Mostly Baroque

Artists

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  Brian Neal

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  “…remarkably warm, singing tone”- Cleveland Classical Review

  Brian Neal is a multifaceted trumpet player who has been displaying his talent on the trumpet for decades. From principal trumpet with the Miami City Ballet Orchestra to premiere trumpet with the Dallas Brass, his career has taken him to Russia, Europe and across the US, where he has performed at diverse venues—from the grand concert halls of Los Angeles and New York to school gymnasiums from Miami to Utquiavik, Alaska.

  Mr. Neal is in his 14th season as a member of the internationally celebrated Dallas Brass, one of America’s foremost musical ensembles, and has appeared with symphony orchestras nationwide. The Dallas Brass has a strong dedication to working with young musicians. With them, Mr. Neal has enjoyed working with hundreds of school band programs in clinics and performances across the nation.

  A consummate soloist, he has been featured with the California Symphony, Monterey Ensemble, Florida Philharmonic, Orchestra Miami, Miami Wind Symphony, Leganes Orchestra, Spain, and most recently performed the Haydn Trumpet Concerto with the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra. He was invited to perform his composition, “Concertante #1” in Carnegie Hall with the Escuela-Conservatorio Orquesta, Manuel Rodriquez Sales de Leganés, Spain, and most recently with the Juneau Symphony.

  Mr. Neal received his training at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City and the University of Miami. During summers, he was a fellow at many of the major music festivals such as Tanglewood, Waterloo, Fountainbleau Conservatory in France, and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival performing with the Meridian Arts Ensemble.

  His composition being performed, "Concertante" was awarded the Southeast regional Emmy for best performance and composition with a multi-national collaboration involving 4 countries in an online performance in 2022.

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  David Hartman

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  Violinist and conductor Dr. David Hartman has been an integral part of the classical and early-music scene in Miami and South Florida for more than forty years. Maestro Hartman was a co-founder and first violinist of the Orpheus String Quartet in the 1980s and early 1990s and served as Co-Concertmaster of the Miami Symphony Orchestra, Concertmaster and soloist of the Broward Symphony Orchestra and principal violin of the Miami Beach Symphony Orchestra.

  He founded the Mostly Baroque Players in 1996 and was the principal violinist and conductor for this period instrument ensemble until 2021 at which time the ensemble reorganized as a not-for-profit organization under the name of Mostly Baroque. Dr. Hartman has produced and performed in scores of concerts across South Florida, New York City, Connecticut, UK and the Bahamas over the past 30 years.

  His principal violin teachers were Maurice Spitalny and Professor George Zazofsky at the University of Miami where he was a full scholarship recipient. He also studied conducting with Dr. Frederick Fennel at UM.

  Dr. Hartman has performed many famous violin concertos over the years including those by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Bach (Brandenburg nos. 2, 3,4 and 5 among others) and Vivaldi (Four Seasons among others).

  Dr. Hartman is very pleased to be able to present the Mostly Baroque Music Festival at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts particularly since he was principal violinist with the Miami Symphony at the Center’s groundbreaking ceremony.

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  Johan Hartman

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  Johan Hartman, bass-baritone, is a graduate of both NEC's undergraduate program and CCM's graduate program. He has worked with a number of professional opera companies, most recently performing the role of Colline in Florida l'opera and Zarzuela's production of La Boheme and the role of Uberto in Mostly Baroque's production of La Serva Padrona. He has also worked as a young artist at Sarasota Opera in Sarasota Florida under the tutelage of Maestro DeRenzi.

  His list of operatic roles is extensive, including Mozart operas such as Leporello from Don Giovanni and Sarastro from Magic Flute, to the operas of Richard Strauss (Truffaldin in Ariadne auf Naxos) . He’s performed some of the earliest operas ever written, such as Seneca from Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, to premiering new operas, such as playing The Hunter in Timothy Ayres-Kerr’s Game of Werewolf.

  As a composer, he has written three song-cycles, Blood and the Moon, Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister, and Love and Death, which are settings of poetry by W.B. Yeats, Robert Browning, and Lord Byron respectively. He also set Part One of Yeats’ epic poem, The Wanderings of Oisin. Most recently he has written a one-act chamber opera entitled The Signal Man, with a libretto based on Charles Dickens’ short-story of the same name.

  He has also stage-directed three operas, most recently having directed Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors.

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  Yi-Chun Sarah Tsai

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  Yi-Chun Sarah Tsai was born and grew up in Taichung City, Taiwan. Since early childhood, Sarah has been drawn to music and singing. She started learning the piano at age 4 and began taking voice lessons at 12.

  She has studied in some of the best music schools in Taiwan and the United States. In 2021, she received her master's degree at the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) at University of Cincinnati and in 2025 received her doctoral degree in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.

  Sarah is an experienced performer in both opera and concert repertoire. Her many roles include that of Minskwoman in Dove’s Flight, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, The Mother in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, Serpina in Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona, and Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel. She has performed in venues across the world, from South Forida to the Midwest, Boston to Berlin, and even Japan and Taiwan.