ABOUT
About Flying Forms
Flying Forms, formed in 2005, is a baroque chamber music ensemble based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Core members include Marc Levine, baroque violin, Tulio Rondón, baroque cello and viola da gamba, and Tami Morse, harpsichord. In Saint Paul, from 2011-2020, the group presented its own series of concerts each year at The Baroque Room, a performance space the group created in 2011. Programs included complete sets of the Rameau harpsichord concerti, Corelli violin sonatas, J. S. Bach sonatas for violin or viola da gamba with obligato harpsichord, as well as larger programs featuring Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, the triple harpsichord concerti of J. S. Bach, and Handel’s The Messiah. Past performances have included concerts in notable venues and series including New York’s Symphony Space, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Twin Cities Early Music Festival, the DaeJeon Baroque music festival in Seoul, South Korea, and the Boston Early Music Festival, where the group produced a fully-staged production of Henry Purcell’s opera, Dido and Aeneas.
A strong advocate for early music education, Flying Forms has, in addition to many visits and performances at colleges and secondary schools, been in residence with Lawrence University, the University of Wisconsin (Eau Claire), Minnesota Youth Symphonies, and Minnesota Public Radio as Class Notes artists. In these residencies, the group has given masterclasses, coached baroque orchestras and chamber ensembles, performed in side-by-side concerts, given classroom presentations, and ran a complete summer program in baroque music performance.
Flying Forms has been heard regularly on Minnesota Public Radio and is in demand as recitalists in the Twin Cities and across the region. The group also performs contemporary music written for historical instruments and has commissioned many new works for the ensemble or solo harpsichord. A testament to their commitment to new music is their debut CD, New Music for Old Instruments, featuring the music of Paris-based composer Nissim Schaul.
Flying Forms is committed to being a presence that transforms communities and inspires expression through excellence in performance, innovative education, and creative collaboration.
Marc Levine, baroque violin
Marc Levine enjoys a career as a chamber musician and orchestral leader specializing in performances on both modern and baroque violin. On baroque violin, Marc performs with his chamber ensemble, Flying Forms, that, in addition to performing standard and contemporary repertoire, also presents larger scale programs including oratorios and operas. In Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he is based, Marc regularly appears as leader or section member with the Bach Society of Minnesota, Bach Roots Festival, and the Lyra Baroque Orchestra. On modern violin, Marc performs chamber music from all eras on various series, most recently with the Lux String Quartet and on the MacPhail Spotlight Series. With these groups and others, both recorded and live, Marc has been featured many times as a soloist and ensemble player on Minnesota Public Radio. A noted entrepreneur, Marc co-founded The Baroque Room, a performance space in downtown Saint Paul that hosts nearly 50 events each year, and the Saint Paul Classical Music Crawl, an event held four times between 2015-19 featuring the entire city's classical music scene and named one of the top ten classical music events of 2015 by the Saint Paul Pioneer Press.
Marc has recorded for Early Music New York on the Ex Cathedra label, with the Lyra Baroque Orchestra on the Violetear label, and with Flying Forms on a disc of new music written for the group by composer Nissim Schaul. Upcoming recordings with Flying Forms of Platti trios and violin sonatas by Handel, Corelli, Veracini, and Eccles will also be released on Violetear. A prizewinner in the 2008 American Bach Soloists International Competition for Baroque Violin, Marc has played with many noted early music ensembles around the United States and, on both baroque and modern violin, has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Kennedy Center, Symphony Space, Merkin Hall, (le) Poisson Rouge, Yale University, and Orchestra Hall (Minneapolis). In addition to work with Flying Forms as a performer of contemporary music, Marc has been a member of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, performed and recorded with the Center for Contemporary Opera (New York), Etc. Gallery (Chicago), and has collaborated with Saint Paul's own Zeitgeist.
As an educator, Marc has spoken, coached, and presented lecture recitals at universities and in various series on baroque performance practice and entrepreneurship. He also appeared as a pre-concert lecturer for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra from 2017-19. With Flying Forms, Marc has worked with students at Lawrence University, the University of Wisconsin (Eau Claire), Dickinson College, Concordia University, and the University of Minnesota, among others. Also with the group, Marc has held residencies with Minnesota Youth Symphonies and Minnesota Public Radio where he has coached and performed for and with pre-college students. Along with private individual instruction, Marc has served on the faculties of the Saint Paul Conservatory of Music and MacPhail Center for the Arts.
Marc received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Indiana University and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University. He has studied with Franco Gulli, Pamela Frank, Ani Kavafian, the Emerson String Quartet, Sigiswald Kuijken, and Marc Destrubé, among others. Marc plays on a Giovanni Pistucci violin and a Marcelo Vianna Cruz baroque violin.
Tulio Rondón, baroque cello and viola da gamba
Cellist and Gambist Tulio Rondón performs throughout the United States, Europe, Middle East, and North and South America as a soloist and chamber musician. Known for his vivid depth, passionate performances and strong leadership, he started his professional life early as principal cellist of the Aragua Symphony Orchestra in Venezuela. Tulio Rondón's performance career has taken him all over the world, sharing the stage with many internationally celebrated artists.
Tulio Rondón is in demand as a chamber musician and early music specialist. He has been on faculty as the viola da gamba instructor at the White Water Early Music Festival in Wisconsin. He joined the Vancouver Early Music Festival as faculty on viola da gamba and baroque cello alongside Jaap ter Linden in the summer of 2012 and is currently a faculty member of the IMFA (International Music Festival of the Adriatic) in Duino, Italy.
Born in La Victoria, Venezuela, Tulio Rondón began his cello studies through El Sistema, quickly moving up to the highest orchestra by age fifteen. He received his Bachelor of Music from the Simón Bolivar Conservatory, his Master of Music from Miami University (Oxford, OH), and completed a Doctoral Degree in performance at the University of Arizona. Pursuing his strong interest in historic performance practice, he continued his studies in The Netherlands, doing post-graduate studies on baroque cello and viola da gamba with Jaap ter Linden and Rainer Zipperling at The Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Mr. Rondón is currently the violoncello professor at the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire.
Tami Morse, harpsichord
Harpsichordist Tami Morse is active as a soloist and chamber musician in the Midwest and East Coast. With the baroque ensemble Flying Forms, known for innovative, interdisciplinary performances and considered "names to watch" (Berkshire Review for the Arts), Morse has been in residence at Lawrence University, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and with Minnesota Youth Symphonies. A finalist in the Jurow International Harpsichord Competition, she also performs regularly with the Minnesota Bach Ensemble, the Big Apple Baroque Band, the Lyra Baroque Orchestra, the Bach Society of Minnesota, and Glorious Revolution Baroque. Morse has a Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan where she studied with Edward Parmentier and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University where she studied with Arthur Haas. In addition to her studies in the United States, Morse was awarded a DAAD grant, which she used to study at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne with Ketil Haugsand. She is the Executive Director and co-founder of the performance space The Baroque Room in the Lowertown area of downtown Saint Paul.
