Members of the Baroque Orchestra of Maine to play the Midday Concert @ 1:00 at Ellsworth Community Music Institute on April 24th.

ELLSWORTH - Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) offers its next Midday Concert @ 1:00 on Friday, April 24th, with members of the Baroque Orchestra of Maine: Heidi Powell, baroque violin, Sylvia Schwartz, baroque violin, John Ross, baroque flute, Daniel Pyle, harpsichord.

The concert will be held at the Moore Community Center Theater, 125 State Street, in Ellsworth, Maine. The series is sponsored by Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) with funding assistance from the City of Ellsworth and supported in part by a grant from the Onion Foundation. Admission is free to the public.

Artistic Director Heidi Powell is a baroque violin specialist and has appeared as soloist with the New York Collegium, Rebel, Tafelmusik, Smithsonian Chamber Players, Early Music New York, New York State Baroque, Santa Fe Pro Musica and the Washington Bach Consort and served as concertmaster for Early Music New York, Washington Bach Consort and San Francisco Bach Choir. She has performed throughout North America and Europe, playing in Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, Symphony Hall, the Kennedy Center, Versailles, France and many others. Her performances have appeared on NPR ‘Performance Today’, The CBS National Evening News & ‘60 Minutes’ and on the soundtrack for the Disney Movie ‘Casanova’.

She holds a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from Indiana University, an Artist Diploma in Baroque Violin from Oberlin Conservatory with further studies at the Darius Milhaud Conservatoire d’Aix-en-Provence, France. Heidi's prize-winning performance in the American Bach Soloists International Bach Violin Competition was heralded by the New York Times as 'supremely confident and powerful'. She was also a finalist in the York, England Chamber Music Festival Competition and the Concorso Internazionale Antonio Vivaldi in Turino, Italy.

Heidi recently performed a solo violin recital of Bach and Biber at St. Malachy’s Church in NYC, presented by Gotham Early Music New York, Midtown Concerts, which was live streamed and can be seen at gemsny.org. Heidi has taught violin and chamber music at Oberlin Conservatory, Kneisel Hall and George Stevens Academy. She is a Suzuki violin teaching specialist and teaches privately in the Downeast Maine area as well as at Ellsworth Community Music Institute.

Heidi is Music Director at the Bar Harbor Congregational Church and Founder & Artistic director of BOOM, the Baroque Orchestra of Maine, a non-profit organization seeking to educate rural Maine audiences about historical baroque performance practice.

Fascinated and deeply inspired by the relationship between music, movement, and dance, violinist and Dalcrozian-in-training Sylvia Schwartz is a passionate chamber musician in both modern and historical performance practices. A native of Boston, MA, Sylvia performs currently with Guts Baroque Duo, L’Esprit Baroque, Los Angeles Baroque, and Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra. She has also played with UCLA Early Music Ensemble, Eudaimonia, A Purposeful Period Band, Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra, Amherst Baroque Academy Opera & Festival Orchestras, the folk/baroque band Lizzie and the Flakjackets, and the prog/alt rock bands The Mood Swings and The Fixtures. As a chamber and orchestral musician she has performed across the United States and Europe, including Shostakovich Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the major halls of Boston. She has performed recitals extensively in the Boston area. She has also been a member of the Harvard Summer Chorus, Chorus pro Musica, and The Masterworks Chorale, and sees in her students as well as herself the great benefit singing has for string players.

Sylvia is equally passionate about bringing music to life as a performer and nurturing creative expression and empowerment in her music students. She uses a combination of Suzuki approaches, improvisation, Dalcroze-inspired eurythmics, and Alexander Technique-inspired movement awareness to simultaneously develop fluent musicality, joy in making music, a solid instrumental technique, and musicianship (including reading and theory). A former sufferer of tendonitis, she has a particular interest in addressing and preventing performance injuries, in both beginning and experienced players.

Sylvia earned a Master of Music in Violin Performance from the Longy School of Music, where she studied with Laura Bossert and coached extensively with Dana Maiben, Na’ama Lion, Vivian Montgomery, and Ryan Turner. She is also a certified Suzuki Violin Teacher through Book 3. Sylvia teaches privately, in person and online, and at the Vienna Music Institute. She has also taught at the Josiah Quincy Orchestra Program, Music 101, and the Winchester Community Music School, where she was also Administrative Director of the WCMS Summer Chamber Music Festival. She was thrilled to be Interim Orchestra Director in the fall semester of 2018 at Woodbridge High School, a Grammy Signature School, where teacher, students, and families alike enjoyed exploring baroque performance practice as part of the curriculum.

Flutist John Ross is an accomplished soloist, educator, chamber musician, and orchestral performer. He currently serves on the faculty and administration of the Portland Conservatory of Music in Maine. He is also an Artist Teacher at the University of Southern Maine Osher School of Music. Prior to his appointment at PCM and USM, he served as Assistant Professor of Music at Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri, and was on the music faculty of West Virginia State University. At WVSU, he developed a chamber music program and worked with the Ilia Musin International Academy of Advanced Conducting to develop the Charleston Chamber Orchestra, a group in residence at the institution. He has also taught on the faculty of the Music for the Sake of Music summer program in Green Bay, Wisconsin and the Sparrow Music Camp in High Springs, Florida, and has taught for the Florida State University Summer Music Camps.

