pedagogy. She is currently pursuing her Master’s Degree at Wesleyan University, while also working full-time as a public school string teacher. She began playing nyckelharpa in 2017. Her principal nyckelharpa teacher is Laurie Hart. Lindsey’s performing interests include adventurous collaborations and introducing the nyckelharpa to broader audiences. In 2022 and 2023, she was selected from an international applicant pool to participate in Silkroad’s Global Musician Workshop and corresponding performance festival. Other nyckelharpa collaborations include with the University of Hartford Hartt School viola studio, Hartt Community Division Suzuki string program, fellow nyckelharpa player Alyssa Rodriguez, and folk-rock band Jeff Burnham and the Insiders. She is the founder of the CT-ASTA Fiddle Fest, a workshop that introduces young string players to traditional and contemporary folk music from multiple cultures.
Touring Program: Musicians of the Tenshō Embassy
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.
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.
Gold medalist and first-ever American laureate of the 7th International Bach-Abel Competition Arnie Tanimoto has quickly established himself as one of the foremost viol players in the US. He has performed and recorded in venues across North America and Europe with the likes of Barthold Kuijken, the Boston Early Music Festival Ensemble, and the Smithsonian Consort of Viols. Arnie was the first-ever viola da gamba major at the Juilliard School, where he soloed on both viola da gamba and baroque cello. In 2017 he was awarded with a Frank Huntington Beebe Fund Fellowship and subsequently finished his studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland. His principal teachers include Paolo Pandolfo, Sarah Cunningham, and Christel Thielmann. Arnie is currently on faculty at Princeton University and has served on faculty at the Mountainside Baroque Summer Academy, Viols West Workshop, and Viola da Gamba Society Conclave. He holds additional degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and the Eastman School of Music.
Board of Directors
Ashley Mulcahy, President
James Perretta, Treasurer and Clerk
Michaela Byrne
Jonathan Juett
Kelsey Lee