Meet Ensemble Benedictus
Compared to the average 21st-century American, we spend a good amount of time in the 14th century.
Tina Chancey
Producer, vielle, rebec, kamenj, percussion, arranger
Tina is the director of HESPERUS. She plays medieval bowed strings, violas da gamba, pardessus de viola and renaissance, Old Time and Irish fiddle on roots music from Sephardic and Irish to medieval and jazz standards. Her particular specialty is the five-stringed pardessus de viole; she has presented solo recitals at Carnegie Recital Hall and Kennedy Center, and released five pardessus recordings. A member of the Chancey-Boekhoorn Duo, Trio Pardessus, Trio Sefardi, the contradance band Are We There Yet?, the women’s collective Passio, and HESPImprov, she is a former member of the Folger Consort, the Ensemble for Early Music and Blackmore’s Night. Artist residencies have taken her to Australia, Turkey, France, Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand and Hong Kong, and she has presented workshops for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Resident Associates. She teaches, performs, records, improvises, produces recordings, writes articles and directs the SoundCatcher workshops teaching musicians how to play by ear. Dr. Chancey has been given an Special Education Achievement Award by Early Music America and four Wammies for best classical instrumentalist by the Washington Area Music Association. www.tinachancey.com
Elisabeth Ellison
Vielle, Percussion, Arranger
is an award-winning double bassist who also holds a graduate Certificate in Medieval Music Performance Practice and is the originator of this album project. Additional bio is HERE. Elisabeth is a firsthand pilgrim, having recently walked the Camino de Santiago, playing music from the early centuries of the pilgrim route along the way.
Al Cofrin
lute, oud, citole, shawm, crumhorn, arranger
is the founder and leader of the long-running medieval-music ensemble Istanpitta. He holds a MM in musicology from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and has published three volumes of performance editions of medieval music, as well as numerous albums. He spent his early years in England, did a double major in jazz bass and aerospace engineering at University of Texas, and is an international performer in multiple genres while concurrently on the International Space Station team at NASA.
Martha Gay
Harp
studied archaeology at Oxford University, then elected to go into music performance, and is the founder (1980) and leader of the Renaissance/crossover ensemble Cantiga, which brings early music to live audiences of hundreds of thousands annually, and has released 9 albums. A firsthand pilgrim, she has walked the Camino de Santiago with her harp, playing medieval music along the route.
Stepanie Gudeman
Recorders, Shawm
studied early music extensively in Seattle with Dr James Paul, co-founder of the Conservatory of Music and the Academy of Music Northwest earning her degree in Early Music performance. She also studied at San Diego City and State Colleges. She taught early music briefly at the Living History Center and studied with Thomas Axworthy of the Southern California Early Music Consort. Stephanie plays 20 instruments professionally, specializing in early double-reeds, woodwinds and voice. Stephanie also plays steelpan drum with the popular group Salsa Steel Drum Band. She has been featured on over 75 recording projects and films. She is currently touring 7 months out of the year performing for fairs and festivals across the Pacific Northwest, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
Ben Kerswell
Baritone
Ben Kerswell serves as Cantor of Christ the King Lutheran Church and Associate Director of Bach Society Houston. He is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Organ Performance at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where he studies with and completed his Master of Music in Organ Performance under Ken Cowan. While at St. Olaf College, a school of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, he studied organ with Dr. Catherine Rodland and previously with Joanne Rodland. As a member of the St. Olaf Choir, he sang with the group, served as an accompanist, and served as the bass section leader. While his time in the choir made a lasting impression in many ways, he is especially thankful to have found his wife Amy through the experience.
An active recitalist, Ben performed as a Rising Star at the 2018 National AGO Convention in Kansas City, and he was a semi-finalist in the 2020 National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance before its cancellation. He previously was Organ Scholar at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas and the Church of St. Louis, King of France in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Paul Ellison
Double Bass
Double bassist and pedagogue Paul Ellison has been teaching at Rice University in Houston, Texas USA since 1974 and is the Lynette B. Autry Professor of Double Bass at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, where he also serves as co-chair of the string department. He is a regular Guest Lecturer at the Royal College of Music and the Yehudi Menuhin School, a former Principal Double Bass of the Houston Symphony and Houston Grand Opera, former professor and string department chair of the USC Thornton School of Music, former faculty of The Colburn School in Los Angeles, California, and a past president of the International Society of Bassists. Paul is married to double bassist Elisabeth Ellison.
Maxwell Magallón
Soprano
Maxwell is a 6th-grade student at Wharton Dual-Language Academy. He began his musical journey at the age of 6 by following his older brother’s path into the Houston Boychoir, where he quickly developed a passion for choral music and had the opportunity to perform solos while touring around the city and across the country. Maxwell has also performed with the Houston Grand Opera, joining the children's chorus in the 2022 production of Turandot and the 2025 production of La bohème. Additionally, he performed with Opera in the Heights in their 2024 production of La bohème. Outside of singing, Maxwell enjoys playing the cello, piano, and, of course, video games.
Barry Sills
Middle English Narration
Barrett Sills, prizewinning cellist in competitions in Germany, France, and Brazil, is also a recognized artist on Baroque cello and viola da gamba,. As a scholarship student at Yale University, he was the first recipient of the prestigious Maxwell Belding Award given by the Yale School of Music. He performed with the Nouvel Philharmonic of Radio France in Paris and taught at the Conservatoire National de Boulogne-Billancourt. He has performed chamber music throughout France and Germany and toured Japan with the New York Symphonic Ensemble. As recitalist, he toured South America as an Artistic Ambassador. In Houston he performs regularly with Ars Lyrica Houston, Bach Society, and St. Cecilia Chamber Music. He is co-founder and artistic director of Camerata Ventapane which presents concerts in Houston and Mexico. For six consecutive years he was artistic director of the Festival de Musica Barroca in San Miguel de Allende. He is principal cellist of Houston Ballet and has been principal cellist of Houston Grand Opera since 2001.