A versatile performer, Dr. Ross has given performances throughout the United States, Canada, Central America, and central Europe, and in such venues as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. and the Lucerna Great Hall in Prague, Czech Republic. He is currently the flutist with Wild Prairie Winds, a professional wind quintet, and performs regularly in Baroque chamber ensembles throughout New England. He has also been principal flute of the Italian-American Opera Festival Orchestra (CA), the Charleston Chamber Orchestra (WV), and Taneycomo Festival Orchestra (MO). He has performed with the Topeka Symphony, the Muncie Symphony, the Tallahassee Symphony, and the Charleston Light Opera Guild, and has been a featured soloist with the WVSU Wind Ensemble, the Florida State University Symphonic Band, the orchestra of Music for the Sake of Music, and the Butler Philharmonic Orchestra in Hamilton, OH. His flute ensemble Silver Lining Flutes toured around Costa Rica in Spring 2017, performing and giving masterclasses as part of the Promising Artists of the 21st Century series. His folk trios, Cuttin' Bracken and Rakish Ramblers, have performed throughout northern Florida, including multiple performances at the Florida Folk Festival in White Springs, Florida.

An advocate for new compositions, Dr. Ross has performed on new music concerts and recitals at West Virginia University, Marshall University, the University of Mary Washington, Ball State University, Jacksonville University, and Florida State University, including two national conferences for the Society of Composers, Inc. He is a commissioning member of the Flute New Music Consortium, an organization dedicated to the advancement of the flute repertoire. Dr. Ross was chosen as a winner of the National Flute Association Convention Performers Competition, performing newly-published compositions at the 2015 NFA Convention in Washington, D.C. He has made guest artist appearances with harpist Dr. Jaclyn Wappel at Ball State University, Earlham College, James Madison University, and throughout southern Virginia, performing works based on musical traditions of countries throughout Asia.

Dr. Ross is a graduate of West Virginia University, Ball State, and Florida State University. His primary teachers include Joyce Catalfano, Thomas Godfrey, Francesca Arnone, Mihoko Watanabe, and Eva Amsler. He pursued additional studies with Mary Kay Fink, Liisa Ruoho, Jim Walker, Jan Gippo, Sarah Jackson, and Leone Buyse, and has participated in masterclasses given by Christina Smith, Elizabeth Buck, Jennifer Connor, Jean Ferrandis, Amy Likar, Catherine Ransom Karoly, Elise Shope Henry, Kathryn Lukas, and Carol Wincenc. Dr. Ross is also training to become a certified body mapping educator, studying body mapping with Amy Likar, Liisa Ruoho, David Nesmith, Rena Urso-Trapani, Kelly Mollnow Wilson, and Andrée Martin.

Dr. Daniel S. Pyle directs the Acadia Choral Society and Harmonie Universelle, a Baroque ensemble that has recorded and toured in the US and Europe. In 2018, he conducted Handel’s Messiah for the Blue Hill Bach Festival. He has performed with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. He has served on the faculties of the University of Kansas, Louisiana State University, and Clayton State University where he taught organ, harpsichord, and music history. He also taught Master classes in Atlanta and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK. He is the organist and Music Director for St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church in Bar Harbor. Dr. Pyle has forty-five years of experience as a church musician in Episcopal, Lutheran, and Methodist congregations, and has been an instructor in church music at the Candler School of Theology. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Music from the University of Alabama and a Doctorate from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. He has also trained at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam and with Kenneth Gilbert at the Accademia Musical Chigiana.

Have a question? Please write via our Contact Form.

DownEast New Music to play the Midday Concert @ 1:00 at Ellsworth Community Music Institute on April 3.

ELLSWORTH - Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) offers its next Midday Concert @ 1:00 on Friday, April 3, with DownEast New Music, consisting of Clare Monfredo, cello, Edward Kass, bass, and Conrad Winslow, piano.

The concert will be held at the Moore Community Center Theater, 125 State Street, in Ellsworth, Maine. The series is sponsored by Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) with funding assistance from the City of Ellsworth and supported in part by a grant from the Onion Foundation. Admission is free to the public.

Clare Monfredo is a cellist originally from Seal Harbor Maine, currently living in Brooklyn, New York where she completed a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the CUNY Graduate Center and is the recipient of the Graduate Center Fellowship. Clare has performed as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader all over the world, collaborating with a diverse array of notable artists, from Patricia Kopatchinskaja to Jon Batiste, to groups such as Ensemble Intercontemporain and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Clare holds a bachelor of arts in English from Yale University where she graduated with distinction and was a multiple-time winner of the Yale Friends of Music competition. She holds a masters of music degree from the Shepherd School at Rice University as a recipient of the Graduate Arts Award from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation where she studied with Norman Fischer, and studied with cellist Peter Bruns at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, Germany on a Fulbright Scholarship. Clare’s other significant mentors include David Gebor, Julia Lichten, and Natasha Brofsky. Clare has appeared at Chamber Music Northwest, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, Lucerne Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Cello Akademie Rutesheim, Kurt Weill Fest, and Music Academy of the West. She was awarded the Karl Zeise Memorial Prize by the Tanglewood Music Center, the Gebor Rejto Prize from Music Academy of the West, and the Chamber Music Prize from the Fontainebleau Conservatoire Américain. https://www.claremonfredo.com/

