Faculty 2025

As a child, Wendy Gillespie heard the New York Pro Musica in concert and was inexplicably attracted to polyphony long before she learned a word for it. She was already a string player, so the viol was the obvious instrument to pursue. Applying only to places that had viola da gamba teachers (there were four in 1968), Wendy was drawn to Wellesley College, Boston, and the world of early music performance well before anyone started muttering about authenticity. Ironically, her first professional gig was as the New York Pro Musica’s last viola da gamba player. 1974 found her a self-employed viola da gamba/vielle/viola player in New York City playing ars subtilior music with the Elizabethan Enterprise (don’t ask…), 13^th-18^th century music with Ensemble for Early Music and Waverly Consort, baroque music with Badinage, even sackbut in the aptly named ensemble The B Team. She was on the board of Music Before 1800 at its inception.

In the ensuing decades, she has performed on five continents, most often as a founding member of  the viol consort Fretwork and long-time member of the ensemble Phantasm, but also as a bass viol soloist, and not least as a happy continuo player. More recently, Gillespie has been specializing in renaissance viols and early repertory with the consort Nota Bene and appearing regularly with The Barefoot Allstars of California and the not yet discovered trio Lyra Waye. Wendy received Early Music America’s Thomas Binkley Award in 2011 and the Wellesley College Alumnae Achievement Award in 2012. She is Past President of the Viola da Gamba Society, honored with a lifetime membership in 2023. In 2017, after 32 years on the faculty of Indiana University, Bloomington IN, Gillespie graduated to  Professor Emerita. Since then she has been on a journey to learn more about life, the universe, and everything.

Holly received a BA from St. Lawrence University in music and religion and the MM from The New England Conservatory in performance practice of early music where she studied with Grace Feldman. Since coming to Charlotte in 1993, Holly has been a member of Carolina Pro Musica performing throughout the Southeast including concerts at Wingate, Sweetbriar College of Virginia, Davidson College and Gardner Webb. The group performs on their own series in Charlotte and has been featured on concert series in Asheville, Columbia, Lincolnton and Belmont where Carolina Pro Musica is a resident artist ensemble at Belmont Abbey College. In 2005 the ensemble presented concerts in and around London, England and in 2009 performed at the Boston Early Music Ensemble. In addition to concerts with Carolina Pro Musica, Holly performed regularly with Carolina Baroque of Salisbury and has been a guest artist with several groups in the area. Holly has recently retired from The music faculty of Central Piedmont Community College where she taught the Early Music Ensemble and Baroque Performance class.

Gail Ann Schroeder studied viola da gamba at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels with Wieland Kuijken, obtaining her First Prize and Higher Diploma, with distinction. She subsequently taught viola da gamba, pedagogy and directed the viol consort at the Brussels Conservatory from 1988 to 2002.

Gail has had an extensive career as soloist and as chamber musician, concertizing and recording with various ensembles such as the Huelgas Ensemble, Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, Ricercar Consort, Currende Consort, Capilla Flamenca, and Catacoustic Consort. She has performed in many of the European Festivals including Holland Festival Oude Muziek in Utrecht, Resonanzen, Innsbrucker Festwochen, Les Académies Musicales de Saintes, Festival van Vlaanderen, Festival de Wallonie and Internationale Festtage Alter Music Stuttgart.

Since returning to the USA in 2006, Gail has been in demand as a teacher and ensemble coach at workshops for the Viola da Gamba Society of America, the Amherst Early Music Festival, Madison Early Music Festival, Music on the Mountain, Retreat to Advance and Mountain Collegium, where she is assistant director and head of the viol program. Currently living in North Carolina, she teaches privately and is artistic director of Asheville Baroque Concerts.

Gail Ann Schroeder’s website

Chrissy Spencer, viola da gamba, is a founding member of the vocal ensemble Uncommon Practice and the Baranduin Baroque Ensemble in Vancouver, BC, and has performed in Atlanta with Ritornello and New Trinity Baroque. She helps organize regional and national early music workshops, including the Mountain Collegium weeklong summer workshop and Music on the Mountain, a weekend viol workshop. She is the Vice President, and incoming President, of the Viola da Gamba Society of America. Chrissy lives in Atlanta, GA, where she is on the Biological Sciences faculty at the Georgia Institute of Technology, advocates for alternative transportation, and raises chickens in the city.