La Spirita - Viola da Gamba Consort

Meet the Ensemble Members

(back row from left to right)

Patricia Hlafter is a founding member of both La Spirita Consort of Viols and The Engelchor Consort, a mixed  ensemble of early string and wind instruments. Her music studies began at age four on piano with Adeline Brall in Philadelphia and later on organ with Robert Rosenberger of Philadelphia and Joan Lippincott at Westminster Choir College in Princeton. She studies the viola da gamba with Rosamund Morley of Brooklyn, NY. Ms. Hlafter is a founder and board member of The Guild for Early Music. She served as choir director at The Lutheran Church of the Messiah in Princeton, NJ from 1998 through August of 2005.

Lynn Fergusson joined La Spirita in 2006 when she returned to the States after a 30-year hiatus in Basel, Switzerland. She has a performance degree on viola da gamba with a minor on baroque cello from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, an institute specializing in music before the 19th century. She also studied voice and took courses in choral conducting.  Since her return she has concertized with the Washington Bach Consort, Tempesta di Mare (Philadelphia), Le Triomphe de l’amour and the Dryden Ensemble (Princeton).

David Moulton received Bachelors and Masters degrees with distinction in cello performance from the University of Michigan. He has served as Principal Cellist in the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and the Aspen Chamber Symphony, and has performed at the Colorado, Aspen, and Spoleto Italy Music Festivals. Currently Mr. Moulton is a member of the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra, and is Principal Cellist of the Allentown Symphony. He also performs regularly with the Northeastern Pennsylvania Phiharmonic, as well as the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. Mr. Moulton's other chamber music activities include the Lukens Piano Trio, the period instrument ensemble Bethlehem Baroque, and the mixed strings and winds ensemble Satori. He is a faculty member at Muhlenberg College, Allentown, and Lafayetter College, Easton.

(front row from left to right)

Mary Benton is a founding member of La Spirita. She also performed for more than 25 years with the Engelchor Consort and plays vielle and harp with the medieval group Armonia. She holds a Masters Degree in Musicology and in Library and Information Science and was a music librarian at Westminster Choir College for more than 10 years. She has studied viola da gamba with Rosamund Morley and vielle with Margriet Tindemans and Shira Kamman. In addition, she now does music editing including an edition of Dowland's A Pilgrimes Solace, and the 15th century Chansonair Bolgnia Q16 and Will Ayton's The Ballad of the Rosemary.  

Judith Klotz has performed with La Spirita since its inception in 1994. She has sung with Dessoff Choirs and several Renaissance vocal ensembles. Her early studies included piano and theory at the Juilliard school. She has studied viol with Rosamund Morley (Parthenia, New York). Judy has presented workshops for early instrument players on the language and theory of music for enhancing enjoyment and expressiveness in ensemble playing.  She is also active in English Country Dancing, as a docent at Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton NJ, and as a founding member of the Guild for Early Music.