Praised as a “master of his instrument” (Fanfare), bassist Edward Kass performs internationally as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician, specializing in contemporary performance. A graduate of the San Jose Unified Public School system, Kass is noted for his “phenomenal musicianship” (Which Sinfonia) and “terrific precision” (The Arts Fuse). A frequent performer with groups including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, and Sound Icon, recent appearances include Lucerne Festival, Tanglewood, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Donaueschinger Musiktage, and Elbphilharmonie Visions. Dedicated to the creation of new music, Kass has premiered dozens of new works, including commissions by Katherine Balch, Sarah Gibson, Unsuk Chin, and more. Sought after as an artistic leader and pedagogue, Kass served as a Contemporary Leader (2021-2026) for Lucerne Festival, a role combining performance with artistic curation, creation of new works, and pedagogy. In addition to teaching at the Lucerne Festival Academy, he has been in residence at Stanford University, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, UC Santa Barbara, University of Georgia, and more. With pianist and music therapist Renate Rohlfing, Kass co-created “Tell Your Story”, a community-based, creative engagement project for Spoleto Festival USA to create sonic memoirs preserving the oral history of the greater Charleston area. He is a co-founder and co-Artistic Director of DownEast New Music, a contemporary chamber ensemble based in DownEast Maine. https://www.departureduo.com/

Conrad Winslow is a composer and pianist whose musical forms are fiercely committed to legibility and broad expressive bandwidth, often combining precipitous edges with graceful shifting syntax, “…provoking questions of how arrangement shapes meaning” (Popmatters). Raised in Homer, Alaska, he first learned to make a world from scratch by watching his parents build a log cabin home in the woods. His music “remains tautly controlled and coherent, but bursts with variety both harmonic and gestural” (Music in American Life: An Encyclopedia…). Winslow’s instrumental music has been commissioned by Alarm Will Sound, Carnegie Hall, the Albany Symphony and the American Composers Orchestra. He has worked closely with Rufus Wainwright; collaborated with choreographers Justin Peck, Zack Winokur, auteur/choreographer Celia Rowlson-Hall, and viola da gambist Liam Byrne, and his music has been recorded for Cedille Records and innova Records. He holds a Master’s Degree in Composition from the Juilliard School, where he studied with John Corigliano, and degrees from NYU and Rollins College. He is also the co-founder of Wild Shore New Music, a new music series based in Southcentral Alaska. https://www.conradwinslow.com/

Future concerts in the series include: April 24 - Heidi Powell, with members of the Baroque Orchestra of Maine (BOOM).

Have a question? Please write via our Contact Form.

Phillip Silver, Noreen Silver and Mitchell Newman to play Piano Trios in the Midday Concert @ 1:00 at Ellsworth Community Music Institute on March 20th.

ELLSWORTH - Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) offers its next Midday Concert @ 1:00 on Friday, March 20th, with Phillip Silver, piano, Noreen Silver, cello, and Mitchell Newman, violin.

The concert will be held at the Moore Community Center Theater, 125 State Street, in Ellsworth, Maine. The series is sponsored by Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) with funding assistance from the City of Ellsworth and supported in part by a grant from the Onion Foundation. Admission is free to the public.

Phillip Silver is an internationally acclaimed soloist, collaborative artist and researcher. For over two decades Phillip has carried out research on music and musicians caught up in the Holocaust. He has presented his research in the form of commercial recordings, lectures and recitals on both national and international stages including venues in Israel, Germany, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, the United States and the United Kingdom. His most recent recordings for the Toccata Classics label in London include a world premiere recording of music by Leone Sinigaglia, an Italian-Jewish victim of the Nazis, and a recording of music by German-Jewish composer Bernhard Sekles. Steve Arloff writing in MusicWeb International described it as “a really valuable discovery” marked by “flawless playing.”... “thoroughly deserving to be heard by every chamber music lover.” Phillip also promotes the music of Israeli composers and through performance and lecture actively works to bring this music before a wider international public. Phillip Silver has been on the faculties of Glasgow University, Strathclyde University, and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, Scotland. He is currently a Professor of Music at the School of Performing Arts at the University of Maine, Orono.

Cellist Noreen Silver was born and grew up in Glasgow, Scotland. She studied at the Royal College of Music in London, and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA. She was fortunate to pursue independent study with the great cellists Jacqueline du Pré and Pierre Fournier. The Glasgow Herald has described her as “an extraordinarily soulful player” who “demonstrates an uncommon depth of feeling and imagination.” Since 1999 Noreen has been an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maine, where she directs the Chamber Music program, and teaches cello and music theory. She also holds the position of Principal Cellist in the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared as soloist with the orchestra on numerous occasions. Along with her husband, pianist Phillip Silver, Noreen has performed much of the cello/piano repertoire in the USA, Europe, Israel and the UK. Much in demand as a teacher, she has also served on the faculties of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Strathclyde University, and Ellsworth Community Music Institute.

Violinist Mitchell Newman is a performer, educator and advocate for bringing music to underserved communities across the country. After 34 years in the LA Philharmonic, Mr. Newman relocated to Philadelphia, where he teaches privately and through Philadelphia Music Alliance for Youth (www.pmayartists.org). Mitchell is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied under Aaron Rosand, David Cerone and Yumi Ninomiya. He studied chamber music with Karen Tuttle, Felix Galamir and Mischa Schneider. At the Meadowmount School, he studied violin with Ivan Galamian and chamber music with Josef Gingold. Mitchell Newman currently serves as concertmaster of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. He and the Music Director of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, composer/conductor Lucas Richman, also collaborate on the Paths To Dignity Project (www.pathstodignity.com) which brings music, dignity, humanity and awareness to the homeless community. Mr. Newman collaborates with long-time friend, pianist Daniel Shapiro in duo recitals, is a member of the Hutchins Ensemble based in Philadelphia, and the Synergy Ensemble based in New York City.

Future concerts in the series include: April 3rd - DownEast New Music; April 24th - Heidi Powell with members of the Baroque Orchestra of Maine (BOOM)

Have a question? Please write via our Contact Form.

The Youth Student Recital is the perfect platform to play in front of an audience, gain confidence, and experience the joy of live music. You’ll be sharing the stage with fellow student musicians and celebrating the power of music in all its forms!

