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 2026-2027 season, in addition to self-produced performances in the Pioneer Valley and Berkshire County, MA, Lyracle performs/presents at Harvard College, the Otter Creek Music Festival, the Web Deane Stevens Museum, and Bidwell House Museum.
Past presenters include the Howard M. Brown International Early Music Series, the Academy of Early Music Series, Early Music Hawaii, 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).
26-27 Guest Artists, Western Mass Concert Series
Commonplace
As a musician whose work has been praised as “superb” (The New York Times), “well-prepared and joyful” (Detroit Free Press), “excellent,” and “fluent and fresh” (Opera News), Noah Horn serves as Music Director of Cantata Singers, a Boston-based choir and orchestra that is “one of the city’s most treasured ensembles.” (The Boston Globe).
Noah is Artistic Director of Audivi, a Detroit-based professional vocal ensemble, which he founded in 2013. Audivi has appeared as a featured ensemble at the ACDA Central, North Central, and Michigan conventions, the AGO New England convention, and gave the Detroit-area historical-performance premieres of Bach’s Mass in B minor and Monteverdi’s Vespers. Audivi also serves as the professional symphony chorus for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. As the DSO chorus master, Noah has prepared numerous choirs for music directors Leonard Slatkin and Jader
Bignamini since 2015.
Committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, Noah co-founded and performs with Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble, a group that celebrates racial, ethnic, and gender diversity. The ensemble presents “a rich mix of possibilities” (Cleveland Classical), and its performances and educational outreach efforts have been “inspiring” (The Miscellany News), with “fantastic storytelling.” (Yale Daily News)
As a tenor, Noah has sung with professional choirs and orchestras across the world, including four which have won GRAMMY or Gramophone Awards. A Carnegie Hall concert in which he sang one-on-a-part with the Tallis Scholars was “magnificent…simply beautiful.” (The New York Times)
Corey Shotwell is a tenor specializing in the performance of music from the 14th through the 18th centuries with a particular passion for the music of the 17th and 18th centuries. Known for his frequent performances of Bach, his St. John Passion Evangelist has received high acclaim, being described as sung with “dramatic involvement and seeming ease” and whose “involvement in the text and its declamation was total” (ClevelandClassical.com). Recent season highlights include performances with the Oregon Bach Festival, San Diego Bach Collegium, Bach Akademie Charlotte, Washington Bach Consort, Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra, Carmel Bach Festival, The Newberry Consort, and Alkemie Medieval Music Ensemble. Corey earned his M.M.A. in Early Music, Oratorio, and Chamber Ensemble from the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University. He also holds degrees from Western Michigan University and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Originally from West Michigan, Corey now resides in New Haven, Connecticut. www.coreyshotwell.com.
Board of Directors
Ashley Mulcahy, President
James Perretta, Treasurer and Clerk
Michaela Byrne
Jonathan Juett
Kelsey Lee