Currently serving together on the faculty of the Wanda L. Bass School of Music of Oklahoma City University, the Highlands Duo began performing together in 2009 in Freiburg, Germany, where violinist Benjamin Shute and harpsichordist Anastasia Abu Bakar were studying at the Hochschule für Musik. During their time in Freiburg and subsequently in Frankfurt, they were mentored by leading members of the Freiberger Barockorchester, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Musica Antiqua Köln, Berliner Barock Solisten, and La Stagione Frankfurt. The duo has performed at European venues including Schlosskonzerte Bad Krozingen and Schlossfestspiele Marburg and performed at American institutions including the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, Dickinson College, Southeast Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma Baptist University, and Ouachita Baptist University.
Our instruments
One of the fascinating things about musical performance is that the sound you hear is a result of a mysterious collaboration between the voice of the performers and those of the instruments they play on. Ben plays on an anonymous old Saxon violin and uses an English-model baroque bow by Harry Grabenstein and an anonymous French classical bow. Anastasia's instrument is a 1981 Flemish double-manual harpsichord by David Sutherland.
One of the fascinating things about musical performance is that the sound you hear is a result of a mysterious collaboration between the voice of the performers and those of the instruments they play on. Ben plays on an anonymous old Saxon violin and uses an English-model baroque bow by Harry Grabenstein and an anonymous French classical bow. Anastasia's instrument is a 1981 Flemish double-manual harpsichord by David Sutherland.
Anastasia Abu Bakar is harpsichord instructor and director of the early music ensemble at Oklahoma City University. She studied at the conservatories of Freiburg (BM), Florence, and Frankfurt (MM), where her teachers included Robert Hill, Alfonso Fedi, and Eva Maria Pollerus, also working closely with Jesper Christensen. She has performed as soloist with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Janus Ensemble Freiburg, Tactus, Oklahoma Virtuosi, and others. Recital appearances include the Museo San Marco (Florence), "Notte Bianca" Festival Florence, Schlosskonzerte Bad Krozingen, and, most recently, Bach's complete Goldberg Variations at Oklahoma City University. In 2013 she was selected to participate as soloist in a CD project produced by the Hessian Ministry of Science and the Arts commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Paul Hindemith's death. As a chamber musician, she has collaborated with Friedemann Immer, Michael Schneider, and a host of young artists of her generation, including Tabea Debus, Lorenzo Gabriele, and Steuart Pincombe. She has also served as a répétiteur for theater and oratorio productions including Scarlatti’s La Colpa, il Pentimento, la Grazia for the 2013 Rheingau Musik Festival. A specialist in the various national styles of basso continuo, she has published realizations for Blavet’s Op. 2 sonatas as well as J. S. Bach's D-major Sinfonia (BWV 1045) and youthful G-minor fugue for violin and continuo (BWV 1026) though PRB Productions.
Violinist Benjamin Shute began performing on period instruments as a teenager after attending the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute. During subsequent studies at the New England Conservatory (DMA, BM) and the conservatories of Freiburg and Frankfurt, he studied with Rainer Kussmaul, Bernhard Forck, Masuko Ushioda, and Lucy Chapman and served as co-founder/director of the New England Conservatory Early Music Society. He has performed internationally on modern and period instruments as chamber musician, soloist with orchestras in the States and Europe in concertos from the 17th to 20th centuries, and concertmaster of ensembles including the Boston Chamber Orchestra, Oklahoma Virtuosi, TACTUS ensemble, and numerous ad hoc modern- and period-instrument ensembles on both sides of the Atlantic. In addition to serving (on modern violin) as a first violin with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, he has also performed with such period-instrument ensembles as Grand Harmonie, Ars Viva Freiburg, Brandywine Baroque, and the Raritan Players, with whom he appears in the recently-released CD "In Sara Levy's Salon" (Acis Productions). Publications include the book Sei Solo: Symbolum? The Theology of J. S. Bach's Solo Violin Works (Pickwick/Wipf & Stock, 2016) as well as critical reconstructions of J. S. Bach's lost D-minor violin concerto, BWV 1052R, and incompletely-surviving Sinfonia in D major, BWV 1045 (PRB Productions), which have been performed by artists including Leila Schayegh (Schola Cantorum) and Ábrahám Márta (Franz Liszt Academy). His compositions have been performed by the Brandywine Baroque Orchestra and heard at venues including the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music (UK). Prior to joining the faculty of Oklahoma City University he held posts at Dickinson College, Cairn University, Cecil College, and Oklahoma Baptist University and has also taught at summer festivals in Italy, France, Japan, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky.
