Mary Springfels (viola da gamba) has been Musician-in-Residence at the Newberry Library since 1982 and is the founder and director of the Newberry Consort. A veteran of the Early Music Movement in America, she has performed and recorded extensively with such ensembles as the NY Pro Musica, The Waverly Consort, Concert Royal, Sequentia, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Music of the Baroque, Musica Sacra, the Marlborough Festival, the New York City Opera, and Chicago Opera Theater, where she also serves as an artistic advisor. This year she will return to the NY City Opera to play in their new production of Monteverdi's Il Ritorno de Ulysse in Patria, and will make her first appearence as a soloist at the Bethlehem Bach Festival. In Chicago, Ms Springfels is on the faculty at Northwestern University, and is much in demand as a teacher and player in summer festivals throughout the US, among them the San Francisco, Madison, and Amhearst Early Music Festivals, and the Conclave of the Viola da Gamba Society of America. She can be heard on over 20 recordings, 9 of which on the harmonia mundi usa lable are critically acclaimed Newberry Consort projects.