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.


Mary Benton is a founding member of the viola da gamba consort La Spirita.  She has also performed for more than 25 years with the Engelchor Consort and plays vielle and harp with the medieval group Armonia. She was a music librarian at Westminster Choir College for more than 10 years and now does music editing including a recently published edition of Dowland's A Pilgrimes Solace, 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 and later, 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, and as a founding member of the Guild for Early Music.


Front row (from left to right)
Amy Warren received her degree in music from Amherst College, where she studied viola da gamba with Alice Robbins, and viola with Janet Lyman Hill. She has since studied viola da gamba with Margriet Tindemans in Seattle and Rosamund Morley in New Jersey. She was the principal violist for the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra and the Anchorage Opera, and sang alto and played viola da gamba with the Anchorage Vocal Ensemble. She currently performs with La Spirita and The Gloria Consort, and has made appearances with La Fiocco, Triomphe de l'Amour, and Voices vocal ensemble inPhiladelphia.

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). She is presently taking voice lessons with early music vocal specialist Julianne Baird.