ABO MUSICIAN BIO | VIOLIN I & CONCERTMASTER

Julie Andrijeski (violin) is a performer, scholar, and teacher of early music and dance. In addition to her Artistic Directorship of the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, she is Co-Director of the New York-based early music ensemble Quicksilver, Principal Player with Apollo’s Fire (with whom she won a Grammy in 2018) and Les Délices, and frequently performs with diverse early music groups across the nation and abroad. As a faculty member in the Music Department at Case Western Reserve University, she teaches early music performance practices and directs the Baroque Music and Dance Ensembles. Additionally, she is Teacher of Baroque Violin at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Special teaching engagements include a bi-annual residency at the Juilliard School and invitations to lead workshops at learning institutions, most recently the Oberlin Conservatory, Peabody Conservatory, Indiana University, and the University of Michigan.

A native of Boise, Idaho, Andrijeski holds a doctoral degree in Early Music from CWRU, and violin performance degrees from Northwestern University (M.M.) and the University of Denver (B.M.). Her recordings can be found on Acis Productions, Dorian Recordings, Avie, Koch, Centaur, and Musica Omnia as well as on independent labels.  In 2016 she was awarded a Creative Workforce Fellowship from Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Arts and Culture and the Thomas Binkley Award from Early Music America in recognition for her outstanding achievement in performance and scholarship as an ensemble director.

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Violinist Ute Marks lives in Metro Atlanta, but is a native of Germany, having grown up in the state of Saxony, where the cities of Leipzig and Dresden are central to the history of Baroque music. Ute came to Georgia State University in 1994 to study with violinist Oliver Steiner, then returned to Germany to complete Masters’ degrees in both Music Education as well as English and American Studies at Humboldt University in Berlin. Moving back to Atlanta in 1997 to live with her American husband, besides teaching private violin lessons, she became a founding member of the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra and established her career as a Baroque violinist. Besides having performed regularly with Dr. George Lucktenberg at Reinhardt University, she plays with New Trinity Baroque and other early music ensembles in the Atlanta area. For more information about Ute, please watch her interview on the Atlanta Early Music Alliance’s Polyphonic Voices series. 

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Alice Culin-Ellison, historical violin, is a founding member of Incantare, An Ensemble of Violins and Sackbuts, which focuses on musical and cultural connections of under-explored musicians. She performs regularly with the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Chatham Baroque, and Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, among others, and was the Artistic Director of Bourbon Baroque from 2017-2022. Also passionate about education and scholarship, her research focuses on 19th-century American chamber music, with a special interest in music from Kentucky. Alice received her Doctorate from Case Western Reserve University in Historical Performance, and also holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Indiana University. When not pursuing her passion for music, Alice is the keeper and grower of many house plants, and enjoys backpacking and paddleboarding.

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Atlanta native Evan Few has established himself as a leader in his generation of historical performance specialists, having studied and performed repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Gershwin on period instruments. An assertive, collaborative instrumentalist, he appears on stages across the globe with some of its most esteemed ensembles, including Anima Eterna Brugge, Bach Collegium Japan, and the Taverner Consort. Evan is a core member of Apollo’s Fire and the Carmel Bach Festival; co-concertmaster and Artistic Administrator of the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra; frequent collaborator with Chatham Baroque and Four Nations Ensemble; and co-founder, most recently, of Filament.

Evan received his principal violin training at Oberlin College as a pupil of Marilyn McDonald, and pursued further studies in string quartet performance at Rice University and in baroque violin at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag. He has participated in the making of numerous recordings available from Accent, CPO, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, and Zig-Zag Territoires. His violin was built for him in 2010 by Matthieu Besseling of Amsterdam; he plays with baroque bows by Luis Emilio Rodriguez Carrington (2011) and Thomas Pitt (2016). 

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Jeanne Johnson's music can be heard around the world, from Brazil to Indonesia, Sweden to Turkey. She has been concertmaster for the Washington Bach Consort and Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, and has performed, toured and recorded with numerous groups including Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Chatham Baroque, Asheville Baroque (including a concert at the Viola da Gamba Society 2018 Conclave), Bach Akademie Charlotte Festival, North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, Nashville Chamber Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Opera and Ballet, Charleston Symphony and Chattanooga Symphony. A winner of an Early Music America Professional Development Award in 2002, Jeanne gave a recital at the Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments in 2005, and has been featured on several radio broadcasts including Harmonia, Performance Today, and WNYC. Performances by her Baroque trio Music of the Spheres include The Frick Collection, the Tage Alter Musik Festival in Germany, the Berkeley Early Music Festival mainstage, and the San Francisco Early Music Society.  

In 2016, Centaur Records released Jeanne’s recordings of violin works by Johann Jakob Walther and Jean-Fery Rebel with Eco dell’Anima. She has also recorded for Koch, Magnatune and the Canadian Broadcasting Company, and has served as orchestra director and violin faculty at Clayton State University. 

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Daniel Elyar is an active performer and recording artist and has specialized in baroque performance practice in Europe and North America for thirty years. Mr. Elyar has performed and recorded with ensembles in North America and Europe such as Tafelmusik, the Utrecht Baroque Consort, Concerto d’Amsterdam, Teatro Lirico, Concerto Palatino, Les Arts Florissants, the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Vox Luminis, the New York Collegium, The King’s Noyse, The Newbury Consort, Ensemble REBEL (NYC), NY State Baroque, Tempesta di Mare, Washington Bach Consort, the  Bach Festival of Philadelphia, Clarion Players and Choir (NYC) and the Trinity Baroque Orchestra on Wall street. Mr. Elyar is happily a founder member of the Franklin Quartet, the Delaware Valley’s only Period Instrument string quartet. Mr. Elyar has taught for twenty years at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia and is full-time faculty staff. From 2014 to 2016, Mr. Elyar directed the Renaissance Collegium at Temple University.

