Paul Cienniwa

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Born on January 6, 1972, Paul Cienniwa is Founding Artistic Director of Newport Baroque Orchestra. As an harpsichordist and organist, he has received praise for concerts given in Europe (His mastery of the instrument and the quality of his playing delighted all those who came to listen.--Le Cep; "un concert exceptionnel" Le Dauphine Libere) and the United States ("Critic's Choice"--Chicago Reader). He has appeared as soloist and ensemble player in venues in the United States and abroad, including the Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments, King's Chapel (Boston), Les Nuits Musicales de Corps (Corps, France), the Reformed Church in Toulon, France, and, since 2005, at the annual White Mountain Bach Festival in North Conway, NH .

In 2003, Paul Cienniwa received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale University, where he was a student of Richard Rephann. He has been awarded BAEF and Fulbright grants, and he has taught at Yale, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Providence College and Salve Regina University. His musicological articles have appeared in American and European journals, including Early Music (UK) and Ad Parnassum (Italy). He has worked for several important historic churches, including St. Mary's Church in Newport, RI, where John F. Kennedy was married, and Trinity Church in Newport, where Charles Theodore Pachelbel, Johann's son, was the first organist. Currently, he serves as Director of Music at the First Church in Boston, where he leads the professional 12-voice choir and can be heard every Sunday on WERS (88.9 FM) in Boston. In 2006, he was appointed director of the a cappella choral ensemble Sine Nomine (Fall River, MA). He is married to baroque cellist Audrey Cienniwa.