Friday, February 6th:

5:30pm: Arrive at the Moore Center and proceed to Art Room for tuning and prep

6:00pm: Recital begins, with refreshments afterwards

Not long after forming in Philadelphia 33 years ago, the DaPonte String Quartet surprised the musical world by moving from a cosmopolitan urban area to rural Maine. The DSQ had been — and continues to be — sought after to perform and teach all over the U.S. and around the world. They have appeared in France, Scotland, Canada, and more than twenty American states. Their performances have been broadcast over nation-wide radio and television programs in both the United States and Canada. They have received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Philadelphia Musical Fund Society, the Music Teachers National Association, Chamber Music America, and have participated in several of the nation’s most prestigious concert series to rave reviews. Musicians and critics alike wondered, why would the DSQ move to Maine, where, as the New York Times noted, they create an experience “like watching the Celtics play in the local gym.”

But the members of the DaPonte String Quartet were proud to call Maine home, and their relationship with mid-coast Maine remains a deeply rooted one. When CBS Sunday Morning nationally televised a profile of the group, the idea of living outside a major urban center suddenly appeared to be an appealing alternative lifestyle few musicians had considered. Few string quartets can boast such a devoted following. The people of Maine warmly embraced the DSQ, which has become an integral part of the state’s musical life. When the Quartet debuted at Carnegie Hall, a large contingent of their fans traveled to New York to hear and cheer them there. The Times wrote in amazement: “Let it not be said that the DaPonte String Quartet enters New York musical life without friends. Weill Hall was packed!” The state’s embrace of the DSQ has also taken the form of awards from the Maine Arts Commission.

This support enables the DSQ to perform a wide-ranging and varied repertoire. While many classical musicians struggling with the realities of the contemporary musical marketplace find themselves performing exclusively new compositions, the Quartet’s repertoire spans the entire history of music, from seventeenth-century works on original instruments to cutting-edge contemporary quartets, like the one written for them by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici.

The DSQ is also known for their inventive interpretations of the works they play. The Boston Globe observed that whatever music they present — be it Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modern, or Post-Modern — the freshness of the DSQ’s performances make these works appear novel and contemporary: “Once again, the music could have been hot off the presses.” Their performances affirm chamber music as a vital and alive art form.

Fresh conception requires original thought, and the DSQ’s is based on solid research, extensive scholarship, and meticulous preparation. Strings Magazine recently remarked on the inclusion of British composer Thomas Ades’s quartet Arcadiana in the DSQ’s repertoire, noting that few groups would find themselves able to invest the hundreds of hours of preparation required for music of such complexity. This sort of groundwork gives their performances authority, but an authority that isn’t stiff or aloof. Their concerts are dynamic and their stage manner — with one another and with their audiences — is warm and conversational. The Quartet members regularly share musical insights with their audiences before playing and these “spoken program notes” enable the listener to enter into a deeper connection with the music.

The DaPonte String Quartet is now in season 34 and its members are still proud to call Maine home.

PHILIPP ELSSNER, VIOLIN: German-American violinist, violist, and music theorist Philipp Elssner is currently based in Northport, Maine. Philipp received his bachelor’s degree in 2021 from the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), where he studied violin with Jaime Laredo and Jan Sloman. In 2024 he received his master’s degree in music theory from McGill University in Montreal, where he also studied violin with Jinjoo Cho. Philipp has recently been appointed as the new violinist of the DaPonte String Quartet, a celebrated Maine-based group that has made appearances across the United States and around the world. He will begin performing with the group in June of 2024. Other recent engagements include sold-out concerts in Bayside, Maine and Ann Arbor, Michigan as a member of the Lake Trio. The trio’s 2024 schedule will include performances in North Carolina, Michigan, and Maine.

In 2017, Philipp won the North Carolina American String Teacher’s Association competition, as well as being a finalist at the North Carolina Symphony Concerto Competition. Philipp has played in master classes for renowned artists and pedagogues such as Enrico Pace, Sung-Won Yang, Paul Kantor, and Soovin Kim, as well as for members of the Emerson and Pacifica string quartets, among others. He has performed at summer festivals including Encore Chamber Music and Bowdoin International Music Festival.

As an academic, Philipp has presented research on classical and popular music at national and international conferences, including at the Society for Music Theory’s 2022 and 2023 annual meetings. His master’s thesis, “Groove in the Mix: Spatial Manipulation in Groove-Based Popular Music, 1970–Present,” focuses on the embodied effects of stereo mixing practices in funk, soul, disco, and Hip Hop.

As an educator, Philipp has taught music theory and musicianship courses at McGill University, as well as serving as a Teaching Assistant for many more music theory courses at McGill and CIM. He has also taught violin and music theory privately to students of varying levels. Philipp believes that music is an art form everyone should be able to take part in, and seeks to nurture the unique musical voices of his students.

Philipp also has many years of performance experience as a violist. Recently, this has included performances of Saint-Saëns’s Piano Quartet, Op. 41, Dohnányi’s Serenade for string trio, and Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht in Montreal, Canada.

LYDIA FORBES, VIOLIN: Lydia traces her primary musical influences to the moment when she heard the sound of her sister’s violin—and knew it would always be time to know more about it—and to several of her teachers: Marylou Speaker, Eugene Lehner, Ben Zander, Dorothy Delay, Denes Zsigmondy, Masuko Ushioda, Jaap Schroeder, Isaac Stern, and Vera Beths.

