How do you sum up 25 years of singing with ARTEK? Always a joy! Mezzo-soprano Barbara Hollinshead’s first project with the group was a trial by fire. ARTEK performed selections from Monteverdi Book VIII in two distinct concerts, two days in a row at St. Michael’s and All Angels—with less than one week of rehearsal and a five-month-old baby in tow. Having survived that, performing with ARTEK in the years since has taken Ms. Hollingshead to concerts and festivals in Edinburgh (Scotland), Regensburg (Germany), Feldkirchen (Austria), Milan (Italy), Amsterdam and Zeerijp (Holland), and, in California, Texas, Mississippi, Indiana, Pennsylvania (both ends of the state and Lancaster!), New Jersey, Connecticut, and New York. ARTEK recordings in that span were: I Don’t Want to Love, Monteverdi Book V, Rosenmüller Motets, and now, Monteverdi Book VII. Ms. Hollingshead has performed with many early music ensembles including Tafelmusik, Chatham Baroque, and Opera Lafayette. A member of the Washington Bach Consort (WBC) since 1980, she was featured in the Consort’s 2000 German tour, performing at a festival in Thuringia and at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. On the stage she has enjoyed being cast in guises as varied as the triumphant god Juno and Hildegard’s sin-seeking soul. Her performance repertoire covers works ranging from medieval Byzantine chant to 20th-century song cycles, and her discography includes three recordings of solo lute songs with lutenist Howard Bass, Renaissance Spanish and Sephardic music with La Rondinella, and works by Amy Beach. Committed to education, Ms. Hollingshead teaches voice at American University and Episcopal High School, coaches vocal technique at RSCM choir camps, leads healthy singing workshops for choirs, and is a co-creator, actor, and singer in two education outreach programs of the WBC for D.C. public school students: Bach in Time and Hercules at the Crossroads.