Leadership & Administration

Artistic Director – Oboist, early music specialist, and musicologist Billy Traylor, a native of Denham Springs, Louisiana, is a student in the doctoral program in musicology at the University of North Texas. He holds diplomas in oboe and bassoon performance from the University of New Orleans (BA 2001) and Northwestern State University of Louisiana (MM 2004), and earned a Master of Science in Information Studies from the University of Texas at Austin (archival and library science). He also studied period oboes and keyboards at Indiana University’s Historical Performance Institute.

Mr. Traylor is the Artistic Director of the Austin Baroque Orchestra and Chorus, a period-instrument orchestra and choir based in Austin, Texas, which he founded in 2011, and in which he plays baroque oboe, recorder, and harpsichord. He also performs regularly with La Follia Austin Baroque, Texas Early Music Project (Austin), American Baroque Opera Company (Dallas), Dallas Bach Society, Orchestra of New Spain (Dallas), Lumedia Musicworks (Dallas), and Texas Camerata (Ft. Worth). He has studied historical oboes with Washington McClain (late, Indiana University) and Debra Nagy, modern oboe with James Ryon (University of North Texas, emeritus) and Tony Smith (Northwestern State University, emeritus), organ with Dr. Mary deVille (Northwestern State University), and harpsichord and fortepiano with Elisabeth Wright (Indiana University, emerita). He has performed with both modern- and period-instrument chamber ensembles and orchestras in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Indiana, and has participated in a number of summer workshops and festivals, including the Berwick Academy at the Oregon Bach Festival, the American Bach Soloists Academy and the Amherst Early Music Festival Baroque Academy.

As a musicologist, his research focuses upon the music and culture of 16th-, 17th-, and 18th-century Spain, Portugal, and Latin America, and 18th-century New France, with particular interests in 17th-century Portuguese sacred music, musical life at the court of Ferdinand VI of Spain, and Oaxaca Cathedral (Mexico) in the 18th century. Other research interests include the politics of Portuguese fado music in the 20th century, the history and development of the oboe, and the music and life of the New Orleans-born composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk. As an editor, he regularly produces performing editions of long-forgotten sacred works from Iberian and Latin American archives, and has also worked extensively upon the Manuscrit des Ursulines, the only extant music manuscript from colonial New Orleans. He has presented his research at major conferences including the American Musical Instrument Society and the American Musicological Society.

Co-Concertmaster – Stephanie Noori has been playing violin since she was 4 years old. However it was her teacher Deirdre Ward, one of the violin faculty at Chetams School of Music and a modern and baroque violinist, that helped inspire her to take up music professionally.

In 2006, Stephanie moved back to the U.S. in order to pursue a BM in modern violin performance at the University of North Texas with Dr. Igor Borodin and Julia Bushkova and in 2007 she was one of the winners of the UNT Concerto Competition with Shotakovich’s Violin Concerto No.1 in A minor under the direction of Maestro Anshel Brusilow.

Whilst at UNT, Stephanie actively participated in the baroque program, initially starting baroque violin lessons with Cynthia Roberts and then viola da gamba with Pat Nordstrom and Allen Whear. In 2009 and 2011 she had the opportunity to perform with the UNT Baroque Orchestra at BEMF (Boston Early Music Festival)

In 2011 Stephanie continued her education at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under the direction of Stanley Ritchie and the EMI (Early Music Institute) faculty where, in 2013, she obtained a Master of Music in Early Music Performance. Most recently, she won the Indianapolis Baroque Concerto Competition with Vivaldi’s Concerto for 3 Violins in F major and performed with the IBO.

Additionally, Stephanie has played with ensembles such as the Denton Bach Society, Orchestra of New Spain, Austin Baroque Orchestra, San Francisco Bach Choir, Ascolti, Vox Reflexa, Exordium, Aston Magna, and Mountainside Baroque. Currently, Stephanie is an active member of the viol consort Les Touches, with whom she recently appeared as a finalist at the York Early Music International Young Artists’ Competition in the UK.

Co-Concertmaster — Edmond Chan, a native of Corpus Christi, Texas, has performed with many early music ensembles and orchestras in the United States, Europe, and Hong Kong, some of which include Tempesta di Mare: Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra, Austin Baroque Orchestra, Brandywine Baroque, the Dryden Ensemble, the Washington National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra, Holland Baroque, l’arte del mondo Köln, and the Early Music Society of Hong Kong. He is also a first prize winner in the 2022 International Clara Schumann Competition.