Musical awards include the Weckstrom Prize in Musical Performance from Yale University and the Tera de Marez Oyens Prize in the Netherlands. Lydia has appeared as soloist at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada where she was Artist in Residence, with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, and with the Northwest Sinfonietta in the U.S.; chamber music festivals include Tanglewood, Bravo Colorado, the Portland Chamber Music Festival, Encounters with Isaac Stern in Cologne, and many others. Lydia studied with members of the Orion Quartet, the Juilliard Quartet in New York, and the Alban Berg Quartet in Vienna.

During her life in the Netherlands, which began with a Beebe Fund Grant, Lydia performed and toured with Het Zephyr Kwartet, a string quartet devoted to contemporary music and which she co-founded, Het Schönberg Ensemble, Ensemble Explorations and I Fiamminghi in Belgium, the Oslo Philharmonic in Norway, and the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam, the Osiris Trio, and L’Archibudelli in the Netherlands. Her travels with music have lead her to venues across the U.S. and Europe, as well as to the Philippines, Tasmania, Australia, and New Zealand. Recordings include the Sony Classical and Harmonia Mundi labels.

Lydia has performed as part of the DaPonte String Quartet since 2005; having the dream of being a member of a string quartet since age 11, she is grateful to be living this dream and bringing up her three sons in the beauties of the Maine landscape.

MYLES JORDAN, CELLO: Cellist, writer and teacher Myles Jordan arrived in the US from Canada in 1981. After completing undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, he earned two further degrees at Juilliard, a doctorate of musical arts from Temple University, became associate principal cellist of the Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, then founded the DaPonte String Quartet. With over four decades’ professional experience, Myles has taught at Temple University, Wilkes University and the University of North Texas, recorded for RCA Red Seal, CBC, Cadenza and Centaur records, written for Strad Magazine and collaborated in chamber music concerts and broadcasts with several of the world’s finest musicians.

“Because music is a language, the driving impetus behind our work is to create greater awareness of historical, social, political and philosophical contexts in which it’s created. My own aim is to draw as many human connections as possible between contemporary audiences and great composers.”

KIRSTEN MONKE, VIOLA: Kirsten has performed throughout Europe, across the United States, Japan and Costa Rica. She joined the DaPonte String Quartet in 2008, a serendipitous occurrence that brought her back to her beloved home state of Maine. After completion of a BM and MM at Indiana University under the guidance of Georges Janzer of the Vegh Quartet, Kim Kashkashian and Csaba Erdelyi, she continued her graduate studies with Heiichiro Ohyama at UC Santa Barbara. She became Principal Violist of both the Santa Barbara Symphony and the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, where she played for more than a decade. As a member of the Anacapa String Quartet she was awarded several prizes, including a silver medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. She has taught at UCSB, Westmont College and is currently on the music faculty at Bowdoin College and Bay Chamber Community Music School. She is a recipient of the 2016 Maine Artists Fellowship Award.

More Information Coming Soon

Questions can be submitted via our Contact Form.

Thank you!

Questions can be submitted via our Contact Form.

Thank you!

More Information Coming Soon

Molly Gebrian and Danny Holt to play the next Midday Concert @ 1:00 at Ellsworth Community Music Institute on December 12.

ELLSWORTH - Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) offers its next Midday Concert @ 1:00 on Friday, December 12 with Molly Gebrian, viola, and Danny Holt, piano.

The concert will be held at the Moore Community Center Theater, 125 State Street in Ellsworth, Maine. The series is sponsored by Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) with funding assistance from the City of Ellsworth and supported in part by a grant from the Onion Foundation. Admission is free to the public.

Longtime friends and musical collaborators Molly Gebrian (viola) and Danny Holt (piano) are known for their dynamic performances and their passion for shining a spotlight on lesser-known classical composers. Their recent album, Trailblazers, features Gebrian’s transcriptions of rarely heard cello sonatas by three female composers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The duo’s current program begins with the standout piece from that album: an intensely dramatic sonata by Dutch composer Henriëtte Bosmans. Contemporaneous works by Russian composer Sergei Vasilenko and British composer Elizabeth Maconchy round out the program, bringing a variety of rich romanticism, tender beauty, and rhythmic intensity.

Dr. Molly Gebrian is a professional violist and scholar with a background in cognitive neuroscience. Her area of expertise is applying the research on learning and memory to practicing and performing music. Her book, Learn Faster, Perform Better: A Musician’s Guide to the Neuroscience of Practicing was published in 2024 by Oxford University Press. As a performer, she prioritizes the works of living composers and those who have traditionally been excluded from the culture of classical music. After a decade of teaching viola at the collegiate level, she joined the faculty at New England Conservatory of Music in Fall 2024 as the inaugural Teaching Artistry Scholar-in-Residence to teach about the science of practicing.

Called “phenomenal” by the late music critic Alan Rich, and “exceptional” by the Los Angeles Times, pianist Danny Holt performs around the globe in concert halls, clubs, art galleries, churches, living rooms, and wherever else he can find a piano and someone to listen. He has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Blue Man Group, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the California EAR Unit, and the Calder Quartet, among others. His recorded catalog includes the recent solo album “Piano Music of Mike Garson” and other solo, chamber, and orchestral releases. Holt holds degrees from California Institute of the Arts, Hampshire College, Smith College, and Interlochen Arts Academy. After nearly two decades in Southern California, Holt recently relocated to East Machias, Maine.

Future concerts in the series include; January 30th - The DaPonte String Quartet

Have a question? Please write via our Contact Form.

Midday Concert @ 1:00 on November 21 featuring Phillip Silver, piano; Emily Stodola, violin/viola; Anna Maria Baeza, clarinet; Noreen Silver, cello

ELLSWORTH - Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) offers its next Midday Concert @ 1:00 on Friday, November 21 featuring Phillip Silver, piano; Emily Stodola, violin/viola; Anna Maria Baeza, clarinet; Noreen Silver, cello.

