Musicians | Seven Times Salt

Karen Burciaga (Renaissance violin, treble viol, mezzo-soprano)Karen Burciaga earned an MM in Early Music Performance from the Longy School of Music, studying Baroque violin with Dana Maiben and viol with Jane Hershey. She holds a BM from Vanderbilt University, where she first began playing early strings. She has performed with The King’s Noyse, Cambridge Concentus, Exsultemus, Arcadia Players, Newton Baroque, and other period ensembles throughout New England. Karen is a founding member of Seven Times Salt, and Long & Away, a viol consort. With those ensembles she has researched and presented original programs at the Boston, Bloomington, and Amherst Early Music Festivals. Karen studied historical dance with Ken Pierce, Dorothy Olson and Kaspar Mainz and has enjoyed dancing in several period opera productions. She taught on the string faculty of the Texas TOOT, and currently serves on the board of the Viola da Gamba Society, New England chapter. When not fiddling, Karen contra dances and plays 1920′s songs on the ukulele.

Daniel Meyers (recorders, flutes, bagpipes, percussion, baritone)

Dan Meyers holds a Master of Music degree in Early Music Performance from the Longy School of Music, and BA degrees in Music and English literature from Whitman College. A versatile multi-instrumentalist performing throughout the eastern US, he has also been featured at venues in the UK and Ireland, where he received a Watson Fellowship to study the Irish uilleann pipes. In addition to Seven Times Salt, he performs regularly with the Boston-based 7 Hills Renaissance Wind Band, and has played with the Boston Shawm and Sackbut Ensemble, Schola Cantorum, the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra, the viol consort Long and Away, Ensemble Trinitas, El Fuego, and the Cambridge Revels. He teaches for the Boston Recorder Society and Early Music MetroWest, and is Assistant Music Director at the UU Church of Greater Lynn in Swampscott, MA. Equally comfortable in the classical and folk music worlds, he also performs southern Italian music with the award-winning band Newpoli, and traditional Irish music with a number of different groups. (For more information on his piping activites, visit The Piper’s Page ).

Joshua Schreiber Shalem (viola da gamba, bass)

Josh grew up playing the cello, and studied it at Bennington College with Maxine Newman, graduating with a BA in 1994. While there, he was a member of the Early Music Ensemble, where he first became acquainted with the viola da gamba. Chronic hand pain necessitated a hiatus in his playing activities, until he discovered the Feldenkrais Method®. Now a Guild-Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner, Josh has a private practice with an emphasis on functional movement for musicians. Josh holds an MM in Early Music Performance from the Longy School of Music and performs around the Boston area with ensembles such as the viol consort Long & Away, Musica Nuova, Capella Clausura and Meravelha. He is on the faculty of the World Fellowship Early Music Week, where he teaches both music and Feldenkrais. Josh is also active in Boston’s Jewish community as an educator and cantorial soloist.

Matthew Wright (lute, cittern, guitar, tenor)

Matthew Wright is a native of Maryland. There, he attended the Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore, and studied classical guitar with Ray Chester and lute with Mark Cudek. Upon moving to Cambridge in 1999, Matt began concentrating on the lute, studying with Douglas Freundlich at The Longy School of Music, and subsequently receiving an MM in Early Music Performance. He has performed as a solo lutenist and continuo player for various ensembles and soloists throughout the Eastern U.S. He is also former choir director of Church of the Incarnation, Cambridge, where he incorporated rare sacred works for lute and voice. To enhance the repertoire of lute and voice, Matt has arranged several works that transcend tradition. Also an accomplished electric bass player, he does freelance work in rock bands, as well as teaching the instrument. As a teacher of guitar, he currently has students at Riverside Theatre Works, Hyde Park, and Indian Hill Music School, Littleton.