Mr. Elyar holds a Bachelor of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Artist’s Diploma from the Sweelinck Conservatory (Amsterdam) and a Masters of Music from the Royal Conservatory (the Hague).  Some of Mr. Elyar’s teachers are Heidi Castleman, Sigiwald Kuijken, Lucy van Dael, Elizabeth Wallfisch and Monica Huggett. Mr. Elyar has performed under the baton of directors as Andrew Parrott, Gustav Leonhardt, Ton Koopman & William Christie. Mr Elyar has recorded for Chandos, Naxos, ELECTRA, ATMA, Musica Omnia - for which he was nominated for a Grammy for his work - and Hungarton labels.

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Melissa Brewer began her professional studies in violin and viola at the University of Miami, studying with George Zazofsky and Victor Stern and with David Becker at the University of Wisconsin Madison. She has performed with groups as diverse as the Florida Philharmonic, Miami Chamber Orchestra, West Palm Beach Opera Company, Tallahassee Bach Parley, and the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra. The breadth of her repertoire stretches from symphonic to chamber, opera to popular, and she has performed with artists as varied as Perlman and Sinatra. On period instruments, she has performed with the FSU Baroque Ensemble, Baroque Southeast, the Apollo Ensemble, and is a core member of The Victoria Bach Festival both on modern and baroque instruments. She is a founding member of The Atlanta Baroque Orchestra and considers it an honor to be a member of the ABO Board acting as Secretary for many years and currently as Treasurer. She plays on a 1760 Locky Hill viola.

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As one of the first specialists in baroque music, Jaap ter Linden’s career reads like a directory of the great names of period performance practice. He witnessed the very beginnings of many of the oldest and finest baroque ensembles as co-founder of Musica da Camera and principal cellist of Musica Antiqua Köln, The English Concert and The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. From these auspicious beginnings, he has moved further into the spotlight, either playing solo concerts and intimate ensemble repertoire with the world’s finest interpreters (pianists Ronald Brautigam and David Breitman, violinists Andrew Manze, Elizabeth Wallfisch and John Holloway and harpsichordists Richard Egarr and Lars Ulrik Mortensen) or at the helm of an orchestra as conductor. 

Founder and director of the Mozart Akademie (with which he has recorded the complete Mozart symphonies) and regular guest director and soloist of the Arion Ensemble (Canada), Jaap has led many period instrument orchestras—such as the San Francisco Philharmonia Baroque, Portland Baroque, Atlanta Baroque and Amsterdam Bach Soloists,—and has lent his expertise to modern ensembles such as the Amsterdam Sinfonietta and the Arnhem Symphony Orchestra. 

His extensive discography as player and conductor boasts  highly acclaimed recordings of the Bach cello suites (Harmonia Mundi and Brilliant Classics), award-winning recordings of the Bach Gamba Sonatas (Editor’s Choice, Gramophone) and the Violin Sonatas of Rebel and Bach with Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr (Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik), and a recording as conductor of the Oboe concertos of J.S. Bach and sons with Pauline Oostenrijk and Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam nominated for the Edison Prize.

With the Bach cello suites Ter Linden toured the world with performances in The United States, Canada, Japan, Australia and China.



Jaap ter Linden was also an invaluable teacher and orchestral leader at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and the Amsterdam Conservatory. He now serves as teacher of baroque cello and viola da gamba, as well as coach of baroque chamber music and baroque orchestra, at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Music.

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Tracy Mortimore performs extensively on modern and historical double basses and violone. Early music groups he has appeared with include Santa Fe Pro Musica, Washington Bach Consort, Musica Pro Rara, Tafelmusik, Opera Atelier, Toronto Consort, Seattle Baroque, Bourbon Baroque, Chatham Baroque, Folger Consort, Tempesta di Mare, Apollo's Fire, Clarion Music Society, Pegasus, NYSEMA, Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society and Aradia Ensemble with whom he has made over 50 recordings. Mr. Mortimore currently resides in Cleveland where in addition to his work in early music, he is the bassist for The Cleveland Chamber Symphony, and is actively involved with contemporary classical and jazz movements as a performer, improviser and composer.

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Alexandra Snyder Dunbar is an award-winning harpsichordist, pianist, and pedagogue. She holds degrees from The Juilliard School, The Manhattan School of Music, and Interlochen Arts Academy (IAA, ‘97-99, IAC, ‘98). At Juilliard, she was a Music Theory Teaching Fellow, and a recipient of the Morse Teaching Fellowship and Gluck Performance Fellowship. She received a full scholarship as a resident in the C. V. Starr Fellows Program in the Doctoral program at Juilliard in the harpsichord studio of Lionel Party. 

Solo performances with orchestra include with Orchestra 54, Dorian Baroque Orchestra, The Memphis Chamber Music Society, The Symphony of Westchester, and The Chamber Orchestra of New York. Dr. Dunbar has collaborated on performance projects with the The Dryden Ensemble, the Foundlings Ensemble, The New York Philharmonic, and the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra. 

Dr. Dunbar is on the music faculty at the University of North Georgia, Athens Technical College, Interlochen Arts Camp, and maintains a private teaching studio and performance calendar. Currently, she serves as organist at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Athens, is harpsichordist and co-artistic director for Amethyst Baroque Ensemble, and tours with Astralis Chamber Orchestra.

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