The concert will be held at the Moore Community Center Theater, 125 State Street in Ellsworth, Maine. The series is sponsored by Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) with funding assistance from the City of Ellsworth and supported in part by a grant from the Onion Foundation. Admission is free to the public.

Phillip Silver is an internationally acclaimed soloist, collaborative artist and researcher. For over two decades Phillip has carried out research on music and musicians caught up in the Holocaust. He has presented his research in the form of commercial recordings, lectures and recitals on both national and international stages including venues in Israel, Germany, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, the United States and the United Kingdom. His most recent recordings for the Toccata Classics label in London include a world premiere recording of music by Leone Sinigaglia, an Italian-Jewish victim of the Nazis, and a recording of music by German-Jewish composer Bernhard Sekles. Steve Arloff writing in MusicWeb International described it as “a really valuable discovery” marked by “flawless playing.”... “thoroughly deserving to be heard by every chamber music lover.” Phillip also promotes the music of Israeli composers and through performance and lecture actively works to bring this music before a wider international public. Phillip Silver has been on the faculties of Glasgow University, Strathclyde University, and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, Scotland. He is currently a Professor of Music at the School of Performing Arts at the University of Maine, Orono.

Emily Stodola holds an MME with an emphasis in Suzuki Violin Pedagogy from the University of Wisconsin-Steven Point, an MM in violin performance from Texas Tech University, and a BM in violin performance from the University of Minnesota. Between 2006 and 2016, she played in a number of orchestras in Southeastern Wisconsin, and served as concertmaster of the Green Bay Civic Symphony from 2007-2011. Ms. Stodola has been teaching violin and viola to children and adults of all ages using the Suzuki Method since 2003. She has taught private and group lessons at North Shore Suzuki Strings, Barcel Suzuki String Academy and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. She has also taught music theory classes, coached/directed small string chamber ensembles, and musical storytelling at WCM’s Summer Music Institute. In her spare time, Ms. Stodola enjoys writing, cross-country skiing, birding, camping, hiking, and spending time with her family.

Anna Maria Baeza earned her DMA degree from SUNY, Stony Brook, and she holds MM and BM degrees from USC in Los Angeles. Her major teachers include Charles Neidich, Jack Kreiselman, David Shifrin and Mitchell Lurie. She also studied with Guy Deplus in Paris, France. In addition, she took chamber music classes with Julius Levine, Gilbert Kalish and Yehuda Gilad.

Ms. Baeza taught clarinet and chamber music and conducted the Chamber Orchestra at the Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, New York. She also gave method classes as part of the MAP program at the Juilliard School in Manhattan. Ms. Baeza taught clarinet and chamber music at Summerkeys in Lubec, Maine for over 20 years, where she was heard on numerous recitals. Her other performances in Maine took place at Machias Bay Concerts, Eastport Arts Center and Fog Fest at Roosevelt International Park on Campobello Island. Ms. Baeza takes a strong interest in the music of living composers, having performed and premiered works by Steve Reich, Bernard Rands, and Greg Pfeiffer at “June in Buffalo.” She participated as a chamber musician and soloist in Prague and Budapest under the auspices of the European Mozart Foundation in Prague, and played live broadcasts on French and Czech television as well as on Public Radio programs in Los Angeles, New York City and in Maine. Ms. Baeza currently resides in Bangor, Maine and enjoys baking and restoring her old Victorian house.

Cellist Noreen Silver was born and grew up in Glasgow, Scotland. She studied at the Royal College of Music in London, and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA. She was fortunate to pursue independent study with the great cellists Jacqueline du Pré and Pierre Fournier. The Glasgow Herald has described her as “an extraordinarily soulful player” who “demonstrates an uncommon depth of feeling and imagination.” Since 1999 Noreen has been an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maine, where she directs the Chamber Music program, and teaches cello and music theory. She also holds the position of Principal Cellist in the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared as soloist with the orchestra on numerous occasions. Along with her husband, pianist Phillip Silver, Noreen has performed much of the cello/piano repertoire in the USA, Europe, Israel and the UK. Much in demand as a teacher, she has also served on the faculties of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Strathclyde University, and Ellsworth Community Music Institute.

Future concerts in the series include: December 12 - Danny Holt, piano, and Molly Gebrian, viola; January 30 - DaPonte String Quartet. 

Have a question? Please write via our Contact Form.

*POSTPONED*

UPDATE: Due to an unforeseen scheduling conflict, ECMI is postponing the Instrument Petting Zoo on November 15, 2025 at the Blue Hill Library. We look forward to rescheduling the event in early 2026!

Thank you for supporting our organization's events. We apologize for the inconvenience.

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Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) offers an Instrument Petting Zoo from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm on Saturday, November 15, 2025 at the Blue Hill Public Library. This interactive musical instrument demonstration, with ECMI Faculty, allows children to touch, play, and experience instruments in person.

The Instrument Petting Zoo will be held at 5 Parker Point Road in Blue Hill, Maine. The event is sponsored by the Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) in collaboration with Organizational Partner, Blue Hill Public Library. Admission is free to the public.

Children must be accompanied by an adult for the entire event.

Questions may be sent via our Contact Form.

This free concert is hosted by Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) and sponsored by the Blue Hill Concert Association.

About "The Story of Ferdinand"

Halcyon's fourth annual family performance features Munro Leaf's beloved children's book, The Story of Ferdinand. With narration by Luke Fatora, Halcyon will sweep you up on a musical tour of the string quartet that culminates in a musical performance of Ferdinand combining music, story, and illustration. Featuring classical favorites, folk tunes, pop songs, and nostalgic tunes from childhood, we'll get everyone clapping and snapping along!

