Photograph by Barbara Hill
Meravelha was formed in 2012 in Boston for the purpose of making medieval music accessible to a wider audience through live performances. Using music, poetry, and movement, the ensemble tells stories that reflect themes illustrated within the songs and cultures of the 11th-15th centuries. The name “Meravelha,” which translates as “marvel” or “wonder” was taken from the song “Non es meravelha s’eu chan” (It is no wonder that I sing) by Bernard de Ventadorn, a 12th-century troubadour.
Meravelha frequently performs self-produced concerts around the Greater Boston area, and has also appeared at the 2013 IBERICA Early Music Festival, in a fringe concert at the 2013 Boston Early Music Festival, and on the SoHIP Summer Concert Series in 2014 and 2016.
Current Ensemble Members
Teri Kowiak, artistic director
A graduate of the Longy School of Music’s Master’s in Early Music Program, Teri Kowiak specializes in the historically-inspired performance of medieval, renaissance and baroque music while also performing a wide range of styles including classical, jazz, traditional Irish/Celtic, and premiering new compositions. Her repertoire spans from the chants of Hildegard von Bingen to Samuel Barber to James Bond Movie themes to newly-composed choral works. She greatly enjoys vocal improvisation in many styles and collaborative composition via improvisation.
She is a featured vocalist on the premier solo album “Redline” by bagpiper Michael McNutt (of Cu Dubh) and has performed with Cappella Clausura, the Seraphim Singers, Red Shift (Baton Rouge, LA), Lorelei, the Harvard Early Music Society, and the choir of the Church of Our Saviour in Brookline, MA.
She is the lead singer of the eclectic band Night’s Blackbird, for whom she has written lyrics and melodies.
Outside of performing, Teri loves to help others make music. She runs a thriving private voice studio, gives workshops on performance practice, and provides choral coaching to local ensembles. She is also a librettist and writer of speculative fiction.
Barbara Allen Hill, executive director
Highly regarded for her artistry and versatility, Barbara specializes in performing and recording the music of the Middle Ages through the present day. Recent solo performances include Mozart's Coronation Mass (soprano), Pergolesi's Stabat Mater Dolorosa (soprano), Richard Clark's Te Deum (soprano), as well as concert appearances with Seven Times Salt, Hesperus, The Henry Purcell Society of Boston, and the Cambridge Christmas Revels. As an ensemble member, she performs with Ensemble Altera, Emmanuel Music, and the GRAMMY-winning ensemble The Crossing. An enthusiastic supporter of new music, she especially enjoys the opportunity to premiere and record new works. Highlights include recording Gavin Bryars: The Fifth Century (2018 GRAMMY Award for Best Choral Performance), premiering Julia Wolfe’s “Fire in my mouth” with the NY Philharmonic and The Crossing in January 2019, and she was thrilled to make her Carnegie Hall debut as the mezzo-soprano soloist in Heidi Breyer’s “Amor Aeternus: A Requiem for the Common Man” in July 2022.
Barbara is a member of Beyond Artists and donates a portion of her artistic earnings to organizations such as 350.org. (beyondartists.com)
barbaraahill.com
Jaya Lakshminarayanan
Described as “a stunning soprano…moving and charismatic” by the Boston Musical Intelligencer, Jaya Lakshminarayanan has appeared in concert series and dramatic productions throughout New England and in Pennsylvania, Portugal and Italy. Her stage credits extend from the twelfth century to the twenty-first, and include Procris in Jacquet de la Guerre’s Cephale et Procris, Pirithous in Conradi’s Die schöne und getreue Ariadne, and Castitas and Misericordia in Hildegard of Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum. She has appeared as a soloist with the Philharmonic Society of Arlington, Seven Times Salt, and the Andover Choral society, and as a chorister has sung with the Handel and Haydn Society and the Choir of the Church of the Advent. As a harpist, she has performed with the Boston Christmas Revels and the Wellesley Collegium, and as a Jeopardy! contestant she lost, but still effected what may be the first ever mention of a vielle on syndicated television. She holds degrees from Chatham College and the Longy School of Music.
Dan Meyers
Multi-instrumentalist Dan Meyers has developed a reputation as a flexible performer of both classical and folk music; his credits range from headlining a concert series at the Newport Folk Festival to playing Renaissance instruments on Broadway as part of the “band” for Shakespeare’s Globe. He is a founding member of the early music/folk group Seven Times Salt, as well as the 7 Hills Renaissance Wind Band. In recent seasons he has appeared with the The Folger Consort (Washington DC), The Newberry Consort (Chicago), Early Music New York, La Follia Baroque (Austin), the viol consort Long and Away, and the Cambridge Revels. He teaches historical wind instruments for the Five Colleges Early Music Program, and has taught for Early Music Week at Pinewoods and at Tufts University. He also performs southern Italian folk music with the award-winning band Newpoli, and traditional Irish music with the bands Ulster Landing and Ishna.
Catherine Stein
In high school, Catherine Stein, mezzo, used to go to her best friends' house after school to sing madrigals. Then at UNCG, where she studied the oboe and completed her B.A. in music history, she found her people in the Collegium Musicum, UNCG's period performance ensemble under the direction of Patricia Petersen and later Elaine Peterson. She then attended the Longy School of Music for her Master of Music in Early Music Performance, studying Baroque oboe with Stephen Hammer, Renaissance reeds with Daniel Stillman, and early vocal performance with Laurie Monahan. In addition to Meravelha, she plays shawm, dulcian, and recorder with the Seven Hills Renaissance Wind Band, and freelances on the Baroque oboe. By day, she is a web developer for Wayfair.com. By night, she can often be found at home in Somerville with her husband Matthew, daughter Cora, and cat Damon.