Dušan Balarin & Daniel Swenberg

Dušan Balarin is a versatile soloist and accompanist recognized for his eclectic artistry and vibrant interpretations on a range of historical lutes and guitars. His curiosity has led him to collaborate with leading artists and ensembles across early music, jazz, and contemporary arts. Notably, he has worked with Cécile McLorin Salvant, Les Arts Florissants, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Emerson Quartet, Rachel Podger, Bruce Dickey, Lionel Meunier, Stephan MacLeod, Tessa Lark, and Reginald Mobley. Dušan regularly performs with leading early music organizations, including the Washington Bach Consort, ARTEK, TENET, Chatham Baroque, Harmonia Stellarum, and EMNY. A Juilliard graduate and recipient of the prestigious Historical Performance Scholarship, Dušan performed widely with Juilliard 415, both in North America and Europe. Prior to establishing himself in New York, he apprenticed with renowned British lute virtuoso Nigel North, earning his Master of Music in Historical Performance with highest honors from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music.

Daniel Swenberg specializes in Renaissance and Baroque lutes, theorbos, Baroque and 19th-century guitars, and Baroque mandolino. He has performed regularly throughout North America with many leading ensembles and artists including Artek, Rebel, the Metropolitan Opera, the Carmel Bach Festival, Mr. Jones and the Engines of Destruction, Ensemble Viscera, Opera Atelier/Tafelmusik, Catacoustic Ensemble, the Four Nations Ensemble, Apollo’s Fire, the Handel and Haydn Society, the Green Mountain Project, Tenet, Skid Rococo, the Newberry Consort, Lizzy & the Theorboys, Music of the Baroque, the Aspen Music Festival and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and in recital with Renée Fleming and Kathleen Battle at Carnegie Hall. He received awards from the Belgian American Educational Foundation (2000) for a study of 18th-century chamber music for the lute, and a Fulbright Scholarship (1997) to study in Bremen at the Hochschule für Künste (studying with Stephen Stubbs and Andrew Lawrence King). He studied previously with Patrick O’Brien at Mannes College of Music, where he received a master’s degree in Historical Performance (Lute). Swenberg has been a Juilliard faculty member since 2014.