Halcyon Musicians:

Josie Davis & Sophie Davis, violin

Colin Wheatley, viola

Julia Henderson, cello

Luke Fatora, narrator

About Halcyon:

Halcyon is a nonprofit organization, string quartet, and artist collective based in Midcoast Maine. As musicians, artists, filmmakers, animators, advocates, and storytellers, we strive to share our love of music in ways that foster connection, community, vibrancy, joy, warmth, and accessibility. Our programs are built on partnerships with local community organizations and folks from all walks of life. We collaborate with scientists, artists, students, actors, composers, poets, and educators to create performances that invite audiences to feel, celebrate, reflect, and respond collectively to the world around them. Halcyon's upcoming season includes collaborations with Maine's Poet Laureate Julia Bouwsma, composer Nathan Davis, vocalists Sarah Tuttle and Aaren Rivard, Arctic scientist and climate advocate Susana Hancock, and students and educators at three local high schools. For more information about our upcoming performances and projects, visit: halcyonstringquartet.org.

Have a question? Please write via our Contact Form.

Shelter Music Maine Trio to play the next Midday Concert @ 1:00 at Ellsworth Community Music Institute on October 10.

Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) offers its next Midday Concert @ 1:00 on Friday, October 10 with Shelter Music Maine Trio; Katherine Liccardo, violin; Matt Consul, viola and mandolin; and Marisa Solomon, cello.

The concert will be held at the Moore Community Center Theater, 125 State Street in Ellsworth, Maine. The series is sponsored by Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) with funding assistance from the City of Ellsworth and supported in part by a grant from the Onion Foundation. Admission is free to the public.

Violinist Katherine Liccardo, a native New Yorker, began her violin and piano studies at age 3. Katherine’s passion for music started at home, growing up in a household of music teachers and performers. At the age of 18, she made her Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium solo debut as the winner of the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition. Katherine is a trained Suzuki teacher and runs an in person and online studio with students ranging from Maine to Australia. She is the associate director of Vigorous Tenderness, an immersive outdoor concert series that amplifies marginalized voices in classical music and democratizes new and experimental sounds.

Matt Consul holds a Bachelor’s degree in Viola Performance and a Master’s in Contemporary Improvisation on mandolin and violin from New England Conservatory of Music. He is a member of Portland Symphony Orchestra and serves as a substitute musician with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops. Matt regularly presents educational workshops for kids in Portland public elementary schools through the Portland Symphony’s Explorers program and helps bring chamber music to homeless shelters and other sheltering environments with Shelter Music Maine. Active in a variety of musical circles outside the classical world, Matt is a member of jazz composer/bandleader Miho Hazama’s Grammy-nominated ensemble m_unit and was formerly a member of the alt folk outfit the Laura Grill Band. In addition to performing, Matt maintains a small private studio teaching viola and violin.

Cellist Marisa Solomon received performance degrees from the Oberlin College and San Francisco Conservatories, studying with Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton respectively. She is the founder of Shelter Music Maine, director of the Kneisel Hall Program for Maine Students, adjunct faculty at the University of Maine, a member of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and a 2023 recipient of the Director’s Award from the Collins Center for the Arts. Festivals include the Aspen Music Festival, New York String Seminar, Kneisel Hall, the International Festival-Institute at Round Top, SpoletoUSA, Festival de due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, and the Breckenridge Music Festival in Colorado.

Future concerts in the series include; November 21 - Noreen Silver, cello; Phillip Silver, piano; Anna Maria Baeza, clarinet; Emily Stodola, violin/viola, and December 12 - Danny Holt, piano, and Molly Gebrian, viola.

Have a question? Please write via our Contact Form.

ELLSWORTH - Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) offers an Instrument Petting Zoo from 10:00 am-12:00 pm on Saturday, October 4, 2025 in partnership with the Ellsworth Public Library. Offered as part of Heart of Ellsworth’s annual Art of Ellsworth celebration, ECMI Faculty and ECMI Student Ambassadors will give string instrument and piano demonstrations, allowing children to touch, play, and experience instruments in person.

The Instrument Petting Zoo will be held at the Ellsworth Public Library at 20 State Street in Ellsworth, Maine. The event is sponsored by the Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI). Admission is free to the public.

Children must be accompanied by an adult for the entire event. Registration is not required. Questions may be sent via our Contact Form.

Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) offers an Instrument Petting Zoo from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm on Saturday, September 20, 2025 at the Northeast Harbor Library. This interactive musical instrument demonstration, with ECMI Faculty and ECMI Student Ambassadors, allows children to touch, play, and experience instruments in person.

The Instrument Petting Zoo will be held at 1 Joy Road in Northeast Harbor, Maine. The event is sponsored by the Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) in collaboration with organizational partner, Northeast Harbor Library. Admission is free to the public.

Children must be accompanied by an adult for the entire event.

Supported in part by a grant from the Onion Foundation.

Questions may be sent via our Contact Form.

Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) is opening the 2025-2026 year with its first Midday Concert @ 1:00 on Friday, September 12 performed by Peregrine Road; Karen Axelrod, piano and accordion, and Rachel Bell, accordion.

The concert will be held at the Moore Community Center Theater, 125 State Street in Ellsworth, Maine. The series is sponsored by Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) with funding assistance from the City of Ellsworth and supported in part by a grant from the Onion Foundation. Admission is free to the public.