He holds a master’s degree in Baroque violin from the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht: Utrechts Conservatorium in the Netherlands where he studied with Antoinette Lohmann. His master’s thesis entitled “The Fashionable Violinist: Fashion and How to Hold the Violin in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries” explores the relationship between 17th and 18th century clothing and period violin performance, and how this relationship can better inform historical violinists (and historical musicians in general) on performance practice techniques. Edmond also holds an Artist’s Certificate in Baroque violin from the Koninklijk Conservatorium den Haag (the Royal Conservatory at the Hague) where he studied with Kati Debretzeni and Walter Reiter.

Edmond has taught and lectured at conservatories and universities in Europe and the United States along with workshops in Ecuador and Hong Kong. When Edmond is not teaching, performing, or continuing his research into historical clothing, he enjoys cooking, swimming, running, going on bike rides, and playing board/card/computer games with friends and family.

Chorusmaster — Hannah McGinty is a Boulder, Colorado-based soprano and musicologist who specializes in historically-informed performance. She currently serves as a staff singer at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Denver. She previously served in the same position as Soprano Section Leader/Soloist at St. Louis King of France Catholic Church and The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, both in Austin, TX. She sings as a professional soloist and chorister with the St. Martin’s Chamber Choir of Denver, Ars Nova Boulder, Evans Choir, Seicento Baroque Ensemble, Elus Ensemble, Austin Baroque Orchestra & Choir (with whom she also acts as Chorusmaster), the Texas Early Music Project, Ars Longa Enesmble, and Austin Cantorum. Hannah received her Masters of Music in Early Music Voice (Historical Performance Institute) under Dr. Steven Rickards, and her Master of Arts in Musicology at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University. While in Bloomington, she served as a Choral Scholar at Trinity Episcopal Church and directed and sung in the Burgundian Consort, a chamber choir dedicated to well-researched performances of Renaissance choral music.

A native of Santa Monica, California, Hannah began her musical studies at age four with piano, adding violin and voice lessons at age ten. Hannah attended the University of Chicago, where she received her B.A. in Music with Honors, completing a senior thesis on orientalism in Handel and Vivaldi opera under the direction of Dr. Martha Feldman. While at the University, Hannah served as soprano section leader in Motet Choir, Choral Scholar in the Rockefeller Chapel Choir, and directed and sang in the University of Chicago Camerata, a Renaissance a cappella choir. Teachers while at the University included Ellen Hargis, Lorian Stein-Schwaber, Patrice Michaels, and Tambra Black. Hannah has attended many summer programs, including the Cambridge Early Music Summer Schools, Tallis Scholars Summer School, Michael Chance’s Sienagosto Academy, and Amherst Early Music Festival’s Ensemble Singing Intensive & Baroque Academy Soloist Program. In the summer of 2015 she was the featured soloist in Triora Musica’s semi-staged production of the 1589 Florentine Intermedi, directed by Deborah Roberts. She has also performed twice at La Petite Bande’s Summer Academy under the baton of Sigiswald Kuijken, as Constanza in Haydn’s opera L’isola Disabitata, and as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro.

Hannah has participated in masterclasses with Judith Malafronte, Max von Egmond, Aaron Sheehan, Melissa Givens, Christine Brandes, Nigel North, Josefien Steppelenburg, and Julianne Baird. When not singing (!), Hannah enjoys daily yoga practice, hiking, cooking, and reading.

Visual Design and Media – Jennifer Davis joined the ensemble during its second season. She designs posters, handbills, and group promotional materials, and contributes to publicity outreach efforts, coordination of concert ticket sales with group administrator. Ms. Davis has been designing professionally in Austin for more than 20 years. After earning her BFA in graphic design from the University of Texas in the late 80’s, she spent nearly 10 years working as a graphic designer and art director for Austin luminary Richard Garriott at Origin System and NCSoft. Retiring from the gaming industry in 2004, she earned a BA in vocal performance at Texas State University and began to be active in the Austin area as a singer, musician, actress, theater director, and costumer. She has been nominated for multiple B. Iden Payne awards, has won an Austin Critic’s Table award for her musical, and artistic contributions to Austin Theater, and is an award-winning theatrical costumer and set designer. She is the founder and Managing Director of The Archive Theatre Company, a professional theatrical troupe based in Austin that presents theatrical masterworks from the past five centuries, as well as original productions and adaptations of literary works.

Webmaster & Technological Director – Aaron LaBrie assists with logistical matters in running the ensemble in addition to his tech duties. An Austin resident for ten years, he began attending the University of Texas at Austin in 2010, where he majored in Computer Science. He began working in the Austin high-tech community in 2012, and while still at UT he exhibited software at SXSW Interactive 2014. He now works for one of the world’s leading email technology companies, for whom he builds software utilized by millions of users across the world.

Aaron discovered ABO through word of mouth in 2013 and offered his website services soon thereafter. On concert day, he helps to manage the production aspects of the performance, including setup and teardown, ticket sales, wrangling recording equipment, and even the occasional night of catering.