The Washington Early Music Society (WEMS) was formed in 2003 by several leading early music groups in the Washington, DC area to promote and publicize early music in the Washington DC area and to develop early music projects of mutual interest. It's first major project is to create a festival of early music in the Washington DC area -- to provide an opportunity for members of our community to experience the excitement of live performances of several centuries of beautiful but often neglected music. One of its goals is to make this music widely accessible by pricing tickets affordably and selecting venues that are easy to get to and near other things of interest such as restaurants, museums, and shops. The Society hopes to make this festival a tradition in the Washington area. Founding member organizations are: Armonia Nova, Constance Whiteside Director; Chantry, David Taylor director; Orchestra of the 17th Century, Michael Holmes director; Stylus Luxurians; and Washington Cornett & Sackbutt Ensemble, Michael Holmes director.

Michael Holmes, early winds, began his career as a professional French hornist, but has gradually shifted his interests toward early music performance and conducting. He has performed on various historical instruments including recorders and sackbut, with ensembles such as Stylus Luxurians, the Washington Bach Consort, the Bach Sinfonia, the Washington Baroque Trio, and Abendmusiken at the Amherst Early Music Festival. He received coaching in early music performance from Daniel LaSalle, Jean-Pierre Canihac, Wim Becu and William Dongois. Mr. Holmes serves as music director and principal conductor of the Orchestra of the 17th Century and as artistic director of the Washington Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble, one of the USA's premiere period brass ensembles. He has performed extensively as a conductor in Europe, leading symphonic and opera performances with ensembles in Finland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, and Bulgaria. While continuing his performing career, Mr. Holmes is pursing his Ph.D. in musicology at the University of Maryland, where he has recently been appointed as Director of the UMCP Collegium Musicum.

Cheryl Stafford, founder and Artistic Director of The Court Dancers for 22 years is a professional dancer, singer, director and choreographer, and has been researching, performing and teaching historical dance since 1978. Classically trained in Ballet, Modern Dance and Voice at the University of Cincinnati Conservatory, she also studied with many noted scholars and authors, and performed with the Court Dance Company of New York as a guest artist on several occasions. She currently serves on the Board for the Maryland Council for Dance, is Vice President for Dance Performance, and Chair of the Heritage Committee, for the National Dance Association. Ms Stafford danced in the PBS/BBC Television Series "Dancing," and can be seen performing historical dance clips on the "American Memories" web pages of the Library of Congress. She has performed at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center and with numerous early music ensembles across the United States. Ms Stafford has reconstructed/choreographed many historical Opera/Ballets, as well as presented over 250 historical dance performances nationwide. Ms. Stafford is a founding member of the Washington Early Music Society.

David Taylor, Chantry's founder and music director, holds a D.Mus.A. degree in choral literature and performance from the University of Colorado, and a M.Mus. degree in conducting from the University of Maryland. He was the founding music director of Musicorum, a southern Minnesota early music ensemble, spent 15 years as a college choral director, and is a former member of the Choir of Men and Boys of Washington Cathedral and former Assistant Conductor of the University of Maryland Chorus, and a present member of the Parish Choir at St. Paul's K Street. Chantry sings much of its repertoire from performing editions prepared by Dr. Taylor.

Constance Whiteside, medieval, renaissance and baroque harps, performs and discusses music from the 12th through 17th centuries on historical re-creations of harps that existed when this music was new. In her lectures and performances, she describes and demonstrates the special tunings, stringing and techniques used on these harps. Her various harps include a gothic style medieval harp, the "Bosch" harp, made by Rainer Thurau of Germany, a single row renaissance harp, the "Boston", re-created from a 17th century original now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and a baroque double-strung harp re-created from an original 17th C. instrument in a museum in Brussels. A highly knowledgeable specialist, scholar and performer on historic harps, she has performed at the Berkeley and Boston Early Music Festivals and with such acclaimed groups as Chanticleer. Originally trained on modern pedal harp by Anne Adams, she continues free-lance pedal harp performance in the Washington D.C. area. Dr. Whiteside, a physician and graduate of Stanford University, and former tenured faculty in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of California Davis, was a founding member of Musica Coelorum, a medieval ensemble based in northern California and is a founding member of Armonia Nova. She performs on baroque harp with the Orchestra of the 17th Century and the Washington Cornett & Sackbutt Ensemble. She is Chair of the Historical Harp Survey, a research project designed to identify and record details of harps built before 1945, and former editor of the Historical Harp Society Journal.