Peregrine Road plays captivating acoustic music that occupies a sweet spot somewhere between chamber music and folk music, with complex arrangements and lush textures alongside raw energy and multi-cultural influences. Karen Axelrod and Rachel Bell have quickly become known together as a powerhouse duo capable of a huge variety of styles, in demand throughout North America and beyond for concerts, workshops, festivals, English country dances, contra dances, and other events.

Their music is rooted in Celtic, English, French, Quebecois, New England, and Appalachian traditions while at the same time being infused with the excitement of new compositions and dynamic improvisation. Audience members frequently remark on Peregrine Road's exquisite musicianship and mastery of their instruments, as well as their outrageous humor and ability to connect with listeners of all ages and walks of life.

Karen Axelrod’s piano playing combines expressiveness, energy, lyricism and power. She is equally at home with styles ranging from traditional folk melodies to passionate tango to old world French musette waltz to English Country dance tunes and much more. She left behind classical music over 35 years ago, and has happily settled into her musical home….somewhere between folk, classical and improvisation. Her playing is soulful yet touched with humor and whimsy.

When she is not playing concerts, Karen is one of the busiest and most sought after traditional dance musicians. Her elegant and rich piano playing and her colorful, gorgeous accordion playing are enlivened by her off-beat humor. Karen plays with a number of bands for traditional dance events as well as concerts. Her bands include Alchemy, Foxfire, Peregrine Road and 3rd String Trio. Based in Brattleboro, VT, she tours extensively throughout the United States, Canada and abroad at dances, festivals, concerts, camps private parties and other events.

Rachel Bell is an accordion player based in Brattleboro, Vermont. This performer, tunesmith, and teacher’s playing spans an enormous range of emotion, from nuanced and sensitive to exhilarating and powerful, pushing the boundaries of what is expected from an accordion. Rachel draws her inspiration from Celtic, French, English, and Québécois traditions, creating scores of innovative tunes while deeply respecting traditional melodies. She thrives on collaborative musical work, especially with her bands Eloise & Co., Peregrine Road, Alchemy, and Old World Charm School.

In demand throughout North America and abroad for concerts, contra dances, French BalFolk dances, English country dances, workshops, and festivals, Rachel is a musical adventurer at heart.

Have a question? Please write via our Contact Form.

The Fall Semester will begin on Monday, September 8th, 2025. Returning students will receive a registration link from administration.

New students should complete an Inquiry Form and will be contacted for next steps.

Questions can be submitted via our Contact Form.

Thank you!

Registration for the fall semester opens on August 11, 2025, for the 2025-2026 school year.

Returning students will receive a registration link from administration.

New students should complete an Inquiry Form and will be contacted for next steps.

Questions can be submitted via our Contact Form.

Thank you!

More Information Coming Soon

Clare Monfredo, cello; Edward Kass, bass; and Conrad Winslow, piano to play the next Midday Concert @ 1:00 at Ellsworth Community Music Institute on May 23

ELLSWORTH - Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) offers its next Midday Concert @ 1:00 on Friday, May 23 with Clare Monfredo, cello; Edward Kass, bass; and Conrad Winslow, piano.

The concert will be held at the Moore Community Center Theater, 125 State Street in Ellsworth, Maine. The series is sponsored by Ellsworth Community Music Institute (ECMI) with funding assistance from The City of Ellsworth. Admission is free to the public.

Cellist Clare Monfredo grew up in Seal Harbor, Maine, and has performed as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader all over the world, collaborating with a diverse array of notable artists, from Patricia Kopatchinskaja to Jon Batiste, to groups such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, A Far Cry, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Festival appearances include Chamber Music Northwest, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, Lucerne Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, and Kurt Weill Fest. Clare holds a BA in English from Yale University and a masters of music degree from the Shepherd School at Rice University where she received the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s Graduate Arts Award. She also attended the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, Germany on a Fulbright Scholarship. Clare lives in Brooklyn, New York where she is pursuing a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the CUNY Graduate Center and teaches at Hunter College. She is co-founder and co-artistic director of DownEast New Music.

Bassist Edward Kass performs frequently with new music groups such as Ensemble Dal Niente and Callithumpian Consort, and has appeared at festivals such as Tanglewood Music Center, Lucerne Festival, and Pacific Music Festival. He is currently a Lucerne Festival Contemporary Leader, serving as a curator for the Lucerne Forward Festival and coach at the Festival Academy. Since 2016, he has performed with soprano Nina Guo as Departure Duo, which performs, commissions and researches music written for soprano and double bass. Recognized by Chamber Music America for commissioning, recent duo performances include recitals at Spoleto Festival USA, Yellow Barn, Omaha Under the Radar, and KM28. Kass completed his studies at New England Conservatory, where he received the John Cage Award for Outstanding Contribution to Contemporary Music Performance. Kass resides in Boston and is co-founder and co-artistic director of DownEast New Music.

Conrad Winslow is a composer and pianist whose musical forms are bold, legible and emotionally direct. His music combines precipitous edges with subtle shifts of syntax. He draws influence from architects and playwrights to structure pieces like places to inhabit. Raised in Homer, Alaska, he first learned to make a world from scratch by watching his parents build a log cabin home in the woods. His work has been called “compelling” (New York Times) and described as a “scenic, boisterous and bumpy ride” (Albany Times Union). Winslow's instrumental music has been commissioned by Alarm Will Sound, Carnegie Hall, and the American Composers Orchestra, among many others. He holds a Master’s Degree in Composition from the Juilliard School, where he studied with John Corigliano, an M.M. degree in film scoring from NYU, where he studied with Justin Dello Joio, and an Honors A.B. degree in Music from Rollins College, where he studied with Daniel Crozier.

For more information, please complete our Contact Form.