Tina Chancey

Tina Chancey is the director of HESPERUS, known for its early music soundtracks for classic silent films. She plays medieval and traditional fiddles and viol on roots music from Sephardic and Irish to Machaut and Joni Mitchell. Her particular specialty is the pardessus de viole; with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, she has presented debut concerts at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, and she has released five pardessus recordings, most recently Fêtes Galantes. Tina was the director of an International Celebration of the Pardessus, which took place this past summer at the Boston Early Music Festival. She attended Oberlin College and received an MA in Performance from Queens College, an MA in musicology from NYU, and a PhD in Musicology, Music Technology and Women's Studies from the Union Institute. A member of Ensemble Toss the Feathers and Trio Sefardi, she is a former member of the Folger Consort, the Ensemble for Early Music, New York Renaissance Band, Blackmore's Night and QUOG. Recent artist residencies have taken her to Geneva Switzerland, Melbourne, Australia, Auckland, New Zealand, Berlin, Germany and the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts; and she has presented workshops for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, World on a String, the Indy Convergence, the city of Long Beach, CA and the Smithsonian Resident Associates. Tina teaches, performs, improvises, produces recordings, composes and arranges (for the National Gallery of Art Vocal Ensemble, the Washington Revels, Rondo Publishing's Celtic Gold series), writes popular and scholarly articles (for Early Music America magazine and the Journal of the Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein) and directs both SoundCatcher workshops on playing by ear and improvisation, and What's That Note:Tune-Up workshops for amateur choruses. Tina has been given a Special Education Achievement Award by Early Music America and four Wammies for best classical instrumentalist by the Washington Area Music Association.